The Number Field

We’ve been in the UK for more than six months now, and between all the activities we’ve been doing and the other projects that have captured my fancy, the blog has really suffered. My writing benefits from quiet time and space, which is a scarce commodity when there are so many enticing excursions and events that can occupy an evening, a Saturday, or a whole weekend. However, I’ve made an old year’s resolution: over the next few days I’m going to recap of some of the high points of our time here so far and bring the blog up to date. I’ll start with a few of the excursions from the first few weeks after we arrived.

Last year, when we went to the Knaresborough Bed Races we thought it might be our only chance to see such a crazy event. Although we went again this year, we’re still not ready to commit to making it an annual tradition. The theme this year was “Myths and Legends,” which gave the teams a broad range for creative interpretation, from Guy Fawkes to Roswell, from Fairies to Star Wars, from the Trojan Horse to the Loch Ness Monster and on to Chinese Dragons. We spent the day with friends–Elena and Roman were happy to be in the company of Spencer and Natalie. After the parade of beds, we made our way towards the finish line, with a short detour to find some ice cream along the way. We wanted to see the climactic river crossing, but all the good spots were already staked out, so we settled for an unoccupied spot with a good view of a different part of the course. Elena and I did eventually squeeze through the crowds along the riverbank to get a partial view of the crossing; it was worth it to see the teams struggle with one final challenge at the end of the long race.

Just a few weeks later we headed to the outskirts of London for another sporting event, the Rowing World Cup at Dorney Lake in Eton. The last time we were there it was for the Olympics; we found the atmosphere quite a bit more sedate this time around. The traffic patterns were different, and we ended up making a big mistake by stopping at the first place we saw where someone was holding a parking sign, even though it was at least a mile away from the course. After we battled against the intermittent rain and constant wind all the way along the long walk to the course, we found out that there was plenty of available parking right there. Jenny almost made me go back and move the car, but the races were already getting started. There weren’t many American crews in the event, but Elena was very happy to be able to cheer for the women’s single sculler from the US, who put in a very strong performance in her semi-final. On our way out, we spent time at the exhibitions, exploring different kinds of rowing craft: a Cornish Pilot Gig and a shell built for a race across the Atlantic Ocean. At times on the walk back to the car, it felt almost as long as a trans-oceanic voyage.

Whenever we try to do more than one big activity in a day, we run the risk of having at least one major meltdown, usually from the children. Nevertheless, we decided to take a chance on visiting Windsor Castle on the same day as the rowing, since Dorney Lake is situated so close to Windsor. It was good that we did: the castle was fantastic. The clouds retreated for long enough that we could see the exterior walls bathed in sunlight while the royal standards atop the turrets flapped against a brilliant blue sky. We opted to start our tour by viewing Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, which was absolutely worth the wait in line. It’s hard to say whether the most impressive thing about the doll house is the collection of miniaturze crown jewels, or the working electricity throughout. From there, we walked through an exhibit showcasing art created by members of the royal family, which is when I started to wonder about their surnames (when she was a child, the Queen signed her paintings “Elizabeth of York”), then moved quickly through the display of table settings and on to the main portion of the tour, the state rooms. Roman was really struggling by this point, but we kept his attention by looking for Saint George and the dragon. The throne room where the investure ceremony takes place, the massive hall where the heraldic shields of all the members of the Order of the Garter are on display, and the extensive armory all made me wish I knew more history, so that I could do a better job of pieceing together all the fragments for myself, and explain it all to Elena and Roman.

In some sense, the history of the United States is more manageable, since it only dates back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and we are lucky enough that we can celebrate that holiday with the many other Americans in the community. Elena and Roman had their faces painted and spent a lot of time on the bouncy castle and bouncy obstacle course. Eventually, Elena even got the courage to go down the giant bouncy slide once or twice. Once she had done that, Roman insisted on taking a turn. He wasn’t able to climb to the top himself, so I helped him climb up, then we slid down together. We watched as falconers prepared their birds of prey for a hunting demonstration–my favorite was a falcon wearing a leather helmet–but it had already been a long day and we left to find some food before the show began. We didn’t have the stamina to stay up for fireworks, which can’t start until very late on a Yorkshire summer night, when it’s still light out at ten in the evening.

Less than a week later we found ourselves at the Great Yorkshire Show, which is like a State Fair in the US. There were blue ribbon competitions in every kind of farm-related category I could imagine, including sheep, show pigeons, local cheeses, shearing of sheep, shoeing of horses, and many other things we didn’t get around to. One whole pavilion was full of vendors of all kinds of sweet and savory treats. On our way to the childrens’ activities, Elena and I walked by a display of birds of prey–I thought it was strange to see a bald eagle chained to a perch next to the vultures and owls. Unfortunately, I was so busy going from one thing to the next that Jenny and I got separated and had some communication troubles before getting back together, which put me in the doghouse for the rest of the evening (there were plenty of doghouses right around the corner, if Jenny had wanted to make it literal). Luckily, we found each other just in time for the kids to make chocolate lollipops before the chocolatiers left for the day. As we made our way towards the exit, we passed by the equestrian arena, which required separate tickets; we put that on the list of things to do if we go back next year.