Ham House

Yesterday I went to Ham House. The gardens were beautiful. Cherry Tree garden used to be filled with Cherry trees when Elizabeth Murray grew up, but now the garden has been recreated like plans that people found in the house. The Cherry Tree garden and many others would be for showing off but there was also gardens for food and vegetables and for medicinal uses. Elizabeth would make all the medicines in her own still. They used a trick to keep their plants healthy by putting patches were there were only flowers to keep the pests away from the other plants. This is because they did not have pestisides.

The house was covered in luxurious and expensive items for example : dolphin chairs, many tapestries draping the walls, many vases from china, and they even had a very expensive lacquer table, the table would have been very expensive because it had about 300 layers of lacquer on it and each layer would take a day to dry, so it would take a year to make.

Elizabeth Murray (maitland) lived at Ham house, in her own right she was the Countess of Dysart and through marriage the Duchess of Lauderdale. She was very tenacious and in 1653 she joined the secret Royalist organisation, called the  Sealed Knot. In 1660, when Charles II resumed the throne, he rewarded Elizabeth with an annual pension of £800. The reason for this is because she helped him regain power. Her enemies accused her of witchcraft because of her political influence. The Duchess of Lauderdale died, at the age of 72, on 5 June 1698 at Ham House. She is buried with other members of the Dysart family in a vault under the chancel of Petershan parish church.

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All About Fireflies

Last night I saw loads of Fireflies they tended to be gathered in shadowy places.  They reminded me of little Fairies flashing torches on and off.













The word for animals that make their own light is called bioluminescence.

Nobody really knows how the fireflies glow but they know that its a chemical reaction.
The males fly around attracting the females by flashing at them, the females will then flash back.


There are other animals that make their own light. Scorpions glow under UV light but nobody knows what they use their light for but scientists think it could have been a accidental by-product. Female Angler fish use their antenna to hunt, by luring in their prey with their bioluminescent antenna.

In the deeper, darker parts of the ocean, the light will attract smaller fish and when close enough the Angler fish will strike. The Angler fish is named because 'Angling' is another name for 'fishing'.  there was confusion for a short time about male Angler fish, scientists wondered whether or not there were any males, but discovered tiny males clinging onto females feeding off them until reproduction takes place.


















Some millipedes glow in the dark, they use their glow to tell predators to go away.



There is also another bioluminescent sea creature called the cookie cutter shark (also known as the cigar shark for the black band round the sharks neck),  which will take cookie sized bite out of larger fish,  whales, dolphins, Dugongs, seals, nuclear submarines  and even humans and great white sharks! They take a bite by suctioning the flesh with their sticky lips biting with their teeth and rotating there body round 360 degrees. They are the smallest species of shark, with the biggest teeth. When they loose their  teeth they loose them in rows. Only 10 have ever been caught because in day they hide in the the bottom of the sea and in the night comes up to the surface to feed on its unprepared prey, the prey is unprepared because the the belly of the shark is bioluminescent which makes it camouflaged by the light, so that the prey cannot see it.

Here is my diagram of a firefly:

Tadpoles to Frog life-cycle

A couple of weeks ago I went on an adventure to find a stream. Once we got there we found loads of tadpoles. I collected about 10 and brought them home in a bottle with stream water and pond weeds.

How I looked after them:

When we got back home I put them in a washing up bowl with 3 litres of mineral water (don't use tap water it will kill the tadpoles - if you do not have mineral water then you can use rain water) 2 weeds with roots (the tadpoles will like to eat the roots of the weeds) and rocks to climb on once they have limbs (otherwise they will drown).

Here is a picture of a life-cycle I made:

Rome PART THREE

The Colosseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an oval Amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy.  

We visited the Roman Colosseum and walked around the outside. We did not go inside because dogs were not allowed. It was very crowded. Over 2,000 people a day visit the Colosseum. It is amazing to see but also to me it felt confusing that they did so many horrible things there. 


The construction of the Colosseum started in 70 AD and took about 10 years to complete. It has also survived several earthquakes that have been able to destroy the South side wall.

The Colosseum was used for gladiators to fight animals and each other.
It is a large circular amphitheatre with lots of layers and many arches. The slaves would sit at the top, the more important you were the lower you would sit.

There is a great video all about the Colosseum here.