A Proper British Day Out

Mike is in Seattle right now but did that stop me from getting out and about? Nope. :) Well, maybe I'm overstating my bravado. After all, yesterday I drove the furthest I've driven in the last nine months! But--yay me, I did it. 

Our proper British day included: Wellies and warm jackets, a drive through the countryside, a walk along the coast, sheep, a castle, 4:00 scones and tea, a day that started out rainy and ended up brilliantly sunny, a gorgeous big-sky sunset, and toad-in-the-hole with peas for dinner.

The boys and I drove up the A1 highway to get to Dunstanburgh Castle, just outside the seaside village of Craster.

The fall colors as we drive into the town of Craster were just lovely.

The harbor and the village, straight ahead. Turn a sharp left for the 2-mile
footpath to the castle.

We're about halfway there, and it's still a long way to go. The misty air and brisk
wind coming off the sea made the walk quite "bracing," as they say here.

Hoods up, heads down, and hands in pockets
against the cold and wind. They're good lads!

As we approached the castle, we had to cross over the
meres (shallow swampy freshwater lakes) which
surround the castle on three sides. When the castle
was in use, the meres were filled with water channeled from
a nearby spring. They were  connected to create a moat and
were used for stocking and breeding freshwater fish .

The boys couldn't believe that we were walking right through
the sheep fields. The sheep were tame, but skittish. They'd
let us get within five to 10 feet of them.

Walking through the gatehouse, originally built in 1313
and fortified in the 19th century. The boys are getting
ready to go into the small gatekeeper's room.

Inside the gatehouse, we climbed three stories of spiral staircase to get to
the top. Here, we look back along the track we walked through the cow and
sheep fields. You can see the village of Craster in the distance. 

Turn 180 degrees and here's the opposite view: The Lilburn Tower, at
the northern-most spot along the castle grounds. The tower was named
for Sir John de Lilburn, a notorious local bandit and, briefly, a constable
of Dunstanburgh.

Three stories down to the bottom of the gatehouse floor.

The sun is coming out! The sun is coming out!
Merrit takes a peep through the arrow slit in the wall.

Helping Ollie up. They are such good brothers. (Most of the time.)

Back on the ground now. We are exploring along the east wall of the castle,
which includes the Constable's Tower, the Egyncleugh ("Eagle's Ravine") Tower. These
bits of the castle were finished around 1351. There are half walls where interior rooms
would have been, and geological surveys show that there are more like this buried under
the turf. The Constable's Tower was originally three stories high and the Egyncleugh
Tower was two stories high and included a separate entrance with a drawbridge. 

It seems like the kids really never stop moving, but every now and then, they'll
 stop long enough to appreciate a view. A rare moment here, captured on film.

Yes, a posed picture. But the light was great and they looked so cute in their
royal blue jackets and Wellies.

Balancing.

Climbing.

Walking.

Directing.

The boys decide to bushwhack our way over to
the Lilbburn Tower.

Ollie struggled a bit with the tall grass.

...But Merrit helped him up when he needed a hand.

...And he kept a sense of humor throughout.

The view north from the Lilburn Tower, including part of a golf course (don't
know which one). What a great course to play, huh? 

Ollie being silly.

Walking back to the gatehouse now. The sun is
getting low in the sky. 

Time to go. We have a long walk back to the village
and our parked car. And more than an hour's drive
home again. At this point, I'm actually worried
about Ollie's stamina, hoping I don't end up having
to piggy-back him for some or all of the two
miles back to the village of Craster!

The best view of the castle gatehouse. Most towers when this castle were
built had square towers, so the fact that these are round is noteworthy.
The wall to the right is the east wall and extends all the way down to the
North Sea. Originally these two towers were three stories high with an
additional two stories of battlements.

Ollie with sheep, the Constable's Tower, and the east wall in the background.

The boys getting their goofies out.

These sheep are, like, posing for us! They even bleated on cue.
They must be on the payroll. :)

You knew they were going to chase them, of course, didn't you?

A few pictures back in the village of Craster: 

The Shoreline Cafe, where the boys had fruit scones
and I had a cup of tea. They had a log fire burning when
we walked in. Ahhh, perfect!

Goodbye, Craster and Dunstanburgh Castle.

Oh, and what's Toad-in-the-Hole, you ask? I'll tell you in Merrit's words: "It's basically Yorkshire pudding with a sausage baked inside it. Fork a hole into the Yorkshire pudding and just pull out the sausage. I really liked them, they were really good--even though Mommy burned them, just a little."

