Monday 9 May 2011

Urban to Rural



This past weekend was spent on the fringes of the spectrum - a day in London, and a day in Suffolk farmland.


Saturday we went into London just for something to do with no real plan in mind. We ended up with a lovely day out visiting Platform 9 3/4, The British Museum, the "Wedding" route (O recognized from the TV), Harrods, and a few other odds and ins. Olive was most impressed in the theater district by the giant glittery 3D shoe on the marquee of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.  Not speaking for Josh, but I was amazed by the amount of stuff England took from the world and hasn't given back that was housed in the museum. The Rosetta Stone was also impressive to see.












Sunday we went to the South Suffolk Show, which is like a county fair, with out the hype or hoo-haa American fairs seem to muster. It too was a lovely day out. We watched judging of livestock, tractor/thresher demonstrations, horse showing and jumping, and a fox hound demonstration. After which, kids and families were invited into the ring to pet the pack off 30 odd dogs and be "licked clean" by them. Hard to imagine them catching and ripping up a fox with how mellow they were. AND Olive managed to make her way into today's edition of the East Anglian Daily Times.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Another Month Past

The past month I have failed to carve out time to write what's been happening in the Boisvert household. Excuse the untidy mess of events as I try to reconstruct them for posterity now...

Lately life has been a little hectic but we've managed to do small trips as of late. At the start of April we ventured out to Knebworth House for a day. Home of the Lytton Family since 1490 it's chalked full of British Wonders to amuse you. Think MJ's Wonderland, a lot more tame, but still totally random. The house is a castle with turrets and iron windows. On the property there is a miniature railroad, wooden play fort, huge carnival slides, bouncy castle, playground, gardens, tea shop, deer herd, & most importantly life sized dinosaur statues. It was a fun day.

Spectacled Owl
UK Mother's Day- I'm fortunate that I get to celebrate both! For a treat, Josh and Olive took me to the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary. Free photo with Owl for every Mum. Here's mine snapped by Josh.
April was unseasonably sunny and dry- so we took a day at the beach in Felixstowe. Unfortunately it was a little windy, which took some of the fun of beach play. Never the less, Olive enjoyed her ride on the Merry-Go-Round with Josh.Olive said "It goes really fast! We can not stop it!"

 This months major time suck was moving & setting up a new home. Yes, we no longer live in The Old Pump House on Broomstick Corner. Now we live at Lensfield Lodge on Coach Lane. In mid-March our landlords informed us that the house was to go on the market. Three days later there was a sign in our front drive and us contacting the Realtor in search of a new house in the village (of which there were 2 options). As the Realtor said, our landlords were "naughty" in the way it went about since there are renters rights that were not honored. Luckily they were able to help us break our old contract early, get a "holiday let" on the current house (since the rent would have overlapped by a month and a half), and introduce us to the Button's who not only are our landlords, but new neighbors. It's a brand new build - so taking plastic off, vacuuming new carpet never-ending-lint, and the like are new phenomenons to us.

This new house is about a mile from where we used to live on the other side of the village. We're now a stone's throw from the Pub and a 1 minute walk to the shop/post office. We are at the heart of the village yet we can see the horses from the stud from our windows, cows, pheasant, 2 female quail, mallards who live next door, one random black cat, and Shirley, the 85 year old neighbor who claims Winston Churchill used to play in the house that she now resides in. Character abound in this side of Cheveley.


Olive is adjusting well to the move, however, she does miss the Jacuzzi. We had to have a camp out, BBQ, and hot tube night before we left the other house. She is however pleased to announce what color blankets the white horses (who live next door at Brooks Stud) are wearing daily.
With the Easter Holiday came several things. One was the Easter Bonnet Parade at O's school. A tradition here in the UK, kids (or their parents) make elaborate Easter Bonnets for the kids to wear and then show off while singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes. Of course, not having the experience or cultural background, Olive and I set out to make a hat. She picket the fabric, I sewed. We made adornments out of clay and paper and bits and bobs of every sort. The result was a techno-color monstrosity that she loved. Add in an "egg" necklace, bunny fur vest, and some ears and you get a stunning result. To say kindly, she did not look like a local!
After that was end of term break - three weeks off with a visit from my Cousin Andrew and Jen. A quick highlight tour of the best of the 15mile radius before they were off to Europe. Oma and Opa surprisingly caught a hop to be here for Easter week.They were treated to days out looking at sheep. dyeing eggs, trekking in gardens and the like.  Olive did have to shout down a rabbit hole to let the Easter Bunny know we had moved homes. There's a bunny network... they all talk and share information. Crucial helpers since the EB can't do it all everywhere... he's not Santa you know. On Easter morning we made it to Mass in "traditional" Boisvert fashion and left the same way at the Catholic Church in Cambridge. Had a lovely brunch hosted by Josh's club, and of course O found all the eggs and chocolate left by the EB minutes after she awoke.

As a family we also went to BeWildWood which is a magical amusement park- home of the Boggles and Twiggles. All based of a "Green" model, it is human powered fun. A large Ewok like tree house village to climb and explore, fast slides, zip lines, swings, maze, fairy houses, and the like were the fair. FUN. Dirt, sun, and a very tired Olive as a result. It was great to see her imagination take hold.




And lastly, The Royal Wedding. I've been sheltering/guiding/persuading Olive through her princess stage. We've done really well, mostly. Without help from us she can name and identify all Disney Princesses by hair color and dress. She also likes the stories. Luckily we've kept her from going off the commercial deep end of the princess marketing. At school, she hopes shes there early enough to get a hold of the Snow White dress before she has to wait a turn wearing it. (hurray, it's the peasant dress she adores rather than the sparkly ball gowned...Oma is whipping up a version of her Easter Dress to fit the bill!)  But at school, she also learned the excitement of the Royal Wedding. She came home and stated. "I want to watch the Royal Wedding!" and that, was that. Two hours of parades, service, and royals waving, she wasn't as impressed as she was lead to believe. Her biggest questions/concerns were:
-Why don't they have to wear seat belts in the car?
-The hats look like funny birds
-The Queen Mum has the best hat
-Why do they take a bus (asking about the lower ranked Royals)
-Bishop has BIG eyebrows
-A sister's job is to carry the dress
-The red carpet is just like when we saw Harry Potter!

A new months awaits.