Fairy Tale Vacation Part 3

 We visited Fort Bedford, a fort built for the French and Indian War, which meant it predates our country!

Also, George Washington slept here.

Interestingly, the original fort was built in the same star shape as Fort McHenry!

 We had a great time touring the fort museum which had historical items from the French and Indian War through World War II.

Somehow they figured out we were home schoolers!  It turned out some of the museum people were home schoolers too, so that was fun.

It just made me wonder what it is that says, "Home Schooled!"  I kind of think it's our enthusiasm for museums.  Or possibly that all the kids ask lots of questions.

Moving right along, we visited a store that's hard to describe, but it's a bit like an enormous thrift store crashed into an enormous craft store. 

We found old tea cups and some other fun things, and we were getting ready to leave when I saw the Emperor with an entourage of Zoomlians coming across the store carrying a blazing turkey.

It turned out The Turkey was not actually on fire, merely gleaming with metallic painted gleamingness. Lots of gleaming.

Me: I don't think so.

The Emperor: Choclo loves it.

Choclo: (blinks large brown eyes at the beautiful turkey)

Me: Where would we put it?

The Emperor: Someplace on the table in late November? It can live in the basement the rest of the time.

Choclo: And when Zorg is in the back basement, reading comic books, he could pet it!

 In other news, I let Oob and Choclo borrow the camera, and they took about two dozen pictures of this very cute bunny.

The rest of the 50 pictures are all variations on: Hey!  Take a picture of me while I do this!

Fairy Tale Vacation Part 2

While we were up at the cabin, we checked out the local town of Bedford, PA.

We started out visiting the local parish, St Thomas.  The Emperor had looked it up, and it looked like it had very beautiful windows.

Well, yes, actually, I think they were the most beautiful stained glass I've ever seen! 

It was like a combination of the lovely faces I've seen in German windows, along with the swirling colors in Tiffany's glass, inset with 3D cut glass "jewels."

 But what actually dropped my jaw, was that they had an illusion of depth which I have never seen, and which was impossible to capture on camera:  it looked as if you could see a foot or more into the glass- far more than the actual (quite ordinary) thickness.

Even more astonishing was that the windows were not the "special" thing about the church!

The parish's claim to fame (besides, you know, Jesus being there), was the amazing carved wooden altar triptych!

It was, in fact, from Germany, carved and gilded.  The two side panels are doors!  It is a very old tradition to cover statues during Holy Week, but here they literally close the doors on Good Friday, and the outside of the doors forms a casket topped with the symbols of the Passion!

The people who built the church must have been German immigrants: the side altars matched the main altar, the windows were indeed from Germany (but from the same time period as Tiffany).

And did I mention the ceiling?

 Those are carved angels!

We were pretty blown away by the church.  And then the pastor showed up and told us that the church had the Holy Doors for the Year of Mercy for their diocese!

So we had an impromptu pilgrimage on our vacation. :D

Tomorrow I'll finish up the vacation photos and you will learn what happens when Choclo and Oob borrow the camera.  Also, The Turkey.

Fairy Tale Vacation Part 1

 The dauntless Bill invited us all up to vacation at his family's cabin in the mountains.

It was amazing!

Leena's reaction to the house summed it up perfectly: "It's like a fairy tale house!"

And it was!  It was cozy and perfect, the fruit of decades of loving care from one (very handy!) family dedicated to making this a place of happy memories.

It was the perfect place to relax!

It was also surrounded by incredible natural beauty: perched on a steep hill overlooking a lovely winding river.


And there was a boat!


 A nice flat bottomed boat since the river here was only 1-2 feet deep with a lazy current (in case you are my dad and wondering why the kids aren't wearing life jackets).

And it was just a lovely place to rest and snack on Oob's toes, and sleep beneath the fairy tale gables.

This is actually a picture Oob took of Choclo sleeping because he was sure Choclo would want to know what he looked like when he was asleep.

The answer in Choclo's case is: sweet!

I think I remember wondering the same thing as a kid!

Poet of the Week: Mary Mapes Dodge

Here's a poet I just discovered over at Poetry Foundation, and I am quite charmed by her work!

Fire in the Window

 

Fire in the window! flashes in the pane!

Fire on the roof-top! blazing weather-vane!

Turn about, weather-vane! put the fire out!

The sun’s going down, sir, I haven’t a doubt. 

 

 

 Early to Bed

 

Early to bed and early to rise:

If that would make me wealthy and wise

I’d rise at daybreak, cold or hot,

And go back to bed at once. Why not?

More Silliness with Choclo

One of the fun things about completely rearranging our house is the rediscovery of fun toys like Demolition Labs. 

We got a bunch of these kits a while back, and we have them all in a large bin so that they can make huge buildings!


The picture is actually Oob, but the video is Choclo 

Happy Birthday, Mxyl!

Can it be true?

Mxyl is 19!

