Mute Swans Ring for Supper

This week, George and I were fortunate to be guests of George's Dad and Diana in her hometown of Wells, the smallest city in England. It is a very quaint town centered around the beautiful and unique Wells Cathedral (which claims to have the world's oldest working clock) and the Bishop's Palace. The City was once walled and also contains a street called Vicar's close which claims to be the world's oldest complete medieval street. It was truly a beautiful place!

My favorite part was seeing the famous bell-ringing swans! Long ago someone trained a swan to ring a bell for its supper in the moat that surrounds the palace. That swan apparently taught its cygnets and so on through the generations. Now-a-days, crowds gather for the 3:00 feeding of the swans. If you don't believe me, just watch the video. If you want to see more pictures of Wells and our visit with Jeb, Diana, and her parents, Mary and Bill, check out the album to the right called "Wells".

Chronophage, devourer of hours

If you haven't heard about the Time-eating Clock in Cambridge, let me tell you about it. It is weird and amazing! The clock was developed by John Taylor, an inventor and alumnus of Cambridge. He wanted to create a tribute to John Harrison, the world's greatest clockmaker who "solved the problem of longitude in the 18th century." (There was a problem with it?) Stephen Hawking dedicated this clock in a ceremony just a few days before we arrived in Cambridge.

The giant insect on top rocks back and forth and turns the disc while the blue lights move to indicate the time. However, this clock is meant to keep time while symbolizing that time is relative, so it is only perfectly accurate every 5 minutes! Watch the pendulum in the daytime video and you'll see how the pendulum corrects itself. The overall effect is mesmorizing! It is hard to get a good video of this giant clock due to the reflection and the throngs of people surrounding it! If you listen in the nighttime video, you'll hear some of the Thursday night student merrymaking.

See this article for more information: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4783450.ece

City Boy in the Country

We drive on the left

One of George's American colleagues taught us a very helpful song.  It has no tune and is best sung in round repeatedly while driving.  The only lyrics are "We drive on the left, we drive on the left, we drive on the left..."  This is my new favorite song, especially since we are now the proud owners of Scratch, a '99 Honda Civic 'Estate'.  Actually, a station wagon (I can see you grimacing from here, Laurel!)  Fortunately, it has been well broken in by some other furry, slobbery dog, so we won't worry too much about it when Buddy arrives on Thursday.  But look out London, here we come!  If anyone has any mechanical advice about this car other than "don't buy one", here is your opportunity to shine :)

A Bike Ride Along the Cam

We've had 5 consecutive days of sunshine and we've been trying to enjoy every second!  Finally, it is overcast and so I'm taking time to share some more photos with you.  Last week I took a bike ride along the river Cam to get a feel for the countryside.  As soon as you leave the city limits, Cambridgeshire becomes very rural!  The first photo is our neighborhood.  This type of townhome is very typical for the area and we are lucky to be at the end of a row!  St. George's Church is just two doors down from us and has beautiful bells that chime on Sunday morning.   You probably know the reputation of Cambridge as a big rowing town and that is certainly true.  You see the men and women's teams out practicing in all kinds of weather.  The cows grazing along the Cam are a very common site (even in the greens within the city limits!) and most of the area outside of the city is agricultural.  The last photo was taken on a green within the city called Jesus Green.  When the sun comes out, people flock to these greens to picnic, read, or relax, including us.

Home Sweet Home

Man, is Buddy going to love it here!  Our new home is like a dog heaven: a muddy backyard filled with squirrels, hedgehogs(!?!), and cats and white carpets inside!  We weren't told until we had closed the deal that this house comes with one very persistent cat.  Meet Chester.  Or Fred, depending on who you ask.  He sits on the patio and looks into the dining room like this most of the day, rain or shine!

We are really enjoying our new home and are starting to learn how to use all the gadgets.  What we don't have yet are our boxes with decorations.  As you can see, our landlady, though very nice, is not aware of any colors outside of the white palette...ideas anyone?

The room with the white (!) bedspread is the guest room.  Yours when you want it!

The most exciting part for me is the garden.  It is more like a secret garden but I'm beginning to understand why.  Will it ever stop raining/hailing/winding enough for me to go outside and do anything???