St. Michael's Church in Well, UK

During the last Heritage Days, we went to visit the church of St. Michael in Well, UK, near the Snape Castle Chapel. The church dates from 1300 and has some history attached to it.

The exterior is in great condition. It is quite similar to other churches found throughout the countryside.

St. Michael's in Well, UK

The rest of the church

Jacob and Lucy pose at the gate

The church yard has a wide variety of tombstones from many different eras. The church backs onto a trail. We saw a llama walk down the trail while we were there. We also saw a snail slowly sliding through the grassy graves.

A fenced-off tomb

The llama

Graveyard and church

The snail

After enjoying the sunshine we headed inside the church. Little did we know that a celebrity greeter was brought in for the day.

Um, Your Majesty?

To the left is the typical baptismal font. The carved top dates back to the 1400s and the sign said that the "radical, and somewhat insensitive, restoration and rebuild of the C19th [19th Century] not only altered its shape but also, sadly, destroyed all traces of medieval paintwork."

Baptismal Font

The nave is quite nice and has an ancient Roman floor mosaic display as well as a memorial to an early member of this particular church, John Milbanke.

Nave

Roman floor mosaic from a Roman villa in Mill Garth

Memorial to John Milbanke

On the other side of the church is a memorial to Lady Margaret Milbanke.

Lady Milbanke Memorial

One of the side altars has a nice reredos or altar piece that was discovered in the 1930s when one of the locals moved a heavy dresser in their kitchen and found it hidden away!

Kitchen reredos

At the front of the church, Lucy did the proper thing. The kids did ask to light candles, but none were available anywhere in the church.

"Dear Lord, please provide votive candles to this church. Amen."

Nearby is the tomb of Sir John Neville, last Baron Latimer of Snape. He died in 1577. The four shields on the bottom represent his four married daughters (Katherine, Dorothy, Lucy, and Elizabeth), though not all the shields have the husband's coat of arms on them.

Tomb of Sir John Neville

"Thus goes worldly glory"

Top of the tomb

Another typical monument in English churches is the memorial to the locals who died during the First World War. St. Michael's is no exception.

WWI Memorial

Many fine stained glass windows are found throughout the church.

Scenes of biblical youth

Warrior over Sir John Neville's tomb

Note crest above

On our way out, we noticed how nice the entrance was and took a last picture before heading home.

Main door into the church

Book Review: Ora et Labora et Zombies so far...

I just finished Letter #7 of Ora et Labora et Zombies. The story is told in letters written by a man to his wife. The communications infrastructure in Louisiana suddenly collapsed one day (the Friday after Ash Wednesday) while she was on a trip. The whole social order seemed to collapse and rumors of people lumbering around and attacking people drove him to enact their emergency plan: go to the local Benedictine monastery for shelter until things calm down.

A random group of other people have also fled there or wound up stuck there. The abbot of the monastery held a meeting after one of the novices came back from working on one of the crewes for a Mardi Gras float (the story takes place outside New Orleans). The novice describes the grey skin and slow, unnatural movement of people who seem as if they were dead but still walking around. And then...

At this point, from an otherwise stunned audience, the Johnson's middle son, Robert, interrupted to ask incredulously, "You mean like Zombies?" Both Chris and Marjorie shushed him embarrassedly, but the bell could not be unrung, and the question floated there in awkward silence, too obvious to ignore and yet too ridiculous to confront.

What a great description! The writing is uniformly great and the premise is unfolding in interesting ways. I can't wait for more as the letters come to my mailbox.

Order your own letters at the web site.

Writing Exercise: Fictional Dialogue

This exercise from our writing group is to craft a dialogue, like an interview, with a real or imagined person. The purpose of the exercise is to speak with someone else's voice. I think I'd be rubbish at writing dialogue, so exercises like this always scare me. I tried to imagine who I would interview. What voice could I hear clearly in my head? Was there a historical person or fictional character that I could mimic easily?

