Going Dutch

After Jacob spent the week near Frankfurt for a work conference I flew to meet him and we went to the Netherlands with his coworkers Irena (the boss), Becky and Marcia. We had such a fun time in a unique, lovely country! The windmills are beautiful and plentiful. We went to one location with 19 ancient windmills. And just so you know, there was a constant, strong wind the entire time we were in the Netherlands, so we understand why they harness the wind's power.

We went to a clog-making shop and saw an amazing demonstration about how they make the iconic wooden shoes. Here's a photo of Jacob browsing the wall of clogs; and a photo of me trying some on. Jacob tried on a pair too and found them surprisingly comfortable! To the left is something extraordinary--a clog for horses. No joke. We also experienced some of the famous Holland tulips. We went to a huge garden where we saw many breathtaking flowers. Some were outside, some were in huge greenhouses. All were beautiful!

just goofing off

We really enjoyed spending this morning in Brandon, the town where RAF Lakenheath is technically located. The bakery in town was gorgeous and delicious! And we took a walk through Thetford Forest (which we've blogged about before). Jacob enjoyed trying out the playground equipment, and I found a fun climbing tree. We loved the nicer weather this morning and the signs of spring.

Springtime photos

Things are beautiful around here! The tulips were in Cambridge yesterday, and the cherry blossoms and duck family were in our village last week (there's a river that forms the border of our village--the swans have just laid eggs too, so maybe I'll catch photos of the 'ugly ducklings' soon).

(I know they don't come close to the cherry blossoms my in-laws get to see in DC...Hi Miriam and Jim!)

Happy Easter!

Easter is easily my favorite holiday. Unlike Christmas, it still manages to focus on Jesus and not commercialism. (I know, there's still some commercial aspects, but they haven't hijacked the holiday. Plus, I can't complain when a holiday's primary commercial focus is chocolate.) I also enjoy the celebration of springtime and newness of life that come with Easter: flowers, eggs/chicks, bunnies, etc. It's a beautiful time of year. Happy Easter, everyone!

(Photographs in this post were taken on our last trip to Germany. They get really excited about Easter there!)

Daffodils

We're so glad to be home in England! And we were delighted to see all the beautiful daffodils all over the place. Some people's entire lawns are covered in these cheerful yellow flowers. We're excited for spring because England is one big, lovely garden.

Springtime, Part II

Last week we blogged about spring in Ipswich, so this week we'll focus on springtime closer to home. We've had beautiful weather this week, which is wonderful. But one effect of nice weather is an increase in spiders. A massive spider made its way into our house--the living room, to be exact--last week, and it was frightening. I didn't find any suitable anti-spider spray on base, so I asked Nigel, our gardener (responsible for the beautiful tulips in our garden, pictured above), to recommend a spider solution, and his answer shocked me. He said they don't actually spray for spiders in England. If a spider enters the house, they simply pick it up and throw it outside. Oh, the culture shock! We didn't realize we'd have to exercise English Patience by welcoming spiders into our home!
Many fields in our part of the country have recently turned into "rolling fields of mustard," as Jacob so poetically phrased it, and we were interested to find out the purpose of the flowers: they're rapeseed (brassica napus). In addition to being absolutely breathtaking in its flower form, rapeseed is a very useful substance. It has 2 interesting uses (in addition to the less interesting uses): First, it's used as a biofuel. Rapeseed is used more than any other plant as the oil base of biodiesel in Europe. The second interesting use is as a cooking oil. Rapeseed oil is actually more healthy than the ever-popular olive oil, with less saturated fat and far more Omega 3 and Omega 6 than olive oil, and rapeseed oil also contains Vitamin E. The flowers are also interesting in that they don't exhaust the resources of the fields they're planted in; later this year the same fields will yield something else, like sugarbeets. The countryside is literally flooded with these flowers, and we were interested to find out why!

In closing, here is a photo of springtime in Cambridge this past Friday. We love living so close to Cambridge that we can drive there after Jacob gets home from work and get home before it's dark!

Here's a teaser: next weekend we're going to Paris! Maybe the next post will be "Springtime in Paris," je ne sais pas. (:

Springtime in Ipswich

While Jacob was attending a meeting in Ipswich Saturday, I bravely ventured out on my own to do a bit of exploring. We had never been to Ipswich before, and I was eager to show myself around. After a few adventures in driving and parking I ended up at the magnificent Christchurch Park, a beautiful 70-acre park in the heart of Ipswich. It was the first really nice day of weather we've had--warm sunshine all day and no wind--so the park was full of people just enjoying the weather. It was absolutely idyllic.

One fascinating feature of the park was the trees. Some of them had interesting shapes and features, and I took a few photos of individual trees because of their uniqueness.

The central feature of the park is Christchurch Mansion, a stately home built in 1548-1550. Some rooms in the mansion have been preserved as past inhabitants might have known them; other rooms have become museums and galleries with paintings, pottery and other works of art. I was particularly impressed to see many works from John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough, the famous 18th-century Naturalist landscape painters who are both from Suffolk County.

The mansion and park were gorgeous, but the best part was the beautiful springtime weather!