Pillow Pets

I decided to do a big clean this morning, so I moved all the furniture to sweep the floors.  Apparently I moved the girls' pillow into the perfect location.

Melting Oysters

An Oyster Card is the London Transport System's electronic ticket.  You load them and the use it like a debit card for any public transport in the city (tube, train, bus or boat).  You then touch them to the reader at each station to enter the tube or bus or whatever you're trying to travel on.

And thankfully, they still work after you forget to check your husband's pockets before doing laundry...

Where England began

 

In case we weren’t sure beforehand, I have an absolutely wonderful wife. A few weeks ago on our way down to Brighton she agreed to visit a small town just outside of Hastings known as Battle. Hastings is commonly referred to as the site where William Duke of Normandy defeated King Harold Godwinson and England as we know it began, but the actual location of the conflict was further north. After having landed on the south coast of England near Pevensey on the 28th of September, William constructed temporary fortifications outside Hastings in order to fortify his position in southern England. Just two weeks after making landfall William then road north to meet King Harold and his army of more than 8,000 on the fields surrounding Caldbec Hill in what is now the village of Battle.

In one fateful day of fighting William’s army of 7,000 managed to overcome the English army holding the high ground perched atop Caldbec hill. The days fighting extended into the evening even though King Harold had fallen earlier in the day and it wasn’t until the next morning that Harold’s body was identified as one of the fallen previous days clash. With the death of King Harold, William continued his march on London and eventually entered the city in December of 1066 where he was crowned King of England on Christmas day in Westminster Abbey.

A few years after claiming the English thrown (1070), William the Conqueror, at the behest of Pope Alexander II, began construction of an abbey on the site where King Harold supposedly fell during the battle. As you’ll see from the photos a bit further down the Abbey has since been demolished with only a footprint of what would have been an impressive structure still visible.

As is generally the case here in England it was windy, cold and rather wet on the day of our visit to Battle but that didn’t discourage us from make our way around the battle field huddled under umbrellas while listening to one of the better walking guides we’ve come across.

From the path you can get a pretty good idea of the task facing William’s army as they prepared to charge up the hill and into battle nearly 1000 years ago.  The importance of maintaining the high ground was arguably far more important in William’s day than it is today as an army’s ability to inflict casualties from above was considerably greater when the primary standoff weapons were throwing spears, bow & arrows and trebuchets. 

While the main Abbey Church was deconstructed shortly after Henry VIII dissolved the Catholic Church in England there remains a series of cellars that were presumed to be either office spaces or guests quarters for visitors of the Abbey along with the ruins of the Dorter and Common Rooms and a very well preserved ice house.

 

 

Within the footprint of the Abbey, where the high alter once stood, a monument to the spot where King Harold fell in battle has been added to commemorate the spot where the course of English history was forever changed.

The grounds covering the Abbey and Battlefield are currently run by English Heritage so of course we had to make a stop in the gift shop. I must admit that the life-sized suit of armour is high on my list future acquisitions and they certainly had a few decent replicas for sale. However what I wasn’t expecting to find was this! (Be glad Alisa, Amanda said Quentin was too young still.)

Where was the toy Trebuchet when I was a child, that’s all I’m asking?

Ode to the pupsters

Most of you have probably seen most of these pictures.  They have all been on Facebook over the last couple of weeks, so our friends get an update in all things puppy regularly. Except my Mother.  My Mother who won’t be my friend on Facebook.  Mom, this is for you.  (It would be easier if you were my friend).

This house has much larger windows than our last house.

And the girls love it.

L – O – V – E. 

Love.

The back garden also gets much more sun.  And on the three days a year it doesn’t rain, they spend all day out there.

Ginger even protects the laundry from the vicious sheet stealers.

Daisy has overcome her fear of swivel chairs to climb on top of my desk so she could spy on the neighbors.

Daisy decided to see how much she could panic me about three weeks ago.  Adam & I had gone away from the weekend. When we dropped her off at the kennel, she was acting her crazy normal self. When we came to pick her up, the guy at the desk said she'd been limping a bit when she'd been out for a walk earlier. When we got to her run, she couldn't stand. She tried walk out & just collapsed. We carried her to the car and got her home. For about an hour she just looked pathetic. So we headed up to the vet's. As soon as we got there, she started walking around the office, but was still really hesitant. By the time we got to see the vet, she was back to refusing to stand again. The vet examined her and thinks it was just a muscle strain - most likely in her long back. He gave her a muscle relaxer & some pain killers. She was tentative all night, but by the next morning she was jogging around the back yard. The vet had instructed us to take her on a couple short walks during the day & let her rest. I interpreted the word ‘rest’ to mean she could lie in my lap on the sofa all day.  The vet said he’d never had his picture taken while giving pain medicine before.