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

Festivities in Windsor Castle by Paul Sandby, c. 1776 (source)

The first thing I heard about Bonfire Night was a commercial on the radio for Heinz tomato soup. The voice said something like, "When your family and friends are gathered around the bonfire this weekend, everyone will be expecting tomato soup. Make it Heinz tomato soup." I was like, "HUH?"

The next night there was some police excitement in our neighborhood* when I came in with the boys at 5:30 (already dark, keep in mind, and Mike's not here). So I'm making dinner and I hear a loud thump-noise that sounded like it was coming from the back alley. I am already jumpy, so I call 999 (the UK's 911) and ask if they know what was going on on our street and whether I could have heard someone in the back garden. The policeman says, "There were a couple of teenagers and a robbery in progress, but we've apprehended the suspects. What you heard was probably fireworks because of Guy Fawkes."

Well I was relieved that they caught the bad guys, but I was utterly confused about Guy Fawkes as I hung up the phone.

I got the full scoop last night when our friends Heather and Irvin invited the kids and I for dinner at their house. Irvin told us about how The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in relative terms, was on par with a 9-11 scale terrorist plot for that day and time. Here's the basic history lesson:

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, James I (son of Mary Queen of Scots) became king. Since I just finished reading Philippa Gregory's "The Other Queen," I was fully up-to-date on the rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary and the tension between the Protestants (supported by Elizabeth) and Catholics (supported by Mary) in England at that time.

Queen Elizabeth had persecuted and even tortured Catholics. And when James I came into power, people had hoped that he'd be more tolerant of Catholics, since his mother had been a Catholic. That turned out not to be the case, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was put in place by 13 conspirators.

The conspirators stored 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the House of Lords; their plan was to blow up the houses of Parliament, including the king, possibly the Prince of Wales, and the members of Parliament.

But with the plot in place, some of the 13 began to have second thoughts, realizing that pro-Catholic members of Parliament and innocent people would be killed. A warning letter was reportedly circulated and found its way to the king, and the plot was foiled. When guards stormed the gunpowder-laden cellar in the early hours of November 5, conspirator Guy Fawkes was there. He was caught, tortured, and executed.

(source)

That very night, bonfires were lit all over London to celebrate the fact that the king's life was spared. Over the years, burning effigies of Guy Fawkes and, later, The Pope, were added to the bonfires, which grew larger and larger.

From www.bonfirenight.net:

The tradition of Guy Fawkes-related bonfires actually began the very same year as the failed coup. The Plot was foiled in the night between the 4th and 5th of November 1605. Already on the 5th, agitated Londoners who knew little more than that their King had been saved, joyfully lit bonfires in thanksgiving. As years progressed, however, the ritual became more elaborate.

Soon, people began placing effigies onto bonfires, and fireworks were added to the celebrations. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and sometimes those of the Pope, graced the pyres. Still today, some communities throw dummies of both Guy Fawkes and the Pope on the bonfire (and even those of a contemporary politician or two), although the gesture is seen by most as a quirky tradition, rather than an expression of hostility towards the Pope.

Preparations for Bonfire Night celebrations include making a dummy of Guy Fawkes, which is called "the Guy". Some children even keep up an old tradition of walking in the streets, carrying "the Guy" they have just made, and beg passersby for "a penny for the Guy." The kids use the money to buy fireworks for the evening festivities. On the night itself, Guy is placed on top of the bonfire, which is then set alight; and fireworks displays fill the sky.

The extent of the celebrations and the size of the bonfire varies from one community to the next. Lewes, in the South East of England, is famous for its Bonfire Night festivities and consistently attracts thousands of people each year to participate.

Bonfire Night is not only celebrated in Britain. The tradition crossed the oceans and established itself in the British colonies during the centuries. It was actively celebrated in New England as "Pope Day" as late as the 18th century. Today, November 5th bonfires still light up in far out places like New Zealand and Newfoundland in Canada.

Irvin was telling us that when he was a boy, people would start dragging things out of their houses three or four weeks before Bonfire Night, and that the pile would be as big as a house by the Fifth of November. Today, big bonfires like that are discouraged, and the holiday has sort-of taken a back seat to Halloween, which wasn't celebrated at all when Irvin was a kid. But there are fireworks displays around the country (we'll be going to one on Sunday night here in Whitley Bay), and small, private bonfires are still allowed. I meant to ask him about tomato soup, but forgot. That really doesn't seem like an easy-to-eat bonfire food, but what do I know?

