the company included myself, my mom, my uncle Raymond, his son-in-law Andrew, and Andrew’s daughter Charlotte. Andrew was our tour guide and Charlotte was our chauffeur.

It was a great trip. Highlights included climbing an old Saxon church tower,eating at the Turf Tavern, having a drink at the Eagle and Child pub, and seeing a couple of backpackers dressed in complete Mario and Luigi costumes,

Here are some photos from the day.

I am visiting England for one week with my mother and grandmother. My grandmother, whom I call “Nan,” was born and raised in England before leaving as a young woman to marry an American (my “Papa”).

Anyway, today has been our first day going out for visits and looking around. My Nan’s brother (uncle Raymond) took us around Wellingborough. He showed us the flat where their family lived for many years. There was a fellow out front using a weed whacker to clear out the overgrown grass. My mom lamented the state of the yard (it once had wonderful gardens in front and back), and strained to see the spot where she had her first kiss when she was 14 years old (during her first visit to England).

We had a lovely walk around the large park behind the flat. Uncle Raymond explained how it had once all been fields and kids from the two streets in either side of the fields would compete and play against one another.

Here’s a little video from our trip to the Embankment, along the River Nene near the Whitworth mill.

Today my dad came over to help me with a project I had hoped to do last year before a certain tornado changed all our plans.

We built a couple of boxes to be used for raised garden beds, out of lumber left over from our tornado repairs.

My always-handy dad also identified some problems with our basement door and proceeded to take it down and help me sort of shave the bottom of it.

It will be a few weeks until we actually use the boxes because we are going to have our yard re-graded and sodded first. So the garden will get a late start.

But it should be better than last year.

We have gone through many children’s books over the past couple years, including “The Hobbit” twice.

For quite some time I have harbored a secret desire to read aloud the Lord of the Rings. In my head, I figured it would still be a few years before I could try.

Occasionally the girls have asked me about the story, either because they have seen me reading the books, or something else prompted them. I knew they were curious. Jadzia especially likes to ask questions, and I always refused to answer her. “You’ll just have to wait until you/we read the story someday.”

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I just had to read it. I figured I would start with the first chapter and see how it went. After all, the first chapter is close in tone to The Hobbit, and the girls loved The Hobbit.

And so began our LOTR odyssey. The audience is primarily Jadzia and Yoli. Ludi would stick around sometimes, but I think this is just too far above her right now, and she has no interest (although she loves the Hobbit and has been asking me to watch the old animated movie).

The hardest parts have been the travel scenes where there is no action. Jadzia can’t quite grasp all the environmental description. But when action or good dialogue comes, she is very interested. I think I had the hardest time keeping her concentration until we reached “At the Sign of the Prancing Pony.” From that point forward, she has been fairly engrossed.

Reading the scene where Frodo is attacked at Weathertop was really cool. I was really into it, and Jadzia was clearly gripped.

But I worried I might lose her in the “Council of Elrond.” It is a complex chapter with so many characters telling all sorts of stories. Some of the stories are current, some are tales of ages past. It’s actually one of my personal favorite chapters, but I knew it would be difficult for a kindergartner.

In fact, she made it through quite well. We took it slow, and I explained as best I could. Ultimately it was okay if she didn’t grasp it all. Her favorite bits were when characters from the Hobbit came back in — the dwarf Gloin, Bilbo, and the mention of Balin going to Moria.

I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised how much she remembered. I didn’t have to say, “Hey, do you remember Gloin?” I simply read the bit where Frodo talks with him at dinner, and Jadzia realized it herself. “Oh, it’s Gloin from The Hobbit!”

The past week we have been reading about the fellowship going south, trying and failing to go over the Redhorn Gate, and turning to Moria. Today we read much farther than I had expected. We finished up “A Journey in the Dark” and read all the way through “The Bridge of Khazad-Dum” in one sitting. Jadzia had been intent to find out what happened to Balin. Why had his messages to Dain stopped? (At least she remembered that from “Council”)

Of course she found out his fate (her own guess had been right) — and after a while she got a bigger shock: the fall of Gandalf.

Confession time: Two days ago I practiced reading the scene of Gandalf and the Balrog on the bridge. I guess it’s kind of like when I do public speaking. I wanted to be prepared.

And I think it did me good, because it was a really exciting session and Jadzia was pacing all over. Yoli had to call her to sit close by. She had no idea what would happen.

