Monday 31st December
Once again we invited ourselves to Washington DC for New Year celebrations and, as always, we had a great time. M scooted off on a boys night out to the local stadium to join 70,000 others to watch the Redskins vs the Dallas Cowboys football game. Apparently tickets to these events are harder to come by than ones to watch a Manchester United soccer match and this game was a qualifier for the super bowl playoffs so the stadium was full to the seams. On the night the right team won, but they didn't fair so well afterwards. Is it only in USA where folks would head off 4hrs ahead of the game in the dead of winter for a "tail gate" party, take beer in the cooler (to warm it up?) and think of taking a portable grill? Anyhow - this is what they did - I think when we think nothing of this we will be fully localised. Not yet I fear. Nor was M sufficiently well equipped with clothes - he has been on the hunt for thermally lined jeans ever since.
We also enjoyed a meander around Ellicott City Maryland (http://ellicottcity.net/index.html) - founded by 3 brothers in 1770ish, it is on the Patapsco river where they were able to grow wheat and then mill it later. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad runs through the town and whilst we were there we saw one of those 100+ wagonned trains wind slowly up the valley on its way cross country. They always remind me that this is BIG continent and I half expect Michael Palin to be hanging out the window. The town now is full of antique shops and cafes and made a very pleasant interlude.
Thanks very much for a fun few days. 2013 and yet more US adventures await - I am hoping that we will be better prepared for some of them this time around. Happy New Year!
Monday, 31 December 2012
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Election Day
Tuesday 6th November
US election day has arrived - for the first time in a long while we are mere observers in an election rather than being able to participate. In fact that in itself is rather odd and has got us thinking about the importance of being able to cast one's opinion in national matters. However, for once, this post isn't supposed to be about us.
We have been fairly immune to the electoral campaign until the past few days. This is because we have yet to fully engage with US television and although Pennsylvania is a swing state, it is not one of the most critical. However, in the past few days, posters have popped up on all the highways and local gardens, radio adverts have come thick and fast and Mit Romney (and the BBC) have arrived in nearby Bucks County for a Republican rally.
Once again the children are much better informed than we are in matters relating to USA. They can tell us the qualifying requirements to stand for President, the main campaign points of the candidates, they have voted in a mock election but, most importantly, they can explain the Electoral College. So, for the baffled out there, here goes. Each state is awarded a number of votes in an electoral college roughly in proportion to its population. The largest number of votes are held by California (54) and several states have only a handful of electoral votes. The candidate wins by gaining 270 electoral votes. A state awards all of their votes to one candidate based on how the citizens of that state votes. Pennsylvania has 20 votes, and as I write, has called for Obama but the final results of the election will not be known until tomorrow after the close states of Florida, Ohio, Viriginia announce their results. The election today is not just for the President but also for the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as local state representatives, but we have yet to work out these more complicated aspects. The most interesting thing I learned today was about voting access. Following abolition of slavery many attempts were made to try to limit access to voting by introducing various hurdles eg educational requirements etc. Several Supreme Court decisions later and the upshot is that bureaucratic requirements associated with voting are absolutely minimised (unless of course you are a legal alien). We await the result with interest (via BBC World Service of course!).
US election day has arrived - for the first time in a long while we are mere observers in an election rather than being able to participate. In fact that in itself is rather odd and has got us thinking about the importance of being able to cast one's opinion in national matters. However, for once, this post isn't supposed to be about us.
We have been fairly immune to the electoral campaign until the past few days. This is because we have yet to fully engage with US television and although Pennsylvania is a swing state, it is not one of the most critical. However, in the past few days, posters have popped up on all the highways and local gardens, radio adverts have come thick and fast and Mit Romney (and the BBC) have arrived in nearby Bucks County for a Republican rally.
Once again the children are much better informed than we are in matters relating to USA. They can tell us the qualifying requirements to stand for President, the main campaign points of the candidates, they have voted in a mock election but, most importantly, they can explain the Electoral College. So, for the baffled out there, here goes. Each state is awarded a number of votes in an electoral college roughly in proportion to its population. The largest number of votes are held by California (54) and several states have only a handful of electoral votes. The candidate wins by gaining 270 electoral votes. A state awards all of their votes to one candidate based on how the citizens of that state votes. Pennsylvania has 20 votes, and as I write, has called for Obama but the final results of the election will not be known until tomorrow after the close states of Florida, Ohio, Viriginia announce their results. The election today is not just for the President but also for the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as local state representatives, but we have yet to work out these more complicated aspects. The most interesting thing I learned today was about voting access. Following abolition of slavery many attempts were made to try to limit access to voting by introducing various hurdles eg educational requirements etc. Several Supreme Court decisions later and the upshot is that bureaucratic requirements associated with voting are absolutely minimised (unless of course you are a legal alien). We await the result with interest (via BBC World Service of course!).
