Spring has sprung, the grass has riz … you know the rest or have no idea what this is about, so why bother continuing?
Spring is here is the Northern Hemisphere and you can tell because of these things:
- The birds are twittering. A lot. from 4.30am.
- Daylight savings is back, so the sun (gold) is up before 6am and setting around 8.30pm already.
- The sun is out more often, sending the temperature soaring into double-digits at times.
- Everywhere you look there are daffodils (gold). They are so plentiful on the side of the roads that they’re going for 50p per bunch in the shops.
Spring has also brought with it a refurbishment at the Cardsave office, requiring 19 consecutive days of work for Scott over Easter and the weekend previous. Now that the refurbishment is over, he’s moving on to migrating Cardsave to new systems, so there will be more overtime for a few more weeks. But let’s rewind a little.
The last week of Term 2 saw the European Student Convention, a gathering of the schools and home-schools who use the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum. Locksley Christian School sends the students from the Upper Learning Centre to Convention each year, so Jack got his first taste of it this year. Over the course of 4 days the students compete in events in academic, sporting and cultural categories and Jack was entered in a wide range of things including a chess tournament, track and field, art and drama. The Clown Act was Jack’s biggest and most daunting event, being only his second time on stage and his first solo on-stage performance. We had received an SMS telling us that Jack was in the running for a medal for his act so tuned in on the web site to watch the evening rally, where medals were to be presented. Jack was called up, so we knew he would be receiving a medal. Imagine our surprise when he wasn’t called up for third place and our joy when he wasn’t called up for 2nd place either. He had actually won and, we’re told, was in a different league than the other clowns. We were (and still are) very proud of him for doing something new and “out there” and for doing it so very well. Congratulations to Jack for a great result and to the other Locksley students who won a large collection of medals. Jack was just as happy at the opportunity to spot supercars on the trip as he was winning his medal (gold).
The first week of school holidays was pretty quiet, with Scott at work throughout the Easter weekend. It was also quite a quite a cool week, as we forgot to order heating oil, so the heat ran out on Easter Sunday for a couple of days till new oil could be delivered.
We’ve tried to make the most of the weekends since Easter where Scott hasn’t been working. We had a daytrip to Binbrook and Willingham Woods a couple of weeks ago. Binbrook is a village on the Lincolnshire Wolds and during WWII was near an airbase (Binbrook airfield) which was home to a large RAAF contingent. While the base no longer exists, there is a monument to the RAAF flyers in the village and St Mary’s church in Binbrook has a roll of honour for all the Aussies based there who lost their lives in the war. When we parked to see the monument, we discovered we were in Orford Road and, seeing that Jack was wearing his Sea Eagles shirt, we thought it a good photo opportunity. Matt Orford was the Sea Eagles half-back till the end of 2009, now he plays for Bradford in Yorkshire. We went down to the church and were very grateful when the church warden interrupted his lawn-mowing to walk home and get the keys to open the building just so that we could have a sticky-beak.
Willingham Woods is not far from Binbrook and is a lovely wooded area with ponds, walks and excellent climbing trees. Kind of like Sherwood Forest on a much smaller scale and perfect for a relaxing picnic lunch. Jack spotted a couple of Porsches, a Maserati and a Lamborghini Gallardo on the way home while enjoying some Roses chocolates.
On Thursday the 15th of April, we packed up the car and headed west to West Yorkshire for a couple of days. Heading initially for Haworth, Nev the satnav decided to take us on down a dead-end road, then made us turn left when the map showed us having to turn right. Scott being the stubborn mule he is sided with Nev instead of Carolyn (a bit risky, that) and headed up a single lane road which would require reversing if someone came the other way. At the top of the steep hill we came across a most beautiful view across the valley to Haworth which we were able to enjoy from a park bench at the side of the road while eating our lunch. The view included a gum tree in someone’s back yard - why someone would plant a gum tree in their backyard in the Yorkshire moors is quite beyond us, but it was nice to see. After lunch we headed into Haworth and walked up the steep cobbled road to the Bronte Parsonage Museum where we could see how the Bronte family lived. Patrick Bronte was appointed the Perpetual Curate of the Haworth Church and raised his family there including his famous children Charlotte, Anne and Emily who wrote their famous novels in the parsonage. It was quite moving to see how they lived and to learn more about the tragic circumstances of their family.
Off to the Belmont Guest House in Harrogate and a most delicious dinner at Brio restaurant – if you ever visit Harrogate and want a great feed, go there. The Belmont provided another delicious meal for brekky on Friday then we headed out past a car dealership which made Jack so excited he almost cried (it had Porsches, Bentleys and an Aston Martin), through Killinghome (a village which ironically had everything except a funeral home or slaughterhouse) and out to Fountains Abbey. We planned to go just for the morning but ended up leaving at 6pm. The abbey was built by a group of monks from York who didn’t like the way the Benedictine monks there were living – too comfortable they thought. So they went to Fountains to set up their own place. Unfortunately they had no money or shelter, so ended up spending their first winter there living in a makeshift shelter under an elm tree, eventually being given some money to build something more permanent. It ended up being a huge monastery which made a large income from sheep farming and the produce that came from them (wool, milk. cheese, etc). It was in the end targetted by Henry VIII for dissolution, when the monks were booted out and the abbey stripped of anything of value, the proceeds going toward the cost of Henry’s wars.
The property itself was sold and eventually acquired by someone who liked the romance of the place and added landscaped parkland to it in the the 17th century and is now a World Heritage site. It was a most beautiful and fascinating place – very picturesque and somewhere that we will visit again. Jack had to get a video of the Porsche\Bentley\Aston dealership on the way back to the guesthouse which was interrupted by another tasty dinner at Brio.
Sunday morning brought another fantastic English breakfast before we saddled up and headed off, via places like Bedlam to Brimham Rocks. What an amazing place – full of weird rock formations and wonderful views across the moors and Menwith Hill, a RAF base which,like Pine Gap in Australia, “provides communications and intelligence support services to the United Kingdom and the United States of America”, but looks like a bunch of giant golf balls. Jack and Anna had a wonderful time exploring the rocks and caves and we enjoyed watching them and looking at the views.
We broke up the trip home with a quick stop at Nostell Priory near Wakefield. Quite a lovely place and somewhere we plan to visit again soon.
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