Funny names and stuff in Bristol

We have been away for the weekend because mummy had to go to a wedding but we got to have a lovely day out in a place called brizzle. We had to go over a really big bridge to get there because the wedding was in Wales. Mummy said that Ruthie would like Brizztol because it had lots of old America stuff.

We parked the car up in a big place near the  motorway and we got a long bus into town and it was so huge it had to bend in the middle to go round corners.















There was a man called John Cabot who had a boat called Matthew which is a silly name for a boat but it was only little because there was a replica of it next to a statue of him and we went to see them and we wanted to go on the boat but they had a special party going on so we couldn't.

The building behind where the statue was used to be a warehouse where they stored stuff that came into the town off the boats and now it's an art gallery but we only went and had a coffee there because it was a nice day and mummy said we needed to be outside after being cooped up in a wedding all day before.

Then we went to another bit of town and we found lots of statues there and one of them was a man called Archie who was born in Bristol but went off to Merica and changed his name to be an actor and they all know him as Cary Grant which is another funny name.

There are lots of nice places to eat in Brisztle but we found this great market called St Nicholas which is also a funny name because that's what Santa's real name was and it isn't Christmas. But anyway we had lunch there because there were lots of places to choose from and we had Carribbean and it was curry goat and rice and peas and vegetables and we really enjoyed it.

Ruthie and the sculptures

You all know that we have Ruthie staying with us don't you? She's going to come to Wales with us next month but we're showing her some good stuff round home too. Every year we go to a place called Lester Botany Gardens, but they spell it Leicester Botanic, to see some sculpture stuff and we like looking at them because they are art but there are pretty flowers and trees and stuff too.

Most of this year's sculptures were really big so it was hard to get pictures of them but we found one that looked a bit like a piece of origami but was made out of stone. We got chance to have a good look at it up close.

They give you a map of the gardens so you make sure you see all of the sculptures and we stopped half way to check where we were. It was good fun.

There's a website where you can look it all up if yo like.

Unclclelelcle's Day

 Sunday was Unclclel's Day so we went out for the day and took Rutie with us. We started out by going to Denstone Hall farm shop. It's on a proper farm and there are cows and things. And fields. And barns like this one.

There's a good cafe place at Denstone and we were having breakfast.  Mummy had the oatcakes with bacon and Uncncelce Kevin had the almost full English. It would have been a full English but they forgot his black pudding.  Bamburgh helped by reading the menu because there were new things on it.

 Then we went to a town called Lichfield. It had lots of important people that used to live there like a man called Erasmus Darwin who was the grandfather of another man called Charles Darwin who invented evolution. Mummy has a poster of him on the wal in her office.

This house belonged to a man called Dr Johnson who wrote books and a dictionary.

Lichfield has a big church in the middle called a cathedral. It has three spires on the top. That's the pointy tower things. You can see them for miles and miles but they're really impressive up close. They are so tall that we couldn't get them all in the picture.

Inside the cathedral is really posh and it has all this stone vaulting and stuff and this thing next to us is called a font and this is a very ornate one.

We saw lots of stuff at the cathedral. There were big high windows with all coloured glass in them but they didn't come out very well in the photo.

There was treasure too, but they didn't really like you taking photos of that.

Visiting a pretty garden with Ruthie

 We took Ruthie to look round a pretty garden that's near where we live. It's called Whatton Hall but they won't let you look round the house, just the gardens. They are quite big though and it took all afternoon.

There were lots of these plants called  ro-do-den-drons and they have pretty pink flowers. And there were yellow ones too and red ones but this one was the prettiest.

 There was one bit of the garden where they put their pets after they died. I think these were all dogs but it was hard to read because the stones were all crumbly but one of them said it was a terrier so that's why I think they were all dogs. The stone said he was faithful but I couldn't read his name, which was sad.

 There was a big pond with ducks and we sat by it and watched them. It was peaceful under the trees by the pond.

All round the garden there were funny looking statues of animals and things. These were called cass-o-waries and they were big strange birds. We thought they were funny.

There was one bit of the garden where there were all Chinese things and some of them were scary looking men. The sign said they were copies of statues that were found in an old Chinese king's grave. He had lots of them made out of terracotta that's a red sort of pottery and he had a whle army of them. The king's name was Chin and that's why they call it China. The scary men were very tall and some of them were standing under big umbrellas.

Ruthie at the manor house

We took Ruthie out to see a bit of history because she said she kind of missed seeing the castle in Ashby. But we've been to the castle and we know a lot of it has fallen down and it's quite scary when you go up the tower and so we took her to a place where there's lots more to see and it's not scary and high up and tumbledown and you don't get wet when it rains. It's called Donington le Heath.

