Flower stand

There is a flower stand just outside a pub near where we live. It's on the way home from my closest grocery store and I stop there sometimes to pick up fresh flowers for the house. Earlier this week, I was in the mood for tulips, so I swung by to check out what was for sale.

Two bunches the color of ripe papaya were on display, so I happily bought them and made small talk to the girl at the stand while she wrapped them for me. She's sweet, quiet, probably Eastern European descent, and is always bundled up with a big coat and gloves, scarf and hat as she huddles in her corner outside all day long. Brooks smiled at her and, with some prompting, waved and said "bye-bye" after our transaction. As I turned his stroller around to head home, she reached down and pulled out a Gerber daisy and handed it to him. Bright Auburn orange, it was like sunshine on a stem... Brooks was curious and I was enchanted. He had fun with his strange new toy all the way home, swinging it around and feeling the petals and "conducting" with it, until he eventually beat it to death and the long stem broke. We cut the stem down and it's now sitting on a bud vase on our table as a happy sunbeam from the girl at the flower stand.

I love watching my son make friends.

Here's a visual...




And here's a little clip of the action...

Easter Monday - Canterbury

Just in front of the train station and within the old city walls is a beautiful park, featuring among other things this maze playground. Looked like a lot of fun!


While there are probably other sites to enjoy in Canterbury, because we only had a couple of hours, we went straight for the medieval center of town to visit the cathedral. Standing in line waiting to buy tickets, we discovered that Brooks had fallen asleep on Eric's back! Wahoo! I love it when Brooks "sleeps through church" as his (very loud) toddler voice tends to carry extremely well in Gothic cathedrals.


Canterbury cathedral makes everyone look like a professional photographer, especially on a blue sky day!


This church is MASSIVE! Like most Gothic churches, it's built in the shape of a cross. The nave is the long main aisle coming from the back doors to the center of the church. The high altar is usually just up from the nave, and individual chapels circle the arms and head of the cross. In this photo, I'm standing where the cross intersects - The nave stretches out behind me, so everything in this photo is only a third of the church's length, just the quire area and the high altar.


This is the quire, the original choir area just in front of the high altar. Before we left that afternoon, the choir members came out and had a rehearsal here. The acoustics were gorgeous!



The stained glass in the church is also just beautiful.


The Black Prince, heir to the throne of England after Edward III, was the quintessential knight in shining armor! He was also one of the original Knights in Order of the Garter, at age 14. He pre-deceased his father the King, so he got this beautiful tomb instead of the crown.


Easter flowers and decorations were still up everywhere....



Outside, daffodils were blooming at the bottom of the cathedral's walls...


The Cathedral's history is quite interesting. The oldest church in England still in use, it officially dates back to 597AD when the Pope sent St Augustine as a Missionary here to evangelize the pagans and establish the catholic church in England. During the 10th century, it became a Benedictine abbey. In 1170 knights of King Henry II murdered the famous Archbishop Thomas Becket during evening vespers. Soon after his death, the Cathedral began attracting religious seekers who had heard stories of miraculously answered prayers - Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales describes some of those pilgrims. Beckett's shrine was removed by Henry VIII in 1540 and much of the medieval stained glass was destroyed during the unrest of the Civil War in the 1640s. But amazingly the church was not seriously damaged during World War II, thanks in part to volunteers who patrolled the roofs to deal with fire bombs dropped by the Germans. Today the church remains a powerful part of the Church of England - the Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the church in England, is a member of Parliament in the House of Lords, and will be the one to crown the next monarch when Queen Elizabeth steps aside. Despite the rich English history in the church, I must say that it was one of the most reverent churches I've visited. Perhaps that's because Brooks was so quiet during most of our visit?!? :)

On the way home from Canterbury, Brooks was pretty wiped. In an effort to lull him to sleep, we cuddled and played the "name the face" game.... Where's momma's mouth?


Where's momma's hair?


Where's momma's nose?


Where's momma's self-respect?


I can't believe I'm posting this photo, either, but when Eric entitled it "the Indignity of Motherhood" I just couldn't resist. Fellow Mommas out there, this one's for you!

