Tuesday 13 January 2009

Ever tried sticking your head in a threshing machine?

Ok, an overtly educational day.
Today we ventured out to a museum that we hadn't ever been to; I don't even think we've been to the town before, so it was all a bit of a novelty. One of my (non) New Year's resolutions (cos my only resolution was not to make any resolutions) is to take the kids somewhere new or somewhere we haven't been for ages at least once a fortnight. So, big tick there then...(do I get a gold star?)

And surprisingly it was actually a cracking little museum; full of a whole mish-mash of stuff and very child-friendly.


It's not everyday one gets to stick one's head in a threshing machine (and lives long enough to have a milkshake in the cafe afterwards)

Brass Rubbing of King Alfred (apparently he had rather tricky feet)

The finished results.
(Er, I think that's meant to be an ancient sheep on the left - possibly called Dolly)

Ds2 builds a brick wall at the museum then starts to tell me about different sorts of bricks.
I love it when my kids know more about something than I do (unless it makes me feel silly).
Later as we walked round the town we took some photos and identified different types of local brickwork in the town centre, using our new-found knowledge of...bricks.
Herringbone bond brickwork (ok, so I knew that one before the museum)

Diamond bond brick design.
And yeah, there are lots of other designs with 'bond' at the end, though I can't remember the other ones. If you want to know more then trusty Wikipedia is a wealth of information on the subject... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickwork#Basket_bond

And a statue of King Alfred, looking quite chipper
considering his axe was vandalised over Christmas.
Ds1 had his camera too and was taking photos. 'I took a photo looking right up his skirt' he says. Ho hum..

3 comments:

Philippa said...

Gold star for sure! It looks like you had a fantastic day.

Anonymous said...

Definately a star, not sure about gold, will have to see where you go next :)

Elizabeth (My Reading World) said...

Wasn't that statue vandalised last year as well? I think they broke the arm last year.

Going to new places is a great idea for a non-resolution!