I have missed all of my friends from the U.S., but I have made lots of new friends. Making new friends is a great way to get to know a place better. I have made British friends and I have also made American friends at Harlaxton. When I first got to England I made friends with a few of the kids my age who had come to Harlaxton too. These were the kids who helped me find all of the secret passages at Harlaxton. As the weeks went by I got to know a few of the kids on my footy (soccer) team in England. Nathan is one of my favorite British friends, and he and I hang out alot together. I have had fun exploring the woods at Harlaxton with him and going over to his house and climbing trees at a park by his place. It has been a blast. Another boy on my footy team named Reuben and I have become good friends. We have been newt hunting and he and his dad took me to a Nottingham Forest football game! These friends are like my good friends back home because we can cause trouble together! While I was playing with my British buds I was also making new friends with the college students. Who said college students can’t play sports and be fun? Well whoever does is wrong. I will not name all my college friends because you would be hearing a lot so I will only tell you a few: Dex, Bill, Riley, Anna, Jordan, Griffin, Jack, Emily, Kait, Christy, Ben, Eric, Craig, Sam and Stephanie are a few of the college students I have gotten to know. A few of the Harlaxton kids I have gotten to know are Laith, Michael, Maddie, Brendan, Ryan, and Jacob. I have done almost all of my adventuring at Harlaxton with one of these kids. In the woods we have found bunkers and sniper nests that were used back in the war because British troops were actually stationed at Harlaxton. My friends and I also play board games (Risk) most every day and also Legos. Missing Harlaxton and England friends will be one of the many reasons I will be sad to leave England. Thanks for going on the expedition with me through this blog!
We’re
on the go today, so we don’t have much time on the computer. We (Brock and
Layla) are doing this blog together! Today we were heading into London. As we
were leaving Harlaxton Village, we remembered we’d never blogged about the
twist that is on the chimney pots on top of houses here. Most chimney pots just
have a boring old rectangular shaped one, but the ones in this village are not
plain old normal chimney pots. They are chimney pots in the shape of a chess
piece. The ones we could see easily were the rooks and pawns. The idea was made
in the 1800s. Since both of us are fans of chess we thought the chess pieces
were so cool. They were meant to be guards, but all we were thinking was how to
get on the roofs and start playing. If you ever need giant stone chess pieces,
you know where to look for them. In that same little village there is a small little
post office that we use for most everyday foods because it is like a mini grocery
store. You can find these chess chimney pots all over England. Speaking of
which, you can see them in London. That’s where we spent most of the day. One
of our favorite places in London to see is Tower Bridge. We learned it used to
be the largest bascule bridge ever. That is interesting if you know what
bascule means, but we had to remind ourselves by looking it up. It is French
and means "see-saw". The bascules were operated by hydraulics and
used steam to pump the engines. The bascules still run by hydraulic power but
starting in 1976 they use oil and electricity and not steam to power the
engines. It took 8 years and over 400 workers to build Tower Bridge. Tower
Bridge is on the River Thames. As a special thing, in 1977 the Tower Bridge was
painted red, white and blue for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebration. This
year is the Queen’s 60th Jubilee which is her 60th year
as Monarch. They call it the Diamond Jubilee. There are things all over England
celebrating this. Maybe they will put diamonds on the Tower Bridge! When we saw
it in person, though, it had bright blue trim and was beautiful.
As the days are ticking down we tried to pick our last few places to visit. We wanted to pick a stunning place because we realized we are actually very sad to leave England. We settled on the Lake District. The Lake District has majestic mountains and shiny lakes. First we wanted to visit a town right by the sea, so we chose Barrow-Furness. We went to the docks and looked at ships and seagulls. I saw Navy ships and I found out that they make submarines in Barrow as well. I saw a few jelly fish too! I also learned Emlyn Hughs was born in Barrow-Furness. He used to be the captain of the England national team and also Liverpool FC. That made me want to play footy, so we did that. We also played footy tennis, badminton, golf, and the best part was hiking. We did so much in the Lake District. We drove way up into the mountains and stopped at a place called Elterwater village for the hiking. We saw lots of sheep and I even saw a few lambs practicing head-butting each other. They were so cute. We walked parallel to a small stream. The stream got bigger and faster and then there was a small waterfall! It was small, but powerful. The sound was exactly like the ones you use to fall asleep. I loved it. We walked a little more and we saw another waterfall. This one was 42 feet tall! It was called the Colwith waterfall. We had to start heading back to Harlaxton, but I would go back to the Lake District in a heartbeat. On the way home (to Harlaxton) we stopped in a quaint town called Windermere. The town had a main road with lots of small shops. All of the shops had their own charm. The town sat on a huge body of water. The day was fantastic.