Eventually Brooks fell asleep in my arms and we enjoyed a peaceful ride back into town.


Once we hit London, we decided to eat out in our neighborhood, devouring big plates of pasta and reliving the fun of the day. Brooks made friends with a German boy Marcus who was sitting with his parents at the table behind us. We had a nice visit with them and then headed home for bath-time and stories.


We ended our long fun-filled weekend happy, tired, and feeling re-connected! What a great four days!!

Easter Monday - Dover

In the UK, Easter Monday is a bank holiday which means that almost everything that isn't tourist focused shuts down. We decided that with a bit of planning we could see Dover and Canterbury in a single (busy and long) day! We got an early start and took a two hour train ride down to the Southeastern tip of England. Brooks really enjoyed the train ride, the first time I've seen him really taking in all that we passed by.


Dover Castle doesn't usually make the rounds of American tourists, but it's really amazing! Settlements dating back to the Stone Age have been found there, the city was used as a main port for the Romans and Normans, and throughout English history it's played an important role because of its proximity to France (only 23 miles across the Channel). We visited the medieval tunnel system (deserted and creepy!), the old walls, the Roman lighthouse and the "keep" built during Henry II's era. We kept refering to LoTR Two Towers - "To The KEEEEEEP!" as we approached it from the lower walls around the tunnel system. Very impressive. This is the view from the top of the Keep. The dark bits at the horizon would be France.


Behind them is the Roman lighthouse. The outer castle walls with the keep and inner bailey are in the distance.


Under the castle hilltop, a maze of tunnels was carved during the Napoleanic wars to store supplies and house soldiers stationed in Dover. During the height of WW2 a hospital, a kitchen, soldiers' barracks and strategic planning rooms were all fitted into this spaces - just 15 meters beneath the hilltop. We took a tour of these "Secret War Tunnels" and I was really impressed with all the British did here - specifically the evacuation of Dunkirk (have you seen the movie Atonement? The main character was on the beaches of Dunkirk at one point in the film, just to give you a visual!). That entire operation was planned (in less than a week) and overseen in just nine days from these bunkers. Fascinating! Here are the boys after our tour, looking out from the tunnel balcony.


After we finished at the castle we marched down the hill to town and returned to the train station to find a taxi that could drive us over to the cliffs. We visited the eastern cliffs to see the famous "White Cliffs of Dover" up close. They are white because of the high chalk content in the ground. For those who have heard all my adventure stories, you might remember that I almost *died* (can you just hear the drama!?) on the cliffs of Dover 10 years ago while on a day trip from London. It was really fun to show Eric the site of my extremely vivid memories from that day. I was also very thankful that Brooks was content to ride on his dad's back and didn't want to walk around at that point.


(*** as an aside, I'm constantly amazed at the lack of basic safety precautions at natural parks or historic sites outside the US. I consistently think to myself things like "if we were in the States, there would be a guard-rail here or an at-your-own-risk warning sign or something!?" This cultural difference was interesting and a bit thrilling to me before I became a mom, but now I'm just terrified that my child will fall to his death while we're touring some amazing European site or something. Geez, I've made a huge mental shift in the last 18 months!)


The cab driver took us back to the train station and we jumped on the next train to Canterbury, eating our sack lunches on the way... After lunch, Brooks wanted to burn off some extra energy, so he and his Dada did laps up and down the train aisles.


Next stop, Canterbury...

Easter weekend...

The Wheelers had a great Easter weekend! This year the holiday didn't have many of the traditional "Eastery things" (egg dying, a huge home-cooked feast, egg hunts, loads of chocolate bunnies, etc) but in the UK, Easter is a four-day holiday weekend so we enjoyed having a long stretch of family time without any work.

Friday was a low key day. We'd been considering doing a long weekend trip to the country, and so we spent some time that morning trying to figure out last minute plans. Unfortunately, everyone in London was planning to do the exact same thing, so all the rental cars within a 10 mile radius of our house were gone... We took it as a sign that we were supposed to stay in London! :) So we caught up on naps, both got gym workouts in, did some small chores around the house, and cooked dinner together.

