Ben's Secret Sorrow

Well here comes another of my bi-annual blog updates! I felt that I should repeat for everyone’s edification something that Ben was fussing about last night.

To set the context, he has to ride his bike into town for classes and libraries and things fairly often . . . and when he does so he is in the company of thousands of other people who are, like him, sick of trying to find a parking place. It’s quite the little pedaling swarm of scholars, some of them sporting reflector vests and reflector Velcro strips that clench their pant legs tightly to their ankles in an attempt to keep them from tangling up in the chain and hurtling into the path of the ever-present oncoming bus . . . but the rest of them chuck caution to the wind and pedal around in their scholar’s robe, holding three bags of groceries, and with a cello strapped to their back. Ben falls more in to the first category than the second. He always wears his helmet in a very safety conscious manner, and truth be told, he even owns a set of the ankle thingies. (You wouldn’t catch him in a reflector vest though.)

But be that as it may, reflector vest or no, Ben makes the trek in to town frequently on his bike. He’s also a very reasonably fit man in the prime of life who rows for Christ Church College in his spare time. What is there to fuss about you’re asking yourself? Well it is this. He claims (fussily) that while on his bike he is perpetually having stout old women on bicycles blow right past him, leaving him completely in the dust. According to him, it’s happening all the time. He’s pedaling along, head down, man with a mission, got to get to the library and translate some random German theological article, when suddenly a chunky little old lady in a dress and sensible shoes will come wheeling past him on a rackety old bicycle from the forties. The bike is always tricked out with a whicker basket on the front that usually contains the complete OED, her skirt is flapping in the breeze, no sign of a helmet, and she’s sitting bolt upright and singing at the top of her voice a snatch from “La Traviata” and signaling left by holding both her arm and her umbrella straight out to the side. (A very risky thing to do in this land where you fold in your rear view mirrors when you park your car.) He’s quite put out about the whole thing. He feels, rightly or wrongly, that chubby little old ladies on bikes ought to take longer than he does to get up the Headington Hill. But then again, I bet that they could translate the German theological article faster than he could too!

So Ben would like to ask for prayer that he would get one of the following:

a.) Get into biking shape

b.) Get the grace to not throw elbows when he’s passed by elderly opera aficionados

c.) Get a bus pass

Robin Hood!

Right then. My esteemed aunt Heather tells me that everyone is done looking at the mixer and it's time for an update. And I suppose that since it's been a straight up month since I last put anything up on this blog we can't accuse aunt Heather of over-reacting.

So, since the mixer arrival day we have managed to stagger through the Christmas madness and have a whale of a time doing it, Ben finished his break (always a relief - break times can be almost more work than term time,) then we all got the flu . . . that was exciting. Skipping lightly over the flu portion of the last month, I will pass to happier things and tell you of our trip to Nottingham. It was absolutely and completely fabulous! Well, actually no. Let me rephrase that. It turned out to be absolutely and completely fabulous. It started out as a bit of a dud actually.
We started off the day at Nottingham Castle . . . which is 17th century but built on the site of the original Medieval castle of Prince John fame and all that. There was a Robin Hood exhibit in the castle that we were anxious to see . . . but wow. Not fun. Hilarious actually. The whole upper floor of the castle was devoted to the BBC tv mini-series, Robin Hood. Larger than life banners with pictures of the actors . . . telling us that in the tv show, the Sheriff of Nottingham's catchphrase is, "La-de-dah!" Then a mannequin dressed like Maid Marian would light up and she would tell us that "Robin Hood never understands the importance of my work for the resistance!" or something silly like that . . . it was completely pitiful and extremely un-techy to boot. One thing that I noticed while there was that, for good or ill, Americans can package ANYTHING. I'm pretty sure that in Idaho at least, if someone found as much as an arrow head we would have a sneeze guard constructed over the site of the discovery, and a darned good and extremely slick presentation about it . . . even if there was absolutely nothing to be said about it. But here we had NOTTINGHAM CASTLE for Pete's sake! And the best they could muster was a badly dressed set of mannequins that lit up in a freakish and eerie way and are supposed to look like BBC actors . . . it was a bit ridiculous and we were really hoping we hadn't driven an hour and a half to look at that.