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Remember, remember......
Sunday 4th November
We are determined to foist our British ways on the locals and bonfire night seemed a good start. We had had plans of holding a small party to get together with new found friends but, despite now having enough debris for many a bonfire, we were slightly foiled by our health and safety hazard of a fallen tree balancing on power lines in our garden and the local state laws on fireworks which make it illegal for a PA state resident to purchase or transport fireworks in PA (apparently you need to go to New Jersey). Instead we settled for a session with 1st grade on Friday telling them the story of the plot and teaching them to remember remember, and, this evening, hot chocolate, chocolate cake and sparklers with the closest neighbours around a small fire pit. The weather even obliged by cooling down to feel like the real McCoy! We can build up to something more akin to the real thing next year.
We are determined to foist our British ways on the locals and bonfire night seemed a good start. We had had plans of holding a small party to get together with new found friends but, despite now having enough debris for many a bonfire, we were slightly foiled by our health and safety hazard of a fallen tree balancing on power lines in our garden and the local state laws on fireworks which make it illegal for a PA state resident to purchase or transport fireworks in PA (apparently you need to go to New Jersey). Instead we settled for a session with 1st grade on Friday telling them the story of the plot and teaching them to remember remember, and, this evening, hot chocolate, chocolate cake and sparklers with the closest neighbours around a small fire pit. The weather even obliged by cooling down to feel like the real McCoy! We can build up to something more akin to the real thing next year.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Halloween fun
Wednesday 31st October
It has been a tense couple of days if you are under 10 wondering if the adults around you will have recovered themselves enough for the long awaited Halloween. Fortunately, with life resuming a more normal ebb and flow (to the background hum of generators at least), Halloween was declared ON.
The fun began at school with a Halloween parade and parties all afternoon. The Summers were represented by a spooky witch and a vampire but local etiquette says anything goes - including a cheese ball! The party games were a success and seemed to include one which we have yet to try at home - race to dress a mummy.
As darkness fell, one now transformed skeleton and one vampire, joined one panda, one caterina, one rock chick, one spider man and one very tiny whale to trick and treat. Lantern lit and loot sacks in hand the children, accompanied by a few watchful adults (thank you guests R&G), toured from house to house in a mostly loud but otherwise not very scary fashion to collect candy, candy and more candy. The adults were fortified by a beverage or two along the way. We thought we had limited proceedings to a fairly manageable tour but that was before we took on the "haunted" house......
I fear that the occupant of the rather large house at the end of an even longer drive had not had the "pleasure" of trick and treaters for some many years. However, although surprised, she was determined to oblige. The English accent proved the first downfall and we were taken on tour of her artwork, Drury Lane original 18th century flyer, and Lady Hamilton original china (although it took several pairs of hands to rescue the plates as they fell domino style from the dresser). The children safely ushered back outside we were given a tour of the portraits of the US ancestors - again many pairs of hands were needed to catch the toppling easels. There followed a moment when she hid in the kitchen wing hoping we would disappear, and we wondered if we should, but ginger nut biscuits followed. A hasty retreat beaten, a sub-team were forced to return after recusing the escaped dog and G and g were then persuaded to fill individual sacks for the children with various traditional goodies. That is the last time I follow the locals on a mad cap scheme.
All in all though a fun and harmless holiday and, as expected, enough candy now in the house to last until Christmas.
It has been a tense couple of days if you are under 10 wondering if the adults around you will have recovered themselves enough for the long awaited Halloween. Fortunately, with life resuming a more normal ebb and flow (to the background hum of generators at least), Halloween was declared ON.
The fun began at school with a Halloween parade and parties all afternoon. The Summers were represented by a spooky witch and a vampire but local etiquette says anything goes - including a cheese ball! The party games were a success and seemed to include one which we have yet to try at home - race to dress a mummy.
