We started our adventures in Stratford with a visit to Mary Arden’s Farm.  Mary Arden was Shakespeare’s mother and this is the house she grew up in.  The farm is really a living/working history museum of the Tudor period (late 1500’s)  The re-enactors bring it alive by carrying on the daily chores and living as they would have at that time. Falconry was a means of catching food during the period and we were able to see a great demonstration using two different owls.  We watched while they sat down to a traditional meal and they explained the food and the manners and customs of the time.  Did you know that each person had their own spoon that they kept in their pocket?  When you went to someone’s house, you better have your spoon in your or you had nothing to eat with! (forks had not been invented yet!)