Plague Day at Woolsthorpe

You come across all kinds of strange people when you go for a walk in the woods around Woolsthorp Manor. Mind, it was Gravity Fields Festival and Woolsthorpe was celebrating Plague Day!
There was a trail to follow that took us through fields and over styles and along rough and muddy forest paths.
The first person we saw was very scary. He wore a Bird Mask and didn't speak at all. He just pointed us on our way.

We came across a small church and in the graveyard was Samuel Pepys and his wife. He was writing in his diary about his fears of the Plague. He asked us if we'd seen any people who looked like they were ill. He told his wife he wanted her to leave London with his children so they wouldn't become infected. His wife was crying because she didn't want to leave him. It was all very sad.

Inside the church it was deserted apart from a young woman singing a sorrowful song. She sounded heart-broken. When I looked closer I saw she was holding a dead child in her arms. No wonder she was so sad.

Mourning her dead child

We made our way into the village and suddenly a man appeared. He didn't look well at all. He had red boils and blood on his face. We walked swiftly passed!

Next we saw a woman standing by a little bridge that went over a babbling stream. She didn't seem ill  and she was holding small bunches of yellow flowers in her hands. After she'd checked that we weren't infected she tried to sell us the flowers as she said they would protect us from the plague. "Buy a ring of rosies, a pocket-full of posies" was what she said to us.

She was also selling  what looked like pendants with number squares on them. She explained the numbers would protect us from the plague too. She was quite insistent we buy from her but then we were interrupted by a loud bell ringing and a clattering noise! It was a small boy pulling a wooden cart. Suddenly he yelled, "Bring out your dead!"  He asked us if we'd seen any dead people. We were about to say "No" but then I spotted a couple of bodies in a nearby stream. The boy was excited because the more bodies he collected, the more money he was paid!

We headed along a path into the woods and soon came across an elderly couple. The old man asked us if we'd buy his wedding ring because he needed money so they could head north to find "cleaner air" His wife was upset and crying; she didn't want to leave at all.

Further along, and deeper into the woods we came across a lady sitting knitting. She said she was waiting for her children. It turned out her children were sewer rats! They came screaming out of a tunnel and gave us all a fright! She said "Oh, come here my lovely children" but then she scolded them for eating the corpses!

Knitting clothes for her "children"

The "children" turned out to be Rats!

 Further into the forest it became darker and then we came across the Grim Reaper! He didn't say much, he just glared at us and beckoned us further into the wood.

We came across a clearing and we saw three graves. Mom and I posed for a picture. We didn't hang about though as a man with a Bird-Mask carrying a Bible made his way towards us. Mom asked why he was wearing the mask but we were met with a stony silence.

We headed quickly off and came across another couple. They turned out to be a rich land owner who had lost all of his family and servants to the plague and the lady with him was his last remaining servant. He had a pile of his belongings and a "special" chair. However, he expected his servant to carry all of it! She was crying because she couldn't carry it all. The land -owner turned to father and asked him if he could buy me! He actually though I was a servant! Dad asked him "How Much?

We climbed a very awkward style, crossed a path and out of nowhere two women appeared. They definitely had the plague so we kept our distance. They pointed at Father and said, "He definitely has the Plague!"

There were more graves in the fields. This time a man stood nearby. He had lost his wife and child and he had nothing left to live for.

We climbed uphill and came across a woman and her little boy sitting in the field. She looked really grey and sad. She wanted us to take her child because she was dying. She didn't look too bad until she pulled up her sleeve and her arm was covered in ghastly boils. It made me feel quite sad.

Further uphill we saw the Mayor. He was surprisingly jolly. He was confident the plague would not reach the town and things weren't really that bad. We were asked lots of questions like, did we have a cough, or a fever or boils on our bodies. When we answered "No" we were allowed to go on our way. Thankfully, the plague never actually spread as far as Woolsthorpe but sadly it claimed many, many lives.

Gravity Fields Festival!

As you know, a festival in Grantham is being held to celebrate 350 years since Isaac Newton's Year Of Wonders. The festival is called Gravity Fields. In my last post, I wrote about the first show to start off the festival: Ockham's Razor. The rest of the weekend was packed full of Isaac Newton themed events and shows.

The first part of the festival that we saw on Saturday was the Anti-Gravity Box. The box was decorated to look like it was flipped on its side. When you had your picture taken inside the box, it looked like gravity didn't affect you! It was a bit disorientating but it was quite a lot of fun to try to come up with creative poses!