As darkness fell, one now transformed skeleton and one vampire, joined one panda, one caterina, one rock chick, one spider man and one very tiny whale to trick and treat. Lantern lit and loot sacks in hand the children, accompanied by a few watchful adults (thank you guests R&G), toured from house to house in a mostly loud but otherwise not very scary fashion to collect candy, candy and more candy. The adults were fortified by a beverage or two along the way. We thought we had limited proceedings to a fairly manageable tour but that was before we took on the "haunted" house......
I fear that the occupant of the rather large house at the end of an even longer drive had not had the "pleasure" of trick and treaters for some many years. However, although surprised, she was determined to oblige. The English accent proved the first downfall and we were taken on tour of her artwork, Drury Lane original 18th century flyer, and Lady Hamilton original china (although it took several pairs of hands to rescue the plates as they fell domino style from the dresser). The children safely ushered back outside we were given a tour of the portraits of the US ancestors - again many pairs of hands were needed to catch the toppling easels. There followed a moment when she hid in the kitchen wing hoping we would disappear, and we wondered if we should, but ginger nut biscuits followed. A hasty retreat beaten, a sub-team were forced to return after recusing the escaped dog and G and g were then persuaded to fill individual sacks for the children with various traditional goodies. That is the last time I follow the locals on a mad cap scheme.
All in all though a fun and harmless holiday and, as expected, enough candy now in the house to last until Christmas.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
The day after the night before
Tuesday 30th October
Another first for the whole family. Today we have awoken (those of us that slept at least) to the aftermath of "Frankenstorm" - our first real experience of big continent weather and the wrath of the Gods. We had spent a frantic two days preparing - clearing our basement and putting the remainder of the things down there on bricks in case of flooding; clearing up all the fallen leaves and branches in the garden (why?); doing all the washing and ironing in anticipation of at least a few days without power; filling containers with water (who would buy a house with an electricity powered well?); packing the emergency bags in case we needed to walk out of the house in the middle of the night; and watching the weather forecast in minute detail. Whichever way up we held the map the eye of the storm was predicted to come pretty much over the top of us.
The weather was building up over the weekend and by Sunday evening school was shut for Monday and work was closed from lunchtime onwards. Monday dawned wet and windy, but not as wet and windy as it would get. By early afternoon the rain was fair lashing down and our pool was rapidly filling up with water (all in all 12" fell in 1 day). All started to look as though it might go horribly wrong when, at about 4pm, a check of our basement revealed that the water table had risen to such a height that the pressure was "popping" the plugs in the thirty year old termite treatment holes and water was bubbling in. Like a boy with a damn, M was down there quick as a flash eager to use his wet and dry vac and get some dowels hammered in to try to stem the flow - it worked a treat but it is strange to walk away and say we just need to leave it and hope.
We had decided to sleep on the ground floor to save us either from when the roof lifted off or a tree came crashing down. All was quite exciting (in a good way) as we settled down to watch "Up" before bed. Then about 7.30pm we lost power - it really is very very dark when that happens in our street. Fortunately it came back after a few minutes - but it was a sign - everyone to bed, quick sharp. The night was long, windy, wet, full of strange crashes and bangs and a mini fireworks display on the other side of the street as their electricity supply was cut off. But ...... most of the family slept very peacefully.
This morning we are know we have been very lucky. We still have power (although the other side of the street don't); our house and drive are untouched (apart from the small puddle downstairs); and we have only lost one tall tree (although it is now resting rather precariously on the power lines at the back of our property but at least it did not flatten next door's chickens). School and work are both closed for today as well - lucky because we can't leave the house anyway due to fallen trees in the roads around - but today we can spend some time clearing up - there are a lot of leaves and fallen branches to clear (?!?) and maybe carve some pumpkins. We know those in surrounding states were not so lucky though so we wish them well. Also, will R & G make it out of NYC to us? This was a hairy part of the adventure!
Another first for the whole family. Today we have awoken (those of us that slept at least) to the aftermath of "Frankenstorm" - our first real experience of big continent weather and the wrath of the Gods. We had spent a frantic two days preparing - clearing our basement and putting the remainder of the things down there on bricks in case of flooding; clearing up all the fallen leaves and branches in the garden (why?); doing all the washing and ironing in anticipation of at least a few days without power; filling containers with water (who would buy a house with an electricity powered well?); packing the emergency bags in case we needed to walk out of the house in the middle of the night; and watching the weather forecast in minute detail. Whichever way up we held the map the eye of the storm was predicted to come pretty much over the top of us.
