Red Badgers and Running Man

Yahoo! Woweee! You're almost there! It's just around the corner! Yes, that was me and the girls screaming frantically at Brian as he was rounding the last bend at the Bath Half Marathon! So, there I was yelling and cheering at every poor soul covered in sweat, slobber and nipple bleed, remembering my experience of being at the near end of a race. But, I was the only one really. It seems that British people just are more reserved about yelling and screaming in public. They mostly commented to themselves saying things like, Well, now, look at those blokes! Oh well, lemme make an ass of myself again. No one will remember me in 8 months! I certainly enjoyed the fellows wearing the G-Strings in the pouring rain though! Talk about exposure! I'd like to see them run a half marathon in Edmonton!

I figured something tremendous out though as I screamed Brian on through the finish. A race like that is akin to beating all the shit that has burdened you for, well ever. Awesome job, Brian! You've gained hero status!

Brian waiting in line for the loo.

Brian coming around the last bend.

The rain came a down, down down. Nearly flooded the Avon river in Bath!

A picture from a few weeks back. Girls in a capsized boat. After that, we all went on the bridge and played Pooh sticks!

Last week was crazy! And amazing! We went to Barton Hall camp for a week with Class 4. We, being the Class 3 teacher and a very brave supply teacher named Mr. Smith who, like a martyr, joined us. It all was supposed to start on Monday, March 10, but amidst the fury of many storm warnings that were to hit the Devon/Cornwall area, we had to postpone departure for one day. Can you imagine, 22 kids who have been waiting for 2 years for this experience, finding out the night before that gale force winds and hurricane like rain were interfereing with their plans? The only right thing to do on this fine and blustery morning, was to have a 'Storm Party'. So, I brought in the movie 'Snow Day' that I'd brought from Edmonton. It's about school kids who pray for a school closure from snow and all of the adventures they have. Plus, it was filmed not too far from our house in Edmonton! Then, we made snowflakes, had hot chocolate and marshmallows and basically tried to get through the DAY OF DISAPPOINTMENT!

Barton Hall

Tuesday was better, still windy though. Only the fence between Helen's and John's house blew down. The drive was rather calm and tolerable.

As we approached Devon, I saw what is now a frequent sight. A dead fox on the road. I think I'll just be a road kill observer as I don't think these animals actually are ever seen otherwise! But, Belinda, our dear and kind Teacher's Assistant/Minibus driver Extraordinaire, said that No, that was a badger. It couldn't be though because it had red fur. Well, it turns out that the earth around the camp is red. Rusty red dirt and lots of it. Thus, the coat of a normally blacky grey badger is like a bad dye job.

Arriving at this place was quite a sight for strained eyes! On camps in Alberta, you pull in on a treaded dirt road, over a few rocks, and stroll up to a log cabin. But, here, the iron gates open upon arrival and you drive up the pavement to the 'Big House'. Yeah, more like mansion! Turns out, this facility used to be a Holiday House for families. You and your loved ones could rent a site for the week and participate in all sorts of activities, have your dinners made for you and retire to a quaintly furnished room after a little nightly entertainment in the hall. Seems a bit like the movie 'Dirty Dancing'.

In any case, we had a section of rooms to ourselves-teachers had TVs and Coffee! Bless their hearts! The kids had great rooms with bathrooms and they all opened to the great outdoors. This was a problem though at 2a.m. as we caught a few out with their torches looking for foxes (or red badgers).

The whole organization is run by a company called PGL which stands for Parents Get Lost to all children and leaders. What an organized and smoothly run place! Activities were exciting and challenging.

Two of my students abseiling.

We didn't do this, but it was the ski hill. Made of plastic mesh. And, the skiers were pretty good considering that if you fell, you'd be left with imprints on your face like you get when you wake up in a car!

We also went wall climbing. Yes, that's me climbing a wall in wellies. Don't ask.
We also zipped down lines, orienteered, fenced, did archery, problem solving, rope courses, shelter building in red mud and A DISCO! Did you know that Dances here are called Discos?

And the food was good for the most part. Children here eat spaghetti o's for breakfast, on toast!

I thought I might be getting hard of hearing. Students talking is hard for me to understand sometimes. Especially when they are chattering amongst themselves like little chickens, which is quite often. But, this one particular conversation made me stop. That's it! I'm not going deaf. I just didn't understand this colloquial banter with one student and made her repeat what she said. But, Miss, she said, we's only, gert, putting on make up for the disco! What the heck does 'gert' mean? Are you choking on a rubber? Turns out, 'gert' means, like, well, like! Bristol valley girl talk--like you get it?

After all children were soundly sleeping we'd clandestinely make our way up to the library as the PGL staff took over supervision for an hour or so. Man, talk about a well deserved pint! Mr. Smith is quite the consummate fly fisherman when he's not supply teaching. His main spots are in Wales, as he is Welsh, and he explained the in's and out's of the Wye and Usk rivers. I didn't know that it is illegal to fish with worms, prawns or shrimp with a coarse rod! I guess it is too easy to catch salmon this way so you can only use a fly fishing technique. That'd be similar to asking Ollie to come with a raw 4 lb. roast.

Two weekends ago, we had a glorious time at Ben's parents' home in Kenilworth. It's only about a hour and a half drive. Rosemary and Barrie took us on a tour of Kenilworth Castle which was most impressive! This is what I'd always imagined an old castle to look like. The girls loved exploring it, especially since we let them buy wooden swords to battle each other with.

