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.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
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.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Ice-cream social
Thursday 6th September
Well - everyone back to school for the new school year. There has actually been something quite comforting about the return- mostly because it is, at least in part, familiar and a reminder that life does not continue to be one constant assult of change. It was good to see friends again and there are plenty of new ones to be made as the school muddles all the children each year. Whole thing is kicked off by an ice-cream social evening - still warm enough for shorts and T-shirts (and even the insects seem to have died down although the cicadas are still chirping away). It is very nice to have friends at the bus stop now (our previous stop was a little lonely) even if our Cape Cod whale did not quite make it to school in one piece.
Well - everyone back to school for the new school year. There has actually been something quite comforting about the return- mostly because it is, at least in part, familiar and a reminder that life does not continue to be one constant assult of change. It was good to see friends again and there are plenty of new ones to be made as the school muddles all the children each year. Whole thing is kicked off by an ice-cream social evening - still warm enough for shorts and T-shirts (and even the insects seem to have died down although the cicadas are still chirping away). It is very nice to have friends at the bus stop now (our previous stop was a little lonely) even if our Cape Cod whale did not quite make it to school in one piece.
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Zippidy do dah........it was a wonderful day
Sunday 26th August
Another special girl's birthday today - she awoke to find out that the mysterious new washing line in the garden was not really a new washing line at all - but her new zip line - well large garden, even larger trees - it had to be done. First user - obviously the constuctor and G&C were not allowed near for quite some time, but eventually it was up and running. Only dissenting voice so far is the neighbours dog (but mostly because of the running around and screaming I think).
Party - crazy bowling with friends - full medal ceremony followed - all taken in good spirts except C who didn't like her prize for the slowest ball bowled.
Thanks to Grandma for joining us.
Party - crazy bowling with friends - full medal ceremony followed - all taken in good spirts except C who didn't like her prize for the slowest ball bowled.
Thanks to Grandma for joining us.
Saturday, 25 August 2012
On the trail of the Pilgrim Fathers in Cape Cod
Sunday 19th - Friday 24th August
Most people remember that the Pilgrim Fathers landed in Plymouth Massachusetts after their epic transatlantic crossing on the Mayflower (commissioned in Canterbury Kent), but in actual fact history records that they first came ashore in America at what is now Province Town at the very tip of Cape Cod. The 100ish Sepratists had left Plymouth Devon in September 1820 and after 8ish weeks at sea arrived in Cape Cod bay in early November 1620. First job to write and sign the Mayflower Compact (the first government document to be written in USA - full text can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact), in which the settlers promise to support each other to ensure survival and, interestingly, even though they were fleeing religious persecution, swears on-going allegence to the King (King James I). Whilst anchored here they also undertook 3 forrays ashore to find firewood, fresh water, and investigate the land for crop growing potential. Ashore they found evidence of the Native Americans who were living there at the time (although the locals fled on sight of the Europeans) and proceeded to ransack their stores of grain to plant themselves (not a great first step in diplomatic relations but likely necessary for survival). After 5 weeks the Pilgrims decided that the Cape and its sandy soil and dunes was not for them and so set off again to the land mass that they could see vaguely on the horizon, ultimately landing on that famous rock and establishing their settlement.
The Cape though makes a wonderful holiday destination and so we headed here for a few nights camping. It is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world (forming part of USA National Seashore) and its hooked shape is well known. It was disconnected from the mainland in 1916 when an entrepreneaur built Cape Cod canal across the isthmus. It consists of huge dunes and long white sandy beaches on the Atlantic Shore which protect the mainland from Atlantic storms (but at great expense to local erosion - it is about 1000ft narrower now than when those Pilgrims arrived here) and it has grassy inlets and calm harbours on the inside of the hook. Dotted across the island are fresh water ponds for kyaking and swimming and chocolate box villages New England style of clapper board cottages and tall steppled churches intringuingly named after small towns in UK (Sandwich being a crowd pleaser). The colours are all creams, lime greems and turquoise blues that you expect and it is of course holiday destination of choice for many rich and famous including the Kennedy's. This is the sort of place for me.
The Cape is also famous for its lighthouses. A map of the shipwrecks off the coastline rivals the Cornish coast and so in 1797 George Washington himself as President authorised the building of the first ligthhouse at Highland Point. Two more followed shortly and, bless those nineteenth century Americans, they decided to shun the British ways of distinguishing one light from another using different flashing patterns, and do it their own way - building two lighthouses on the second site and then three on the third. Even they realised eventually that this couldn't go on but it does make for some interesting buildings all these years later. The Cape of course is also where the first Marconi radio signal was received, and where the transatlantic telephone cables come ashore - awash with interesting things to visit and links to UK.