Well, I've been spending a lot of time listening to a podcast called The Tobolowsky Files. It features Stephen Tobolowsky, a Hollywood actor who has appeared in numerous films and television shows. He is perhaps most famous as Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day. He's the early childhood friend of Bill Murray's character who always accosts him from across the street. Even though I listen to the podcast semi-regularly, I totally blanked out on a lot of details about his life. So I made up a bunch of stuff, possibly everything. My apologies Mr. Tobolowsky if I completely messed up your life. Here is the dialogue I wrote:

Me: Welcome to the show!

ST: Why, thank you very much, Joseph. I'm glad to be here today.

Me: And we are glad to have you. You've been working in Hollywood for a long time now. Can you tell us about how you started in the industry?

ST: The answer to that question takes us back quite a while, back before I was ever in Hollywood or even thinking about California as a place to live. It all started back in my childhood, when I wanted to impress a girl. I had never been an outstanding student and have never been very athletic. So what could I do? I decided to try out for the school play. It's a way to become more famous, more popular, and more admired by the student body.

Me: What was the play?

ST: It was a rousing production of 76 Trombones, and I was cast in the starring role of Harold Hill, the traveling salesman who sold band instruments for kids.

Me: A musical sounds quite ambitious for a school play.

ST: Ambitious and ironic. Some of the students had to play students in school, which was not much of a stretch. The rest of us had to play adults next to our classmates. I learned a lot about acting right away, like the importance of a costume. A costume establishes who you are, both for the audience and more critically for yourself. The audience needs a visual cue to tell them that you are older than you look. This can be accomplished with a bit more formal dress and more subdued colors. Makeup plays a key part too. Grey hairs means old man.

Me: What about for yourself as an actor? How does the costume effect you?

ST: Proponents of the Stanislav Method (commonly known as "Method actors") say that your performance is not just based on memorizing lines and repeating them. It's also in the way you carry yourself, the way you move about, what you do with props, and how you dress to look the part. For Harold Hill, traveling salesman and con artist, he has to look respectable. People need to be able to trust this guy. Also, he needs to be noticeable, so people don't just overlook him as a nice gentleman. Some flamboyance is required, but not too much. I had a fine yellow suit with a matching fedora. If you cock the hat just right the effect is made. You as an actor build the character by putting on the clothes, by taking on the mannerisms. And by saying the words written in the script.

Me: So it's a whole package deal?

ST: Yes it is. When you have all the pieces and put them in the right place, a whole new picture emerges. A whole new you, who hopefully is someone totally different from you.

Me: And how did the production go? Was it a big success?

ST: Like all high school productions, it was a mix of the ridiculous and the sublime. The mixture is usually about 90/10, favoring the ridiculous. Unless it's a complete disaster. Any number of complicating factors can push the ridiculous close to 100%. The sets may not be done; may not work right; actors may not know their lines. Or they may be just fine in rehearsals and then fall victim to stage fright. This later case, the stage fright, is what pushed our production over the 90% mark.


At this point, time for the exercise had run out. I'm not sure where it would have gone from there, but I'm sure it would have been plenty entertaining.

More from RHS Harlow Carr

When the Aunties were visiting, we took them to RHS Harlow Carr Gardens, one of our favorite places to go on a Sunday morning after church (at least, when the weather is nice). We explored some old favorites and got to see a new part of the gardens as well.

Lucy wanted to show off her favorite animals in the gardens. Auntie Regina was suitably impressed.

Lucy is ready to ride!

Jacob, for his part, took the aunties to HIS favorite section, the outdoor musical instruments. He provided a nice little concert.

Jacob is ready to play!

We then wandered into a new area. The first discovery was this rather cryptic structure. It looked man-made (it certainly wasn't constructed by any animals) but seems rather slipshod for such a nice garden. Can you guess what it is?

"Pile of junk" is a wrong, though understandable, guess.

We couldn't figure it out at first until we saw the nearby sign. They call it a "bug bivi" and it's a home for a wide variety of insects and small animals. The sign had instructions on how to make your own at home. If you love bugs living on your property (and who doesn't?), why not give them the sort of place they would love to stay?

