"So, how are you? Or, as they say here, "Are you alright?" That has to be the phrase that most confuses me here. I still don't know how you're supposed to answer it."
--just to add in to this post: Some other English phrases that I remember...
'pants' - means really bad or disgusting
'magyk' - John always used this phrase basically instead of saying perfect or good
'lass' and 'our lass' -John used lass when talking to any girl, and our lass when talking about his girlfriend
'bobbles' - ponytail holders...I found this one out after a lot of confusion :)
I'll Come back and edit if I think of any more ;D
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
North Yorkshire #4--My new home
Hi Everybody,
I decided that, before I write another e-mail on falconry, I would say a little about what I'm doing in North Yorkshire.
But first, I would like to explain about jesses. I got some feedback from my last e-mail in that people didn't totally understand what jesses are. jesses are the strips of leather that are hooked onto the birds feet so that you can hold them to prevent them from flying off. Each bird wears an anklet on each foot that rarely comes off, and a pair of flying jesses that are attached to the anklet. These are also left on at all times, unless they get damaged. There are also mews jesses, which are slid through a hole in the anklet that secures them and is also used for easy removal. These jesses are much easier to hold onto. Anyways, I will try to send pictures of all the equiptment so that everyone will understand what I'm talking about.
Ok, Yorkshire. When we first drove up to Bedale from London we stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Green Dragon. The morning after we arrived, we scheduled to meet the pastor of the Methodist Church of Bedale. Before we went to meet the minister at 2:00, we visited the falconry center. This was when I first met John Sigrove, who's second-in-command at the center. I also met Sophie and Terry, who are some of the other people i work with. We just had a short meeting in the morning, and arranged to come back after closing time to talk over transportation, et cetera. That evening we met with them again, and settled that John and Terry would take turns driving me, and that I would start on Monday.
Earlier that same day we went to the pastor's house. This was my first experience at being invited inside for a cup of tea! Very nice... So, we basically got to know each other a little bit. The pastor's name is Fran (she's a woman by the way ). The Methodist Church of Bedale is actually a circuit of seven churches. Fran normally pastor's four, while another minister pastors the other three. We asked Fran if there was any way someone could act as a host family for me. She said she had a couple of people in mind, and could we come again the next morning before we went to York to sightsee. So, the next morning she said she'd found a potential family, and that she'd arranged for us to meet them the next morning. She showed us how to get to their house and sent us to sightsee. On Saturday, we met with the family. Their names are Wendy and Paul Arrowsmith. Wendy is Scottish, so she has a cool accent. They have two children: Kirsty who's 7 next month, and Peter, who's 5. They have a wonderful and huge chocolate labrador who's about 17 months old. He still enjoys jumping on people and doesn't know what "down" means. He's really sweet though. They also have a big fat cat named Bumble who looks a lot like Garfield, but is much nicer . So, after talking to them, and explaining my situation for aobut the 3rd time (It was getting a little tiring), they said that it would probably work out, and that they would give it a try.
So, after a couple days work, We found a great home for me to stay in, transportation to and from work, and a church for me to go to. A little about the church: It's really nice, and I enjoy going there. The two small problems i had were 1, They don't play quite the music I'm used to, and 2, I apparently need to sit near the back so that I can get the cue on when to rise and sit from the people in front of me. So my little dissatifactions are not a big deal. Actually, the music thats played as background music before and after events is just the sort of music I love, so even that is not too big of a deal.
So, that's my story of finding a home in North Yorkshire. Now you all know what happened to me, lol.
Lots of love,
I decided that, before I write another e-mail on falconry, I would say a little about what I'm doing in North Yorkshire.
But first, I would like to explain about jesses. I got some feedback from my last e-mail in that people didn't totally understand what jesses are. jesses are the strips of leather that are hooked onto the birds feet so that you can hold them to prevent them from flying off. Each bird wears an anklet on each foot that rarely comes off, and a pair of flying jesses that are attached to the anklet. These are also left on at all times, unless they get damaged. There are also mews jesses, which are slid through a hole in the anklet that secures them and is also used for easy removal. These jesses are much easier to hold onto. Anyways, I will try to send pictures of all the equiptment so that everyone will understand what I'm talking about.