The girls sitting in an old stone oven.

After some very pleasant walks, we returned home for tea and a scrumptious birthday cake baked by a neighbor girl named Hetti. Seems she has a little baking business on the side of her studies, and by all tastes, should pursue it as a career when she's older!

Every so often, you feel like you deserved to be spoiled a bit. But let me tell you, I was not prepared for the wonderful spoiling that we had with the Wiggins! Rosemary and Barrie made such incredible food--Roast lamb, mashed potatoes, pork pie, delightful salads, cheeses, homemade breads, chicken casserole...need I go on or are you salivating yet? And then the wine, and the homemade beer! Barrie walked me through his beer making techniques, showed me where his hops grows, and the malts, etc. That was very interesting!

Their house is lovely, with 3 floors, a curving staircase up to the 2nd an 3rd floor. And, in Canada we say 'yard' for the space we plant things in every spring. But, I can see why it is called a 'garden' here. They have 2 ponds, oodles of big overgrown trees and lush flowers. All I can say is that we were truly in the lap of luxury and I'd like to thank them for the gracious and amazing hospitality!
A funny thing happened on the way to the pond...Barrie told us that a few frogs had arrived to spawn and left a whole bunch to froggies-to-be. The girls were fascinated by this and watched for quite awhile, the fishes and eggs. Later after supper, I heard some creaking. I asked Barrie if the two frogs might be back and could we go look. He laughed and said, Sure go have a look, full well knowing that there would be more than two! When we went out to the pond, this is what we say.
There were at least fifty in the frog frenzy! Well, the girls didn't come back in for a good hour. And then after we finally got the girls to come in and go to bed I was sitting in the living room when who happened to hop by? A giant green frog! It must have come in with the girls...hmm..that or they were trying to hide it in their wellies to take home.

One of the Queen's pets. Also, Barrie told me that people can bury relatives in their own backyards if they want to. He said though that it sometimes impedes the process of resale.


Shakespeare's birthhouse.
Stratford-Upon-Avon is about half an hour away from Kenilworth. We did a tour on Sunday and it was very interesting. Emma was really excited as she has studied Shakespeare in school here in England. I have to admit, I've only really digested Hamlet in highschool but I am certainly now more motivated to submerse myself in it. Especially after seeing this! Now, when was the last time you kissed anyone with this much passion! I took this picture outside of the Royal Shakespeare Company, from a poster.


We went into another theatre to explore and there was a Henry V play going on. It was being televised in the foyer, so we watched for awhile. Suddenly some of the actors ran off the stage and came blasting out into the foyer in their costumes. Well, if you could have seen the expressions on Bonnie's and Emma's faces! Not only that, one rather dapper fellow, proceeded to strip off his clothes in a hurry, oblivious to all of our wandering eyes! Then, a costume clerk started helping him into his fighting gear. Glorious!
A few actors in costume

Shakepseare's gravesite. This is on the alter of the church and curiously, Shakespeare was able to be buried here because he did maintanence work for the abbey on his days off.

This is me with 'potman' in Barrie's allotment. Barrie and many others, have a strip of land that one can rent and grow vegetables on. We had an informative walk through the field of allotments, talking to people who were all busy doing their spring planting. I didn't know that pigeons liked to eat cabbages? But, they do!

Barrie's allotment

Interestingly, Barrie and Rosemary have two little grandsons who come to visit them often. They apologized for not having any girl's toys, but after about an hour, we could hear the girls giggling upstairs. I wandered up to see what the deal was, and they had taken ALL of the soldiers and lined them up neatly at the top of the stairs. We were under attack!

In this priory ruins near Rosemary's church, there was a great assortment of fresh flower bouquets. I was a bit surprised about this, but found out that since it had been "Mothering Sunday" the week prior, many of the graves had flowers.

A street near the Wiggins' home. Some of the houses had thatched roofs.
This particular house had recently been rethatched and the company who does the thatching always leaves some thatched birds to mark their work. I guess these birds can be up to 20 years old in some cases.

Nice Doggie!

Just a few little things before I go. A few weeks back, when the Marko family was here, we were in Bath and went into an art gallery. There was a special exhibition in the back of the gallery but it had an entrance cost. The girls could go for free, so I sent them in and within a minute they came rushing out to drag us in! How can you say no to girls who are excited about art?! In any case, it turned out to be a microsculptor and his work. Now, I imagined small things, but these are MINUTE!! In fact, with no exaggeration, they are microscopic! You could only see his sculptures with a microscope. It looked more like a science lab than a gallery. But it turns out, Willard Wigan, an artist with dyslexia, creates these mini-masterpieces. He's from Birmingham and is able lower his heart rate through a meditative state. He carves with shards of diamond and paints with a hair from a fly. He told me that it takes him about 3 months to do one scultpure and he usually works at night because noise vibrations can break his work. I asked him if he has ever lost one, as they are so tiny. He said that once, after completing one that took months, he accidently inhaled it. Here's the Statue of Liberty in the eye of a needle.

Heeeerrrrreeeee's MOUSSEY!

A Happy 12 year old!

Also, the answer to last time's question: The first car going into Dundry had to go backwards because seeing that it had to climb that big hill, all of the petrol would pour into the back of the car if it went forward and the car would essentially run out of gas.

This week: What is a 'twittens'?

Well, as always, it's been a pleasure!

beth