Like our other trips this year, the days were filled with good and interesting experiences - cycling down the old railway line (until one of us went flying and we needed to turn around), fish and chips on the beach whilst nuturing our family of hermit crabs that we had caught on the receeding tide, wandering around Province town and viewing the various memorials to the Pilgrims, lighthouse tours of the 3 sisters with a Park Ranger, sunset on Nauset Light beach watching the seals frolicing in the waves and best of all a trip whale watching where we saw humpback whales, minke whales, flukes and blow holes by the dozen. Oh - and did I mention that the girls completed another Junior Ranger badge - the collection is growing.
Even the 6 state (Massechusets, Rhode Island, Conneticut, New York, New Jersey and finally Pennsylvania) 6 hour return car journey back home held some interest - well for the first 30minutes at least. Another good holiday to round off the summer vacation - back to school and work imminently for everyone.
Most people remember that the Pilgrim Fathers landed in Plymouth Massachusetts after their epic transatlantic crossing on the Mayflower (commissioned in Canterbury Kent), but in actual fact history records that they first came ashore in America at what is now Province Town at the very tip of Cape Cod. The 100ish Sepratists had left Plymouth Devon in September 1820 and after 8ish weeks at sea arrived in Cape Cod bay in early November 1620. First job to write and sign the Mayflower Compact (the first government document to be written in USA - full text can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact), in which the settlers promise to support each other to ensure survival and, interestingly, even though they were fleeing religious persecution, swears on-going allegence to the King (King James I). Whilst anchored here they also undertook 3 forrays ashore to find firewood, fresh water, and investigate the land for crop growing potential. Ashore they found evidence of the Native Americans who were living there at the time (although the locals fled on sight of the Europeans) and proceeded to ransack their stores of grain to plant themselves (not a great first step in diplomatic relations but likely necessary for survival). After 5 weeks the Pilgrims decided that the Cape and its sandy soil and dunes was not for them and so set off again to the land mass that they could see vaguely on the horizon, ultimately landing on that famous rock and establishing their settlement.
The Cape though makes a wonderful holiday destination and so we headed here for a few nights camping. It is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world (forming part of USA National Seashore) and its hooked shape is well known. It was disconnected from the mainland in 1916 when an entrepreneaur built Cape Cod canal across the isthmus. It consists of huge dunes and long white sandy beaches on the Atlantic Shore which protect the mainland from Atlantic storms (but at great expense to local erosion - it is about 1000ft narrower now than when those Pilgrims arrived here) and it has grassy inlets and calm harbours on the inside of the hook. Dotted across the island are fresh water ponds for kyaking and swimming and chocolate box villages New England style of clapper board cottages and tall steppled churches intringuingly named after small towns in UK (Sandwich being a crowd pleaser). The colours are all creams, lime greems and turquoise blues that you expect and it is of course holiday destination of choice for many rich and famous including the Kennedy's. This is the sort of place for me.
The Cape is also famous for its lighthouses. A map of the shipwrecks off the coastline rivals the Cornish coast and so in 1797 George Washington himself as President authorised the building of the first ligthhouse at Highland Point. Two more followed shortly and, bless those nineteenth century Americans, they decided to shun the British ways of distinguishing one light from another using different flashing patterns, and do it their own way - building two lighthouses on the second site and then three on the third. Even they realised eventually that this couldn't go on but it does make for some interesting buildings all these years later. The Cape of course is also where the first Marconi radio signal was received, and where the transatlantic telephone cables come ashore - awash with interesting things to visit and links to UK.
Like our other trips this year, the days were filled with good and interesting experiences - cycling down the old railway line (until one of us went flying and we needed to turn around), fish and chips on the beach whilst nuturing our family of hermit crabs that we had caught on the receeding tide, wandering around Province town and viewing the various memorials to the Pilgrims, lighthouse tours of the 3 sisters with a Park Ranger, sunset on Nauset Light beach watching the seals frolicing in the waves and best of all a trip whale watching where we saw humpback whales, minke whales, flukes and blow holes by the dozen. Oh - and did I mention that the girls completed another Junior Ranger badge - the collection is growing.
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