Shortly after having our pictures taken in the Anti-Gravity Box, we saw a talk about maths from the author and scientist, Simon Singh. The talk was themed around The Simpsons. Before the talk began, I couldn't understand how you could have a maths talk about The Simpsons, however, once Simon started explaining all of the hidden maths references in the show, I realised that there were loads of things to do with maths.

Quite a few of the directors and writers of The Simpsons are mathematicians, so they liked to slip a few maths jokes in every now and again.

The next show was very unique. It took place in a little van with a tent attached to it for the audience. Since me and father arrived to the show early, we got to sit inside the van, right next to the man who was performing. The performance was all about the first trip to the Moon. The man played Michael Collins, the third man who went up to the Moon in the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Michael, however, did not land on the Moon. He was left in the spacecraft, unable to contact anybody, for 48 minutes while he orbited the dark side of the Moon. He actually went around the Moon multiple times as Neil and Buzz explored the Moon on foot. During the 48 minutes while he orbited the moon he played his guitar, he ate snacks, and contemplated life.
Just based on this story, the show sounds very serious. The man made the talk quite the opposite, though. He sang, played his guitar, joked around, danced and played music for us. For one part of the show, he had me hold a microphone for him and father hold a torch, while he gazed out of the van window as if it really was a spaceship window. I was desperately trying to stop laughing! It didn't help that the man who led everyone to the van was laughing his head off beside me.

Even though the show was really light-hearted and funny, I definitely learnt a lot about the first mission to the Moon.

For the final show, we saw Dr Death and his Rat teach us all about doctors and surgeons in the 17th century. He explained how the answer to any sort of medical condition was bleeding. As you can probably imagine, it didn't work very well and a lot of people died from illness and injury back then. The illness that killed the most people was the Great Plague. There was no cure for the plague and the people didn't really know how to prevent it. There was no such thibg as hygiene then so the plague spread quickly. People thought it was passed from person to person through smells, so they wore masks with scented flowers inside to try to stop themselves from getting infected. The plague was actually spread by rats and their fleas!  To help explain all of this, Dr Death had a little rat puppet who liked to sing and interrupt Dr Death. He was very funny! There was a lot of maggots, blood and drinking urine!
Saturday was the Ingenious Night Out with street performers, fierce fire-blowing machines and rainbow umbrellas. The streets of Grantham were very busy and noisy!

I wonder what Isaac Newton would have made of it all!







Isaac Newton Statue in Grantham

Ockham's Razor!

The Dance Of Death!

Ockham's Razor is an ariel theatre group that have recently been performing for the Gravity Fields festival in Grantham. The Gravity Fields festival is being held in honor of the 300-year anniversary of Isaac Newton's Year of Wonders. When Isaac Newton returned to his home in Grantham due to the Great Plague, he discovered many incredible things such as the Laws of Motion, Gravity and how light is made of a spectrum of different colours. We call this year his "Year of Wonders".

The Ockham's Razor performance was held at the beautiful St Wulfram's Church. The magnificent stained glass windows definitely added to the aesthetic of the entire performance. When me and mom first arrived, we thought we were in the wrong place because everyone looked very posh and sophisticated. Most of the men even had suits on and there were women serving glasses of champagne!
During the show, extremely talented acrobats danced and performed on balancing poles and scaffholding structures high off the ground. The entire show was split into three sections and each section told a special story.
The first section featured two women and a man and it showed "the best and worst of humanity". Without speaking, the acrobats displayed love, envy, hate, fear, mercy and forgiveness.
The second part was a duet between a man and a woman on a metal frame suspended in the air. It was based on Holbein's woodcuts of "The Dance Of Death". Death was represented as a skeleton who danced a woman to her grave. It was quite dramatic!
Isaac Newton said, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." The third part of the show was about how everyone's actions affect someone else and how those actions can lead to friendship. There were four acrobats in this performance who twisted and spun and climbed while suspended by 25 metres of rope.

Watching all of the magnificent performances made me feel very calm, as if nothing else was happening in the world. I wonder if the other Gravity Fields performers will be as good as that?

Perfect Purple Pottasium!

I had a very early start yesterday as I had to get up at 6 am to go to the all day hands-on science show at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton. It was a long drive and we had to be there by 9.20 am! Despite leaving an entire hour early, we still arrived late thanks to the incredibly slow traffic in Luton city centre. It was absolutely ridiculous! I normally like long car journeys as I can listen to my music in the car but it was not an enjoyable journey.


