Plays, Recitals, Scavenger Hunts, and other Druidic Pastimes

This past week has been... a week, to be sure. I think I've mentioned that Dalton and Maggie have been practicing for the past two months or so, and this week were the actual plays and recitals. So, Wednesday night, Michelle went to see Dalton at his school play. Thursday night, we got the neighbors to drop off Dalton at the play, and I went to see Maggie's dance recital, while Michelle helped out backstage. Fortunately, all of Maggie's dances were in the first half of the show, because I had to leave at intermission to go and pick up Dalton. Then, on Friday, I had to head to the airport to meet my brother-in-law, and then that night, he and Mich went to see Maggie, while I went to see Dalton. Whew. Dalton was a hedgehog in "The Wind in the Willows," while Maggie was a ladybird, a Thumbelina, and a party girl. Anyway, we did manage to get a couple of pics of them in costume, so those will be coming soon.

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, Michelle really likes U2. Somebody in her U2 fan club initiated a scavenger hunt where you had to go out and take pictures of different U2 related things, with a Pop Tart. (Don't ask - or if you do have to ask, please ask Michelle.) So Friday through today we've been trying to take various pictures to meet the requirements of the scavenger hunt.

In the meantime, since we did have a guest, we rented a car for the weekend, and made it out to knock another two items off of our list: Stonehenge, and Oxford. Pictures will be forthcoming.

The weather has been nice the past couple of days, and we rode out to Stonehenge on Saturday. The ride was fairly nice, and it was good just to get out into the countryside a bit. We stopped at Stonehenge, where several people were milling around the stones, and druidic cows pretended to be contentedly chewing grass, while secretly laying their devious bovine plans. Stonehenge was interesting, to say the least. We were driving up, Dalton asked if we were almost there, and then we topped the hill, and we were there. The road passes within 100 to 200 feet of the actual rocks, which I thought was rather odd, but you can pay to go in and get a bit closer, if you like. However, in case you didn't know - you can't actually go up to Stonehenge, you can get, at most about 30 feet or so from the closest stone. Still, we wandered around and it was still one of those things where you're standing there at something that you've seen and heard about all your life and it's a little bit unbelievable.

Today was much more of a highlight for me, personally, (although Stonehenge was cool) as I went to Oxford and indulged in a bit of Tolkienism. We started out just walking through the university, although I made sure to see Merton College, where Tolkien taught for several years, and we also saw a building which I later discovered Tolkien decided looked like Sauron's temple to Morgoth in Numenor. We then went on to the Eagle and Child, where the Inklings met for several years, and we stopped in and we all had pints (excepting, of course, the children). We then went to his old house, and finally stopped off at his grave in north Oxford. All in all, I was off in Tolkien La La Land, and I was extremely glad that Michelle was willing to indulge me. I could probably go on and on about our visit to Oxford and Tolkien, but I shall refrain. I will, however, come back with photos later.

Wimbledon, Cream Teas, and the week between

As you probably know, this past Sunday was the Wimbledon final. While we didn't make it to Wimbledon this year (and, quite frankly, probably never will), we did sit down and watch a good bit of the match. I've probably watched more Wimbledon than any other tennis event, and remember watching waaay back in Borg vs. McEnroe I, and Borg vs. McEnroe II. Sunday's match has already been hailed by some as the best ever, and it was definitely well worth a watch. I had to head out to Chalfont (northwest London) for a class that I was teaching on Monday and Tuesday, so I cut out at the rain break in the third set, thinking that it would be over by the time I got there. However, when I arrived, it was actually about midway through the fifth set, so I sat down to watch the last bit.

Monday and Tuesday, as I mentioned, I taught a class, and arrived home around 8 on Tuesday night. The rest of the week was fairly normal and mundane - at least as normal as life in our house can be.

This morning, Dalton had play practice up at the school - he and Maggie have had practices for the last several weekends running, which has kept us effectively home-bound for the last couple of months. After I took him to school, we came back, and Michelle and I took Maggie to a house up the road, where they were having cream teas in the back garden. The garden was beautiful, and we enjoyed our tea, scones with jam and cream, and strawberries as we sat in the garden. We also had a couple of sausages. On the way there, Maggie was "walking like a princess", I imagine because she thinks that a proper tea is something that royalty do. It did bring home the reality that there are definitely some things that I will miss when we get back - English gardens being one of them. The English have some of the most beautiful flowers and plants that I've ever seen. I'll also miss the scones - the ones today were homemade, and definitely better than the store bought ones that I've been used to, but really, a scone is a wonderful thing, and I imagine I'll be hard pressed to find an adequate replacement.

This upcoming weekend is Dalton's play (The Wind in the Willows) wherein Dalton will play a hedgehog, and Maggie's ballet recital, but she has also been taking tap, so I think she has multiple numbers which she is supposed to perform. We're looking forward to it - and I'll see if we can get pictures for the blog.