The pictures below are from our visit to Florida last April or May, I can't remember which... Anyway, I really liked these in particular, so I decided to post them. Enjoy.

Sir Richard 

 Opposition to the church in Parliament and the City was growing in volume, but these early rumblings of a Reformation had been silenced by the then unmovable power of Wolsey. Now, that Wolsey was dead,   everything was different and the Reformation was able to start. In order for it to begin, the House of Commons first got together lawyers who were Members of the Lawyers in the House. The lawyers, surprisingly, got together the papers in record time. When the Probate Bill was shown to the lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury ‘in particular’ and the other bishops in general frowned at the bill. For example, Fischer, the Bishop of Rochester, warned the lords about the coming of the social revolution.  He pointed to the National Czech Revolt led by John Huss, saying: “You can see the bills that come daily from the commons house; do you see what it did to the Czech Republic, how it plummeted after it got rid of the church?  Is that what you want to happen to England? I think it is lacking in faith!”

When the House of Commons heard what had been said, they put together a group of Members and made sure that there was a representative among them. They then sent the group to the king with a complaint. King Henry then summoned Fischer and asked him to explain what he had meant; Fischer simply shuffled his feet and then said that he had meant that the Czechs were lacking in faith not the Commons. This lame excuse, however, was not enough to make the House of Commons content. The death in August of the old Archbishop Warham, principal opponent to Henry’s divorce, opened further possibilities and problems.  For one, could Henry depend on the French neutrality?  He decided to discuss these matters in person with the King of France. So he went to Boulogne with a few friends, including Anne Boleyn, for a personal discussion with Francis I. He returned reassured that he could depend on the French neutrality.

Sir Richard

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I have been doing SOMETHING...  ...MY ALBUM! To find it simply scroll until you see the place on the sidebar called 'links'. In that section there should be a link called 'My Albums'. Click on that, and you've found it!

Sir Richard

In school I have to study a book called The Roar On The Other Side, it's a really fun book, and every other week I have to pick a project to do. In this week I picked a project called BRIC-A-BRAC WORDS. In this you have to get the dictionary(we used The American Heritage Dictionary) and randomly pick a word that sounds interesting to you, not paying any attention to the meaning. You then collect 10 to 12 words and apply them to a poem that is 8 to 12 lines, we tried it and this is what we came up with:

An Imaginary Circus and What Happened There

The Arabesque Acrobats pirouetted perspicuously across the stage.
The cockerspaniel decided to wear knickerbockers to the circus.
A volcano spit Vespertinal Rocks, hitting the Circus Director on the head.
Flinkites stopped mid-air.
Sloganeer snakes slithered across the ring.
A Sloganeer pounced upon a niggling mouse.
The Cartulary collapsed.
The Lassitude Lassoers lassoed a loose tooth.
Glockenspiel gave a sigh of relief when all was calm again.

If you find this interesting, and would like to know how to do this with your own family or with a group, here is my procedure: Pick someone to go first (no arguing, please) then have them randomly pick a interesting (and perferably long) word that seems to go well with the theme that you picked. (We picked a circus) You then write it down. After this is finished, give the dictionary to the person on their right and have them repeat the procedure. After you have the desired amount of words, go to the person who picked a word second and ask them to make a sentence using the word that the first person picked. Keep this up, asking each person in turn to make a sentence with the word that the person before them had picked. Put them together make a poem, and it is finished!

I highly reccomend this book!

Sir Richard

We have now reached what is called the Sixth Century it is the years that start with the number 15.
It is inevitable in English, but confusing. Right about the start of the Sixth Century Martin Luther
was living, but was still unknown. In a few years, however, he became very popular because of his ideas
that he had written down about Christianity.
He wanted to have a church which was free from the Pope and the Pope’s rule. His enemies were against it
but could not find a single solid reason to be. Luther called the Pope ‘pig-faced’ and many other names
too, most of which were even more insulting to the Pope!

The Mongols were, at this time harassing Eastern Europe compelling the inhabitants there to be in constant
terror of them. However, the Great Khan died and all the noblemen hurried back to the capitol in order to
elect his successor. The Turks, in the meantime, had taken over the Byzantine Empire. Columbus, a Genoan
sailor, married the daughter of a Portuguese sailor who served with The Navigator. He then studied the maps
of his father-in-law, and decided to find a sea route to the Spice Islands. He sent his brother to try to
get help from the King of England, but he got caught by pirates on the sea. When he got released and got
the attention of the new king, Henry Tudor, it was too late; the Portuguese King had already consented to
sponsor Columbus. Columbus then got  his three ships: The Nina, The Pinta and one other ship which was to be his flag ship. This ship's name Columbus changed to Santa Maria meaning 'Saint Mary', in this ship and with the other two Columbus sailed to what we call Cuba and back to Portugal. Columbus, however, was not the only one to go to this 'new world', Cabot, a famous English sailor, journeyed from England to Newfoundland, then to Virginia, then back to England. Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and down the coast of Africa, crossed the Indian Ocean to Calicut, then followed his route back to Spain. Magellan started out from Portugal with three ships, being Portuguese himself. He went down to the coast of Brazil and followed it down to the tip of Chile. He sailed across the Pacific Ocean to the East Indies. He then left there and kept on sailing toward the Cape of Good Hope he reached it and arrived in Portugal. Only then did become known that not only had Magellan lost two of his ships, he had lost his life.

