More on Stratford

In the spirit of being thorough and somewhat constant I wanted to share a few more highlights of the Stratford trip.

We went to Mary Arden’s farm first. Mary Arden was Shakespeare’s mother and I actually like this best of all of the Shakespeare “properties.” It was kind of cloudy but not cold and I felt like I’d walked onto a real farm. There were people in costume doing stuff and it was like it really needed to be done and they weren’t just going through the motions for tourists.

Recently a house on the farm, formerly known as “Glebe Farm”, has been opened. Most of the furniture there is Victorian rather than Tudor, including a multi-purpose high chair. Kind of in one end and out the other. The guy inside answering questions found out we were going to the play that night. He said he worked at the theatre and it was the best production of the “Tempest” he’d ever seen and by far the best Ariel he’d ever seen. It was a South African production and very “colourful”.

The play really was spectacular. It was the Lion King meets Shakespeare. It had a colonial twist (England colonizing third world countries) and was topical because of Apartheid etc. The music, decor, costuming and some of the actors were South African. Anthony Sher was Prospero (look him up, you might recognize him) and Ariel – who was South African lived up to my expectations. I ran into the guy from Mary Arden’s farm. He was selling programs and so I bought one.)

The girls had a good time thanks to how visually stimulating it was and how noisy it was. Plus Ferdinand was very cute and I knew they would all fall in love with him. Sure enough, when we were all outside they had already divided into two camps based on whether Ariel or Ferdinand had the best abs. They were very adamant and vocal in their debate and so when poor Ariel came out of the theatre to go home, they all accosted him wanting pictures and asking to see his abs. Meanwhile Tom was down the street getting cabs to take girls to the hostel. (Tony had used up his hours for the day.) We were finally able to start dragging them away and send them off in groups of 4 & 5.

About 15 minutes later Jess came around the corner and said guess who he had with him: Ferdinand. I thought he was joking but he had talked the actor into coming down the street to meet the girls. They were thrilled and those who’d already left were devastated.

The next morning we went to Blenheim Palace. Dad and I had never been there before. Tony approached it from a road that made the first glimpse, very stunning. It’s made of gold stone and is situated on grounds with gardens, lakes, a maze, etc. Winston Churchill was born there and spent a lot of his time there as a young child because he was related to the Marlboroughs who owned the house and still do. We decided to do a group shot on the steps and so the girls ran to the windows of the cars in the parking lot and started to do hair and make-up. I found it comical because their little faces were going to be tiny and a hair out of place wasn’t really going to matter.

I walked over to take a picture of one them primping and somehow the cord on my jacket got caught between the trunk and back bumper of one of the cars. By some fluke of nature this little metal thing slid down into the crack but wouldn’t come back out. I tugged and maneuvered it; everyone came to help except Dad who was no where to be found. It looked like the only options were to leave my jacket there, which would have looked weird and it was kind of cold, get it out somehow, or cut it off. Gnawing if off looked to be the only possibility (not really) until one of the girls found some scissors in her backpack. Thank goodness.

Well that’s all for now. (It was “Mothering Day” here in England last week and the Shulers gave me a cute card they’d all signed and a little sheep ‘cause they know I love sheep. They also call it Mum’s Day and there’s a movement to make the name officially Mothering Day, because everyone is getting lazy and calling it Mother’s Day.)

Love,
Mom/Becky