We have a six-week break, starting today. The schools here are sort-of on what we'd call in the U.S. a "year round schedule." A controversial schedule..some parents love it, some parents hate it...but it's how it's done here, so, everyone takes it in stride.
When we walked up to the school yard yesterday, there was actually an inflatable slides and two bouncy houses for the kids! And of course they played games and cleaned out their desks and watched movies all day. I remember it being like that when I was in school. The last day of school was always just one big party, wasn't it?
On the last day of school, we had a special breakfast
for the little student!
Merrit gets goodbye hug from his Year Three (what we'd
call 2nd Grade, because kindergarten is Year One over here)
teacher, Miss Inglis. She loves kids, and has been a great
teacher this year. She's actually moving up to teach Year
Four next year, so we'll be seeing her again, even though
Merrit's class will have a different teacher (don't know
who yet).
Merrit says, "Miss Inglis is a very nice teacher. I
like her projects, like the diagram project where we had to
draw a grid and color in squares."
Merrit with his class's teaching assistant, Mrs. Barnes.
Merrit says, "Mrs. Barnes is funny and she also helps
us out a lot when we are doing difficult projects. She
gives us good instructions."
Here's to a great summer. Six weeks of completely free days! Now...what am I going to do to keep these guys busy?!
Leaver. That's what they call students who are graduating and moving on to another school. These last few months, Ollie has been attending a private nursery school two blocks from our house as a benefit that the government makes available to all children ages three and four:
All three and four year olds are entitled to 15 hours of free nursery education for 38 weeks of the year. This applies until they reach compulsory school age (the term following their fifth birthday). Free nursery education can take place in nurseries, playgroups, preschools or at their childminders. (source)
So, Ollie's a leaver. He is moving up to five-afternoons-a-week nursery school in September. He'll be at the same school that Merrit attends! Here he is, in his construction-paper cap and button-on black gown, which looked more like a magician's cape.
The group on stage before the ceremony. How did the teachers
get them to all sit so still??
Ollie gets his laminated certificate from his teacher, Miss Emma.
Waving to the crowd. He's a natural.
Ollie was feeling this hat.
The leavers leaving the stage, walking under the teachers' arch.
Photo Op!!
Two of Ollie's nursery school teachers, Miss Emma and Miss Michelle.
Sunday
Merrit made omelettes. Delicious, as always. :-)
Monday
A trip to the nearby park turned into water play since the new splashground, which has been under construction for the last month or two, just opened this past weekend. We hadn't planned ahead, so Ollie stripped down to his underwear like all the other little kids and Merrit went shirtless with his pant-legs pushed up. It was a bit too chilly, truth be told, but I can remember swimming until my lips were blue as a kid so I figured they'd be okay.
Sunny, but chilly. These kids are braver than me, that's for sure.
Merrit, opening the dam.
Tuesday
We went with friends to an event sponsored by an organization for kids with disabilities but open for all to attend. There was much to see and do, but the boys most enjoyed the drum circle, the mud hut built in traditional Celtic style, and awesome wooden playground.
The front door to the mud hut was only about three feet high.
I was so impressed by the aeration vents and amazing thatched roof.
Once inside the hut, the ceiling soared to a peak high above.
Ollie conquering the wobbly bridge.
Wednesday
The boys and I walked to the indoor pool, swam and rode the waterslides all morning, stopped for a pizza marguerita on the way home, and then they napped!
Thursday
New friends invited us for dinner at their house tonight. We barbequed in the back yard. How American! But of course we had sausages. How British!
Friday
I took the boys down to the skate park for Merrit's first attempt at riding the bowls, ramps, and walls. He's been getting really good at around-town scootering (is that a word?). Helmet on, we set off for the skate park, which is about four blocks away, right next to the North Sea. Unbelievably, Ollie was mostly content to just watch the big boys.
Saturday
Having caught the bug, Merrit wanted to go back to the skate park for more! Mike was happy to oblige. They were gone for a few hours. Back at home, Ollie and I did some cooking. We mixed up chicken salad and tabouli for a picnic the next day.
Sunday
No time for omelettes today! All four of us drove about an hour and a half south/southeast to a spot in York County called The Forbidden Corner. We were invited to tag along with another family, so we followed them there. At our trip to The Forbidden Corner we saw amazing English gardens, wooded paths, trick water features, hedge mazes, optical illusions, underground caverns and passageway, and quirky sculptures.
What is The Forbidden Corner? Ah, I'm so glad you asked. It started out as one man's personal garden, built on land that was stripped clean as it had once been part of a military base.
The goddess Venus.
With a butt tattoo?
Obviously, this gent has a sense of humor and is a kid at heart. There were so many interesting things to see in the gardens. From holes in the wall that actually have mirrors in them, to water spouts that squirt unexpectedly when you walk by, to quirky sculptures like bears playing cards, amazing murals, gorgeous rock work, hedge mazes, and more than a few claustrophobia-inducing tight, dark passageways.
We went with friends to this spot--they've been here many times before--and we all had a blast! Here are some of the best pics of the day...
The entrance to The Forbidden Corner is via this big mouth.
When you walk through you have to dodge a huge, swinging
epiglottis and a loud burp erupts, activated by motion sensor.
An overlook from the hedge maze. Don't miss the deer in the fields.
Merrit and his friend run down the hedge maze. Thankfully, no one was lost.
At least, not permanently.
Here we are in a rotating room with seven doors...
Going down, down, down, deep into the caverns beneath the gardens.
