Aidan 22

I had a great time today at Fountain’s Abbey on the one o’clock tour of the Abbey and garden. The Abbey is very old and is now owned by the national trust.   

There were two types of monks who lived there, the choir monks and the lay brothers. They lived separately in the abbey, the choir monks did a lot of praying and the lay brothers did the labouring and looked after the animals.  

They also had separated sleeping areas and different eating areas which was called the refectory.  They had separate kitchens and got different amounts of food and different types of beer.  The lay brothers got weaker beer.

The tour went for about three hours. When we reached the gardens there was a little room where they had something called the folly. It was some kind of art.

When it was end of the tour we walked up a hill into a tunnel.  Holly and Dad were ahead of Mum and me and when dad got out I thought Holly was out with him but she was hiding in one of the holes in the wall and when Mum and I went past she scared me!

Before we went up the hill we looked in a lake. There was a nest that belongs to a swan. All of the baby’s had hatched and  just one egg was left in the nest. Mum said that the baby would be dead because all the other babies were quite big.  

From the top of the hill we could see the amazing view. We saw a girl doing a really good sketch of what she could see. She was very fast.

We also went into a mill and turned the handle of a grinder to make some flour. It was very hard work. That is why they used a water wheel to turn the grinders.   The mill was used to feed the community of the abbey. The mill was grinding corn till 1927.

The Great Yorkshire Show

The great Yorkshire show is the greatest place to be. 

The great Yorkshire show is a little bit like our beef week back at home but has lots of different things.

There were lots of people there and it was huge. The first thing we did was go to watch the gun dog show. One of the dogs he showed us was not trained yet. It was a springer spaniel. The man threw something into the water for the dog to get it but the dog got it then ran out of the arena. 

After that demonstration we watched a bird show where the man flew three birds. Two of them were vultures and the other was an eagle. Because it was hot and there was not much wind, he said that if one of the birds looks like they’re going to crash into you they probably will!
There were some tanks and an army display.

We went in to one of the cow sheds and saw some belted Galloways and some highland cattle. We patted some of the cows. 

After that we were all a bit hungry so we got some lunch and it started to rain really heavily.  We had plastic ponchos that an army man had given us.  We went to watch a rabbiting man and his ferrets but he took a long time to tell us what he was going to do so we just left.  We looked at the end of the cow judging where they had a huge parade of all the cattle. 

Then a truck and quad bike brought out a take off ramp and a lading ramp for three motor bike riders to do a trick display. The oldest man was the actor that plays Captain America. He was doing all the talking into the microphone even when he was doing tricks. But sometimes he handed over to another man who was not jumping. They did some very good tricks and high jumps.

There was also a simulator that was like being a racing car that Holly and I got to have a ride in.

Warwick Castle

Yesterday we stayed in a knights village. We went to Warwick castle for the night in the knights village. When we arrived the first thing we did was watch the Warwick castle trebuchet which shoots a fire ball into the air to break down the castle walls. They shoot it into a field instread. To load it men have to get in the wheel to spin it. Before they got in a man yelled GET INTO THE WHEEL. So they run to the trebuchet to get into the wheel to make the big arm come down. 

After that we watched a birds of prey show. The man showed us owls, an eagle, buzzards and kites. My favourite were the kites because  the man was throwing food up into the air for them to swoop down and catch it. My other favourite was an owl. He came flying down from a window in a tower on the castle. 

We went into the bear tower which had a tree that a bear would have been to. The bear and the ragged staff is a symbol of the earl of Warwick.  There were lots of displays in the Castle so you could see what it would have been like when it was built. 

At night we went to our cabin which was next to the castle. It was decorated just like a room in a castle.

There was jester school that you could do after dinner.  I learnt how to spin a plate. It was hard but fun.

We also learnt how to cut off legs and arms when you are in a sword fight. There were two knights that came down to have a fight. A red knight and a blue knight and they did three fights. The blue knight was the winner.

Then it was time for bed but we were not sleepy so we played outside the lodges for a bit on the barrels which are to decorate the village.

The next day was Holly’s birthday. We went to the medieval hall for breakfast and then we went back to the castle again.  We went into the horrible histories maze that she wanted to do. We also went up into the princess tower and we helped a princess free a man named Guy.

After we watched the trebuchet for the last time before we left to get to our next house sit which has a dog, a cat, a hamster and two gerbils and is on the side of a canal.