Ok, Yorkshire. When we first drove up to Bedale from London we stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Green Dragon. The morning after we arrived, we scheduled to meet the pastor of the Methodist Church of Bedale. Before we went to meet the minister at 2:00, we visited the falconry center. This was when I first met John Sigrove, who's second-in-command at the center. I also met Sophie and Terry, who are some of the other people i work with. We just had a short meeting in the morning, and arranged to come back after closing time to talk over transportation, et cetera. That evening we met with them again, and settled that John and Terry would take turns driving me, and that I would start on Monday.
Earlier that same day we went to the pastor's house. This was my first experience at being invited inside for a cup of tea! Very nice... So, we basically got to know each other a little bit. The pastor's name is Fran (she's a woman by the way ). The Methodist Church of Bedale is actually a circuit of seven churches. Fran normally pastor's four, while another minister pastors the other three. We asked Fran if there was any way someone could act as a host family for me. She said she had a couple of people in mind, and could we come again the next morning before we went to York to sightsee. So, the next morning she said she'd found a potential family, and that she'd arranged for us to meet them the next morning. She showed us how to get to their house and sent us to sightsee. On Saturday, we met with the family. Their names are Wendy and Paul Arrowsmith. Wendy is Scottish, so she has a cool accent. They have two children: Kirsty who's 7 next month, and Peter, who's 5. They have a wonderful and huge chocolate labrador who's about 17 months old. He still enjoys jumping on people and doesn't know what "down" means. He's really sweet though. They also have a big fat cat named Bumble who looks a lot like Garfield, but is much nicer . So, after talking to them, and explaining my situation for aobut the 3rd time (It was getting a little tiring), they said that it would probably work out, and that they would give it a try.
So, after a couple days work, We found a great home for me to stay in, transportation to and from work, and a church for me to go to. A little about the church: It's really nice, and I enjoy going there. The two small problems i had were 1, They don't play quite the music I'm used to, and 2, I apparently need to sit near the back so that I can get the cue on when to rise and sit from the people in front of me. So my little dissatifactions are not a big deal. Actually, the music thats played as background music before and after events is just the sort of music I love, so even that is not too big of a deal.
So, that's my story of finding a home in North Yorkshire. Now you all know what happened to me, lol.
Lots of love,
Sunday, September 17, 2006
North Yorkshire #3--Falconry
Hello Everyone!
So, I decided to skip talking aboutYorkshire for now, and start an e-mail on falconry. If anyone would like a specific e-mail on North Yorkshire, et cetera, I would love to send one out, just e-mail me please.
So Falconry...
On my first day, which was Monday the 11th, my mum dropped me off at about 9:00 in the morning. We basically said goodbye right then (and cried) because she and my grandma had to drive back to London that morning.
So, the first thing that i got to do in the falconry center that morning was pull the legs of chicks. I did not have to yolk the chicks that morning, thankfully, because that is what we call it when we basically squeeze the chicks guts out to be able to pull out the yolk. By the way, all the chicks that they use there are the male chicks from hatcheries. All the chickens that you can buy in stores are actually female. So all the males are killed when they are just a day old, and frozen to be sent to places like the falconry center that use them. Anyway, we pull the legs off to use as the bait to get the birds to come back to the glove while we're flying them. The yolked chicks are given to the birds that are flown regularly, so that they don't become overweight from the extra nutrients in the yolks.
After that i got to try my hands at such things as raking in the aviaries, cleaning the bird's baths, and weeding. As must be obvious, the job of falconry is a lot more than just working with birds. I did get to start learning how to hold the birds, weigh the birds, amd remove the jesses from the birds a little later in the day.
so first, holding the bird. You basically just use a chicken leg to get the bird onto your glove, then tuck its jesses in between your middle fingers to keep a good hold on the bird. You then untie the knot in the leash that keeps the bird on its perch, and take it inside to weigh it. Birds are weighed every day if they are flown much, and all the non-breeding falcons and hawks are flown nearly every day.
