Ken's birthday, Darwin, pub and family gathering

Today was such a lovely day.  Ken turned 64 and the weather cooperated for him.

His brother, Pete, picked Mark, Ken and I up in his snazzy Audi convertible.  (Christine was off to golf.)  We drove to Downe, a little village in Kent, where Charles Darwin spent the last 40 years of his life.

Down House was so enjoyable and informative that we spent a happy 3 hours.

 The top floor concentrated mostly on his theory of evolution and his contribution to science.  The journal that he kept when on the Beagle was 750 pages long; and, he kept many separate notebooks as well.

The downstairs focused on his family life.  He married into the Wedgewood family.  In fact, his wife, Emma, was his first cousin.  As both the Darwins and Wedgewoods were well-off, he was able to concentrate on his studies for his entire life.  They had 10 children, although 3 died before they were adults.  He was very much a family man and involved the children in his scientific pursuits.

His study was fascinating.  He adapted his chairs with raised iron legs on casters so that he could scoot around looking at things.  When he needed a break, he played billiards with his butler, who was also a friend.

He had an inside slide made for the children which attached to the stairs.  We all thought it ingenious.  Depending on the age and/or bravery of the child, the slide could be made steep or shallow.

His mind was inquisitive and wide-ranging.  Even as a child, he collected beetles.  He focused on barnacles for over 8 years.  He and one of his sons conducted soil experiments to see if earthworms were responsible for moving soil.  They built a wormstone that they used for 17 years and concluded that the worms sank the soil about 2 cm a year. He focused on geology, fossils and stones.  He conducted experiments on plants, both in the fields and gardens and in his greenhouse.  For example, he measured how fast a climbing cucumber made twists.  (one twist every 1 hour, 40 minutes.)  He put flour on bees so that his children could follow the bee's flight.

Afterwards, we went to a pub in Down that Darwin also frequented.  It was beautiful and built in the 1500's.  We all had some Doom Bar beer, a Cornish micro-brewery beer that Ken likes.  We all did a lot of laughing.  We met a field trip from Wisconsin of college student en route to Zambia to do science experiments.  We had seen them at Downe House, as well.

Later, the family gathered at the house to celebrate Ken's birthday.