One man's pile of junk is another bug's bivi

Further on we found what I was looking forward to. I'd seen it on the map last time but we never made it as far as the "Logness Monster" before. Luckily we approached the beast from behind, so he was unaware of us.

Pile of logs?

A nice walking trail, especially if the ground were muddy

The sign says, "Please ensure children are supervised"

A face only a gardener could love

Jacob and Lucy loved climbing along the back of the Logness Monster. The log trail leads to a small path between the eyes of old Nessie. Jacob was fascinated by the sharp, red-stained teeth. I'm just glad he didn't ask about the red stains because I would have made something up about previous children who were naughty or got too close or had walked on Nessie's back. Maybe on the next visit he will ask?

Over on this side of the garden are some nice open spaces, including a small lake and a field with a wind mill. Unfortunately it's not the sort of mill that grinds up grain. It's just for the electricity.

A tranquil lake

Free energy, after you pay for raw materials, craftsmanship, and installation

Lucy found some interesting benches to climb upon. One had a book on it, which is permanently affixed. Unfortunately turning the pages looks to be quite a challenge.

Exploring without tramping on the grass

Where did that book go?

Jacob found some new waterfalls along the path. He always makes us stop and look at them. The sound is quite refreshing, even from little trickles like these.

Mostly dry waterfall, alas!

More exotic and natural looking waterfall

We also ran across the sort of gardening equipment that would inspire me to do more in the yard. Good thing I don't have it.

Not for riding, alas!

I suppose a visit to or a blog post about a garden would not be complete without at least one picture of flowers, so here are some fuchsia. The sign says they are called "Mission bells."

Fuchsia at Harlow Carr

After a fine morning of walking around, we had worked up an appetite. The local tea shop, Betty's, has a restaurant at the gardens where we had our lunch. It was quite yummy and made for a nice end to our visit to RHS Harlow Carr Gardens.

Double Trouble at School

Jacob had a very busy day at school the other day. When I came to pick him up, nothing seemed amiss. But appearances, as they say, are deceiving.

He takes a backpack to school, though he doesn't have any school books. He's in Reception, which is a sort of kindergarten where they spend most of the day playing. Learning and living by a schedule is acquired through clever guidance by the teachers. But the children don't have homework and don't have any school books, as I say. So the backpack is more of a mobile mailbox, for sending information and items back and forth to school. There's a little notebook if we have any questions or comments we can send them in and the teacher can reply, or she can send us messages. Sometimes he's painted something or some other craft comes home. A weekly newsletter comes home on Thursdays telling us about next week's events at the school.

This day, his backpack had a plastic bag with his pants (that's his underwear to you American readers) and his trousers (that's his pants to you American readers). So naturally I asked him about it. He said that he was too slow going to the potty and had an accident. Luckily his clothes were just wet, so it didn't seem like much of a problem. I asked where he got the pants and trousers he was currently wearing. He wasn't sure. So we put them through the wash that night and sent them back to school the next day.

I was initially surprised that the teacher said nothing about it. But on further reflection, I imagine that it is not so uncommon that children wet themselves by accident at the school. Maybe she thought it was unremarkable, and so didn't remark on it.

The other surprise was when Jacob volunteered information. Usually he doesn't tell us much of anything about his day at school unless something really exciting happened, like the day they had PE in the big room and danced to the song "Life is a Highway" from the movie Cars. He loves the movie and knows the song quite well. But I digress. His volunteered information was in itself surprising--his tooth was loose! He showed me with his tongue. Sure enough, one of the front lower teeth could move back and forth. I even tried moving it very, very, VERY gently with my finger, just to make sure. It did wobble a bit.

We were already walking back to the car or else I would have asked the teacher some questions. I asked Jacob if he had fallen or hit his mouth. He said no. He had no bruises or any marks. He seemed pretty calm and just asked that we see a doctor or a dentist (who we had seen two weeks earlier, even though I just posted about it yesterday). I was still imagining all sort of horrible dental surgery or Jacob spending weeks or months or years with a missing tooth. He's only four years old, and teeth only fall out when your seven or nine, right? At least that was what I was thinking on the drive home. The kids in the back seat seemed so calm. I didn't know how they could do it.