After you weigh the bird you remove their jesses if you are ready to fly them. The birds all have two sets of jesses, actually. There is the mews jesses, and the flying jesses. the flying jesses stay on all the time, while you remove the mews ones often. The mews jesses have a metal swivel on the end that hold the two pieces of leather, one for each foot, together. this swivel is tucked through your middle fingers to keep a firm hold on the bird if it would try to fly off your hand when you don't want it to. The flying jesses are a little harder to hold, so you tuck them around multiple fingers when you're only holding the birds with them.
So, thats the basics of getting a bird ready for flight. I will cut off this e-mail here, because it past 10:00 England time, and i'm up by 7:30 tomorrow.
Thank you everybody who e-mailed me back, i really liked reading the e-mails, even if didn't send a reply. If you have any specific questions, or anything, then e-mail me... I love hearing from you, even if its only a short note. So e-mail me lots!!!
Anyway, i'm having a good time here, and i'll talk more about falconry next time.
Love,
~Nettie
So, I decided to skip talking aboutYorkshire for now, and start an e-mail on falconry. If anyone would like a specific e-mail on North Yorkshire, et cetera, I would love to send one out, just e-mail me please.
So Falconry...
On my first day, which was Monday the 11th, my mum dropped me off at about 9:00 in the morning. We basically said goodbye right then (and cried) because she and my grandma had to drive back to London that morning.
So, the first thing that i got to do in the falconry center that morning was pull the legs of chicks. I did not have to yolk the chicks that morning, thankfully, because that is what we call it when we basically squeeze the chicks guts out to be able to pull out the yolk. By the way, all the chicks that they use there are the male chicks from hatcheries. All the chickens that you can buy in stores are actually female. So all the males are killed when they are just a day old, and frozen to be sent to places like the falconry center that use them. Anyway, we pull the legs off to use as the bait to get the birds to come back to the glove while we're flying them. The yolked chicks are given to the birds that are flown regularly, so that they don't become overweight from the extra nutrients in the yolks.
After that i got to try my hands at such things as raking in the aviaries, cleaning the bird's baths, and weeding. As must be obvious, the job of falconry is a lot more than just working with birds. I did get to start learning how to hold the birds, weigh the birds, amd remove the jesses from the birds a little later in the day.
so first, holding the bird. You basically just use a chicken leg to get the bird onto your glove, then tuck its jesses in between your middle fingers to keep a good hold on the bird. You then untie the knot in the leash that keeps the bird on its perch, and take it inside to weigh it. Birds are weighed every day if they are flown much, and all the non-breeding falcons and hawks are flown nearly every day.
After you weigh the bird you remove their jesses if you are ready to fly them. The birds all have two sets of jesses, actually. There is the mews jesses, and the flying jesses. the flying jesses stay on all the time, while you remove the mews ones often. The mews jesses have a metal swivel on the end that hold the two pieces of leather, one for each foot, together. this swivel is tucked through your middle fingers to keep a firm hold on the bird if it would try to fly off your hand when you don't want it to. The flying jesses are a little harder to hold, so you tuck them around multiple fingers when you're only holding the birds with them.
So, thats the basics of getting a bird ready for flight. I will cut off this e-mail here, because it past 10:00 England time, and i'm up by 7:30 tomorrow.
Thank you everybody who e-mailed me back, i really liked reading the e-mails, even if didn't send a reply. If you have any specific questions, or anything, then e-mail me... I love hearing from you, even if its only a short note. So e-mail me lots!!!
Anyway, i'm having a good time here, and i'll talk more about falconry next time.
Love,
~Nettie
North Yorkshire #2--Youth Retreat
It was totally awesome today! We had this youth retreat sort of thing at the church in Aiskew. There were like twenty teenagers/young adults that came, with a few older helpers too. We played a whole bunch of games at the beginning, which was fun. I haven't played crazy games like that for years. We had a really random "pub quiz," which i don't quite understand the name for it. It was basically a quiz on every random thing you can think of, with a general knowledge section, a history/geography section, a music section, an art section, a couple tv section (theme songs and shows), and a sports section. It was amusing; though i don't know a whole bunch of the trivia sort of stuff. I did know most of the U.S. based questions, though. I did feel bad b/c i couldn't remember whether it was Neil Armstrong or John Glenn who orbited the earth first. oh well...lol.
