Old Sarum & Stuff

MASKED CRUSADERS:  The photo is rather self explanatory, isn't it?

It was disguise day at the kids' Shoreline school, so today Guy Fawkes and Michaelangelo went to a math class and a science class.

In the interest of being able to actually see, they did remove the masks during class.  Here, CJ experiments with sound waves underwater. (They compared the sounds with and without the aid of an underwater stethoscope.)

NYE ON FLY BY: As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, NASA's Juno spacecraft is doing a close (less than 350 mile) flyby today in order to get a boost from Earth before continuing on its way to Jupiter.

Here's Bill Nye (the science guy) explaining the maneuver. ...

http://youtu.be/3nj_xq8nfxE

Bill makes it sound so simple. ;) Unfortunately, there was some sort of anomaly when the action took place today. During the fly by, an expected 22-minute communication blackout took place. What wasn't expected was when Juno emerged on the other side, it had put itself into safe mode.

The good news is, the craft is reportedly still on course toward Jupiter, but there will be debugging in the days/weeks/months to come, no doubt. Naturally, I can't help but wonder how this stupid government hostage situation, er, I mean 'shut down,' impacted things. Currently 97 percent of NASA personnel are off work.

OLD SARUM: We visited Stonehenge on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 15.  Afterward, we drove toward Salisbury, and the roadside inn we'd be staying in that evening, The Swan at Stoford. (LOVED that place!) In their restaurant we solved the mystery of the 'jacket' potato (one still in its skin, like a baked potato in the States).

We were a little early to check into our room, so we had a lovely lunch in the onsite pub.

Afterward, we dumped our luggage in our room and headed out for Old Sarum, a settlement dating back to Neolithic times, and it was just a couple of miles away!

It was a stormy afternoon, and so traffic was sparse at the Iron Age hill fort where the Romans, Normans and Saxons left their mark. However, it old takes one fool in a motorhome to ruin your afternoon. ...

As we approached the English Heritage site, we were the only vehicle around. This is what we saw.

No trouble there, right? So, we proceeded up - on the right side of the road, which is the left side of the road in England. ;) We were more than halfway up when a motorhome appeared at the top of the driveway, from the left. And lo and behold, instead of waiting up there for us to clear the narrow road, he started heading down the hill, toward us. And he kept coming and coming and coming ...

Christian pulled our car up onto the hill to the left as far as he could, until the wheels started spinning on the wet earth. But we couldn't move enough for the motorhome, which was hellbent on squeezing down. And then, it hit us. And hit us and hit us. ... I leaned over and laid on the horn and we were all yelling, but the motorhome kept plowing forward, eventually pinning us between it and the hill. We couldn't move. Aaargh.

It was infuriating because it was so avoidable - well, at least for him, I mean. There was NO reason he had to proceed down the hill when there wasn't room and clearly no reason he had to keep ramming us. My god. The arrow marks where we tried in vain to drive up the hill, but he dragged us back down.

Here's the aftermath, after the driver, Mr. Mabbs, was kind enough to drive his motorhome to a point where we weren't pinned any more.

Afterward, we had to exchange info, and we were a bit rattled, so we went back to The Swan and regrouped and pouted for awhile, sure that although this COMPLETELY wasn't our fault, it was going to be a pain in the a$$ and cost us $$$. Sigh.

After an hour or so, we went BACK to Old Sarum. Fortunately, we weren't hit by a motorhome this time. Unfortunately, there were gale force winds, rain, and the site was closing in 30 minutes. We made the most of it!

Here are the kids, braving the winds. Honestly, it was so strong, I thought I was going to get blown over. I don't think I've ever felt wind that strong in my life.

Apparently wind isn't unusual at Old Sarum. The English Heritage site says, "People have lived on this windswept hill off and on for almost 5,000 years."

And per Wikipedia,  Peter of Blois (c.1135–1203) described Old Sarum as "barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind; and the church (stands) as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal."

Yeah, that's about what it felt like on the afternoon we were there. Another fun fact: Henry II of England held his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, prisoner at Old Sarum.

Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement in the Salisbury area. This model from 1927 shows how the settlement looked back in the day.

It's changed a bit. Here's the middle of the site now ...

Here, the kids are romping cross where a castle once stood.

Can you spot Annabelle across the way? The rolling green fields are kept closely sheared by sheep, by the way. 

Here, the kids stand atop the original foundation of the castle's parapet wall.

Unfortunately, most of the ruins are, well, in ruin - as in almost non-existent any more.  You have to use your imagination. One of the reasons there isn't much to see is because some of the building there were made of wood. For instance, in 1066, William the Conqueror built a huge mound in the middle of Old Sarum and put a keep or Great Tower made of wood on top.  Wood structures just aren't going to last 1,000 years.

However, there were some walls remaining, and they were enthralling. I've certainly never seen anything like them.

They were rugged, rough, with the most interesting stones embedded in a slumpy, cementious material. (Apologies here for the awful photos. My lens was covered with water, and I couldn't see or breathe very well!)
                     

 I sure wish we had more time at the site to explore. These walls were, I believe, from the old "Keep" or "Great Tower" part of old Sarum.

Only a few of the stones remaining on site were of the large, chiseled variety. Below was a portal between two stone walled chambers. I believe it was the old gatehouse.

One of the most picturesque views on site was looking down toward where the cathedral used to be.  If we'd had more than 30 minutes to tour Old Sarum, we certainly would have walked around that part.

Speaking of cathedrals, if you look off into the distance in this photo, in the center, you can barely see the "modern" pointy spire of the Salisbury Cathedral. More on that tomorrow!

Here, the freezing, wet kids stand in the center of it all. Love trying to picture in my mind's eye the site being a booming 'metropolis' back in the day!

 And just think of the man hours that went into building the enormous banks and digging the deep ditches around the site, in order to protect humans and livestock that lived there.

Despite the brutal weather and the motor home, Old Sarum was a wonderful stop on our adventure. We're so glad we went!

We took a look at the Old Sarum Web site today, and there I found a fun "Step Inside" activity pack. I had the kids complete the activities today. I wish I'd seen it before we visited the site! Link here:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/step-inside-old-sarum/oldsarum-61.pdf

THE EYES HAVE IT: This afternoon, a friend of a friend posted a link on Facebook to a New York Times story with the headline: "Can You Read People’s Emotions?"

I've always thought I was pretty good at reading people, so I followed the link and took their quiz. I have to say right off the bat, I don't consider their quiz hard science at all. But it was an interesting exercise. I scored 33 out of 36.

Curious how the kids would fare, I had them take the test, too. CJ reported his score as 9 of 36. "I find it difficult to understand a person's mental state based on their appearance," he read, from the post test assessment online.

Annabelle scored 14 of 36.

I have to say for the kids, I wonder how much their age and vocabulary might have factored into their results. And I assured them that this was just a 'for fun' thing, and definitely not a true measure of how they can read people.

If you don't mind, let me know if you take the quiz and how you fare.