Monthly Archives: July 2014

July 5, 2014 · 11:58 am

Game of Thrones Symbols and Meaning

Winter is Coming: Symbols and Hidden Meanings in A Game of ThronesWinter is Coming: Symbols and Hidden Meanings in A Game of Thrones by Valerie Estelle Frankel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having all the current Game of Thrones books and watched the TV shows, I decided to listen to this book on audio.

Let me say the first chapter is horrible. The author seems to spend the chapter quoting from the books and TV series without adding much new or interesting information. Hello! I’ve read the books and seen the show. If I want I want to re-read it, I will!

But, if you can make past the 1st chapter, the book does get more interesting. The final chapters about the similarities between the story and medieval England and the War of the Roses is interesting. Although, the author does paint the history of that period with a broad brush.

The end of book also features an interesting and lengthy discussion of women in the book, especially adding a mother figure to a fantasy book.

A word of warning, if you are not 100% caught up with the books, don’t read this. It offers a full discussion of the current status of the story at the end of book 5. If you don’t want spoilers skip it!

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July 4, 2014 · 12:33 am

Awooo Awoo: Book Review

The Interrupted Tale (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, #4)The Interrupted Tale by Maryrose Wood

Maryrose Wood continues to complicate the story of the Ashton’s and the wolf children. In this book, the governess is called back to her old school to give a speech. When she arrives at the school with the wolf children, she finds that things are changing for the worse and “Judge Quincy” is one making all the trouble.

The book about Awoo Awoo holds key information and everyone wants to get their hands on it!

As always, Wood strings together a number of story lines and incorporates pirate, ferns, birds and more in a silly mystery story that is entertaining for children and adults.

I am looking forward to the installment of these books.

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July 3, 2014 · 2:21 pm

STONEHENGE! Mom Camp Day 16 part two

I know, it’s a bit unfair to split one mom camp day into two. But, Stonehenge deserves its own post.
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Woodhenge

Woodhenge

Before getting to the main event, we had a little time to kill and decided to go to the Woodhenge site. Yes, it is lesser known. Yes, it was made of wood– so it has disintegrated. But, archeologists have placed markers where the wood beams would have stood. Stonehenge is not really its own independent site. It is the most striking element of a larger complex that spans thousands of years in its development and use.

I wanted to share that the larger significance of the place with the kids. To some degree Cinco got it! We watched a National Geographic show about the complex and how the subsites might fit together. He really took it in. The theory is that Woodhenge and Stonehenge were part of a day long elaborate ritual of life and death.

2014 06 09_England 2014_0437Today, Woodhenge is just sitting there in wide open field.  The sheep keep the site company and you must use your imagination to envision life the ancient word.

After getting a little taste of things at Woodhenge it was off to the big time! The last time I was at Stonehenge was in the mid-90’s and at that time, you couldn’t get too close to the stones. Tourists sort of viewed them from afar. While I was researching this trip, I discovered that English Heritage will still allow SMALL groups of people to enter the stones before and after normal visiting hours. It is not prohibitively expensive, but it can be tough to get the tickets. I made our reservations in September 2013. It was completely worth it!

What I did not realize is that the Stonehenge site has JUST been revamped to make it more tourist friendly and you can get near the stones again. Although, you must keep to a path and cannot go into the center of the stones–like we did!

2014 06 09_England 2014_0456We arrived early enough to take a look at the some of the outside exhibits that English Heritage added to the site. The kids and I attempted to push a replica of one of the colossal stones.

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Inside the roundhouse

hutWe also toured the roundhouses. At this point our weather luck started to run out…a evening rain began falling on our heads. I tried to get the kids thinking about what it would have been like to live inside one of the houses. The rain added to the idea of roughing it!

Lucky for us, it only rained for a little while once we actually got to the stones!  I took a picture of Cinco at the stones and I have never actually seen him smile so wide!  It was the most amazing, happy mom feeling in the world.  I got the chance to live my own excitement and look at the world through my son’s eyes!  It was the BEST moment of the trip.

2014 06 09_England 2014_0484We got up close and personal with the stones. We spent time learning how the stones fit together before we left so seeing in person was very exciting for Cinco.

2014 06 09_England 2014_0489We also got so close to the stones we could see the graffiti that other tourists left behind!

The kids got hold of the camera and went wild snapping pics and telling us where to stand.

We only had one hour inside the stones, but the kids LOVED it and we had a very nice time! It was something special that we will always remember!

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July 3, 2014 · 12:38 am

Stonehenge and Winchester: Mom Camp Day 16

It was time to say good-bye to our tournament tent. I think we were all sad to leave such a lovely place. But, more adventure called.

The next stop was a day trip to Winchester. In case you don’t know, Winchester was the Saxon capitol of England.

The King Alfred Statue

The King Alfred Statue

It was where the West Saxon kings ruled including, King Alfred the Great. (Shameless plug for my King Alfred book.) So you know we had to stop here!

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Walking Tour Anyone?

I found a great walking tour of the city and we started at the famous King Alfred statue.

After the statue, we followed the river walk. Again perfect weather allowed us to enjoy every minute. The walk took us past the town’s old Roman Walls to Wolvesey Castle.