The best part was the worship section. There were only two songs out of about seven that i didn't know by heart. They even played "Dancing Generation," which is one of my favorite songs that we do at the young adult worship groups every couple months. I can't remember what they're called right now...That's going to annoy me for a while...
Anyway, I totally loved it, and got to see a bunch of new people, and people i haven't seen since the Jam meeting a week ago Friday. The only annoying thing is that there isn't another one of these "NRG" (pronounced energy) things until the middle of november, by which time i will be gone.
The best part was the worship section. There were only two songs out of about seven that i didn't know by heart. They even played "Dancing Generation," which is one of my favorite songs that we do at the young adult worship groups every couple months. I can't remember what they're called right now...That's going to annoy me for a while...
Anyway, I totally loved it, and got to see a bunch of new people, and people i haven't seen since the Jam meeting a week ago Friday. The only annoying thing is that there isn't another one of these "NRG" (pronounced energy) things until the middle of november, by which time i will be gone.
Friday, September 15, 2006
England #1--Touristing
Hello Everyone!
So, I've taken just about forever to find a time to e-mail haven't I...Sorry.
To start at the beginning: I left Ohio with my mum and my grandma at approx. 7:20 on the Evening of Sunday Sept. 3rd, and arrived at about 7:00 a.m. on Monday Sept. 4th. That's about 2:00 a.m. Ohio time. Not surprisingly I was rather tired on my first day of sightseeing.
On Monday we saw Big Ben (the huge clock tower), the parliament buildings, and Westminster Cathedral. Westminster is a huge building, and its totally packed with statues and memorials to probably over a hundred different people, including quite a few royalty. Its amazing how much history is held in that one building.
After visiting Westminster we went to Trafalger's Square and visited an art museum there for about 20 minutes (we just wanted to see the impressionist paintings). We then rode on a double-decker bus to get down to Herrod's. We got to ride right in the front, so we felt like we were about to crash everytime the bus stopped. Herrod's is about the biggest store you can imagine. It has huge departments for perfumes, jewelry, shoes, even handbags. It also has amazing food halls that are spread between at least 4 rooms. We managed not to spend too much money there (the stuff is both good quality and expensive). We just bought a few delicious danish's (they were a plum danish and a pear danish).
We went home after that and I was in bed by about 5:00 in the afternoon. I woke around seven in the morning, so all of you were still asleep (expect possibly Marc).
On Tuesday our big activity was to go to the Globe Theatre. First we went to a market. Annoyingly, I really can't remember what it was called. Later we caught a bus towards the globe theatre, but left the bus too early, so we walked for quite a bit. We took a tour of the globe theatre, which was quite good. The tour guide was one of the best that I, or even my mum, had ever had. The tour told a lot about the history of Shakespeare's theatre, incl. how he started at the Rose theatre and eventually switched to the Globe theatre, and that the Globe theatre has not been rebuilt on the exact spot that the first one was at, because there are other buildings in the way.
We saw Comedy of Errors after the tour, and we had paid for tickets to be groundlings. This meant that we had to stand for the two hours on the floor in front of the stage. We got in line early enough that we were able to find space right along the stage to stand, so we could lean with our elbows on the stage. It was really awesome to be close enough to see the actors expressions and the nuances of their costumes. I found it amusing that the Duke's purple shoes were only painted tennis shoes. the play was quite good, though we were very tired of standing by the end of it.
After seeing the rest of Globe Theatre, we did a little more sightseeing. We walked down the Thimes(?) River to get to the footbridge across. At the footbridge we were able to look at some peregrin falcons who were nesting on the top of a building. Quite a coincidence, that. We saw some of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the front of it was being refinished, so we only saw a great big sheet that looked like St. Paul's. (St. Paul's is where the "Feed the birds" woman sat in the movie 'Mary Poppins,' by the way). We also saw the outside of the Tower of London, and some of the roman wall. We then went home and had dinner.
Wednesday morning we started heading towards Yorkshire. The only thing I want to mention in this e-mail is that we stopped at King's Cross station to see platform 9 and 3/4. I have a picture of me going to visit Harry Potter that i will send in a separate letter.