There are lots of things to see at Donington and loads of history because it so old. You can see how old it is just looking at the walls but the garden is good and has lots of tall hedges in it like they had in the olden days. If you look in the pictures you can see that the house has lots of wood in it and there's this clever thing they can do with wood to find out how old things are. They take out a really small bit and count the rings and they can tell when the tree was cut down. They have to compare it with a big sheet that goes back thousands of years, to check the pattern, but it means they can tell you an actual proper date like 1066 or 1776 not just some century or other. So they know the house was built between 1288 and 1295, which means the builders must have been REALLY slow!

The kitchen at Donington is dead good. They've got it all set out like it was working and there's food all over the table but none of it is real. It's plaster and things except the bread and that's real but they coated it in something to stop it going off so you can't eat it but it looks like you can. We spent ages looking at recipes and medicines that you can make out of herbs and there was this massive plastic cheese on the table and if it had been real it would have been yummy except they didn't have fridges then so it might have gone a bit runny in summer. We thought it would be nice to sit round the big kitchen table and eat cheese and bread and fruit and chicken and stuff.
The curly things on the plate are called jumbles. They are a local tasty biscuit.

There's lots of good rooms in Donington and we liked them all but you couldn't see much in some because they had an exhibition thingy on but we liked the bedroom. It had a big bed with curtains and they said that King Richard the Third had slept in it. I hope they changed the sheets since then because it was supposed to be before the battle of Bosworth in 1486. I don't know how they know but it was probably written down somewhere because they have lots of records about the Manor House and they can read up all sorts of interesting stuff. Like back in the 1960s the house belonged to a farmer and he used it to keep pigs in. I wonder how they managed to get upstairs?

Don't forget to check out Ruthie's own blog to find out why she came to visit us.

Ruthie's here!

Do you remember that I said Ruthie was coming to stay with us?  Well she arrived last night, but Mummy had to go to work today and so we went to the office with her and took Ruthie along so that she wouldn't be at home on her own all day.

The first thing we had to do was sort out a coat for Ruthie because it has been raining really really hard here and Mummy said she might go soggy if she got wet and so we made her a rain poncho to help keep dry. We let Bamburgh do the styling because he's the one who's good at fashion and stuff (even though Dexter used to be a model in a shop, Bamburgh's the one with the design talent). We think that Ruthie looks good in her new coat, what do you think?

Well we got to the office and there wasn't much for us to do so we showed Ruthie round and I didn't know that Mummy has all these pictures of us next to her desk but she does. She says it makes the day go faster if she can look at us sometimes. I wondered where all my Moo cards went and now I know but  I don't mind because if it helps Mummy that's a good thing.

We were going to take Ruthie into town at dinner time to see Robin Hood but it was raining really really hard and even the coat that Bamburgh made wouldn't have kept her dry and so we stayed in and looked at the view but the car park isn't very interesting. There are students living in the house on the other side of the car park and their yard is really really messy so we tried not to get that in the photo. Maybe we should have because at least that's interesting.

There are lots of animals where mummy works because that's what she does, all about animals that get used in science labs and why they shouldn't be and we agree. We think it's horrid that people do nasty things to animals even if it's to make new drugs and things because animals aren't like people and so the tests are probably all wrong anyway.  So the office has lots of plush (which is why we like going there because there's always loads of people to talk to) and we introduced Ruthie to them and I think she liked meeting them because she had a big smile.

To use up some more time we played with the stuff on Mummy's desk and we got all tangled up in the paper clips and made long strings out of them and Mummy was a bit upset because she said she would have to undo them all again but we liked it because there were pretty coloured ones and stripy ones as well and Ruthie was good fun because she helped us to make the strings.

And we learned something today as well called ee-vole-oo-shun and it's all to do with where we come from and there was a big chart on the wall but it didn't have any dragons on it so I don't think it's quite right but Mummy says an important man called Darwin sorted it all out and he was good at it so it was right except he didn't know about dragons and so he just left us out.

Mummy says tomorrow is a day off so we can take Ruthie somewhere interesting but I quite enjoyed going to the office and I hope she didn't mind that it was raining and stuff.

Have you heard of Flat Ruthie?

We found out about a cardboard person who is travelling the world and visiting people and we invited her to stay with us and she has agreed to come and see us. Isn't that great?

Her name is Flat Ruthie and she is Merican and she has been to 10 countries and 23 states, which is more than we have.  I don't know when she will get here. I just know that she is on her way, but I don't know how far she has to travel. She has recently been to San Diego. That's in Merica.

We shall take her to see some places round here. If she arrives when we go on holiday we shall take her to Wales, but otherwise we might have to show her bits of England. I hope she'll enjoy it.