I’ve been enjoying settling in and having some space for my things.  The cabasa for my berimbau and Herbie the Mousebot seem to get along nicely on this shelf.

I spent quite a bit of time here, both working and relaxing while the kids were in school.

Here they are doing their reading homework and catching some afternoon rays.  There hasn’t been so much homework done recently and I haven’t been in the office much since half-term break began last weekend.

We have been busy doing some other things, like painting pottery.

But we’ve also had a lot of down time.  They work very hard at school in an enormous range of activities and it’s nice for them to have some time that is more relaxed.

Today, they managed to rearrange their bedrooms so that they are now sharing once again.  Their combined room is very cosy and I think they’ll enjoy it for a while at least.  Sage suggested that it would be like having a sleepover every night?

There was a very nice setup for art projects and the kids spent many hours making and decorating beautiful shapes such as this heart:

River and I collaborated on this hula hoop.

My capoeira group did a demonstration and workshop at the festival.  It was fun to play capoeira in the sun and I enjoyed hanging out with the folk from capoeira outside of our normal training routine.  Sage really enjoyed the workshop.

There was also some elaborate costume making and a semi-successful theatre workshop.  River transformed into some sort of purple monster.

Another thing we particularly enjoyed was the giant hammock constructed in the woods.  Easily big enough for the four of us, we rolled and bounced and played and relaxed.

There was some very good music at the festival as well, ranging from punk to old-time Appalacian and Irish tunes to drum-and-bass and electronica.  In addition to listening to these high calibre musicans and djs, I managed to have a little jam at the campsite with a friend from capoeira who is an excellent violin player.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable weekend.  The weather was amazing, for England.  The moon was almost full and there was hardly a cloud in the sky revealing more stars than I’ve seen in quite some time.  It might have been even better without the mud, but perhaps that’s just part of the experience.

The Bath Abbey is also a pretty amazing architectural gem.

This fountain outside the Abbey is inscribed “Water is Best”, revealing the reason Bath has been so special to everyone including the Celts and the Romans thousands of years ago.

This is the entrance to the Roman Baths and the associated Pump House on the same plaza as the Abbey.

Inside you can get a sense of what it might have been like in Roman times.  I tried to imagine folks wandering around in togas.  Actually, there were a few actors who played the part fairly effectively.

This carving was once over the entrance to the baths.  It is most commonly assumed to be of a gorgon, one of the symbols of Minerva, the Roman goddess to whom the baths were dedicated.  Traditionally, the gorgons were female, but If you look closely, you can see some snakes in his hair and beard.  It may also represent some sort of water god, reflecting the more ancient Celtic traditions.  Beautiful work, regardless.

This is the King’s Bath, the source of the hot water from deep underground.  Water from this pool was brought to the various other pools in the complex.

The drain from the King’s Pool was stained red with iron deposits.  I can only imagine how magical this must have seemed to people many years ago who could have had no way of imagining where the hot water came from and why it turned things red.  It still seems miraculous today, even with our more advanced geological knowledge.

The water was pleasantly warm in the main pool.  I wouldn’t really want to swim laps, but I can easily imagine lounging here.  It seems like a giant hot tub!

In other rooms, the floors were heated using this ingenious system.  Piles of tiles created space for hot air to circulate under the floor, warming the cold stones.  A swim, sauna, and massage sound pretty nice about now.

Later, in the Pump House, we tasted the waters from the bath.  The tea room known as the Pump House has apparently been a fixture of the Bath social scene for hundreds of years.  The waters have long been prescribed as medicinal.  People came here to imbibe as well as perform their ablutions.

The current Iraq policy isn’t particularly popular here in Britain. Almost everyone I’ve spoken with has disapproved of the invasion, though there is no consensus on the best strategy at this point. There is a sense of a potential threat of terrorism, however. And there is quite a bit of debate about the relationship between the relatively large Muslim community and the rest of Britain.

I’ve been reading a biography of Gertrude Bell, an Englishwoman who was instrumental in the creation of the modern nation of Iraq after World War I. She is a fascinating woman and her role in the political milieu of the time is quite remarkable.

I highly recommend this book, not only to learn about the life of an exceptional woman, but as a source of insight and context for the current situation in the Middle East. Interestingly, Churchill and others were quite explicit about the need to maintain the British access to the recently discovered oil reserves in the area since the Navy had just converted their ships from coal to oil power. Gertrude Bell was a strong advocate for spreading the best of British culture, especially beneficent government and self-determination, while respecting local traditions and culture.  I imagine we could use someone like her now.

One of my favorite aspects of the class is that parents have to participate as well. I’ve enjoyed making my own creations:

Art on the street in Barcelona was pretty incredible.  I took a series of pictures of graffitti-style work.  Maybe someday I’ll post the rest, but this one is my favorite:

On that note, here are a couple more pictures:

I’m off to read some Terry Pratchett now, and in that spirit I’ll leave you with this completely random photo from Barcelona.

I encountered this sculpture while jogging through the city.

Sage took these two pictures in the rooftop sculpture gallery:

Here are a couple of other cool sculptures found on the beach:

And finally, the answer to the riddle. A fish with no eyes is a fsh.

hee hee.