Lovely. This letter is long enough, so i will send a separate one on Yorkshire and eventually on falconry. (Don't worry, you'll be hearing a lot about falconry by the time I'm done in England).
~Nettie
So, I've taken just about forever to find a time to e-mail haven't I...Sorry.
To start at the beginning: I left Ohio with my mum and my grandma at approx. 7:20 on the Evening of Sunday Sept. 3rd, and arrived at about 7:00 a.m. on Monday Sept. 4th. That's about 2:00 a.m. Ohio time. Not surprisingly I was rather tired on my first day of sightseeing.
On Monday we saw Big Ben (the huge clock tower), the parliament buildings, and Westminster Cathedral. Westminster is a huge building, and its totally packed with statues and memorials to probably over a hundred different people, including quite a few royalty. Its amazing how much history is held in that one building.
After visiting Westminster we went to Trafalger's Square and visited an art museum there for about 20 minutes (we just wanted to see the impressionist paintings). We then rode on a double-decker bus to get down to Herrod's. We got to ride right in the front, so we felt like we were about to crash everytime the bus stopped. Herrod's is about the biggest store you can imagine. It has huge departments for perfumes, jewelry, shoes, even handbags. It also has amazing food halls that are spread between at least 4 rooms. We managed not to spend too much money there (the stuff is both good quality and expensive). We just bought a few delicious danish's (they were a plum danish and a pear danish).
We went home after that and I was in bed by about 5:00 in the afternoon. I woke around seven in the morning, so all of you were still asleep (expect possibly Marc).
On Tuesday our big activity was to go to the Globe Theatre. First we went to a market. Annoyingly, I really can't remember what it was called. Later we caught a bus towards the globe theatre, but left the bus too early, so we walked for quite a bit. We took a tour of the globe theatre, which was quite good. The tour guide was one of the best that I, or even my mum, had ever had. The tour told a lot about the history of Shakespeare's theatre, incl. how he started at the Rose theatre and eventually switched to the Globe theatre, and that the Globe theatre has not been rebuilt on the exact spot that the first one was at, because there are other buildings in the way.
We saw Comedy of Errors after the tour, and we had paid for tickets to be groundlings. This meant that we had to stand for the two hours on the floor in front of the stage. We got in line early enough that we were able to find space right along the stage to stand, so we could lean with our elbows on the stage. It was really awesome to be close enough to see the actors expressions and the nuances of their costumes. I found it amusing that the Duke's purple shoes were only painted tennis shoes. the play was quite good, though we were very tired of standing by the end of it.
After seeing the rest of Globe Theatre, we did a little more sightseeing. We walked down the Thimes(?) River to get to the footbridge across. At the footbridge we were able to look at some peregrin falcons who were nesting on the top of a building. Quite a coincidence, that. We saw some of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the front of it was being refinished, so we only saw a great big sheet that looked like St. Paul's. (St. Paul's is where the "Feed the birds" woman sat in the movie 'Mary Poppins,' by the way). We also saw the outside of the Tower of London, and some of the roman wall. We then went home and had dinner.
Wednesday morning we started heading towards Yorkshire. The only thing I want to mention in this e-mail is that we stopped at King's Cross station to see platform 9 and 3/4. I have a picture of me going to visit Harry Potter that i will send in a separate letter.
Lovely. This letter is long enough, so i will send a separate one on Yorkshire and eventually on falconry. (Don't worry, you'll be hearing a lot about falconry by the time I'm done in England).
~Nettie
Monday, September 11, 2006
North Yorkshire #1--First Day
My first day went great. I started by pulling legs off chickens, and ended by flying a harris hawk in the Arboredium(?). I've learned how to hold the bird, and where to put the jesses to hold onto it. I've also learned the falconers know which is used to tie the tether to the perches. It is made to be tied and untied one-handed.
Yeah, so my real reason for writing this letter has to do with the book The Sword in the Stone. You know where Merlin talks about how predators make the sound of their prey? Well theres this little owl called Sage (you saw him in the demonstration) who sounds just like a cat. He's only about the size of my stuffed owl, though, so what does the sound mean?
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