(no subject)

[rivka]

Okay, I have to share this story.

Alex has been prancing around wanting to pretend to be a medieval royal family. (You know, as one does.) Her first suggestion: "We live in Texas." I explain to her that there were no kings and queens of Texas in the Middle Ages. "Okay, we live in Alaska." No, I explain, no kings and queens in Alaska then either.

"Well, where can I choose?"

"If you want to live in a castle during the Middle Ages, your best bet would be Europe. You could be in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany..."

"Wales!" She is delighted. "We live in Wales!"

I wonder if this is because of the association with papersky, but then she goes on to enlighten me. "Wales is where the biggest castles were!"

"It is?"

"Uh huh!"

"...Is that because whales are big?"

"Yeah!" Alex is pleased with my insight and common sense. She prances away to the china cabinet to choose appropriate stemware for a Welsh royal family.

Comments

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

[bwahahahaha!!] She's *BRILLIANT*!

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

That's hysterical. :)

[ailbhe]

You are a *smart* grownup.

Castles

[hazelchaz]

Oh, tell her about Mad King Ludwig's brilliant German castle...

Hmmm. Thinking about another care package to ship the young queen.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I remember a time when I thought whales lived in Wales.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

In that case, you probably shouldn't tell her about my college classmate, Nick Houtman (later communications officer for the City of Honolulu (http://archives.starbulletin.com/2002/11/08/news/story15.html), now dead, alas), who thought Charles and Diana should name their eldest son Shamu -- so that one day, he'd be Prince of Wales.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I don't know, you could play King of Texas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Texas) very well I think.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I remember being confused on this point also.

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

You know, this kind of reminds me when, on a family trip when I was about Alex's age, I got asked if I wanted to go in the basement and see the family's slides. I got SO EXCITED and was very disappointed when the slides ended up being pictures. ;)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Awww! I can just picture what you were imagining...

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Y'know, if she wants to revisit that whole Texas idea, there's the King Ranch...

[aendr.livejournal.com]

She's right, you know. Wales is also known as the Land of Castles and has some of the best preserved ones in Europe. You might like to explore http://www.castlewales.com/listings.html or talk about castle designs - the keep, the moat, even the garderobe! Over here (I'm in England, lots of castles around me) we can buy pop-up books explaining the layout of castle. If you can't get hold of one and want one, I'd be happy to post you one. (To your work so you don't have to give your home address to a strange British person.) I even spent part of my summers visiting relatives who had a ruined castle in one of their fields.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

She's not far off. Wales has not just a lot, but some very well preserved and very large castles. Alex has good taste.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

How do you get four elephants in a Mini? Two in the front and two in the back. How do you get two whales in a Mini? One in the front and one in the back? No, silly, you get to Wales in a Mini by going down the M4 and across the Severn Bridge.

It is totally full of big castles too, so she's right there.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

We were once taken to a small local museum of pioneer artifacts run by a Mrs. Schell in a log cabin on the back of her property. Partway through, one of my brothers let on that he'd expected the Schell Museum to be a museum of shells. She felt bad for disappointing him, so she took us into her dining room and showed us the souvenirs she'd collected on Florida beaches.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

When I was 19 I drove up the length of Wales with my older sister and we visited several castles, so I knew Alex wasn't entirely off-base. I wish I remembered which ones we saw.

We have some great castle books, well-loved and well-studied! But it's so kind of you to offer, thanks.