January at the ballet

I grew up going to the ballet with my mom and, most specially, every Christmas with my grandparents.  My grandmother, Virginia, was sometimes the backstage doctor for the Cleveland Ballet and we were lucky enough to go to their performance of the Nutcracker every year.  It was magical and something that we--the kids-- looked forward to every year (in addition to our annual 'all you can eat at Dunkin' Donuts' outing with VA which ended abruptly one year after we ate all we could eat and then, having contracted the flu, barfed it up all over their house.  We were off donuts for a lot of years after that).

Evie has been taking ballet since she was two and a half and, but it wasn't until this year that we thought she was finally old enough to sit through a real ballet and enjoy it.  So, with great excitement, we made plans for Millie to stay with a friend and Jim and I took Evie into Central London to see the Royal Ballet's Alice in Wonderland.

 Covent Garden is full of historic places. Here we are, outside a really old and low ceilinged pub, messing up the picture the ladies behind us are trying to take.

 And on a side road in the rain.

 Evie had never been to the Royal Opera House, so it was pretty exciting for her. We saved the good side for her grand entrance.

 As usual, we spent a lot of money on street performers (but these guys were good).

 And we had an elegant French lunch (although the Birthday Girl chose chicken fingers as her main course)...

 with a side of the thickest hot chocolate known to man.

 After some messing around outside, we finally went into the Royal Opera House!

 We climbed lots of stairs to our nosebleed seats. These nosebleed seats actually gave us a great view of the stage, but I strongly discourage everyone from getting box seats on the side of the stage.  The last time we went to the ballet, while we got four pretty inexpensive seats, we all had to cram into one corner and lean over the side of the box in a dangerous way, to see what was happening.  So nosebleeds all the way!

In England,  it's customary to eat ice cream during the intermission of performances.  It took us a while to find it, but this was definitely a highlight for our ballerina.  She did regret choosing ginger ice cream, though, so we made a trade (I had vanilla).

 The ballet was fun, whimsical, had amazing sets, and lots of colorful costumes and exciting dancing. It was the perfect introduction for a little girl to a real  ballet performance.  When we left Evie said, 'I want to do that!'  Whether or not she makes a career of ballet, I know that this performance was just the beginning of something we'll enjoy doing together for the rest of our lives. And that makes me really happy!

Grizedale Forest

30 December 2014

On our fourth day in the Lake District, we all slept in--Millie until 10:00!  So after a leisurely start, we drove to Grizedale Forest.

 En route, we took some back roads past Downtown Abbey style estates and picturesque fields with ponies and sheep who just looked like they were waiting for us to drive by and take advantage of a perfect photo opp. 

Grizedale Forest is beautiful and full of walking and mountain biking trails.  As we drove up, there seemed to be hoards of people, but once we got started on our walk we found ourselves almost alone for most of it.

One of the fun things about the Forest is that there are amazing sculptures and interactive art throughout.  The girls enjoyed turning these tree keys as we walked along.  They each made a different tone.

Tiny houses are always a source of great entertainment. 

Millie has entered the phase of life during which she wants to do everything that Evie does, despite not quite being able to physically keep up.  Scrambling along muddy ledges led to more than one fall, but fortunately only resulted in lots of muddy clothes and no injuries (and, surprisingly, no tears).

 

 As we walked off the paved path and into the woods, other people were few and far between.  We went up and up, stopping to take in the view from scenic bridges and to catch our breath on mossy rocks.

The girls attempted to carry a large branch with them for the entire walk, but were thwarted.

 

And slippery steps led to a particularly quiet and secluded part of the trail, with tall fir trees and a carpet of mossy undergrowth.  The girls decided to go on a fairy hunt so through the woods we all went in search of fairy village and fairy mountains.  The girls gathered materials to make their own fairy houses at the top of the trail.

We crossed creek beds and scrambled over rocks. The higher we went, the more barren the landscape.

At the top, we spent some time at the only natural lake in the forest, which was o full that it almost submerged its own viewing deck.  Aggy refreshed herself by eating chunks of pond ice, before wallowing in the mud on its edge.

On the way down, with Millie acting as navigator and Evie as health and advisor, we posed next to a wooden sculpture of a giant fern....

and on the back of a stone fox.

We followed a wide road, where we met other families, dog walkers and cyclists. 

And then we descended back into the woods and followed a narrow trail, stopping for a cold, damp rest on a slope.

Some of us started thinking that the guy with the map didn't know what he was talking about.  But he did.

The Lake District has amazing stiles which are MUCH easier to get over than your standard stile.  We traipsed up and over this style (but had to hoist Aggy over the last part because her legs proved to be just a little too short).

We're not sure what this sculpture was supposed to be, but it was fun to walk on.

And finally we made it back to our starting point. After all that, we had no other option, but to go to a pub. It had a warm wood stove where we roasted our bums and lots of adoring Aggy fans who scratched her tummy.  The Winter Pimms was a disappointment, though.  Not as good as Jim's Winter Pimm's Punch by a long shot.

Later on, we all slept well (and where we weren't supposed to).

We had a couple of more days in the Lake District, but for some reason didn't take any pictures.  On our final day--New Year's Day-- we went walking in a downpour and then went to the Lake District aquarium, where they had box turtles (a pest over here, it turns out, but still nice to see something from home when we're so far away).  Soaked and shivering, but feeling accomplished after our windy, rainy walk, we went home to eat our black eyed peas, watch movies and mentally prepared ourselves for a return to London and reality. It was a great end to what turned out to be a really eventful and very good year.