Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre

Once again, my girls weren't tempted by our outing, so Mike and I spent Friday at the Christmas market in Bury St. Edmunds while the girls were in school. I just love when Mike takes a day off work so we can do a little day trip by train.

Bury St. Edmunds is such a cute town for exploring. I love the carless streets, little shops and pretty buildings.

I've mentioned to Mike before that all adults in Britain seem to have full-time employment except for me and the retired folks. This Christmas fair crowd is just another little piece of evidence.

We were interested in trying out some of the foods for sale. However, we weren't tempted by the pork scratchings. Apparently, similar to pork rinds, deep fried and salted, then eaten cold.

Another of the interesting food selections. This was just a wrap sandwich with duck meat. We were more leaning towards the German sausages (Mike) or the Danish pancakes (me), except right around lunchtime a little storm blew in. We weren't prepared for the rain and cold (I know, crazy when you're in England. We'd been lulled into a false sense of security due to the week of sunshine and relatively balmy temperatures - high 40s!), so gave up the street food in favor of an indoor, heated cafe.

One of the many knitting shops in town had this cute Christmas display.

To be honest, I'm not sure what he's supposed to be dressed as, but he does look festive.

Most of the stall keepers were dressed in some kind of period costume. Not of any particular, consistent era that I could tell. This gentleman looks turn of the century, Sherlock Holmes-ish, while others looked more of an era 100 years or more earlier.

Part of the stalls were set up in the town's assembly room. Isn't it pretty?

Mike in the assembly room.

I went to the market all set to take lots of pictures of the wares for sale, but actually didn't find much that was very tempting to me. We give Bury St Edmunds high marks for location, size and atmosphere, but preferred Ely Cathedral market's shopping offerings.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our mini Thanksgiving day feast

We tracked down a turkey at a local farm - most turkeys aren't available around here until a little closer to Christmas.

Mike was thankful this year to have this whole pot of gravy all to himself - none of the rest of us like it.

Camille and Anya (unpictured) were thankful to miss a day of school to celebrate Thanksgiving.

And I'm thankful to be here in England this beautiful autumn season.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Victorian Audley End

We had a less than perfect outing to the nearby country home Audley End yesterday to see their Victorian Christmas. As you can see, the house itself is currently covered in scaffolding. We had a limited time to visit. Mike and I had reserved a car for a few hours to get some errands done. We finished early and so thought we'd spend the rest of the time on a nearby family outing. I initially thought we'd have all the time we'd need, as my girls' patience with trooping around country homes is limited. Well, when we arrived Anya decided she was desperately hungry. Once Anya has decided that, there is nothing to be done until that is taken care of. There was quite a crowd because of the special Christmas decorations and activities and only one guy working in the cafe. Forty-five minutes in line later, we were left with only 15-20 minutes before we had to leave to get the car back. Normally we could extend our time via iphone, except data coverage is TERRIBLE in England. Mike wasn't able to find anywhere where his phone would work. We were stuck with the time deadline.

We left Anya waiting in line from time to time to do a little wandering. I got to meet this reindeer up close and personal.

Camille and Mike did a little exploring of the pretty grounds.

They had quite a crew of people dressed up in Victorian clothing wandering the estate. They also had various stations where they focused on the Victorian era: games, music, hunting, history, etc. They also were staging an abbreviated rendition of a Christmas Carol and had Father Christmas (it's always Father Christmas here, not Santa). We had to skip all that due to our time restraints.

Maybe in part because they knew I was a little annoyed about the snack delay, my kids were on their best wandering and taking pictures behavior.

Fall season is coming to an end around here.

Skipping past all the servants' life areas to get a quick glance at the house.

My pictures inside didn't turn out, but we didn't see much of the house anyway. We got two rooms in before I realized we really had to get going if we were going to get the car back in time.

It's trips like these that make me happy to have the English Heritage pass. It's a year family pass to a number of historical sites. We've seen Dover Castle, Framlingham Castle, Bury St Edmunds Abbey and now Audley End with our pass. What's better, is we'll be able to easily come back and try again another day.

Advent Calendars

It could very well be that they sell advent calendars everywhere this time of year in America. I'm not the most observant of people. Lately, here, that's what I've been noticing as I've been shopping around town - advent calendars everywhere!

