Happy Christmas and Happy New Years from England!

So much has been happening this last year, that I gave up the idea of trying to blog as it happened. I'll try to do better next year, but don't hold your breath. Let's face it, I don't get much down time. :-)

January - March was spent in Montreal. The hard part about this was the back and forth with the client about how long we would be there. Each week they changed their minds. It made it very hard to get comfortable and enjoy ourselves, when we knew we may need to pack up and leave in a couple days. While there, we managed to see quite a few things. We went to the Biodome several times, which is a combination zoo and aquarium, that was built in the arena that held the Olympics in 1976. While at the Biodome, Jon decided his phone wasn't clean enough and dropped it in with the starfish to give it a bath.
 

Behind the Biodome was the Botanical Gardens. Since we were there in the winter, we just went the the greenhouses. But it was nice to go somewhere that was green in the middle of winter. We also attended their special butterfly festival, where they loaded one greenhouse full of butterflies for a few weeks.

Diane and I also made several trips to the local Museum of Art. We were fortunate enough to catch a Waterhouse exhibit. All of us also went to the Biosphere. Which is an ecological museum - or in that general line. It was nice, but really aimed at younger kids.

In February, we met up with an email homeschooling family and had a great time sledding. The mom had tutored Diane in some math the summer before. In exchange, Diane played mother's helper to their five year old daughter - over Skype. Both the girl and her younger brother decided to adopt Diane as a big sister. She has quite a following with the 8 and younger set.

For March we headed home for a couple of weeks. As you can see from our upsidedown Chula, nothing gets in the way of a really comfortable nap. And for the record, he sleeps on his back frequently. On our trip back from Montreal, we lucked into seeing some bears. The pictures aren't easy to make out, but it's a mama and her two cubs. 



April found us back in Montreal. Sometime Jon would stay there, while Diane and I stayed in Maine for a few weeks, getting caught up on things there. And other times, we would all be in Montreal. Finally, the client didn't need Jon anymore. So we took a week and bit and headed to Texas. We were planning on heading to London soon, so we drove the RV down to Houston, to a consignment place. If figured if we were in England for a year or two, there was no sense in keeping the RV. We are still waiting for her to sell, though, so maybe we are suppose to keep her. At least there, she is being looked after, started, etc. In May, the cats' paperwork was all but done. We just needed the final date for when we were heading for England.

 After arriving back in Maine, Jon got word to return to Montreal for another month. Our June England trip got bounced until July. June is lupine time in New Hampshire. Lupines are in the same family as blue bonnets, but they are the tall version and they come in many colors. Franconia Notch is known for their lupines. This field was purple/blue ones. Diane and I went back with him for a week and meet our old friends and some new homeschooling friends. Diane spent 3 days swimming and at the park playing with kids ages 2 to 16.  Then we returned to Maine and packed for London. We finally got official word and left on July 7th.

The Flight over was long but no issues. We almost didn't make it in to the country, though. The customs guard was not happy with Jon's work pass. It was good for 6 months, but most people come and go on it. We were staying the full 3 months. He finally got on the phone to the company's lawyer and an hour later informed us, that it wasn't quite proper, but he'd allow it this time. His parting remarks to us as he stamped the papers were that homeschooling (or home educating as it is called here) was illegal and we needed to make other arrangements. I knew better having checked the laws out and emailed with several home educators here in England. I just smiled and said we would check into it. In case anyone is interested, the home educating community is alive and well in England.

The cats, on the other hand, breezed through customs with no issue. Well, the staff decided the cats were awful sweet and were thinking of keeping them, but the turned them over. Especially when Chula started happily chatting to us about his trip. I think our stimulus craving cat enjoy the roar of the engines. The girls were fine too. No one seem upset or stress, but they weren't nearly as impressed. And in case anyone is interested, cats do get jet lag. There is nothing sadder than watching a cat fall asleep up against the hotel window watching the birds. He just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, but he certain wanted to. It was a good thing they got jet lag, as the first hotel we stayed in was tiny. There was no room for a 14 month old flying Siamese to fly. By the time he recovered from jet lag and was ready to zoom, we moved to a bigger place.

We started off staying in Islngton, while we looked around for somewhere to stay. Even so, we managed to get in some tourist sightseeing. We made it to Hyde Park, a small amount of the British Museum (we have been back twice more and still have much to see), Trafalgar Square, the Julibee bridge and went past the London Eye. We even managed to make it to my friends' summer party and move to our new place.