The weather was building up over the weekend and by Sunday evening school was shut for Monday and work was closed from lunchtime onwards. Monday dawned wet and windy, but not as wet and windy as it would get. By early afternoon the rain was fair lashing down and our pool was rapidly filling up with water (all in all 12" fell in 1 day). All started to look as though it might go horribly wrong when, at about 4pm, a check of our basement revealed that the water table had risen to such a height that the pressure was "popping" the plugs in the thirty year old termite treatment holes and water was bubbling in. Like a boy with a damn, M was down there quick as a flash eager to use his wet and dry vac and get some dowels hammered in to try to stem the flow - it worked a treat but it is strange to walk away and say we just need to leave it and hope.
We had decided to sleep on the ground floor to save us either from when the roof lifted off or a tree came crashing down. All was quite exciting (in a good way) as we settled down to watch "Up" before bed. Then about 7.30pm we lost power - it really is very very dark when that happens in our street. Fortunately it came back after a few minutes - but it was a sign - everyone to bed, quick sharp. The night was long, windy, wet, full of strange crashes and bangs and a mini fireworks display on the other side of the street as their electricity supply was cut off. But ...... most of the family slept very peacefully.
This morning we are know we have been very lucky. We still have power (although the other side of the street don't); our house and drive are untouched (apart from the small puddle downstairs); and we have only lost one tall tree (although it is now resting rather precariously on the power lines at the back of our property but at least it did not flatten next door's chickens). School and work are both closed for today as well - lucky because we can't leave the house anyway due to fallen trees in the roads around - but today we can spend some time clearing up - there are a lot of leaves and fallen branches to clear (?!?) and maybe carve some pumpkins. We know those in surrounding states were not so lucky though so we wish them well. Also, will R & G make it out of NYC to us? This was a hairy part of the adventure!
Saturday, 27 October 2012
The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra
Saturday 27th October
Today I had the pleasure of accompanying G and two of her friends into Philadelphia for a family performance of the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra. By chance I had stumbled upon the event when idly searching for local things to do - a series of 5 family concerts in a year - certainly our sort of thing. First up was the music of American composer Aaron Copland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland) and a concert on the theme of cowboys and callaberos.
The concert was held at the Kimmel centre (http://www.kimmelcenter.org/) in downtown Philly and even the train ride was an adventure for these girls. The orchestral concert hall itself is built in the shape of a cello and that is pretty interesting to see. The orchestra and audience were clearly ready for fun with many dressed for the part. The event was introduced by the orchestra's new musical director (Yannick Nezet-Seguin) - he didn't seem quite so prepared for the fun appearing somewhat apologetically on stage with what appeared to be some half hitched props. The concert itself was hosted by Jamie Bernstein - daughter of Leonard Bernstein. She skilfully guided us through excerpts from "Billy the Kid" and "Rodeo" nicely setting the scene for the audience and introducing the different instruments, tempos and musical mood from enormous prairies through one horse towns to Mexican villages. She even got us all singing by teaching us a couple of traditional cowboy tunes - poor "Old Painter".
We all had a fun day out rounded off by takeout chicken and FRIES (I will gloss over the scuffle that broke out in the restaurant between the staff and a lady "acquiring"something to drink as we were waiting - I don't think the children will be mentally scarred). A quick round of Happy Families on the return journey to round off a pleasant trip.
Today I had the pleasure of accompanying G and two of her friends into Philadelphia for a family performance of the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra. By chance I had stumbled upon the event when idly searching for local things to do - a series of 5 family concerts in a year - certainly our sort of thing. First up was the music of American composer Aaron Copland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland) and a concert on the theme of cowboys and callaberos.
The concert was held at the Kimmel centre (http://www.kimmelcenter.org/) in downtown Philly and even the train ride was an adventure for these girls. The orchestral concert hall itself is built in the shape of a cello and that is pretty interesting to see. The orchestra and audience were clearly ready for fun with many dressed for the part. The event was introduced by the orchestra's new musical director (Yannick Nezet-Seguin) - he didn't seem quite so prepared for the fun appearing somewhat apologetically on stage with what appeared to be some half hitched props. The concert itself was hosted by Jamie Bernstein - daughter of Leonard Bernstein. She skilfully guided us through excerpts from "Billy the Kid" and "Rodeo" nicely setting the scene for the audience and introducing the different instruments, tempos and musical mood from enormous prairies through one horse towns to Mexican villages. She even got us all singing by teaching us a couple of traditional cowboy tunes - poor "Old Painter".