Finally arriving home, I went inside and called up our dentist. I asked them a lot of questions. They thought it was just a normal case of a new tooth pushing out a baby tooth. I took some convincing. They recommended some over the counter medicine in case Jacob felt bad, but their main suggestion was that he should keep working it around until it came out. Jacob seemed fine with this and life went on as normal.

So we are on tooth watch. I will provide updates as they happen. If only I had a Twitter account!

A Visit to a British Dentist

One of the things that the UK is infamous for is the state of people's teeth. One gets the general impression that something is wrong with the water or with dentistry in Britain. I had more than a little trepidation when I made an appointment with a local dentist to have our teeth checked.

No ADA here, only NHS

The first problem was choosing a dentist. The National Health Service covers many but not all dentists here. Looking through the list on their web site, every dentist within a 20 mile radius of our postal code was listed as not receiving new patients--a little disappointing. I called up one dentist that uses NHS for children but not adults and made an appointment. They had an opening about three weeks out. Then, for a lark (and because you can't trust the internet or the government, so a government web page is doubly untrustworthy) I called one of the NHS dentists who was listed as not taking new patients. They said they were taking new patients and scheduled us for the next Wednesday, a mere ten days from when I cold called for an appointment! I was pretty happy about that, but didn't call the other dentist back to cancel, just in case this NHS dentist didn't make the grade. The lady took my information and said the initial exam for all four of use would take about 40 minutes. That's what made me a little skeptical.

Wednesday came and we headed off to the dentist. The children were excited because that meant a late start for school. Lucy was a little afraid but Jacob was okay. While we sat in the waiting room, Lucy said she had 3000 teeth. Maybe the appointment might take longer than they thought!

"Elevate!" said Dalek Dentist

We were called back as a group to the room. Jacob volunteered to go first. He sat in the big grey chair and the doctor raised him up. Jacob said, "Woo-hoo!" as he elevated to a convenient height for the dentist. The dentist asked Jacob to open his mouth wide, which he did. Lucy opened her mouth wide too, even though she was just standing there. The dentist told Jacob he would count Jacob's teeth. He went through testing with his probe and counted to twenty. Everything looked good. The dentist asked if it was okay to give a fluoride treatment since there is none in English water. We agreed. He put a slight layer of paste on Jacob's teeth and asked him not to eat it. It wouldn't really be harmful but it would work best if it stayed on the teeth for a bit. Jacob had a hard time resisting.

Then it was Lucy's turn. After seeing Jacob have a good time, Lucy was excited to try out the automatic chair. Jacob said the chair was a robot. And the bright light too! I agreed it had a robotic arm so the dentist could position it properly. The dentist went through the same procedure with Lucy. His tooth count was substantially lower than Lucy's. He only made it to twenty. He did say she has some overbite, but that may go away or she might need braces at twelve or fourteen. She had a much harder time resisting licking up all the yummy fluoride paste. She was done by the time we got back to the waiting room.

The kids were banished during mommy and daddy's turns. We were okay too. In addition to counting our teeth, he took x-rays. I was surprised there was no heavy lead apron like American doctors use to protect patients from the radiation. Other than that, everything was the same. Neither of us had new cavities. I got the usual lecture about flossing, which I do once per dentist visit. This time, he told me about how it was important as we get older because the food that gets stuck between your teeth won't come out any other way and that is a common way to lose teeth. This was the first looming-old-age lecture from a doctor for me.

I was surprised to discover we had only taken 40 minutes for our visit, just like the receptionist predicted. We sorted all our paperwork with the front desk. The lady said they would mail us when the next appointment was due and we could arrange it then. The visit was very satisfactory. I don't understand why dentistry has a bad rap here in England. Maybe it is just a bad history that has ended but is not forgotten. We will definitely be back, if only to ride in a cool chair.

