Sage and I went to the park on Saturday afternoon while River went to a netball birthday party for one of her friends. The Mundy Play Centre at Markeaton Park offers a variety of activities for kids. We played 18 holes of Crazy Golf, climbed on the spider web thing, and did some [...]
We had planned a longer hike in the moors, but somehow we ended up hiking along the coast north from Ravenscar. It turned out to be a very interesting place with some incredible views.
The trail led past an old alum mine and processing facility. Alum, among other things, was an important mordant for fixing the [...]
Yorkshire is famous for its moorlands, carpeting the glacially-sculpted landscape with a warm purple blanket. Walking through the beautiful environs, we couldn’t help being infused with a sense of wonder and happiness. It is like walking through a field of sunflowers.
Up close, heather flowers look very different than seen as part of the grand vista [...]
The kids have been avid bikers the last couple of weeks. We brought the bikes along to Yorkshire last weekend and Sage had a blast zooming through the campground. The field where we pitched the tent was very soggy and had turned to mud, but that didn’t stop her from hopping on her bike as [...]
I just came home from bringing the kids to school for the first day of the autumn term.
They seemed excited and a wee bit nervous. We spent quite a while last night packing up their various bags of kit for PE and swimming and ballet and loading up their pencil cases. Sage’s class [...]
We spent last weekend in Yorkshire. The city of York was really amazing. There are loads of great museums, shops, and markets set among some amazing architectural gems. York combines modernity and antiquity in a very intriguing way.
The kids loved this merry-go-round right next to Clifford’s Tower, a 13th century fortification.
After revolving [...]
We saw this fellow on the streets of York last weekend. He used a pedal-powered jigsaw to cut kids’ names as souvenirs. The kids could choose from several different wood colors. I was very impressed. It reminded me of Fred’s pedal-powered soap, which I recommend highly.
Here’s what the finished product looks like:
Soon after we returned to England, we found out that our neighbors were moving back to California. This was particularly sad because the kids had developed a close friendship with their daughter. They went to the same school and loved to play together, especially enjoying jumping on the trampoline, swinging, and building fairy houses.
We went [...]
We had a very nice visit to Massachusetts. It was great to see so many of our friends and family.
In many ways, the kids seemed to pick up almost as if we had never been gone.
It had been a year since we’d seen most people from Massachusetts. It was interesting to see how things have [...]
We had some interesting adventures on the way from Derby to Massachusetts. We woke up early the day our flight was scheduled and rode in a shuttle van to the Birmingham airport. Upon reaching the desk to check in for our flight, we realized that we were missing River’s passport. We did [...]
