BritLit- Royalty, adolescents, and bringin' on the boom

Buckingham Palace

     A nice change from Buckingham Palace and the crush of tourists trying to get a glimpse of the changing of the guard is the Queen's summer home - Windsor Palace .

 

Here you can walk around in peace, actually see the guards from the upper windows or driveway, and check out her collection of arms, knights' armour, and swords. While it was all very impressive, I couldn't help but wonder if she feels like she's stuck with all this old STUFF! I mean, it's her summer home and she's got rooms and rooms of heirlooms that I'm sure she must display out of duty.

Queenly stuff is all good, but these were some of our first encounters with Londoners. We read some children's lit books to just get a feel for the culture. The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jaqueline Wilson and Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging which I talk about all the time. What we found is that in England there's city life with shows and tubes and then there is country life where they walk to town, parks, and school. Tracy Beaker is one of those incredibly normal kids who believes everyone is out to get her. She's prone to meltdowns and screaming-fits, but couldn't possibly have broken that girl's clock on purpose. Georgie Nicholson gives a glimpse into early teens and all that marvy-jazz. Of course, I already went on and on about her in an earlier post, but she's won me over to her entire series. One thing we learned from Georgie is that the world centers around teens just as it does queens. 
     

     What better way to dive into culture than head down to the Covent Garden and over to the theater district. Everywhere we turned were marquees for shows. Even the Beiber was there! We took in Stomp and War Horse.  It  just made me think how different life would be if your Friday nights were spent arguing over which theater show to see instead of what episode to watch on Netflix!

Stomp

War Horse

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BritLit - Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall

      Swan Lake is one of those productions you can enjoy just because it is beautiful and the costumes rival Cirque de Soleil, but there's more to Swan Lake than just a seat in the balcony. 

Waiting for the swans 

     In order to dig deeper into the performance, we read a children's book about the origination of the costumes and the five dance movements. The Swan Princess of the English National Ballet impressed us by performing 32 fouette's (toe-top spins) I heard from other students that even doing TWO fouette's is killer, so this dancer was over-the-top with talent.

This one is my favorite

We fell in love with this Degas sculpture

     Not only did we enjoy the background, we saw the Edward Degas paintings at the Louvre. They house a collection of all his sketches of ballerina's behind the scenes and on stage. He captured moments of dancers warming up, one of a dancer tying her toe-shoe, and a favorite - one of a dancer scratching her back. They say Degas spent so much time painting them, he could name all their movements. 

One big surprise just after the final bows was a full-scale evactuation of the Royal Albert Hall. Someone mentioned a smoke machine, but it really made me want to get as far away from the crowd as possible!

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BritLit - No Shame, No Fear by Ann Turnbull

     No Shame, No Fear is about a young Quaker girl suffering persecution because of her faith.What really stood out to me was how she continually stood her ground and tried to enlighten others.  She explains to her (future) fiance that her faith requires her to examine everything and decide if it is right for her or not. 
     For example, her style of dress is modest and plain because she doesn't want it to distract others from her message of faith, however, she is allowed to make her own choices.  Also, she explains that they look people in the eye and always tell the truth - even if it hurts. She does make the reader question their own customs through her character. 
     I admit, this book was not for me. I appreciated her bravery for her outspoken and firm faith, but I just didn't enjoy it presented as a love story.  I may have related to it better if we had managed to visit a Quaker society in Cornwall, England. It was still up in the air on the itinerary, but didn't work out. 

My watercolor of the view out our hostel window
Cornwall, England

Wish me luck and easy-to-read road signs...

     As Georgia Nicholson would say, "I'm off laughing on a fast camel"

 Or rather, I'm lead-footing it in a minivan with a dirt bike and an dragon for company.

 

   No, I have not lost my mind, okay, maybe a little. It's time for my August road trip to meet up with my family in Idaho. Last year was a complete FAIL when it came to navigation. Yes I have a GPS, Yes I followed my digital map on my iPad, BUT road signs like R4000 are very confusing when the locals call it the East Ririe Highway. This year I've got a hybrid map with satellite images AND regular highway markings AND a printed map. 

   

     One of my teenagers has been begging me to bring his dirt bike to the campsite. People, I'm home alone and driving a minivan. Why oh why did the commercial for the Dodge Caravan with Stow-n-Go have two guys on dirt bikes getting picked up by their wives? Even though he was only nine when that

Kinda like this one...

commercial came out, he remembers and I have no excuse. So, what's a mom to do? I got it in there! It's going to be a surprise!  

    


 The best part about the road trip is listening to Kristin Cashore's audio book Fire again.
I can't wait to listen to  rainbow-haired Fire tell about the dragons and the battles in the seven kingdoms. I need to hear all over again what a scoundrel Briggan is and how he and Fire belong together.  

One more shift at work, and I'm pointing my mini van south.....er, south west??? 

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BritLit - Tamar

     Tamar, by Mal Peet, is a story about WWII spy code readers. These guys would parachute into enemy-occupied territories and try to blend in. All the while they would send secret coded messages to help their military commanders to defeat Hitler's army. 

     Can you imagine having to ride your bike across the farmlands into the city check-gate every week? Knowing one wrong move and you'll be shot and anyone who knew you would be, too?   To say these guys were on-edge is putting it lightly. 

      Agents Tamar and Dart, named for the rivers they landed by,  worked together in their spy operation, but would they always be on the same side?  Just what happens to the mind under these nail-biting circumstances when days blend into months. When one is stuck in the same tiny room staring at the same wallpaper and living off caffeine pills? When the other has to travel under the watchful eye of the Third Reich? What happens when a beautiful woman is their local contact? Can they protect her while she helps them?

     When we visited Philip Reeve, we were actually walking along the Dart river and I kept imagining the parachutes dropping the code readers just like on the cover. 

The Dart river runs between these rolling hills

the Tamar River Bridge

and here we drove over the Tamar river bridge. 




The best part about the book Tamar is the twist!  I can't tell you any more, but if you love spy stories and love being fooled - you will love Tamar.



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Mom Monday - Summerin' it up!

Another day of combos - this time we mixed it up with art, biking, splashing in the creek, and rock climbing. What more could a couple of Montana boys ask for? 

The Main Street to Mountains trail starts at our favorite place in the world - the Bozeman Library. 

     Like the yellow-brick road, it starts with a circle in the front of the building that goes around the back to an art trail lined with sculptures by local artists.

Someone made this cool chair out of gears...

     And this cow named Ivy..... and lots of other swirly, curvy things. Some look like wire tornadoes and others more geometric. What's neat is that they change them out every so often so it's fun to come back.


     We biked through to where the art trail ends and the Galligator trail starts, which connects to the Sourdough trail that follows Bozeman Creek. The Sourdough is more woodsy and a huge doe ran across our path. Wyatt said he saw her baby, too. 

     And what could be better on a hot day that a picnic at the creek? ....Except maybe a push-up contest in ice water......(I swear, I'm not punishing them, they thought this up!)
     And just to solidify their manliness.....they conquered the rock-climber's ledge at the park.







Too bad my older boys weren't having any fun.....

Josh and Dustin Man-camping at Rat Lake

What planting a garden in August says about me.....

....it says...

• I have been busy having an awesome summer
• I have goals
• I decree that lettuce counts as a garden
• I will not let the hot/dry climate dictate my desire to grow my own salad
• I will NOT give up on my dreams

....it says...

I made this stamp in class - it's French for
"to live"

What do your activities say about you? Do you run an extra lap just to prove to yourself that you can? Or write an extra 1000 words in your journal?

Found these when I was hoe-ing - from last summer!