St. Robert's Beer Festival 2012, Pannal

We recently attended yet another beer festival, this time in the town of Pannal. This festival was different because it was held at a church! The website's description of the church:

St Robert’s is a Church of England parish church serving the community of Pannal and Burn Bridge on the southern edge of Harrogate. It has a lively worshiping community with a strong Junior Church (usually over 70 children from 0-16), a good choir and a wide range of groups and activities.

St. Robert's Church, Pannal

They do indeed have a wide range of activities since this is the third annual St. Robert's Beer Festival. The church is not very large so a lot of the celebration was set up in the surrounding yard. Graveyard, that is!

When we arrived, people were wandering around the graves and open spaces (there's plenty of room for others to be buried) surrounding the church. Maybe their eyes were a little glassy and maybe their steps were a little unsure and maybe they could have been mistaken for zombies freshly risen from the graves. But they were simply revelers in the midst of their revelry. One of the activities during the festival was racing. Ferret racing, that is!

Church, graveyard, and ferret racetrack

The Rockcliffe Ferret Rescue was raising money for their work. In addition to walking ferrets or petting them, they were racing them down these long tubes. The first time I watched, I was amazed. Once they came out the far end, the ferret handler (another job for which parents could donate money so their children could do it) had to turn them around and have them race back to the start. In the second race, Jacob and his friend Zara were handlers.

Lining up

Handing out the ferrets

Turning the first ferret around

As you may guess from the picture above, neither Jacob's nor Zara's ferrets were particularly quick to make it through the tube. Many of the other ferrets had trouble too. Often the critters would turn mid-tube and go back to the start. The kids were given little pads to cover the end of the tube so the ferrets would go the right way. Eventually, Jacob's came in second, though there is no prize for second place at the ferret races.

After the race, the children got to feed the furry fellows.

Jacob is a little nervous about feeding them

Lucy has him eating out of her hand!

Another activity was a tombola, which is a sort of raffle where one draws tickets that are matched to prizes. If the ticket ends in a zero or a five, it's a winner. This tombola was not especially fancy, as many prizes consisted in bottles of soft drinks or squash (juice in American). A very good looking bottle of wine had ticket number 100 (big round numbers are usually bigger prizes). We did not win any prizes.

Lucy at the tombola

At this point, readers may be wondering, "But wasn't there any beer at this beer festival?" Yes, quite a number of local breweries provided the dozen and a half possible choices of beers to drink. Festival admission included a commemorative glass and six tickets for half pints. Here's what I tried in no particular order:

• Alnwick Brewing Co Amber Ale, 3.8% alcohol content--"Classis [sic] amber ale with strong infusion of fuggles and styrian goldings hops specifically for the North Eastern palate. Good hoppy nose and biscuity body." To me, this was a smooth and coppery ale with nice flavor. It was very drinkable.
• Mithril Ales 100 Beers on a Dead Man's Chest, 3.8%--"Brewed to celebrate their 100th brew and last Wednesday, 'International Talk Like A Pirate Day.'" This ale was okay but not as special as its thematic name and description would lead one to believe.
• Rudgate Brewery Ruby Mild, 4.4%--"Recently awarded the gold medal in the mild category at Britain's most prestigious beer festival, CAMRA's 'Great British Beer Festival.'" I liked this a lot, with its rich flavor and little bitterness.
• Roosters Cogburn, 4.3%--"This beer is a homage to the lead character in True Grit. It's a robust pale ale, with a great length of flavour, loaded with juicy fruit aromas from its combination of American hops." This golden ale might have been a little too fruity for my taste. I'm discovering that I'm not a big citrus fan when it comes to beer. If a strong taste of lemon/tangerine/grapefruit comes through, I don't like it. Oh well.
• Collingham Ales Journeyman, 3.9%--"Best Bitter brewed with Maris Otter and Munich Malted barley together with Summit and Styrian Golding hops to give a full measure of maltiness and superb hoppy flavour." This bitter was okay but it had more hop than malt (I think) which kept it from being the best it could be.

We had a nice dinner afterward at a local pub, The Harwood. The pub is right over the local rail line. The children loved seeing the occasional train go by. Realizing how late it was, we rushed home for the children's bed time, having enjoyed a fine afternoon out at church drinking beer.