Cars and Falling Apples

It was a weekend at looking at cars and playing around with falling apples. I'll start with the last topic cos that is by far the most interesting for me. We visited Sir Isaac Newton’s home, where he grew up and spent most of his later life - Woolsthorpe Manor. It was one of those houses which had a great atmosphere and hadn't changed much since his childhood - there was graffiti on the walls where he had designed wind mills and church steeples and then there was the apple tree. It is a national treasure - over 300 years old - well part of it is anyway. In 1665 Isaac Newton watched a Flower of Kent apple fall from the tree opposite the window.  He asked himself 'Why does an apple always fall to the ground'.  His mother said that's because it always has done - but he didn't accept this answer - hence his understanding of gravitation was born. In 1820 a storm blew across the Lincolnshire countryside and this most important tree fell over. However, the owners left the trunk to lie in the ground and it sprouted some shoots and bingo we have another tree. This week a small piece of the apple tree will fly on a space shuttle Atlantis mission to the International Space Station. The Royal Society in London has entrusted the 10 centimetre chunk of tree, along with a picture of Newton,  as part of the Society’s 350th anniversary year celebrations.  Well, I can tell you we had as much fun as those guys flying through space.  We found an apple on the ground and took a photo of it falling - it took a while - shutter and apple speeds had to be carefully and skillfully synchronised but we got there after a few attempts to the amusement of others.

I got another letter from Mum this week which I always enjoy receiving.  Cheryl is doing some of the writing but each card has a little more of Mum's personal touch and it won't be long before she is doing her own writing to all those she is keeping in touch with.

And now it is time for Harry ...
We went to Donnington Park Motor Racing track in Leicestershire to see the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the UK. There is more Formula 1 cars in one place than anywhere else on the planet!! Well it is a large collection anyway, it also has one hall that is dedicated to McLaren racing cars. I counted 36 McLarens at the museum. This is a great memorial to Bruce McLaren and for those who don't know he was a great NZ motor racing legend. I have included a few photos of McLarens over the years.

On the Sunday we started out to visit Bruntingthorpe airfield which has an aviation museum attached to it that is only open on Sundays, however we arrived to find that they also use the airfield for motor sport events and the museum was closed, so having travelled for an hour to get there we were a bit brassed off and went to Bosworth battlefield which was interesting but confusing - all that royal fighting over land.