Outside of London there is a small town called Greenwich. Greenwich is small, but it is on almost every physicists bucket list. Greenwich is the Prime Meridian of the world. The Prime Meridian separates east and west which makes it control time too. Many representatives from different cities got together in 1884 in D.C. and decided which city should be picked to be the Prime Meridian of the world. Out of all of them Greenwich was picked. One of the main reasons Greenwich was picked was because over 2/3 of the ship maps used Greenwich for the Prime Meridian. When we got there we looked for the signs that said The Royal Observatory. The Royal Observatory is where the big Prime Meridian part is. All around The Royal Observatory there is a beautiful park with lots and lots of dogs being walked. Right in the middle of the flat park there is a big hill that does not seem to really fit. On top of the hill sits the Royal Observatory. We went into a museum and saw lots of cool telescopes. Some were huge. We got to see a section of a 40-foot reflecting telescope that was used by William Herschel. He’s the guy that discovered Uranus! There were also lots of sundials and clocks. One clock used time with degrees instead of numbers, which made 12 o’clock equal -360. We walked outside onto a porch where there was a line going straight with a point going out. This was the exact line for the Prime Meridian. At the moment I was on the west side of the world. I walked up and all of a sudden I was on the east. I started jumping from one side to the other like a two year old. How many times can you be standing on 0 degrees longitude? We then headed back toward the middle of Greenwich. As we were walking we saw a market. We walked through and I got a fruit kabob. It was tasty. Greenwich was fabulous.
It was just a regular day walking around the Harlaxton grounds when I remembered how people had told me there were newts all over the woods. I decided to give it a shot. I walked to a small stream and started looking around. I picked up a rock and there laid a small newt! I was so excited. I really did not expect to find one so I was a little off guard. I played with him/her and got a few pictures. I then let it go. That night I was getting a little antsy so a college student and I went and we caught six more. We let each one go after we caught them. I went home, but at around eight I was starting to go crazy because I could not stop thinking about the newts. I went out with a flashlight (called a "torch" in England) and I immediately found out they are nocturnal. I caught nine easily. I brought them all back and my mom found a bowl for them. Then I looked up some things about them. All the sights made it sound like I had smooth belly newts. The smooth newt is the most common newt in the UK. The smooth newt is known for their smooth orange bellies. The next day I went back and looked a little more. I was getting a obsessed with the little critters. I walked back to the stream and checked a few more things out. I did not find newts, but I did find newt tadpoles that were so cool. Just like frogs, newts have tadpoles. The tadpoles that I found were only about 1/50 of the size of the grown-up newts I found. You could tell they would be easy prey, but that is why there are thousands of them. A lot might be eaten, but a lot would not. That is the newt way of life. Now the newt way of life is get out of the pond alive, grow into a newt, GET CAUGHT BY ME, get placed back in the wild, and then grow up. Newts beware, Brock is here!
Rutland is where we went today. Rutland is a beautiful county with a huge lake and nature reserve. When we got there we were met with an outstanding view of Rutland Water. Rutland Water was completed in 1973 and at the time was the largest manmade reservoir in Great Britain. You could see people fishing, boating, and even just laying out on blankets to enjoy the water. We decided to walk around the lake. As we walked we saw what was set up to be a bug hotel. That is what they make to help bugs have a good habitat. Over 2,000 different species of bugs live in an average garden and they made the hotel work for all the bugs! It is meant to help save insects that are going extinct. One of the pictures you see is the bug hotel. We walked two more feet and we saw an osprey nest that people could help make. I got to put a stick on it. One of the nature wardens was holding a small male chaffinch. A chaffinch is a small bird with a pretty orange breast (the male has more colors than the female). The worker said that the bird had flown into a window so he was taking care of it for a little bit. It was cute. We walked back the way we came. If we would have walked the other way and kept walking around the lake we would have done a full 9-mile circle. We saw a sailing club called Chandlery and we stopped inside for lunch. It was tasty. We then walked back and enjoyed a little more time by the water, laying out a blanket to read books. Rutland is one of the prettiest places I have seen yet.