Cute little advent calendar cards

 Advent calendar Cambridge style

 Chocolate shop advent

 Beatrix Potter advent

Grocery store advent

 gingerbread cookie advent

 Of course you need your advent tea lights

 Pretty Germany paper advents

 English country-house advent

Pop-up advent

 Finger nail polish advent

Toy advents

What I am sad about is that I didn't realize how fast these things sell out. The popular drug store Boots had an advent calendar filled with make-up, lotions, bath gels and such that sold out immediately. Some make-up brands had their own calendars that sold out fast too. I really wish my kids were into Legos so I could buy one of the Lego advents. That seems so fun for kids. Now I can't decide between the rest. Do I buy another advent calendar or stick with our traditional one we pull out every year?

Ely Cathedral Christmas Craft Fair

Not only does my husband happily watch Pride and Prejudice with me, he takes me to Christmas craft fairs as well! AND he enjoyed it. I'm not sure if he would be willing to come along if I were attending a craft fair in an old gym in America, but place it in an old cathedral in England and he's happy to oblige. Mike took the day off work Friday so we could go while the girls were in school (crowds and shopping are not a good combo for them). We had a nice day browsing and getting lunch.

I do believe this is the first time I have actually seen a tea cozy! I've always imagined them as the most useless of objects, but look how cute.

 We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to poke around the rest of the cathedral.

I'm just a tiny bit worried that I've already spent a good portion of my own Christmas present budget (you know, for me). I need to pace myself, as Christmas fair/market season is just beginning. Someone asked me if the market was any good. As it's the first one in England I've been to, I'd say yes. I'll try to make it to a few more this season so I can compare.

St. John's College Old Library

A few weeks ago Cambridge University sponsored a Festival of Ideas. They held a series of talks and lectures all over the university that were open to the public. I could have taken the opportunity to learn all kinds of things, but instead I decided to visit St. John's College's Old Library. It's normally not open to the public so I was happy to get a chance to visit it.

 The library was built in the 1600s, and at the time was the largest collection in Cambridge.

 The books are so old the titles aren't printed on the spines.

 This is a close-up of the decorative bookshelves.

They have a few books on display, including a first edition with Robert Herrick's famous poem.

The first illustrated edition of Paradise Lost.

Also, since the college was open I was able to see the Bridge of Sighs, which the public usually can't see except from a punt.

More of the beautiful St. John's College.

This post might be of interest to only me. I enjoy these little chances to tour my temporary home town though.

Bonfire Night

Mike moved to Cambridge in May, while the girls and I joined him in June. Up until this week then, the only holidays we'd experienced in England were bank holidays. It seemed a little odd to me that they don't seem to be celebrating anything in particular. It will just be called the "May Bank Holiday" or the "August Bank Holiday." Even though I treat a lot of holidays in America as just a day off, in the back of my mind I do like that they're celebrating something in particular and that somewhere - often not at my house - people are going all out decorating and planning special events to celebrate. So I was happy to be here for Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Day and see that some holidays in England are associated with special traditions and commemorating a particular event. 

Guy Fawkes Day, more commonly referred to as Bonfire Night, celebrates the capture of Guy Fawkes before he was able to carry out his plot to assassinate King James I with a plan involving explosives in the House of Lords. People celebrated by lighting bonfires around London. Before now, I would have guessed that Guy Fawkes Day was celebrating some guy named Guy Fawkes. No, it's celebrating his downfall. Every fifth of November England celebrates with bonfires and fireworks. Anya thought the fireworks were too loud, so we watched the show a block or so away from the action.

I hear that in times past people would make up a "Guy" (a scarecrow kind of thing) to drag through the town and throw on the bonfire. Kind of gruesome, but definitely distinctive. Not at all the kind of thing that would fly in America given our racial tensions history. I guess it doesn't fly in England anymore either.

In order to get a picture of Anya and the bonfire without hoards of people, we had to get so far away that the bonfire no longer looks that impressive. Camille was meeting her church group. Anya and I got separated from them, so no picture of Camille.

Today is Veterans Day and yesterday was Remembrance Sunday. While Veterans Day isn't a day off here, I do think the observance is taken a little more seriously than in America. All around town people have been wearing paper poppies that they buy to honor the veterans. In church we observed two minutes of silence for the veterans (as did people across the country), and all the meeting's talks and music were focused on the Remembrance Day theme. At the same time, around town there were public services and processions.

I love seeing how holidays are celebrated in other countries. I'm glad the English holiday calendar isn't completely filled with "bank holidays."