We have been having a great time here in Cornwall. Ruben and I got to play a Father Willis organ at the Truro Cathedral. We went to a Quiz night in Chasewater where we had a diner of bangers and mash. Bangers and mash are a traditional English meal, bangers and mash are sausages and mashed potato’s.
This week we got to watch some of Brian’s cows (Brian is the person we are staying with) get moved to another farm. Brian had two cows who he wanted to butcher, one was a female who was pregnant and one who was a male. Brian did not really want to butcher the pregnant female. There was a farmer who said he would trade one of his cows for the female and then he would have her and raise her calf. Brian and the farmer traded and we got to watch the cows being moved.
We had a Roby Burns night this week and we read a few of his poems ate Haggis. The poem that I read was called TO A MOUSE .
TO A MOUSE
On turning up her nest with the plough,
November, 1785.
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle.
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth born companion
An' fellow mortal!
I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't.
Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's win's ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!
Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld.
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
Still thou are blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
Did you know that my nickname is Miss Mouse or Mia Mouse?
We went to Bodmin Jail in the town of Bodmin. We got to see the reenactment of the 1844 trial of Mathew Weeks. They used animated figures who moved a little bit and when they were speaking the a light shone upon them. Mathew weeks was a young man who worked on a farm. At the time Mathew was dating a girl called Charlotte Diamond who worked on the farm as well. One day Mathew and Charlotte went for a walk, Charlotte had told the woman who they worked for that she would be home some time after Mathew. Mathew and Charlotte were gone for some hours when Charlotte stopped and asked Mathew to go back, they parted and Mathew went back home. When Mathew got home he had his diner and went to bed Charlotte never returned. Charlotte was found murdered nine days later on a hill by the fields they had been walking on. Because Mathew had been seen walking on the fields with a women the people who saw him could not identify the women who he was walking with. The judges did not take it to mind because it had already been decided that Mathew was the last person who was with Charlotte before she died and would be hung for the murder of Charlotte Diamond. It is very possible that Mathew did not murder Charlotte and tragically was hung for a crime he did not commit.
We visited Port Issac where they filmed the TV series called Doc Martin. We had a little walk around this beautiful fishing village and went to a pub for a drink (I had a coke).
Ruben and I gave a talk at St.Day school and showed them a slide show of pictures of home and on our trip. I sang a first Nations welcome song and played my violin.
We spent an evening at Truro Cathedral in the dining room where there were games, singing, diner, and an auction. It was my first time ever bidding and we bid on handkerchiefs, a Wallis and Gromit DVD and a beautiful gift basket.
Finally, we got to go to a play last night of Agatha Christies Murder On the Nile. I really enjoyed it and they kept the murderer a secret until the very end.
It has been a great week and I really like it here in Cornwall.
Homesick Mia.
Ruben writes:
This week has been great!
Mom has printed out my FSA test and I have been working at it a lot. I did many essays . I wrote an essay on how the Kindle is a beneficial piece of technology and also I wrote about building a healthy community. I did my longer paragraph on building a healthy community and it came really easily to me because I lived in a really healthy community on Cortes Island. I think the FSA test actually really helped me with my writing because I haven’t been writing essays as much any more and since I have now written three In a row I think it is fun and easy.
We went to a service again this week in the Cathedral and heard the choir boys sing along side the organ. Mom and dad stayed to chat with some people and we ended up getting invited up to see and play the organ by the organist. It turned out that the organ was a very famous a Father Willis Organ! The two things that made it famous was that it wasn’t altered at all (they altered lots of organs back in the day to to keep with the popular trends in music) and that it had a suuuuuuper low note that actually can be bad for you! It can be bad for you because it really vibrates the room and can move your organs witch can cause damage to your heart.
Mom, Mia and I went and did our second and third presentation at St. Day and Casguarne School. I am starting to get the hang of public speaking but it doesn’t mean that I enjoy it especially because one of the classes we went into smelled of farts and boogers (a younger class mind you).
Dad, Mom, Mia, Hillary, Brian and I went to a church dinner where there was an auction and I got a “Wallis and Gromit” DVD for one pound ninety. We played a design your own plant game. The design your own plant game was really really fun, you had to make a plant out of the materials they give you, come up with it’s common name and it’s Latin name and come up with some facts about it. We came up with Winner Winner Chicken Dinner as it’s common name and Floribunda Carnivora Canadiensis Greggora as it’s Latin name. It has beautiful flowers with a mouth that grabs any bird that comes close. It’s preferred bird is sea gulls but snacks on humming birds.
Aaaaaaaaaaaynd thatz all folks!
Your Cornish Pastie Lov’in student,
Ruben