We celebrated at the beach house with cake, presents, and lots of beachy fun!






19 Great Things About Mxyl 

1. He's working on the special effects for his movie, Abydos.
2. He's really good at kayaking.
3. He's a great older brother who doesn't mind taking his little brothers kayaking!
4.  According to those little brothers, "He's amazing!"
4. He's an honor student in all his college classes.
5. He's writer, director, producer, cameraman, and actor in Abydos.
6. He loves the sacraments.
7. He's got a great sense of humor!
7. He's a deadly punster.
8. He looks cool in sunglasses.
9. He never gives spoilers.
10. He's passionate about his projects.
10. He has an amazing ability to learn complex things, 
whether it's calculus or Japanese, or a computer language.
11. He always tries to make things better.
12. He's great with little kids.
13. He always sees things through.
14. He fan subs Japanese movies.
14. He loves to help people.
15. He's great with a katana!
16. He's my in house computer support guy.
17. He's my out of the house errand guy.
17. He knows an astonishing amount about tokusatsu.
18 He has an eye for creating beautiful photographs.
19. He's a very loving son!

Poem of the Week: Sumer is i-cumin in

We've been having very warm weather and it is really feeling like summer here!

 

Sumer is i-cumin in

By Anonymous 

Sing, cuccu, nu. Sing, cuccu.

Sing, cuccu. Sing, cuccu, nu.

Sumer is i-cumin in—

Lhude sing, cuccu!

Groweth sed and bloweth med

And springth the wude nu.

Sing, cuccu!

Awe bleteth after lomb,

Lhouth after calve cu,

Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth—

Murie sing, cuccu!

Cuccu, cuccu,

Wel singes thu, cuccu.

Ne swik thu naver nu!



Modern English
 Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
Seeds grow and meadows bloom
And the forest springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!-
The ewe bleats after the lamb,
The cow lows after the calf. ,
The bullock jumps, the billy-goat leaps,
Merrily sing, Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo;
Nor will you ever stop now.

More Mantax and Pridak!

From Choclo with an assist from Leena!

Poem of the Week: The Unknown Bird

The Unknown Bird

Snowy Egrets and gulls on Assateague

By Edward Thomas

 

Three lovely notes he whistled, too soft to be heard

If others sang; but others never sang

In the great beech-wood all that May and June.

No one saw him: I alone could hear him

Though many listened. Was it but four years

Ago? or five? He never came again.

 

Oftenest when I heard him I was alone,

Nor could I ever make another hear.

La-la-la! he called, seeming far-off—

As if a cock crowed past the edge of the world,

As if the bird or I were in a dream.

Yet that he travelled through the trees and sometimes

Neared me, was plain, though somehow distant still

He sounded. All the proof is—I told men

What I had heard.

 

                                   I never knew a voice,

Man, beast, or bird, better than this. I told

The naturalists; but neither had they heard

Anything like the notes that did so haunt me,

I had them clear by heart and have them still.

Four years, or five, have made no difference. Then

As now that La-la-la! was bodiless sweet:

Sad more than joyful it was, if I must say

That it was one or other, but if sad

'Twas sad only with joy too, too far off

For me to taste it. But I cannot tell

If truly never anything but fair

The days were when he sang, as now they seem.

This surely I know, that I who listened then,

Happy sometimes, sometimes suffering

A heavy body and a heavy heart,

Now straightway, if I think of it, become

Light as that bird wandering beyond my shore.

HT: Poetry Foundation

At the Beach: Friday

 We went to Mass at St. Andrew's on Chincoteague, and were very warmly welcomed by the community there!

It turns out they are the oldest church building on the island, dating back to the 1700s, although the church was originally Baptist, then Methodist.  It's only been Catholic since the 1970s - before they got a building, they had Mass at the movie theater!

What impressed me the most was their loving care of the cemetery.  There are graves from all three denominations, of course, and they've turned the small cemetery into a beautiful and prayerful garden for all God's children buried there.

I forgot to mention this from earlier in the week:  I'm not sure why, but the first time we went to Assateague, I declared that the first person to see the ponies got to sing their My Little Pony song.

Picture from Maryland Tourism- we were never this close.

And every trip we have a new winner (two because we count there and back).  It's been crazy (who did opera?) and amazing (Leena's Dance song from Labyrinth with pony words: Prance, Pony, Prance), and sometimes annoying (my singing the first three words of My Little Pony for five minutes), but it's a thing now, just so you know.

More stuff I forgot to mention:

Fun model kits!

My microscope bulb burned out!  I was able to use my phone flashlight, but it was hard for the younger kids to use the microscope.


They continued to make slides of everything they could find anyway!

Also, for whatever reason, we couldn't find any jellyfish.  This is usually great news, but I had particularly hoped to make a slide of the stinging cells with a methylene blue stain. I may have to go back to the bay.

More kayaking!

Would you believe we found out today that we also had a canoe?

Very fun and holds more people, a definite win!