We arrived at the University in the pouring rain and we were late. Fortunately, everybody else was late too! There were around 20 home ed kids there including Tilly and Lavinia.
The show itself was very impressive. It was more like a workshop because we did loads of hands-on experiments and we got to handle all of the dangerous chemicals and acids ourselves. We did the work-shop in a real laboratory in white coats, gloves and goggles! Health and safety was important; I had to cover my open sandals with blue shoe covers and tie my hair up! Next time, I will come prepared and save myself from the embarrassment of wearing unflattering plastic bags on my feet!
The first half of the workshop was all about Biology and Digestion. There was a life size model of a human torso showing all the organs inside. We did lots of experiments with enzymes to see which ones work better in different conditions. Enzymes are important for the digestion of food. I was surprised that we got to handle such dangerous chemicals like Hydrochloric acid.

We had to wear gloves for that but it was still quite scary. We did experiments on eggshells to see how quickly they dissolved in different solutions. The solution of hydrochloric acid and pepsin at body temperature was the most effective at dissolving the eggshells. After lots of cool experiments we stopped for lunch at 12.30.

The second part of the Science workshop in the afternoon was all about Chemistry. We used Bunsen burners to observe the colour of the flame as we burnt different chemicals. We had to wear safety goggles for this but we were told that we didn't have to wear gloves. My favourite colour flame was a really vivid green. I forgot which chemical you used to get that colour but it was really pretty! I've just checked my notes and it was copper sulphate! The flame burned a lovely purple when it was exposed to potassium. We were given a task to try to identify chemicals by igniting them and looking at the colour of the flame. Sounds simple doesn't it? The first set of chemicals were easy to identify but then it became much more difficult; all of the chemicals had an orange flame! It was really frustrating and I though we must be doing something wrong. It turned out they were all the same chemical: calcium. This was no mistake by the tutors, it was deliberate to confuse and baffle a bunch of kids! Apart from that, I really enjoyed being a scientist for the day!

It was a long drive home and by the end of the journey, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open! I definitely won't be waking up at 6am again for a long time.

Pony Progress!

Ever since Pony Club started back up again, I've been making good progress. I've collected two sew- on badges for my Pony Club Jumper and one rosette and certificate for "walking and trotting without stirrups".

The sew on badges were for "mucking out and grooming". That's a total of 4 sew on badges now!

I hope we'll be working on the badge that's all about how the horses move and their different gaits next time. I've been looking at all of the different footfalls very closely, so I should be pretty good at it now.
We should be starting our next badge on Monday, which is only a couple of days away. I can't wait to see what it is!

An Animal-filled Weekend!

The Burghley Horse Trials are one of the biggest horse events in the UK. Dad was very generous and bought us tickets! Unfortunately, it rained all day long so we couldn't completely enjoy the day out. Even so, I really loved looking at all of the different horsey products. There were so many huge white tents to explore, I bet we only saw half of them! There were people selling everything you could ever need for a horse including  specialised feed,  shiny leather tack,  padded head collars and my favourite, saddle pads! I know it's a bit weird but I really have a thing for saddle pads!
There were physiotherapists for horses, horse dentists,  and even solariums for horses! I loved the life-size horse models showing the muscles and skeletons.

Amongst the stalls there was a woman advertising riding holidays to amazing places like Andalusia, Iceland and Costa Rica. I would love to go on a riding holiday. My first choice would be Iceland because Icelandic horses are very special.

Back to Burghley. Of course, actually seeing the horses tackling such challenging jumps, was the best part of the day. The very first fence that the horses had to jump over was gigantic! I couldn't believe that the horses could actually clear it. Further along the course, there was a long, straight track with a  clear view, where you could take great pictures of the horses galloping at full speed towards you. It was amazing!

Exotic Pet Refuge

Who knew there was a bunch of wild animals just 20 minutes up the road from me?!!

Sleepy Barn Owl

 The EPR is a safe haven for animals that have been rescued from the animal trade. It's run entirely by volunteers and is not open to the public like zoos are. However it has 6 open days a year and last Sunday was one of them. They have open days to educate the public, raise awareness and of course, raise much needed funds.  Despite having no government funding and relying solely on donations, they have a massive collection of rare and special animals. They have everything from domestic snakes, shell-less turtles, monkeys and owls,  to wolf-dog hybrids! Despite how amazing the wolf-dogs were, my favourite animal was by far the ocelot.