Earlier this week, I had let the girls out to run around while I got ready for work.  They both decided to go upstairs to see what Adam was doing.  Except he had left early for a meeting.  When it came time for me to go, they went into hiding mode because they’d figured out that they were going back in their crates.   I wonder where they are…

A morning with Shakespeare

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

As short-term denizens of London, Amanda and I have been trying to take advantage of all the city has to offer on the weekends. We have been on half a dozen different walking tours, visited numerous museums and spent a bit of time just wondering around aimlessly. One of our more recent weekend activities took us to what is the third incantation of William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

While Stratford upon Avon is renowned as the birthplace and home of the world’s most quoted wordsmith, London is where Shakespeare made a name for himself. As many luminaries have exclaimed before, the strength of Shakespeare’s works emanate from the transcendent themes found within the stories he tells. The construction of the original Globe completed in 1599 fittingly has a story all its own which includes a dispute between a landlord and the Lord Chamberlains Men theatre company, a clandestine dismantling and subsequent reconstruction on marshy farmland on the south bank of the river Thames.

The Globe’s story actually begins in 1576 in the London Burough of Hackney in a Parish known as Shoreditch. Shoreditch is now considered to be a district of the East End of London with a budding technology industry, yet in Shakespeare’s time it was a growing parish community on the outskirts of London. During Shakespeares time many theatres were built just outside the city due primarily to the high cost of land which made building a theatre prohibitively expensive. Ultimately, the building that eventually became known as the globe was first built by James Burbage on property he leased from Giles Allen for 21 years. Eventually ownership of the theatre passed to Burbage’s two sons Richard and Cuthbert who owned the majority stake in the theatre while four others including Williams Shakespeare owned an equal stake of the remaining shares. However, in 1598, a year after the lease had terminated; the question of theatre ownership remained unresolved with Giles Allen claiming the theatre belonged to him as soon as the original lease had expired.

Rather than relinquishing ownership of the building itself members of the Lord Chamberlains Men along with help from a few friends and a carpenter by the name of Peter Street covertly dismantled the theatre while Allen was celebrating Christmas in 1598 and transported the entire building to a warehouse on the waterfront owned by Street. I can’t help but wonder what Mr. Allen thought upon his return from Christmas holiday but I can’t imagine he would have been pleased!

Street stored the theatre in its dismantled state at his warehouse until the spring of 1599 when it was transported across the river and reconstructed on a marshy plot of land 100 yards south of the river bank in an area known as Southwark. The property did not drain properly and was subject to regular flooding, especially during high tide, but the Lord Chamberlains Men finally had their theatre back and could also boast owning the first theatre built by actors and for actors.

The theatre reopened in its new location in the autumn of 1599 as The Globe, although the exact date is disputed, and remained there until it burnt down during a performance of Henry VIII on June 29, 1613. No one was seriously injured although a pint of bitter was sacrificed to douse the flames of mans trousers which had caught fire during his escape. The Globe was rebuilt the following year and operated uneventfully until it was closed by the Puritans in 1642 and subsequently torn down in 1644. Amazingly the importance of the Globe had more or less drifted out of public consciousness for more than 300 years until American actor and director Sam Wanamaker funded Shakespeare’s Globe. The new theatre is built near the site of the original Globe and the design is based on historical documents dating from 1599 and 1614 to make it appear like it would have during Shakespearian times. The new theatre has a really good museum that describes both the history of two preceding theatres as well as what life would have been like for the actors who performed there.  You can even take in a live performance throughout the year as there’s always something on. In fact during our guided tour we were able to watch nearly an hour of rehearsal for “A Midsummer's Night Dream” which was playing later that night. What an amazing experience.

Anne of Cleves House…maybe

According to my colleagues, only the Americans are fascinated by the Tudors.  From the number of specials about Henry and his wives, mistresses, religions and politics on television over here, I would respectfully disagree.   However, to their point, I do jump at anything 16^th century royal.

We recently came across the Anne of Cleves House.  According to the reports, Henry presented the house to his queen when he divorced her in 1541.  Unlike the first divorce, this one was somewhat amicable and Anne of Cleves came away with many royal tokens (and her head, which was more than Anne Boleyn could boast).

We were told the house was a wonderful example of a late Medieval timber framed building. The earliest parts date from the late 1400’s and there was period furnishing throughout.

Once again, I think we would disagree.

None of the furnishing was original.  The gardens outside were nice, but the house looked much unloved and uncared for.  As we read the sparsely provided information on the house, we came to find out that Anne of Cleves had never actually lived there.  In fact, she’d never even visited!  She much preferred Richmond Palace which also came in her annulment settlement.

Well, chalk one weekend trip up to some fake British history.

London Marathon (aka Run, Forest, Run)

A few weeks ago we managed to be in town for the London Marathon and having heard what a spectacle it is, Amanda and I decided to brave the crowds and watch it in person from the streets of London.

We left early Sunday morning and made our way to the Tower of London where the marathon route doubles back towards the Houses of Parliament after crossing over London Bridge. Amazingly when we near the Tower we found a spot right at the barricade with excellent views right down the course.

Even the weather worked out in our favor, although the locals were complaining about the heat. It was nearly 70 degrees after all!  

There were also loads of spectators and runners showing their support for the people of Boston by wearing black ribbons, Boston T-shirts or holding signs expressing their love and support. It was a truly touching display.

Amanda’s favorite part was looking out for the costumed runners and then beating me senseless out of excitement when she found a really funny one.

We even found Waldo!

And perhaps the smallest competitor of the day

After the race was over and since it was such a beautiful day we took some time to get a few bonus photos of London.