Wednesday, April 10th

We took a break today from 10 hrs of detecting and spent half the day today doing some sightseeing.  We started out this morning going to the old church ruins on the property where we metal detect.  This church was abandoned in the 1550's and is such a peaceful place to walk around on the property.  It also presents a good photo op for those Christmas card pictures.

We went detecting (highlights to follow) at a couple of different fields.  In the afternoon, we visited Layer Marney Tower, Britains tallest Tudor Gatehouse and was built during the reign of Henry VIII.  It includes the medieval wall painting of St Christopher which was saved from destructions during the Reformation by being painted over.  It remainded undiscovered for over 300 years.

Next stop was Mersea, a small island a few miles from where we are staying, and the Roman Burial Mound. Last Fall, when we first got permission to hunt some land nearby, we heard about a woman who is the curator of the burial mound.  She offered to give a tour and background information to anyone who might be interested.  This has been on our "to do " list ever since. The woman was totally delightful and gave an entertaining presentation, complete with ghost stories, and knew the history of the excavation of the mound 101 years ago. Inside, was found a lead box with a hand blown green glass bowl sealed inside.  Inside that glass bowl were the cremated bones of a Roman mystery person.  They have been raising money to have these bones analyzed in hopes of finding out who this person was and why they would have built such an elaborate tomb. 

The big surprise was....this woman had been to Portland, Oregon with a friend just last Fall.  She had even visited Oregon City on a tour bus which stopped at The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  Here we are in a tiny town in the U.K. and we run into a person who had just visited out small town in Oregon, USA. It was an amazing experience today. How often do you have the opportunity to actually go inside a Roman Burial Mound?

 Everyone enjoyed the break in the detecting day today. In spite of the shorter detecting time, we still made some good finds. Clarence and Mindy found hammered silver coins, Bruce found greenies and I found a greenie and a Roman bronze. Our Aussie newbies did OK today, as well.  Lynne found a golf balls (pretty sure it's not Roman though), and a possible dagger quillion.  Peter found a 1917 Gerorge V penny.

Today's Aussie vocabulary word(s) is appropriate for us on those ten hour days in farmer's fields:
Outdoor Dunny= outdoor bathroom or out house.  In our case, that would be a trip to the woods or bushes in you are lucky enough to be in a field that have them. 

Bonus vocabulary word or phrase:  Mindy and I learned this one yesterday while talking to Giles, the tractor driver in the field.  I asked if they had problems with night hawkers, people who sneak onto private property, under cover of night,  to metal detect without obtaining permission. He said there main problem was with "fly tippers".  I am picturing the college prank of cow tipping but on a much smaller scale. I'm trying to get that image in my head when he explained the fly tipping is people who come along and tip out trash "on the fly" on their fields to avoid paying the trash hauler. In other words, illegal trash dumping. It makes more sense than trying to sneak up on a sleeping fly. 

Enough for tonight.  We have two days left for me to find that elusive gold coin.  Clarence has two gold items this trip, so I am behind. See you all back here tomorrow..............