My concern was that Jadzia would be really sad or upset. She is very tender-hearted and cries easily when she’s watching movies with sad parts. But she didn’t break down. She understood Gandalf had fallen, but her first question was: “How will they get Gandalf back?” She is very good at predicting things in stories.

We’re 300+ pages in, but many more to go. I don’t have any big concerns until we reach Return of the King. The tone gets higher there and the Gondorian speech is really old-fashioned English. But we’re a long way from that point. I’m most excited to get to the end of The Two Towers, which has a great sort of cliffhanger that gripped me the first time I read it (only about 10-12 years ago).

Anyway, I suppose we’ll see how it goes from here on out.

The self-propelling feature came to a halt almost two weeks ago when I got a wheel stuck under a bolt on a fence. It had been taking a lot of abuse over the years, and this was the end of the line.

I finished up the yard as best I could, fighting against the mower every inch of the way, since the front wheels would hardly turn. Once the yard was done, it was time for surgery.

I disassembled the front wheels and mounting brackets, which was not easy. The front wheels include attached plastic gears, which are driven by metal gears on the drive shaft. As it turned out, one of the tires’ plastic gears had been completely flattened. No wonder it’s not working, I thought.

I ordered replacement parts from a great store in Black Jack, and today (a week later) I picked them up. Then it was off to Home Depot in search of a special wrench for split rings. They didn’t have it, but I did find it at Lowe’s.

Next it was time to reassemble everything. I ended up doing it twice for one of the wheels when I realized I probably should lubricate the pieces since it was all taken apart.

It took a while, but everything went back together. I had won … I hoped.

Topped off the gas tank, primed the pump, and pulled the starter. Waited a minute for the engine to warm up, then I pulled back on the lever to begin the self-propelling.

Only one wheel was turning. And slowly.

So, it turns out the battle was more of a draw. My hypothesis is the front wheel drive / transmission / whatever was also broken.

But there was good news — unlike before, the front wheels turn freely now when self-propulsion is disengaged. The mower will even roll downhill by itself. So at least I could cut the grass!

This is what I found her doing on the couch this morning with Josie.

Here’s a bit of the story.

We’ve come quite a ways since that day.

As part of the Post-Dispatch’s tornado anniversary coverage, I helped produce some ‘then and now’ photo sliders for different communities affected by the tornado.

I decided to try the same technique with a couple photos of my own house, as well as some satellite images from map websites. You can see them below.

I also produced a map of tornado-damaged properties using data provided by St. Louis County. You can even locate my house on it (we get a red dot – level 3 damage).

A couple notes. The second photo pairing is a bit misleading because we actually built an addition on the house, so the house is longer than it was before.

Also, the final pairing is not a “then and now,” but a “before and after.” Yahoo maps is currently using satellite imagery taken before the tornado hit. Google’s current imagery, on the other hand, is from afterward. I can’t tell exactly when the Google image was captured, but perhaps September. Both our trees are cut down and removed, there is no tarp on the house, and I believe the addition is built and roofed.

All the kids went with Yoli to Friendship International, where Jadzia and Ludi enjoyed a reunion with their former teachers there.

After Friendship, we high-tailed it to the Botanical Garden, hoping to arrive before noon (while it’s still free to get in). The children’s garden was closed, but we had fun visiting the Japanese Garden, seeing the cherry trees in bloom, feeding the koi, running through the maze, and eating snacks on the grass. At one point Jadzia told me something felt strange on her teeth and wanted to show me, but I was indisposed, chasing the other kids. A while later, she came running up with Yoli to tell me some big news. “My new tooth is coming in!” she exclaimed. I look inside her mouth, and sure enough, a new tooth is starting to poke through. I suppose now would be a good time for the baby teeth to start falling out.

Anyway, this afternoon Jadzia decided to publish her own newspaper announcing this big news. It is surprisingly well-done, with a “photo” and some layout. Click the image below to see the whole thing (two pages).

Maybe she’ll go into the family business! (Assuming the business survives the next decade or so)

Spring has come to St. Louis early, and things are moving again at our house. Among the projects we still need to have completed are:

• rebuilding the bottom of driveway where the tree’s root ball came up
• fixing our yard … Probably needs some grading in places and some sod

Well, today we got a surprise. The driveway guys arrived ready to do their work. (I guess that’s what happens when you don’t top up your cell phone account right away)

Check out this video of the action.

It’s been causing Yoli no end of frustration.