Sir Richard

On Monday, 25th of April 1588, before the sun came up, a seven companies of soldiers, armed with arquesbus and muskets lined Lisbon’s squares. The companies were made up of the strongest and smartest, they had been taken from the ships on boats the night before. But they had been standing around for most of the night. Unless they differed from the other soldiers they were grumbling and stamping their boots on the pavement and asking each other why they were there.

Before six o’ clock they were called to attention, the palace gates opened and a noble procession emerged. At the head of the procession was, on horseback, the Cardinal Archduke, Viceroy in Portugal of King Philip of Spain. On his right hand rode the Duke of Medina Sedonia, Captain of the High Seas and commander-in-chief of the fleet. Behind them were commanders whose names that year, not only in Spanish history but in English history too: Juan Martinez de Recalde, a veteran of many fights at sea; Don Pedro and Don Diego de Valdes, both cousins, but bitter enemies. Don Miguel de Oquendo, another revered sea fighter; Don Alonzo de Leyva, a cavalry soldier of Milan, appointed by the king to take command if any misfortune befell the duke.

One night, when I was shaking the kitchen rugs after dinner I heard a rustling in our hedge. Startled, I looked around. I immediatly turned on the light and heard some scampering, when, all of a sudden, I saw this opposum streak across my backyard. I ran inside to get the camera and took this shot:

Pretty cool isn't it?

Sir Richard

When we went to Florida to see my grandparents, we went to Sea World. My grandparents live in a retirement center called "The Villages". It's called 'the Disney World for golfers'  since golfing is my grandparents favourite hobby it is an ideal place for them. It actually has other activities for the residents  including botchi ball, carpentry, tennis, dancing, anything you like to do. We live in Texas and it is a pretty tiring 19 hour drive  . Especially when you do it all at one shot, taking only gas breaks. So as you can imagine, the drivers (my mom and dad) were pretty tired by the end of the trip, so when we arrived at our destination they hit the bed pretty hard. While our parents rested we went to the family swimming pool with our grandparents and our mom's aunt (every 'area' in the villages in the villages has a family pool and an adult pool).  A few days later we went to Seaworld. When we arrived, our grandparents, who had been there before, got a map and headed for Key West at Seaworld. There, we went to Stingray Lagoon where we got to touch stingrays. After that we went to the Dolphin Feeding Area at Dolphin Cove.

I'm the one with the orange shirt feeding the dolphin. My papa is the one next to me with the turqouis shirt and the backpack. My dad is at the corner with the blue shirt next to the girl in the white shirt who is my sister. After Dolphin Cove we went to Turtle Point, then the Dolphin Nursery. We then went to the Shamu Stadium.

Again, I'm in the orange shirt with my siblings beside me. After a spectacular show, we decided to have lunch, and sat down Mango Joe's Cafe. After lunch we went to the Wild Artic in a helicaopter, we saw Beluga Whales, Polar Bears, and Walruses. After that we went to the Shark Encounter, then the Sea Lion and Otter Stadium. We then went to the Pacific Point Preserve and the Penguin Encounter.

Again, that's me, not at ALL looking good. After the Penguin Encounter we went on The Journey to Atlantis 4 or 5 times which was fun. We were pretty refreshed and awakened after a few splashes in the face and I was glad when it was announced that we were going to get some Soft Serve Ice Cream. Then, with ice cream in our stomachs, we went to the Manatee Rescue then to see some alligators. After that we visited the Whale and Dolphin Theater.....

....and here we are again! Then it started to get dark and we drove back to the Villages. And so ended our tiresome and busy, but EXTREMELY fun day.

Here is the map so that you can trace our adventure for yourself:

Sir Richard

Hello, I haven't been around because of school, tests, and other time-consuming activties. Anyway, I persuaded my mom to let me put up a post since I hadn't put one up since November 2nd. So now I've decided I would put up a poem I had written and see how you like it.

"Then Beowulf bethought the boasts of his men.

Called them to his side,

Set out to the dragon's huge stone tower

By the side of the sea.

When the army and Beowulf

Arrived at last,

Beowulf made a speech

That was royal, rich, and long,

He also beseeched his men

To come at his bidding.

Then Beowulf went in;

Into the beastly tower,

He tried to sneak

Up on the beast,

But the beast was already waiting.

So when Beowulf took the last turn,

The dragon was ready to send flaming fire

Down to meet Beowulf.

Beowulf fought bravely,

Then called out for his men,

But all of his men had fled,

All but one.

He came to Beowulf's side,

Fought victoriously,

But he could not save his master's life.

I hope it told you what the book is about, and also sounded poetic, I also hope you noticed a little alliteration.

Sir Richard