We all had a fun day out rounded off by takeout chicken and FRIES (I will gloss over the scuffle that broke out in the restaurant between the staff and a lady "acquiring"something to drink as we were waiting - I don't think the children will be mentally scarred). A quick round of Happy Families on the return journey to round off a pleasant trip.
Sunday, 21 October 2012
The pumpkin patch
Sunday 21st October
Call us naive, but we thought that pumpkins were pretty much pumpkins and that there were bigger ones for carving and marginally smaller ones for eating. How very wrong we were! The season of Fall, which will culminate with Thanksgiving, has seen a positive proliferation of gourds of all shapes and sizes springing up wherever you look. There are huge ones balanced on hay bales at the end of drives. There are carved ones springing up along drives. There are towers of them balanced around doorways like bay trees to welcome you. There are gooseneck ones artfully curving around mail boxes and fences. There are green ones, white ones, orange ones, knobby ones, smooth ones, small ones, large ones, stripy ones, spotty ones - in fact it is fair to say - it is gourd - tastic.
Eager to join in the gourd fun, we headed to the attractively named Milky Way farm (http://www.milkywayfarm.com/) to visit their pumpkin patch and choose our own. The farm is set in rolling countryside which was all very reminiscent of the home counties. We started with a foray into the maize maze and spent a pleasant half an hour lost among the tall stalks entertained by the farming quiz. A short stroll across fields to the pumpkin patch, and we were in gourd heaven selecting from hundreds of pumpkins. A lot of discussion - not one which was bruised, not one which was too elongated, not one which was too scarred - finally two suitable carvers were chosen and a novelty "peanut" pumpkin for the mantelpiece. We loaded our pumpkins into the hay wagon and headed back to the farm. Much drier than last time we visited a pumpkin patch 3 years ago!
The day was topped off by ice-cram from the creamery. In my opinion it is the best ice-cream so far on this side of the Atlantic although the grown ups were marginally let down by choosing the seasonal pumpkin (which of course really meant cinnamon). Delicious peanut butter caramel, rocky road and coconut though (what is it with the children and coconut flavoured ice-cream?). We will definitely be back for that again.
I am still not sure how I feel about the environmental impact of all these gourds - surely the land could / should have been used for growing food? I can't deny though that the houses do all look great.
Call us naive, but we thought that pumpkins were pretty much pumpkins and that there were bigger ones for carving and marginally smaller ones for eating. How very wrong we were! The season of Fall, which will culminate with Thanksgiving, has seen a positive proliferation of gourds of all shapes and sizes springing up wherever you look. There are huge ones balanced on hay bales at the end of drives. There are carved ones springing up along drives. There are towers of them balanced around doorways like bay trees to welcome you. There are gooseneck ones artfully curving around mail boxes and fences. There are green ones, white ones, orange ones, knobby ones, smooth ones, small ones, large ones, stripy ones, spotty ones - in fact it is fair to say - it is gourd - tastic.
Eager to join in the gourd fun, we headed to the attractively named Milky Way farm (http://www.milkywayfarm.com/) to visit their pumpkin patch and choose our own. The farm is set in rolling countryside which was all very reminiscent of the home counties. We started with a foray into the maize maze and spent a pleasant half an hour lost among the tall stalks entertained by the farming quiz. A short stroll across fields to the pumpkin patch, and we were in gourd heaven selecting from hundreds of pumpkins. A lot of discussion - not one which was bruised, not one which was too elongated, not one which was too scarred - finally two suitable carvers were chosen and a novelty "peanut" pumpkin for the mantelpiece. We loaded our pumpkins into the hay wagon and headed back to the farm. Much drier than last time we visited a pumpkin patch 3 years ago!
The day was topped off by ice-cram from the creamery. In my opinion it is the best ice-cream so far on this side of the Atlantic although the grown ups were marginally let down by choosing the seasonal pumpkin (which of course really meant cinnamon). Delicious peanut butter caramel, rocky road and coconut though (what is it with the children and coconut flavoured ice-cream?). We will definitely be back for that again.
I am still not sure how I feel about the environmental impact of all these gourds - surely the land could / should have been used for growing food? I can't deny though that the houses do all look great.
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