In August we also made it to the sea side and Diane started her online Latin class. We found out our new small city or large town has an 800 year old market. If you have ever seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks you have an idea of what I'm talking about. It's been in the same place that long, but the structure has changed - dead give was the parking garage on top. In August we made it to Kew Gardens (the Royal Botanical gardens), Diane and I visited Greenwich park with another home education family, and all of us went to the Natural History Museum. We only got to see one section of it as the crowds were "horrid". Diane and I took in Tate Modern - which was an experience. Diane likes modern art, but this was even too far out there for her. But we got to walk past the Globe after wards, so that helped make up for it

My step-sister's husband's half sister (say that 10 times fast) is also living in England. We got in touch with each other and she took us to a little county fair. They had an exhibit on bugs, and Diane proved once again she is her mother's child. But best of all, she got Diane into Green Bunch. Green Bunch is an organization of volunteer teens who work at the various reserves. Diane is working at the bird sanctuary in Abberton one Saturday a month. And by work, I mean get out the saws, hammers, and nails. Diane's group is making an outdoor learning area for the little kids. They have clear the path of brambles, built a fence and gate, removed trees, made a fire pit area with seating logs. Diane didn't help with all of that, as the project was well under way when she started. But the clearing of brambles, fence building, and tree remove can now be put on her resume! Best part is the teens want to be there, so they jump in quickly to work and frequently are slow to leave.
Diane has been loving it, and wishing it was more often. We rounded off the month we a train ride to the sea side!

September brought Diane's 15th birthday. With her attending Green Bunch, and it not being easy to get to by train or bus, we have been getting a rent car on those weekends. Jon is now use to driving on the wrong side of the road, from the wrong side of the car. England's countryside reminds us greatly of Maine - until you find a thatch roof. And the skinny roads are also a give way, that something is up. But while Diane has been in sawing and fence building, Jon and I have driven a huge portion of Essex county and some of Suffolk as well.

We took a day and did the Buckingham Palace tour. The Queen was Scotland, which is why the Palace was open for tours. We did not time it right and get to see the changing of the guard. They don't do the big change every day -only odd or even days, and we weren't there on the right one. We also got in with a home education group tour, and went to Parliament - both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They tried to do a tour of Big Ben as well. They didn't get enough for a tour, but then we found out that since we aren't British citizens, they wouldn't have let us in. But we did walk by it on the way to Parliament - very hard not to as it is between the tube and Parliament. After the tour, we walked by 10 Downing Street, but the Prime Minister didn't invite us in for tea.

We found Diane a teen group of home educators to play with. With them we went to the Royal Opera and saw Don Pasquale. It was the first opera that any of us had been too. Fortunately, Jon has been able to take the odd afternoon off, and has been able to attend many of these great things with us. The Royal Opera is beautiful, unfortunately none of our pictures came out. After the opera, we wandered through Covent Garden and down to Cleopatra's Needle and the Sphinx' on the Thames. We also went to see the play Wicked for Diane's birthday. On the home education front, she joined a drama group to replace the workshops we used to do at home. I also started leading a writing group for her and a friend from Kentucky. We only get to meet on Skype once a week, but by the end of the program they will have written a book a piece.

In October, we took it slow. We went down to the white cliffs of Dover. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go over to the castle. But we did hike out along the cliffs. Mai-lee gave us quite a scare that month. We had to take the cats in for rabies shots to keep their passports current. Yes, they have their own passports now. Mai-lee reacted violent to the shot. In fact, we were afraid of losing her. They were able to give her the counter shot and it took. But there were several hours of wait and worry. She pulled through fine, but now all shots could cause a major issue for her. Then we spent Halloween at a party in north London.

In November, we went back to Maine. Since it looks like we will be here quite awhile, and then not returning to Maine right away after we leave England, we decided to sell the house. It was a bittersweet decision at best. Jon had to go home to redo his visa anyway. So that was a good time to go back and pack up the house. Selling in winter, especially in Maine, isn't the easiest thing to do in the best of economies. But we've already had a few showings, and now it's ready for spring. We made it back to London in time to have jet lag for Thanksgiving.

That brings us to December. So far we have been to the Book of the Dead exhibit at the British Museum with another couple of home educating families. Diane had a commercial she had to make for her Latin class (see it here). Most of it was made at the Museum of London. Nothing like showing real Roman things in a Roman commercial. And Diane and I got to see the Roman Wall for the first time. Jon passes it on his way to work.

Right now we have no idea how long we will be in England. Several time frames have been mentioned, but no real facts. Most likely we will be back in the States next Christmas or shortly there after. We have several things look forward to including spending Christmas Day and Boxing Day with friends in England. Seeing more of England and going to Ireland, Wales and Scotland - and if we are lucky over to Europe. Diane's Latin class is going to slow for her. It seems she has a real knack for Latin and possibly languages in general. So after much back and forth with her instructor, we are coming up with a new plan. Possibly an Independent Study Program - which means the sky will be the limit. We are also going to Disney in the spring with another family.

We hope this very long newsletter finds you and yours happy and content - and looking as forward to the new year as we are!

The English (temporarily) Fenner's