------
* Police excitement: When the boys and I were walking home at 5:30, there was a helicopter circling our end of town and three police cars parked with blue-lights flashing at the top of our street. I saw one policeman stationed at the foot of our alley, two walking down the sidewalk toward us, and a gaggle of them at the top of the street. I asked one (who looked a lot like Mike's brother Rocky), "Is it okay to go home?" and he said, "Aye, luv." I was nervous and way jumpy, but we got into the house, turned on all the lights, checked the closets, etc. (Thank God I don't have a shower curtain I had to pull back!!) On the one hand, I was thinking: "Can this be happening right here in my neighborhood?" but on the other hand I was thinking, "All this police presence for some teenagers breaking into a house?" So, I guess in the end, I felt good that they responded with such force for a burglary.

"Victorian Day" at School

Dictated by Merrit:

"Today the kids in my school dressed up like Victorians. I didn't dress up because I was a bit nervous because I don't like to be dressed up. Some of the kids in my class dressed up as Victorian kids. The girls were wearing skirts and white hats and the boys were wearing boots and caps and waist jackets. Some kids dressed up to look like they were really rich, and some kids were dressed up to be poor. They had dirty faces and dirty clothes.

"The teachers were really strict. We had put our hands on the desk when the teacher said, 'Put your hands in front of you!' The teachers said to some of the girls who had paint on their nails to never come to school again like that again. They said to some of the boys, 'Clean your faces at playtime!' or 'Go wash your hands right now!' And then we had to write like a Victorian child, by connecting up what we wrote, like cursive. I had to try my best. Chris wasn't working fast enough so he had to get caned. Chris and the teacher went outside the classroom, and I heard Chris say 'Aggh!' and then I heard him say it again, and before he said that I heard a big WHACK! Caning is when they take a stick and they whack your hand. It was just an act.

"Some of the kids had to wear a hat that said you did a bad job at writing. It was like a cone and when you turned it around on the back of it was a 'D' and you had to face the corner. It was white. Eddie and Hammish had to wear the hat and sit in the corner.

"We walked down to the beach and they took a video of us walking by. Then we played some games. We took a hoop and we rolled it back and forth to each other.

(source)

"We went back up to the school and we had our Victorian snack: Bread and jam with water and that was it.

"Then we played outside for a while because it was last playtime. Then we went home.

"At the end of the day, Mrs. Palmer said, 'I'm so glad that I get to be a nice teacher again tomorrow. I'm so glad to smile again. I wanted to smile so much today but I wasn't allowed to smile!'

"I thought Victorian day was cool because it was real. School used to be like that when kids were living in Victorian times. A couple of weeks ago, we took a field trip to Tynemouth and we looked at some Victorian statues and houses. I have learned that the punishments in Victorian times were very, very, very serious. And that it was very rude to speak in class. And that the rules were very serious."

Trick or Treat!

It takes such self control to open, pour, and NOT eat it.

We only give out "the good stuff."

We went trick or treating with a neighborhood friend, dressed up as a vampire.

Ollie's a sharp shooter!

Getting ready to trick or treat.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the costumes!
And the pumpkin carving, though we didn't do them this year.
Too heavy to CARRY home from the market. :)

A spiderweb in the doorway of our house as we head out
to trick or treat. A good Halloween omen!

We had not-too-chilly weather and crunchy leaves underfoot
as we started out.

Merrit had to peep out through the buttonholes in his shirt to see where he
was going! He only ran into two lamp posts and one wall!

Who's a faster draw? Ollie with his cap-gun or me with my
camera?

And we're off.

Knocking at our friend Callum's door.

Knocking at our friend Benedict's door.

Our friend Ben's mom giving out treats.

How cute are these?!

Here's what one friend told us: Before the movie E.T. came out and popularized the
idea of trick or treating for candy on Halloween, people in the U.K. carved turnip
lanterns (small, like these mini pumpkins) and went door to door for money. They'd
say "Happy Halloween" (instead of "Trick or Treat") and would get a coin or two.

With houses so close together, you can cover a lot
of ground in not much time!

Last stop of the evening.

Home again, with bags of candy. Not too much, though.
Here, the person at the door holds out a bowl of candy
and the kids get to pick one. None of this "big handful"
stuff like back in the states!

This was all that Ollie got after visiting about 12 or 13 houses.
Notice the apples and homemade cookies. I think that's been
taboo in the states since I was a kid!