It was too dark to take pictures, but we found underground waterfalls, twisting and turning passageways, statues of Ancient Greek gods, scary soundtracks, murals, illuminated and moving floors, and all kinds of craziness.
We broke for lunch. Between my friend Jo and I, we had an amazing spread. A cheese board and pate with crackers. Plums, strawberries, and bananas. Hummus, tabouli, chicken salad with walnuts and grapes, and fingerling potato salad with scallions. Wine, sparkling water, and OJ-spritzers. Cookies and chocolate. It was fab!
After lunch, we had some company.
Swinging around and around is good for the digestion.
Not so much.
These stepping stones had motion-activated sprinklers
in them...take a look at the next picture!
Mike barely escaped without getting drenched!
Huge woodsman with his axe. The legs are tree trunks!
Amazing.
How lucky am I? I married a man with a great sense of humor who's a
kid at heart...just like the man who created this garden.
Oh, and his legs are like tree trunks. The coincidences just keep coming.
On our way home we stopped at this village pub for tea.
We set out late on Saturday morning for The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, our first trip in our new-to-us car. The island is about an hour and 20 minutes from our home in Whitley Bay and is about 15 minutes past Bamburgh Castle, which we visited earlier this spring.
On our way, we stopped for lunch in the Village of Alnmouth. The grey cloud cover that had followed us all the way from Whitley Bay suddenly cleared, making our stopover in this sweet little ocean-front town all the more stunning.
We drove through the town once or twice, looking for a place to eat. There were two coffee shops, two inns/pubs, and a sandwich shop by the golf course. We flipped a coin (not really) between the two pubs and settled on The Sun Inn.
We had a delicious starter of warm bread and just-from-the-oven Camembert cheese. For our meal, the boys shared a 100% Brittish beef hamburger (a bit overcooked) with baked beans (a staple side dish!) and chips (aka French fries). I ordered steamed mussels, which were good, but Mike didn't like his meal so he ate my mussels and I ate his crayfish salad on a baguette. It was okay, but I was eyeing MY mussels the whole time. :-)
This pub served proper English ales, meaning hand pumped and just a bit cooler than room temp.
Merrit is looking so grown up these days with those adult front teeth coming in! The boys have always been pretty good restaurant-goers. It helps that they love food, I guess, but it definitely makes it more enjoyable for us when we know that they'll sit (relatively) still for an hour or so while we have a nice meal out.
Sound-front terraced homes in Alnmouth.
The tide going out from the sound back into the North Sea.
Dunes. Wildflowers. Gorgeous.
Can you believe these poppies?
Are these wild or have they been planted here? So picturesque!
Poppies are blooming everywhere right now. The petals look like paper.
Everywhere we looked along this seafront walkway,
we took in beautiful ocean views.
This makes me think of the North Carolina coast and the sea oats.
The sound with boats, and the English countryside beyond.
Don't know the story of this cross on a hill in Alnmouth,
but it's very striking.
We drove a little farther north along the Coastal Route, a scenic network of highways that run along the northeast coastline of England, until we came to the turnoff for The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
A few people--namely the receptionist at my chiropractor's office--have told us that we should go to Lindisfarne. There's a castle, and a priory, and a village, and a tidal causeway that's only passable at low tide...and is famous for stranding over-confident tourists and locals alike.
When we arrived at the causeway, cars were lined up, waiting to cross. I hopped out of the car to read the posted sign of the tidal schedule and crossing times. Why did I bother? I should know by now that posted rules and regulations mean less than nothing to Mike.
The sign said we could safely cross at 2:40pm. It was 1:50pm. What we thought was an ambulance, but actually turned out to be a refrigerated fresh-seafood-from-Scotland truck, was the first to cross. Then other trucks and SUVs--vehicles with high suspensions--started crossing successfully.
Mike inched our car to the front of the line, front tires resting in the receding water. It was receding fast, too! As we sat there, it must have gone out another 10 feet just 15 minutes, while I bought chocolate-covered vanilla pops from an ice cream truck.
It looks cold, but it was actually quite warm, but windy.
Parked at the waterline, Mike considers making a break for it.
Trusty camera at our side, we of course filmed our crossing, complete with Mike saying he's teaching the kids how to have an adventure, and me being nervous and asking, "Did we make it?" (hello, if I can ask that question, I guess we did!)...it's dorky, but here it is...
Wow! Lindisfarne. Stunning. There's no other word. This is definitely one of the places we will bring family and friends when they come visit. We parked the car, as it's a pedestrian-only village, and started walking. It was windy, but warm and sunny. What a gorgeous day to be in such a picture-postcard setting.
As we stood on the grassy bank of this U-shaped rocky harbor, I said to Mike the 360-degree view was just surreal. At 11:00, the Lindisfarne Castle (you can see it in the distance); at 12:00, this gently lapping harbor of teal-blue water with fishing boats bobbing about and our boys pitching smooth stones into the water; at 4:00, the ruins of the ancient priory; at 7:00, the quaint village with row houses and shops and roses in bloom; and from 8:00 to 11:00, greener-than-possible fields, herds of sheep, and low rock walls. Everywhere you looked was something impossible.
We walked up to the castle gate, but realized that we didn't have our National Trust Membership Cards with us. (Because we are members, we could get into the castle for free WITH our cards; but without them it would have cost us about £25.00. So, we opted to skip the castle this time, and come back another time.
Ollie at the Lindisfarne beach.
The boys found these painted rocks. Not sure who put
these here...?
Is there anything more English than a stacked-rock wall and field of sheep?
Mike and Merrit approaching Lindisfarne Castle.
We'll come back another day....
