The Rasmusens in Oxford

We went to Windsor Castle today. I hadn’t written about going to Farmer Gow’s Farm, but I won’t do that here either. I will jot down some notes about our trip today. We were going to start off at 8:30, but Faith woke up at 5 or 5:30 and wouldn’t go back to sleep. She’s been sick, but it wasn’t exactly that. We took her into our bedroom downstairs, and she wanted to talk and play. As a result, after we let her get up around 8 when the other children got up, and we went back to sleep. We left around 10:15, and made amazingly good connectoins, which we needed to do. We arrived at the bus stop on Woodstock Road literally seconds before the 300 bus; Dad jogged ahead to buy railroad tickets and we got onto the 11:00 train just in time, and got the last few seats, scattered here and there. The castle was very close to the station, and we liked seeing the keep and the state apartment paintings especially. Dad liked the Waterloo dining room, with its amazing arrangement of portraits and light, and the Holbeins and Rembrandts. We had to rush through because of toilet and tiredness limitations, alas.

The St. George Chapel was grand too, and the weather was warm– around 50– if windy. We had tea (tea, coffee, milkshakes, eggs and chips) at the Drury House, a 17th century building. We went shopping at the Edinburgh wool shop afterwards, and had another adventure–losing Holminy, who when everyone else was upstairs lost track of us and went back to the station. She came back to the shop later, though, finding it again with some effort, and most of the kids and Mama were there. Dad and Faith returned shortly from the station where they’d been looking.

Then we did an hour’s shopping, visited an art gallery and a cosmetics shop and a Waitrose to buy tissues and Christmas cracker. We chose Wagamama, a Japanese noodle house, over Cafe Rouge, a French restaurant chain, and then took the train back and two taxis to home.

Today Mama and Holminy went to London to Covent Garden to see the Royal Opera. Oops–must leave. I’ll leave this unfinished.

We took a pleasant day-trip to Stonehenge and Old Sarum yesterday. We started late in the morning and stopped at Millet’s Farm for lunch. That’s a farm grocery and garden store south of Oxford where some of the children went to a corn maze during church camp in the summer. Then we coninued south, the children in a jolly mood singing songs and performing, for the hour or two to Stonehenge. The countryside is easier to see now that the leaves are gone.

Stonehenge is right next to the highway. We joined English Heritage, which manages it, and went under the highway through a tunnel to get to the walkway around the stones (which people aren’t actually allowed to go into and touch). We were given little speakers with controls; you press the number of the sign you are near, and put the speaker next to your ear to hear all about it. It was around freezing and windy, so Mother, Faith, and Lilli turned back soon. Dad lent his gloves to Elizabeth, who had forgotten hers, and Amelia managed somehow. The commentary was good and the crowds were light. Then in the car we ate pastries from Millet’s Farm.

It was around 3, so we decided to try to see Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral, some 15 miles to the south. We arrived at Old Sarum and found that in December, because of early dusk, the castle closes at 3! The place was surprisingly enjoyable, though, since we could walk around most of the site. On a hill the ancient Britons and Romans constructed earthen ramparts, and within those, the Saxons and Normans built a deep deep ditch and a higher hill for a castle. The Normans even built a cathedral there. Around 1220, the entire town was abandoned, though, in favor of Salisbury down near the river. Only a few ruins remain of the castle walls, and even the cathedral’s location was lost till the 1800s. It was excavated then, and one can see the foundations and part of the cellar. Old Sarum is most famous because despite its ghost town status, it continued sending two members to Parliament till the 1832 Reform Bill.

On our way back we missed an important turn and ended up too far east, but that let us eat at a pub in the village of Dummer which was most enjoyable. A dozen or so people were having a dinner party in the dining room in which we were the only other guests. Some of them were wearing paper crowns. We had cod and plaice and lasagna and chips and peas, and Old Speckled Hen ale. We also got directions, and made it back to Oxford around 8 p.m. We saw a meteorite fall– a Geminid, no doubt– on our drive back.

All in all,one of our best days, despite the cold.

It’s getting very dark here early now, since we’re so far North in latitude, and damp and grey too. We’ll really appreciate it when the days start to get longer again. But it’s Christmastime too, and we’ve enjoyed some new Christmas activities. Advent is made much of here. We’ve been doing daily Bible readings and have Advent candles too, though we often forget to light them.  We have a live little Christmas tree in a pot, and lights for our front window which are cheery. We’ve been caroling with St. Ebbe’s church people in St. Ebbe’s Parish downtown. The whole family went along, and we had a good time despite it being cold (40 degrees?), walking from place to place and with Amelia and Lizzie both able to read the words on the songsheets. Ben and Lilli and Faith were good sports despite not being able to sing along. We had mulled wine and little individual mince pies at Helen and Matt’s house afterwards.

Something quite new to us : some of our neighbors organized the German tradition of having us visit a different house each night at 5pm for carol singing and bible story time. Various of us have been to some of these.  After the carol, and short story, we share a treat and drink mulled wine or juice.