Harlaxton Manor holds many surprises. One of the best surprises is the endangered species of Barbastelle bat that lurks in the Harlaxton coal tunnels. There are only four colonies of the Barbastelle bat in all of Britain and Harlaxton is one of them. Harlaxton Manor is also home to the noctural bat, the biggest bat in Britain, the long eared bat, and the pipistrelle, the smallest bat in Britain. There are 18 species of bat in Britain and 11 can be seen in our county, Lincolnshire. A few people come to Harlaxton several times a year to check and make sure the bats are okay. My family and another family were really interested in the bats, so the people were nice enough to bring some in to the Van der Elst Room. They came in with three wooden boxes. They explained that the boxes were bat boxes and that they had live bats inside. We got really excited. The first bat they showed was the long eared bats. I did not understand why they called it the long eared bat because it had anything but long ears. But all of a sudden two huge ears unfolded from the bat’s head. The ears were almost the size of the body! The next bat they brought out was the pipistrelle. It could have fit through a door crack it was so small. It was the size of a half dollar. It was so cute. Finally they brought out the nocturnal. It was over two times the size of the pipistrelle. A noctural can weigh 40 grams and an average pipistrelle only weighs about 5 grams. The pipistrelle might be small, but it has a huge diet. Like all bats in Britain it eats insects and if you have an insect problem call the Pipistrelle Busters. A pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 bugs in one night. The people told us many fascinating facts. I hope I have not batted you away from my blog by posting this.
Stratford-upon-Avon is a small town that sits proudly upon the river Avon. Stratford has a huge history compared to the town’s quaint size. Stratford is where William Shakespeare, one of the best play writers of all time, was born. William Shakespeare wrote many famous plays including Romeo and Juliet, the Tempest, and the Twelfth Night. Shakespeare is known for how he puts all types of acting into his plays. There are drama, comedy, love, and lots of other types of acting in Shakespeare’s plays. The words in the plays are hard, so we have been reading lines from a certain play to make sure we understand things. Our reward was to go to a Twelfth Night play production! The play was amazing. The people made it so it was like the 21st Century version. I loved the play. The next morning was Easter. I had a surprise in store for me. The Easter Bunny had visited! We had our own small Easter egg hunt at our Bed in Breakfast. I got candy, gold coins, and British coins. It was so fun. Since it was Easter and we were in Stratford we went to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was baptized and buried. The Church has huge organs that are played. In one song they had people playing trumpets while the organs were playing. At one part you got to light candles. When everyone blew them out the Church was filled with swirling smoke. Holy Trinity was beautiful. After the Church we went and had lunch at a Thai restaurant. The food was delicious. We then walked through the Stratford-upon-Avon Market. The Market had lots of wood and stone crafting. The market passed us by where Shakespeare was born and grew up. It was funny because on the road it went modern house, modern house, 15 Century house, and modern house. They have kept Shakespeare’s house in good condition. We stopped in a map store with maps as old as 1600s maps. We also stopped in a bookstore with lots of Shakespeare books. We also passed by an archeology dig on Shakespeare’s grown-up house. It was a big pit with people looking at stone walls and digging at the ground. We then walked and looked at the river Avon. There were lots of pretty swans. By the river there is a big statue of Shakespeare with four people from his many plays. They were Hamlet (who represented Philosophy), Lady Macbeth (who represents Tragedy), Falstaff (who represents Comedy), and Prince Hal (who represents History). The statues were stunning. At that time is was time to go, but I would go back to Stratford-upon-Avon in a heartbeat.
