Isaac Newton

Today we went to Isaac Newton’s house. Its name is Woolsthorpe Manor. It only took us 15 minutes to get there from Harlaxton. Isaac grew up with a rich family on a farm. Isaac was not a very good farmer and one time he let all the sheep go and his mother had to pay a fine because of it! Another time he rode a horse into town and when he came back he didn’t have the horse with him because he forgot about it! Even though he wasn’t a good farmer he was a really good thinking scientist. I got to see the Apple Tree where Isaac Newton first came up with the idea of gravity. One day when Isaac Newton was home from Trinity College, he was sitting under a tree at Woolsthorpe and an apple fell from a tree. Even though people think it hit him on his head, it didn’t really do that. He just saw it fall. Watching the apple fall made him think more about why it did, and he invented gravity. The Apple Tree was in a huge and terrible storm many years ago and it fell but it managed to keep growing. I thought the Apple Tree looked small and curly. Before Isaac invented gravity, he went to Kings School, a school that is still a school in Grantham where boys go. When Isaac was a boy he made a windmill that could grain wheat and corn, and he made a sundial. Since they didn't have cars back then and it was too far to walk to Kings School, Isaac Newton stayed with a different family in Grantham. Later Isaac Newton invented other things like a reflecting telescope. When he was older he became Sir Isaac Newton. In the photos you see Woolsthorpe Manor and you see the real Apple Tree that Isaac Newton sat under.

Terrific Grandpa

My Papa died this week. He was a big part of my life. Without him there would not be such a thing as the Big Mouth Frog joke, my favorite joke in the whole world he would tell Brock and me. Every Saturday morning he would come over for cappuccinos, a special tradition. He made the coolest clubhouse for us with lots of windows and a real doorbell that I could ring. I would play cornhole with him and go fishing. He made a high chair for my American Girl dolls. He was a great tennis player, and he taught me how to play tennis. Every time I would see him he would give me a Papa’s mint, a peppermint. In the top photo is me, Papa and Brock sucking our thumbs. Papa used to tease me how I sucked my thumb so he and Brock acted like me. In the bottom picture, it is a picture of the three of us again. Every time he comes over for cappos he would have a fun lesson or thing to do. My mum used to be a reporter in New York, so Papa got us a typewriter so I could write stories too. I love the typewriter. In the same picture Papa is teaching Brock about money because that was a popular thing for them to do. Even though my blog is about my travels in England, we got the call about my Papa in England and are going to be in the USA for a few days. My Papa was the kind of person any child would want to have as a grandpa.

Southwell Workhouse

Today we went to Southwell Workhouse. A workhouse is a place where the poor would go in Victorian times in England. Inside of the Southwell Workhouse there were on average 158 people. People entered work houses because either they were too old or too poor to take care of themselves. Families were separated at the work houses. If families tried to talk to each other or even look at one another they would get a punishment. The reason for workhouses was the government didn’t want people to get money for being poor, so they made workhouses instead and they made the conditions not feel good inside. They didn’t want too many people to use the workhouses. The only time people in the Southwell Workhouse had Roast Beef it would be Christmas. Men made the bread. Men would break stones and turn grinders even if there wasn’t anything to grind! Woman unpicked ropes until their fingers started to bleed. For children dinner was usually bread and butter, milk and water. For the woman’s work there is a muddy yard with a pump in the middle to get water to wash clothes. During school for the kids, if you slouched there would be something to stop it and that would be a wooden thing that is almost the shape of your shoe and you would put it behind your back and sit there the whole day and not do any school work. When we sat on the beds my mum and I hurt. There was wood for the beds! By the time the people that lived in Southwell Workhouse were 14 or 15, they were allowed to leave the Workhouse but many times they didn’t have any place to go so it was sad and they had to come back. If you click on the photos we took, you can see the pictures clearer and one shows how much food a kid close to my age would get each day. It is a very low amount. The other picture is of the yard area where the women washed clothes. I got to try the pump and it really pumps water.

Ginger's Quilt

If you looked at my blog post last month about Ginger’s quilt scraps (it was posted on January 13, 2012), they have now turned in to the squares of the quilt! Poem and I have sewed all of the squares together into one giant piece. A few of the squares already have a design on them that we didn’t do, and others we sewed. The ones we made were the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, a flower, and a pencil and ruler. We are finished! It was so super fun.  

York

As you probably know we have New York in the U.S. We did not go there but we went to the first York. It was really cool. As we went around we went up into Clifford’s Tower. There was a man named William the Conqueror who fought against York and he built the earth mound that Clifford’s Tower ended up being put on. After the fun of going in Clifford’s Tower we went across the Roman wall. It had a really good view. One of my favorite parts was a Viking Museum. We went on a ride that showed us what it would be like. The children had cool popular games just like chess! Every Viking adult had a job. It could making shoes and clothes or something else. The funny thing was, that night we went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner and they gave us “York” Chocolate at the end!! So funny, right?

Horses and Denton

Neiggggghhhhhhhhhh! We are in the English countryside! There are many farms in the countryside and the farm that I am talking about is not that bad of a walking distance. There are a lot of horses in it too. There is a really neat and shaggy horse that I think is the cutest thing. I have named him Mr. Shagball, and there are others too! There are a mummy and baby and the mummy is silk cream with a touch of brown (I have named her Cream Clover) and she loves it when you pet her. The baby has rough brown skin with a touch of cream and nips at our coats (I have named him Night Bite). Through our walk we went to Denton Reservoir inside of Denton, a very quaint town next to Harlaxton. Denton Reservoir is a beautiful lake and we think we might even have a picnic there. When we reached the townish part of Denton we went to collect sheep wool. It was so cool!

Grantham

Since Grantham is so close to Harlaxton Village, Brock, mum and I end up visiting it quite some amount of time. Isaac Newton is famous in Grantham because he went to school there as a boy! The school he went to is called “Kings” and still gets taught in. Margaret Thatcher was also famous from Grantham but in a different way. She was born in Grantham and ended up as a Prime Minister of the U.K. from 1979 to 1990. In Grantham mummy signed me up for a really cool clay making session. I am so glad that my wonderful mum did it! I made some really cool stuff and so did Brock. Brock made a clay Messi (a really great Barcelona player) with a soccer ball! The place we went to is called the Guildhall Arts Centre. Here is a photo we took of the Isaac Newton statue with the Guildhall behind it. What fun!