So we walked down to St. Mary's church . . . where Robin Hood had once had a show down with the Sheriff's men in the sanctuary. It's also the spot where, according to legend, he married Maid Marian. But apparently the earliest accounts of Robin Hood don't actually mention Maid Marian at all and so historians aren't sure that she actually existed. However, since historians are notoriously spoil sports, we'll pay no mind to the fact that early accounts don't mention her. But Maid Marian or no, when we got to the church it was all locked up. (Picture #2 - kids standing outside the locked gate.) At this point in the day we were feeling a bit gypped. It was utterly frigid and we were freezing to death on the not-so-charming streets of Nottingham with nothing to look at. It was really a toss up whether we would go back to the castle for a tour of something called, "Mortimer's Hole" or go to Starbucks and call it a day. We decided to go back for the tour and oh boy. We were SO glad we hadn't opted for Starbucks!

Back at the castle they told us that the entirety of Castle Rock was riddled with caves . . . in fact, all of Nottingham is riddled with caves. They took us down a tunnel from the castle that led down and down and down . . . through all sorts of twisty passages and crazy caves . . . Judah's comment was, "There are caves under castles! I LOVE this place!" We stopped in a cave (blurry picture #3) that had been used as a dungeon . . . Robin Hood had spent time in there, and King David of Scotland had been there for 12 years. Prince John had even imprisoned and held hostage 28 young boys - sons of the barons - and kept them in the dungeon to insure the barons' good behaviour. However, the story ended quite horribly as all 28 boys were hung from the castle walls.

But then we went through a tunnel that led to Mortimer's Hole. This part gave me goose bumps actually. The tour guide went over the story with us - as we were all standing in the tunnel - of how, after the murder of Edward II by Mortimer and Isabella, Edward III had snuck through this tunnel leading his men (guided by a townsman who had grown up in the castle and knew a secret way in) and come out in the center keep of the castle where Mortimer and Isabell (his mother) were holding a council. They grabbed Mortimer and dragged him back out through the tunnels before anyone had even been able to raise the alarm. Mortimer was taken to London and drawn and quartered, and Edward III took the throne. It was really unbelievable to hear that story again, but while standing in the place it had happened.

She also told us that early Medieval manuscripts describe one cave under Nottingham Castle that has an enormous Passion of Christ carved into the cave wall, as well as full statues of the 12 apostles. This cave is lost somewhere under the castle - and they're hoping that they'll have enough funds soon to try and excavate more of the tunnels and find it.

After the tour of the caves ended, we went into a pub at the base of Castle Rock called the "Trip to Jerusalem." This really topped off the day. The pub was actually a series of caves in the rock - but it had a 16th century-ish pub sort of retrofitted into it. It was quite cool in it's own right - but the bit about it that was show-stopping was the fact that this was a pub where the Crusaders stopped on their way to the Crusades - thus the name! Richard the Lionhearted had summoned the troops for the third crusade (it was the third wasn't it?) and so they all mustered here. Since this pub had originally been the brewhouse for the castle (complete with 60 foot shaft up through the rock to the castle where they hoisted the beer up) this is where the Crusaders essentially stopped and had "one for the road."

All in all it was a complete blast, and we're going to have to make a separate trip back sometime for Sherwood Forest because it was dark by the time we finished the cave tour. The camera helpfully died before the pub, so we didn't get pictures of that unfortunately.

WOW!

Look what just arrived on my doorstep! The Kitchenaid, not the lemons. The fabulous and thoughtful Nate and Heather crew just had this delivered for me with best wishes for a holly jolly Christmas. How fun is this?!

I am SO pleased about this . . . last year, when we moved to England, New St Andrews college gave me a gorgeous red Kitchenaid as a going away gift. I loved that thing, and used it all the time - and kept it on my kitchen windowsill where I used it daily. But then, at the end of the year we had to move home to Moscow, not knowing if we would be returning to England. Because of the issue with the plugs and voltage being different in the States, the Kitchenaid couldn't come with us - and since we didn't know if we'd be returning there was nowhere to store it. So I reluctantly sold my mixer and told myself that I'd buy a new one at home and it would still be my NSA mixer. But then back we came to England and life is crazy and we still don't have a bed frame . . . so a Kitchenaid was a ways down my list. But not far enough down that I didn't pine for my old cheery mixer sitting jauntily on my windowsill. I pined especially when it was time to make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies - and I definitely could have used it during my marshmallow fluff escapade.