The Castle was occupied by King Stephen’s brother during The Anarchy and the city and castle played a role in the battles between King John and the rebelling barons. All this means William Marshal would certainly have been familiar with the place. (Shameless plug for my William Marshal book.)

2014 06 09_England 2014_0384_edited-1Wolvesey Castle is now a ruin, but Cinco and I had a great time exploring it.  We practically had the place to ourselves and Cinco took a number of photos on his own!

Finishing up at the castle we followed the walk to Winchester Cathedral.  We opted not to go inside to save time and because we also planned to visit Salisbury Cathedral.

It was time for lunch at the Wykcam Arm.  It is an old pub in the town.  But, the kids couldn’t eat inside so we had our meal in the garden out back.  The best thing I saw there was the toilet.  It seems they have an antique toilet and it was made by Thomas Crapper!  (No, I am not kidding you. The inside of the bowl had the name printed on it and everything!)  The walls of the WC were also decorated with copies of old ads for the toilet.  Now I know where the saying crap comes from— a famous British toilet maker.  Really, how did I forget to bring my phone to the bathroom?

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Photo by Cinco

After lunch we stopped by the Winchester Museum.  Each floor of the three-story building covered a different time period from the Romans, to the Saxons all the way to the present day.

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Roman Mosaics– Photo by Cinco

The kids got another scavenger hunt and away they went!  Cinco had a great time.  He dressed up as a Roman Senator and took lots of photos.

We moved on to the Great Hall and West Gate.  The gate is from the middle ages and the Great Hall is all that remains of the royal palace in Winchester.  The rest of the palace was destroyed by Cromwell.

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The Round Table

Inside the Great Hall, we examined the rendition of King Arthur’s round table–that is about 700 years old!  When I first planned this trip Cinco was much younger and really loved the Knights of the Round Table.  Now, he liked seeing it.  But it was NOT a major highlight.

2014 06 09_England 2014_0421The windows also had lovely stained glass shields of the English Royal houses.

Outside the Great Hall is the Queen’s Garden.  It is a recreation of a 14th century, formal garden.  It was much smaller than I expected.  I was a little disappointed.

After our day in Winchester, we got in the car and headed off to Salisbury.  We arrived too late to check out the cathedral (but don’t worry, we saw it the next day).  A rest and dinner followed and then it was time for STONEHENGE!

And, yes…. I am making this mom camp day into two posts!

 

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July 1, 2014 · 11:30 am

Castles and Camping, or Should I say Glamping: Mom Camp Day 15

2014 06 07_England 2014_0720_edited-1We started the day by waking up in a medieval tournament tent in the middle of a vineyard on the grounds of Leeds Castle! 2014 06 07_England 2014_0665_edited-1

2014 06 07_England 2014_0663_edited-1The night before we arrived at Leeds for two nights of Glamping! Our tent was The Kingston and we had a lion crest! We got rolling and headed off to Dover Castle!

At Dover (based on one of my tour books) we went2014 06 08_England 2014_0602 straight to the War Time Tunnels.  Now, I have to say the Dunkirk evacuation is truly an AMAZING story.  They managed to save most of the Brits in France after Hitler rolled over the country in a few short days!  But, sadly, the exhibit at Dover really did not do the story justice.  We had studied the evac before leaving for leaving for Britain.  So thankfully the kids had an idea of what happened, but still the presentation could and should have been much more dramatic!

2014 06 08_England 2014_0590_edited-1After finishing with the War Tunnels, it was off to the main castle.  You may or may not know, the Castle was originally built by Henry II (who employed William Marshal, insert shameless plug for my book here).  The castle was also restored and decorated to reflect the period around Henry II’s time.

2014 06 08_England 2014_0595_edited-1We were there on a weekend and a few performers where milling around pretending to be people from the era.  We had a nice chat with one of them.  He said he was on a mission to petition the king to   have land returned to him.  He claimed his Earl had confiscated the land when his family purchased it a generation ago.  We decided to go to the throne room and watch the proceedings.

2014 06 08_England 2014_0588_edited-1Prior to seeing King Henry, we explored the castle a bit.  We saw the kitchens, the armory, the bed rooms.  One thing I noticed were all the colors.  They favored very vivid blues and reds and of course, gold!

When it came time for the knight to petition about his land, he claimed The Captain was THE EARL who stole the land from him!  What?  The Captain was a good sport and played along trying to mount a defense in front of the king.  But the “people” (ie the other tourists) were chosen as jury and sided with the knight over The Captain!

Next, I was called forward. 2014 06 08_England 2014_0598_edited-1 The claim was I killed my hubs, a local potter.  Gulp.  We explained that it was all a show to the Princess, but when I was sentenced to death, I think she got a little nervous.  It all turned out okay of course.

2014 06 08_England 2014_0608We also explored the grounds and saw the old Roman Lighthouse or Pharos built at Dover.  For thousands of years, it has been a major point for crossing the Channel.

The weather was really cooperating so we went off to walk the famous white cliffs of Dover.  We could see France across the way and it was simply a lovely afternoon.  We didn’t walk too far because the kids were hot and tired, but it was still neat.

Then it was back to Leeds.  The boys played some chess at our tent and then we walked the grounds and had dinner.2014 06 07_England 2014_0713_edited-1

 

 

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