Cambridge in March

Let's just talk about the weather here. A month ago, I was delighted to see some flowering cherries and a bit of forsythia, and green things poking out of the ground. Now, the daffodils are up, a couple are in bloom, but most of them are still just standing there, green as anything, waiting for a weeeee bit of sun to open them up. It's colder now than in December, I think. Now I know why everyone rushes out on sunny days to take pictures; it's to seduce us into thinking we'll get those lovely scenes all the time!

In any case, it's still quite nice, I suppose... It's not really rained much, and those green things sticking up are promising.... And another sure indication of spring and impending good weather: there are signs outside the major tourist trap colleges, announcing the season's admission prices and so on! The students are off studying for exams, I believe, and the tourists are starting to seep into town.

This is Science Week in Cambridge. Stephen went and talked to both kids' classes, and learned that when you're 5 or 6, science really only means dinosaurs. On Saturday, lots of the museums downtown were open, and there were tons of special activities for adults and kids. We saw a robot, who talked as if it could see the people, but had old CDs for eyes. The best part was when the robot offered you a sweet! Arthur saw a talk by Newton, or at least someone dressed up like Newton. We also went in the Whipple Museum, full of brass astrolabes and telescopes and a big lot of chemistry glass apparatus, which Elaine liked for potion making; and the Zoology Museum, with a giraffe skeleton, beautiful seashells and birds, mastodon teeth... everything you could desire. And there were places where kids could watch pointed-ended boats beat square-ended boats in a race; mix yeasty water in with flour to get a cup of muck to carry around until it rose; get a seedling to take home or paint on walls like people in Lascaux.


After our day of battling the science crowds, on Sunday we got on our bikes and went out to Grantchester and Trumpington. We stopped in at the Blue Ball for a
pint, then continued on to the church in Trumpington, which has a WWI monument with the name of local poet Rupert Brooke and others. It also has the second-oldest brass in the country, that of Sir Roger de Trumpington. Click on the little image on that page to make it ginormous. I'd show you our picture, but he's now under glass, and it's not easy to escape funny reflections!

This is the churchyard, with a tiny bit of pink in the corner, see??

I wonder if this is where you send the wee ones when you're in church? What exactly is Godly Play? Are there lots of those Noah's Arks with the little animals, and you can sail them around? Hmm. Or maybe clay, that you can make into little people! It's a mystery.

And now the kids are off at school, Stephen has gone to work, and I have to go get groceries. (Notice my restraint -- I didn't say anything about laundry!)

And really, honest, for sure, I'll have knitting pictures tomorrow! Really...