Grace England Tour 2016: Friday, A Blessed Day of Recuperation and Frolicking in Various Ways in Various Groups

We have a later wake up call, which leads to a later, leisurely breakfast. Unlike other days we do not return to the hotel but head directly to the park where we set boundaries in a large grassy area adjacent to the playground we terrorized (remember the play hard day?). We stay clear to the relief of the parents of young children enjoying a quiet morning with their youngsters. Older boys gather, shadowed by some younger boys in awe of these peers. Calum leads the group in some modified sit-ups. Rubric cubes are a-clacking. Evan is cloud gazing. Amrit and Calum are rapping and it sounds to me like the rap is about potatoes but I could be missing something. A group of about a dozen boys are throwing an American football about with Mr. Wilkes. Mr. Bruner and Ms. Banks distribute snacks of the morning-carrots, mandarins and up to two different kinds of English biscuits (gingersnaps or digestive biscuits)

Ms. Banks’ and Mr. Wilkes’ groups had the middle-aged boys. They went on the Ferris wheel, which according to Ms Banks was the kind of fun that was need on a day like today. They could see all of Salisbury and it was a great thrill for the boys. Some souvenir shopping followed with a trip to a toy store for even more rubric cubes. I kept wondering why I was seeing so many new ones…

They had lunch where everyone finished every morsel according to Ms. Banks, about 45 minutes after snack and two and a half hours after breakfast. Outside of the cathedral on the lawn was a Peregrine Falcon spotting scope. Some birders from the National Bird Observatory had the scope set up for the public looking at nesting birds on the tower. They played with a ball/Frisbee device on the lawn until it was time for their floor tour of Salisbury Cathedral. The tour guide made sure it was really interesting for the boys and was sure to speak in great detail about the bloody battles that left so many in crypts. The boys enjoyed mixing up the groups and they were ready at 3:20 to suit up in their cassocks and ruffs for Eucharist rehearsal.

My group of younger choristers and Case (so we could have five) walked to the shopping area. We went into the bookstore (hooray!) and enjoyed seeing different covers for familiar books. Case bought a graphic novel and we saw that J.K. Rowling’s new book would be released on July 31 both in Britain and the United States. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is actually a two-part play and is set nineteen years after The Deathly Hallows. This will be the 8^th book in the series. From the bookstore we wandered into a shop selling carved wooden items. Luke bought a lovely dragon mobile and I bought an olive wood spreading knife, which I will certainly pack in my carry-on bag. We were about to go to lunch when Carter messaged me that there were openings right away for the spire tour. The spire at Salisbury is the tallest in Great Britain at 404 feet. Mr. K stepped in for me, as I didn’t want to do the stairs for a variety of reasons, some of which involve depth perception. This usually doesn’t come up on trips but today it did. Regardless, the tour lasted longer than expected and I took the group to the café on the cloister. We managed to find something for everyone, then I treated the boys to perhaps their first shortbread and definitely their first Bakewell tart, a pastry with a thin layer of almond paste then raspberry jam then a flaky crust that may or may not have a thin layer of white icing (and maybe a cherry for contrast). Very British. I cut the little rectangle into tinier rectangles and surprisingly everyone liked it. And wanted more. Which they did not get because we had twenty minutes before it was time to ready for rehearsal. Lest we every spend a moment not finding something fun or interesting, we chose the later and had a tour guide who understood the time frame. She showed us the first clock in the world then showed the boys the water under the cathedral. She pulled out a section of the floor and the boys could hear the sound of the rod breaking the surface of the water. We saw the blue window on the other side of the quire and then it was time for rehearsal.

Although it is late, I do know Mr. Bruner’s group went on a choir tour. A number of boys proudly wore the blue buttons signifying they had completed the tour. The rest were just ready for another snack.