And here it is! And it's yellow this year! Thanks Nate and Heather - you're way too fun!

Better Than Last Year!

That last picture that I posted was so pathetic that I felt it needed something to balance it out. And so, here is our festive little mantle to try and take all of our minds off of the forlorn bit of shrubbery pictured a bit lower on the page. Much cheerier don't you think?

Lest you think I exaggerate . . .

Right then. I can tell that some of you (yes family members, I'm speaking of you) think that I might have been touching up the story of last year's Christmas tree a bit much. But I accidentally happened across this picture and thought that I should post it for everyone's edification. This is how it looked right before it got hauled out the door after I had picked out most of the pipecleaners. But come to think of it, I'm not sure why I bothered with that part.

Christmas time!

Well, we got the tree up. This is actually impressive news. And strange to say, it's still alive - which is even more impressive news. AND we have a few ornaments! So life is good all round.

We had to leave all of our ornaments in Moscow when we left, and last year I never got around to aquiring any in time. (I had other things on my mind like trying to figure out where the grocery store was and how to not kill myself trying to drive to it on the left side of the road!) So this meant that when the time to decorate the Christmas tree rolled around I just handed the kids a whole load of pipecleaners and some beads and told them to go to it. This resulted in several things. The first was beads up the nose, and the other was a really, really bizarre little Christmas tree. The poor thing just had wiry bits sticking out all over it and nothing else really. As if that wasn't bad enough, it promptly lost all its needles. And when I say all, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. By Christmas day, the tree had not one single needle left from about 5 feet on down. It seriously looked like a disease had swept through the forest leaving only a wreckage of orange twigs. Of course, all of these needles fell off onto my living room floor you realize. I did my best to clean up the ones that broke free and got out onto the carpet. But the rest that fell in and amongst the presents just had to wait until after the tree came down.

And the tree came down on Christmas day, before lunch. I have never in my life whipped a Christmas tree out the door so fast . . . the kids took their new things upstairs, and when they got back there was no more tree. And I doubt that vaccuum cleaner has recovered yet.

So when I tell you that my Christmas tree is still alive, you will realize the full weight of my joy in this statement. And like I said, this year we have a few ornaments - aren't the mushrooms fun? I'm pleased with those.

Furnishing the Lower Farm

So let's have a little house update, shall we? The last time I mentioned it, we were going to pick up a piano, we had one mattress on the floor for Ben and me, and the kids were on cushions on the floor. Things have improved since then, thankfully. We did get the piano, and I got a bee in my bonnet and painted it blue. Actually, it's absolutely adorable, and if I get around to it I'll put up a picture. The kids are getting piano lessons from Brooke, and Knox has taught himself virtually every Christmas carol there is, so we have a constant soundtrack full of holiday cheer. The kids are now in actual beds, which is a huge weight off my mind. The other half of the weight will be off when they get some decent blankets - but the ones they are using currently keep them warm, and so that's enough for now. Ben and I still have a mattress on the floor. None of us yet have dressers or wardrobes (and this is a house with no closets) so everyone's clothes are either still in suitcases or in piles on the floor that we attempt to keep tidy but it never works out very well. Every time a kid pulls out a shirt to put on the whole pile topples over and comes unfolded. So I'm looking for dressers and wardrobes at the moment. We got a couch on ebay - an intensely festive little item that is ruby velvet with a hilarious fringe at the bottom. We're all quite pleased to have something to sit on now in the living room - and even more pleased that we got this zippy number for one pound. Another extremely helpful addition to the living room is a court cabinet, also off ebay for dirt cheap. What is a court cabinet? It's a crazy dark wood unit with cupboards and drawers and pretty intense carving. This is what put some rhyme and reason into the homeschooling - and got all the books and papers and pencils out of a pile in the corner. Aside from a couple of side tables that I picked up for free and two bookcases bought on ebay for Ben's office, that pretty much sums up the entirety of our home furnishings! Little by little we're gradually eliminating piles on the floor - and I can't tell you how much it cheers me up when a pile is eliminated from the floor!