A Harlaxton group took a field trip to Burghley House, and my mom signed us up to go. Burghley House really should be Burghley Mansion. William Cecil, who was the first Lord Burghley, started building the Burghley House in 1555 and it was finished in 1587. William was made Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I after the old Treasurer, Lord Winchester, died. That made William Cecil one of the most powerful men in the country of Britain. William made a whole area for the queen that included a bathroom, changing room, dining room, bedroom, and lounging area. The funny thing is that she was only there for a few nights! William Cecil died, but that was not the end of the Cecil line. John Cecil was the next person in line for the Burghley House. He was called the traveling Earl because he traveled to so many places. John brought many things back from his travels to help make the Burghley House even more amazing (there are hundreds of paintings and even whole fireplaces he brought back). Brownlow was next on the throne. He is remembered for starting the amazing gardens all around Burghley. David Cecil, another Lord Burghley that came later, is known for his athletic achievements. Lord Burghley won a Gold Medal for the 400 meter hurdle in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. He won silver in the 400 meter team relay in 1932 in Los Angles. They had a room where you could see his shirt, gold medal, silver medal, and lots of other things he used in the Olympics. In one part of the Burghley house they had a room about the kings and queens of England. One question asked did Henry the VIII owned 50 palaces. I was sure nobody could own that many houses, but I was wrong. He owned 55! He even ordered a whole town called Cuddington in Surry to be flattened so that he could build a huge palace called Nonsuch over it. He was a greedy guy! Another part showed you Elizabethan words from the Elizabethan times. Two words I learned were Prithee which means please and Grammarcy which means thank you. Would you prithee pass the tea Ma ’dam? Grammarcy. One of my favorite parts of the day was going to see the farrow deer in the yard outside Burghley House. Farrow deer are a type of deer that were brought by William Cecil to Burghley as his personal animal. There are 160 acres for all 400 wild farrow deer. They are amazing creatures with crazy long horns. Grammarcy for reading my blog!
We went to the Grantham Fair. Grantham holds a big fair two times a year. The one we went to is the Mid-Lent Fair because it is in the middle of lent. The fair dates back to the 1400s! Of course now they sell cotton candy instead of cattle. Now they also have rides. We walked through the fair looking at all the things that are the same as fairs back home and at things that are different. Many of the prize things are the same. You can win goldfish and stuffed animals at a lot of the stalls. There was a big area for bumper cars. I really wanted to do it. Some college students, my mom, and I rode on the bumper cars. It was so “bumpy” that my sunglass lens broke off. Every time I got bumped or I bumped someone else I thought my teeth would fall off. The bumper cars here jolt you around more than the ones back home. I also ate some fair food. I tried fried donuts that had a lot of powdered sugar on top. It was so good. The fair was terrific.
Last night Harlaxton College had a costume ball for all the students and we were excited to go. I saw a king, Sherlock Holmes, and even members of the Blue Man Group. Even all the professors and staff got dressed up, and those are the people in the photo. My sister wore a Rapunzel outfit and my mom wore a hippie costume. I was a gladiator. I had no weapon so I made myself a bow and arrow. I went to the Harlaxton woods to look for the perfect big stick. I found it. I also found some string to make the stick into a bow. I then got an arrow (a chopstick!). I was ready to go. We walked up to the castle for the ball. We ate a fancy meal in the Long Room. Then we went to the Great Hall to boogey to the DJ’s music. It was so fun. We even started a huge Congo line. I heard almost every song in the book. The costume ball was fantastic.
I have missed all of my friends from the U.S., but I have made lots of new friends. Making new friends is a great way to get to know a place better. I have made British friends and I have also made American friends at Harlaxton. When I first got to England I made friends with a few of the kids my age who had come to Harlaxton too. These were the kids who helped me find all of the secret passages at Harlaxton. As the weeks went by I got to know a few of the kids on my footy (soccer) team in England. Nathan is one of my favorite British friends, and he and I hang out alot together. I have had fun exploring the woods at Harlaxton with him and going over to his house and climbing trees at a park by his place. It has been a blast. Another boy on my footy team named Reuben and I have become good friends. We have been newt hunting and he and his dad took me to a Nottingham Forest football game! These friends are like my good friends back home because we can cause trouble together! While I was playing with my British buds I was also making new friends with the college students. Who said college students can’t play sports and be fun? Well whoever does is wrong. I will not name all my college friends because you would be hearing a lot so I will only tell you a few: Dex, Bill, Riley, Anna, Jordan, Griffin, Jack, Emily, Kait, Christy, Ben, Eric, Craig, Sam and Stephanie are a few of the college students I have gotten to know. A few of the Harlaxton kids I have gotten to know are Laith, Michael, Maddie, Brendan, Ryan, and Jacob. I have done almost all of my adventuring at Harlaxton with one of these kids. In the woods we have found bunkers and sniper nests that were used back in the war because British troops were actually stationed at Harlaxton. My friends and I also play board games (Risk) most every day and also Legos. Missing Harlaxton and England friends will be one of the many reasons I will be sad to leave England. Thanks for going on the expedition with me through this blog!