Saturday, after playing with Brooks at home for a while, we visited the Imperial War Museum. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed a museum dedicated to the topic of War. The exhibits covered only wars from the 20th century and were all extremely well done, featuring lots of personal stories and photographs in the displays. The tanks had the names of soldiers who drove them, the uniforms described who wore them, and the photos told amazing narratives about the lives impacted by war. We spent about two and a half hours on just the WWI section, and didn't even get over to the WW2 side! We definitely plan to return to see the rest of the museum.

Brooks loved the planes hanging from the ceiling...



Dada and Brooks smiling in front of a TINY one-man German submarine. Yikes - the Claustrophobia! The operator died of carbon monoxide poisoning.



While we were checking out the gas masks exhibit (so crude - how did they think those would work?!) about an hour into our stay, I turned around and saw a very familiar face. Not wanting to be too obnoxious, I followed their party for about two or three rooms before asking a security guard (posing as a tourist, complete with large camera around his neck) if John McCain would mind taking a picture with me. Apparently he was on a European tour with his wife Cindy and one of his sons. It was exciting to shake his hand and wish him luck in November.


In another interesting little tidbit from the day, the museum itself is housed in the old Bethlem building. Bethlem is the world's old psychiatric hospital, which in the 18th century actually allowed the public to pay to tour the hospital and peer into the patients' cells. This hospital is where our word "bedlam" comes from.


We paused for a late lunch and stepped across the street to enjoy a pub lunch at the Three Stags.



Brooks was in rare form, as we were sharing a large table with two other couples - all tourists - and he had lots of new faces to smile at. He loves playing with hats of any kind, but particularly his dad's! :)


Our favorite game - Where's Brooks!?


Where's MY cheeseburger?!


After getting caught in sleet (!) on the way back and seeing a bit more of the museum, we headed home to make supper and enjoy a relaxing evening in. More to come...

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday dawned cold and bright, but by the time we left for church, it was snowing! In London! It hasn't snowed all winter here (sorry, Chicago and Cleveland folks) so we were very surprised. Of course, the ground wasn't frozen so everything melted immediately, but it was definitely a memorable departure.


Outside our coffee stop, we were greeted by a lovely older woman in a huge fur hat and coat who had a sweet twinkle about her. She could tell that Brooks was dressed in his fancy hat and coat too, and wished us a "Happy Easter" as we passed. She was clearly on her way to church as well.


As we walked onto the bus stop, I sang the Easter Hymn out loud for my own enjoyment! :-) We attended the HTB "family service" that morning, and sat with Joseph, a young man in our new small group. Church was a bit different - there were no traditional Easter hymns, no lilies being given away, no actual sermon even - they were just trying to make the whole service more child-friendly. I missed the church service from back home, but it was nice to have Brooks with us and to hear the other kiddos softly chattering and stirring around in other parts of the sanctuary. We invited Joseph to join us for brunch and loved getting to know him better over a "full English" in one of our favorite spots.

Brooks had a lot of fun playing with the crayons...


Again, we're working on the concept that they aren't FOOD.


Brooks enjoyed checking out the other kids in the restaurant. He's getting even more social, if that's possible...


A shot of us after brunch with Joseph. We didn't take an Easter "family portrait" but at least we're all in this one! :)


On the way home from brunch, Brooks fell asleep in the stroller,


so when we got home we transferred him to his crib and then Eric and I sat on the couch for three or four hours and just talked. It was a wonderful afternoon of processing different things that we'd both been thinking about, discussing our goals for our time here, how we were both really doing, etc. I think someone told us before we got married that "in order to have quality time, you have to start with quantity time!" We proved it that day as we both loved just getting to re-connect on a quiet afternoon of talking. That evening we went across the street to our pub, the PE, to enjoy the Sunday Roast supper and discovered that lamb with mint sauce is AMAZING! After supper there was a bit more play time with Dada - Brooks loved hammering the balls through...


And shoving them when they just won't go down!


We went to bed so happy that we had one more day of weekend still ahead of us and curled up with our guide books to plan the next day's adventure.

I'll end with a sweet shot of Brooks in his fancy coat and hat after church...