Did you know that today is the birthday of my
oldest living child?! Yes, it is true - happy birthday, dearest Jenny. (Yes,
you AND I both CANNOT believe how old you are . . .!)
Do you know what the OLDEST living thing on earth
is? A tree!
To be more exact the oldest of all are the bristlecone
pines found in the higher mountains of the northwestern United States,
specifically in the states of Utah, Nevada, and
eastern California. This species is similar
to, and occurs nearby the area, where I travelled with McKay, LaRee and
Addie in the Redwoods, also famous for its trees, right before leaving to come
to England this past June.
The oldest of all is a tree nicknamed ‘Methuselah,’ after the longest-lived person in the Bible. It is located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of eastern California; however, its precise location is undisclosed by
the U.S. Forest Service to protect the tree from vandalism. The age of Methuselah was measured
by core samples in 1957 to be 4,789 years old.
The
last day of the mid-term break, the family decided to head out of town, out of
doors
(thankfully it’s warmed up a little
since earlier in the week) – not to visit the oldest trees on earth, but trees,
nonetheless: to a spot in the National Forest known as Conkers
(See Day Ninety). Kind of a kid thing, Leah admitted, but did I want to join them?
(Is the Prophet a Mormon?!) You know what’s really great about Leah and Martin?!
They have the philosophy of ‘the more the merrier’ – and that’s awfully
fortunate for me!
We
drove for about forty minutes northeast of Birmingham, near Swadlincote, to the
National Forest, an man-made attempt to blend ancient
woodland with new plantings to create a new national tree preserve. (Back
in 1995 conservationists decided to give more emphasis to preserving the
natural resource
of British forests by planting 200 acres in portions of Leicestershire,
Derbyshire and Staffordshire.) In the center of the forest is where
we were bound – to the wonder of wonders called Conkers – World of Adventure
& Discovery. ‘Interactive’ is a good word to begin to describe all there is
to see, do and touch in this amazing location. (It's humorous to me to note that
in all our hours and metres of exploration, we never happened upon a single
horse chestnut tree NOR its offspring, the conker!)
This reclaimed area was once home to serious
coal mining. The Rawden Colliery (colliery
– a coal mine and the buildings and equipment associated with it), developed by the entrepreneurial Lord of Moira, operated
from 1839 till well into the 1980s. The old abandoned spoil heap, aka slag
heap, forms a ridge around some of the wilderness area we explored. Back in the
day, boys as young as 8-years old left home before 6 in the morning to walk to
where they worked long twelve-hour shifts underground, Monday through Saturday
– so that between the months of October to March they never saw the sun except for
on Sundays! (Man, isn’t that pathetic!)
As it was
a nice nippy day, less people were out and about and we had free range of the
over 120 acres of maturing woodland forest, lakes and gardens. Besides nature
trails, boardwalks and tree top adventures galore, to highlight but a few, the woodland
was home to the Conkerchoo Train, an 18-stage assault course, the Fairy
Labyrinth, and the Playdale adventure play zone with climbing jungle-gym
equipment sturdy enough for a man - for all those dads out there who still have a bit of the adventurousness left in them! Everyday has planned ranger
activities and this day was no exception. Today it was straining the pond with
nets to see what interesting critters might be hanging about. Leah dredged up a
tiny, supposedly-endangered collared newt, while the rest of us were content to
mostly dislodge the occasional water skater.
Not to be
outdone – after all, this IS an all-weather, all-season facility – the indoors
Discovery Center was beyond description! Some of its features include an
interactive forest floor, an enchanted forest play area with a simulated tree
top walk where you can climb high into the treetops along rope walkways, up to
six metres high, and over 100 interactive hands-on exhibits. Did we experience
it all? Not on your life! Did we have fun? You know it!!
Any kid,
or grownup kid, would LOVE spending a day at Conkers –
www.conkers.com is all I
can say!
I’m
exhausted just thinking about this active day of fun, but there was more still to
come: I came back over to the Wards later and stayed with the kids while Leah
and Martin got to have one of those rare evenings out with just the two of them
– ‘Leah’ and ‘Martin’ for a few hours, rather than the usual ‘mom and dad’!
They had planned to see a movie, but as it was a busy weekend, a number of
persons also had the same idea, so they couldn’t get in. Turned out to be a
lovely night for a scrumptious dinner, after which they purchased a
newly-released movie to watch in the comfort of their own living room – cheaper
than two movie tickets out on the town! (Katya and Oliver and I played a couple
games and worked a fun jigsaw puzzle before it was time for bed.)
Photos_
1- oldest living
2- Conkers Discovery Centre (whose interesting
architecture reminds me of the new Museum of Natural History at the University
of Utah)
3- the good ol’ days
4- waiting for Conkerchoo
5- they just don’t get it (brr, it’s cold,
but the national pastime, ice cream, goes right on regardless)
6- Katya gets it (bin as Nestles ice cream
novelty with sprinkles)
7- mile high @ Playdale adventure play zone
8- Conker wilderness
9- interaction
10- largest
conker alive