Thatch

The ocelot was female and named "Thatch". She came to the refuge from a zoo where she lived and worked in the "Pets Corner" as an experience animal when she was a kitten. She was hand reared and has never had any contact with other ocelots. At first, she was very nervous when she came to the refuge and only tolerated female members of staff. When I saw her on Sunday though, she wasn't shy at all. The keeper put a deer's leg in her enclosure and Thatch slunk gracefully out of her den to eat it. She was beautiful and very agile. Her teeth crunched the meaty bone like it was a packet of Quavers!




The wolf dog hybrids were called Freya and Boscoe and they have only been at the refuge a few months. A couple of people had tried to keep them as pets but they quickly realised that they couldn't control them. They are half wolf, half dog but their wolf instincts are more dominant and powerful.
Freya was more timid and shy than her mate Boscoe and she rarely appeared from the undergrowth where she was hiding. Boscoe though, was quite the opposite. He was not afraid of the people spectating, especially when the keeper hurled joints of meat and whole chickens over the fence! I spent a long time looking at him. He was so strong an magnificent! I would have loved to be able to touch him; his coat looked really thick and soft. Maybe one day I will get to stroke him, as the refuge welcome volunteers from 14 years old!

Boscoe

On the way home we drove along the banks of the Welland river. We came across three beautiful ponies: a Shetland, a Welshie and a magnificent Cob. I just had to get out of the car to get a better look. They all came trotting over!That was the best end to an animal-filled weekend.

Witches, Ponies and a couple of Castles!

Macbeth
Macbeth is the most recent Shakespeare play that I went to see at Tolethorpe Open Air Theatre and it is definitely the best one I've seen so far! All of the actors were really impressive, but Lady Macbeth's  was definitely the best. She played an insane woman very realistically. She really looked like she'd gone mad! The three witches were also incredible. Their costumes were impressive: they had long, spindly fingers with sharp pointed nails; wild hair with twigs and feathers tangled in it; and they croaked their lines and played their parts very well. They were quite scary and they looked amazing!
Wild west Pony Club

After many weeks of missing Pony Club, I finally got to get on a horse again at the eight-hour-long Wild West Day at Willow Farm. All of the children that came were either dressed as Cowboys or Indians. I decided to go as an Indian. The main reason why I went to the event was because we got to ride bareback! We only rode for about twenty minutes or so, but I think any longer would have killed me. We did lots of trotting bareback and after not riding for so long, trotting hurts a lot, especially if you're riding bareback.

Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day, we had hardly stopped at all! We built dens, played games, raced each other and at the end of the day we had a waterfight. During the waterfight, I got two whole buckets of water dunked on me. It was very cold, but very refreshing at the same time.
It turns out that eight hours of running around means that you can barely move your legs the next day!

Rockingam: Vikings Invasion

Rockingham Castle

Now you might be wondering where the castles come in. Well, the other day mom and I visited Rockingham Castle again. There was a special Vikings and Saxons event on, so it was quite busy. We got to see a demonstration of the Vikings invading and killing the Saxons and it was really impressive! They were definitely going all out in the fights. It was a bit scary, actually!

When we were looking around all of the tents and displays, the armour and weapons tent caught dad's eye. There was a woman dressed up as a Saxon wife and she was letting people try on the very heavy  helmets and hold the shields. Dad just couldn't resist the offer!

This guy had lots of animal pelts including a lovely whitr Russian Fox!

Dinner Time!

Kenilworth Castle

The magnificent ruins of Kenilworth Castle

The next day, it was Tilly's 13th birthday. To celebrate, we visited Kenilworth Castle for the Kenilworth Seige. Kenilworth Castle holds the title of the castle that was under the longest ever siege in England. It lasted for 6 months! It would have lasted longer, only the people inside the castle were starving and ridden with disease. There were performers re-ennacting the siege and it was very intense; there were flaming arrows, swords, and best of all, Seige machines that launched huge rocks at the castle walls. It was a really good performance.

Later, I loved exploring the castle ruins. It must have been very grand before it became a ruin as Queen Elizabeth 1st used to stay there for a holiday!

There were lots of tents with people dressed  in medieval clothes. Some were cooking on open fires, or weaving tapestries. There were men demonstrating their weapons and their heavy chain mail. There was also a medieval "doctor" who told us about leeches and amputations! He went on a bit, but I got to see the leeches close up!

Leeches!

It's a shame the castle is a two hour drive away for me bit I think we will be going back when it's less busy!