Urban poetry

High Street in Oxford on a sultry summer night.

I had taken the daytime flight to Heathrow, so it was after nine PM when I got to my hotel in Oxford. And it was hot. The temperatures had been in the 90's that day, and my hotel room had one small window and no air conditioning. (It did have two fans, but the sensation of having hot air blasted at me reminded me of South Dakota, and not in a good way.)

I went out for a walk to stretch my legs and after only a couple of blocks I desperately wanted some cold water. But all the shops were closed, and I didn't want to sit in a bar just to drink some fizzy water. This food truck had water, which was cold only in the sense that it was maybe a few degrees cooler than the air, but I was grateful to get it.

Random things I saw at Magdalen College

 

The Hall

This is very similar to the one at Merton, which also has the tables set in three long rows. But at Merton, only the center table has chairs; the other two have benches, which are really difficult to get in and out of when it's crowded. Unless, of course, you're eighteen years old.

On the other hand

I love the college bar (called the Old Kitchen Bar). I would love to curl up on that sofa with a cup of tea and a good book.

I did get a coffee in the adjoining cafe, but chose to have it on the terrace outside overlooking the river.

For example...

I took this picture through a window; it is apparently a meeting room.

And mostly it looks fairly comfortable, if a little dowdy. But that carpet! It's almost as bad as the one in my room at Merton.

15th century paint job

Just kidding—I'm sure it's been touched up in the last 200 years. This is part of the covered walkway around all four sides of the Cloister. There are some of the typical Oxford death-defying stairs without railings that presumably lead to student rooms, and a door intriguingly labeled the Cardinal Wolsey Room (he was also a Magdalen alum) which Google informs me is just a private dining room.

There is something endearing about how much bad paint and shabby furniture lie underneath the dreaming spires of the Oxford colleges.

The Great Quad

This is more typical Oxford. Magdalen College was founded in 1458; this quad, also called the Cloister, was built at the end of that century.

Here be badgers

That lovely gate marks one of the boundaries between the wilder parts of the college—the footpath, the woods, the river—and the more cultivated and manicured areas. I loved the sign on it.

Magdalen Bridge

The bridge sits at the top of the High Street, so I've crossed it many times, usually stopping to look at the punts on the Cherwell below. But from the footpath you can see the bridge from below and watch the punts as they go through the arches.

The unexpected rusticity

Another bench I passed along the way, and grasses growing along a small stream. The crowds and traffic on the High Street seem very far away here; even the college itself, with its quads and spires, feels miles away.

There are allegedly otters and kingfishers in these woods, but I didn't see any. I had to look hard for the deer!

The Water Meadow

I sat on that bench for a while, hoping the deer would come out from under the trees where they were hiding. They did not.

Addison's Walk

This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

That's from a poem by C.S. Lewis, a Fellow of Magdalen College, referencing this footpath in the college, where he often walked. (There is a plaque with the poem on one of the gates.) Unlike the walk around Christ Church Meadow, it's not open to everyone; it's inside the college and you have to buy a ticket to visit.

I went there early on a Saturday morning, and while the other tourists clustered in the quads, I mostly had this walk to myself, through these long tunnels of trees around the water meadow where the college's herd of deer live in the summer.

Because of course they have a herd of deer in the middle of the college in the 21st century. Christ Church College has cows, doesn't it?

Eating and shopping

Except for that big castle and some nice parks, central Windsor seems to consist entirely of shops and restaurants, and a few hotels where you can recuperate in order to do more eating and shopping.

Many of the larger old buildings—like the old train station on the top left—have been converted into arcades, full of still more shops and restaurants. But it all felt very jolly, with all the Union Jacks fluttering in the summer breeze, and my Disdain-O-Meter never registered above zero.

Sunday bird blogging

Feeding time along the river in Windsor.

There were carts selling packets of food for the swans, and some children were tossing the pellets into the water here. What made me laugh was the way the Canada geese were completely shut out from the treats, having finally encountered birds that were bigger and meaner than they are.

Saturday reflections

Another castle, back in Oxford this time, reflected in one of the city's many waterways.

English skies

I've always loved the insane variability of English weather. It's raining! Wait, no it's not. Is that the sun? Oops, sorry, no.

I took these two pictures from the same bridge over the Thames just a few minutes apart. Different skies, different moods.

Urban poetry

Lunch in a park near my hotel.

The headstones along the wall behind the man are a common site in English parks. It means that the park used to be a churchyard or cemetery and the land has now been repurposed. The headstones have historical value, so they leave them there, propped up against the walls.

You sometimes see the same thing in graveyards that haven't been converted. It might be because they simply ran out of space at some point in the past, and old headstones were removed to make room for new ones. Or another churchyard nearby may have been abandoned and its headstones were moved to one that is still active.

They usually didn't move the bodies, however. So even though the headstones are moved out of the way, you're still eating lunch in a graveyard.

Guarding the guards

There were several police officers with big guns patrolling the crowds before the parade began—although most of the guardsmen were also armed, I suppose they needed to focus on marching rather than identifying threats.

But I loved that there were also several “ceremonial wardens,” standing by. I'm not sure what they do, but I love the job title.

Changing of the guard

I honestly don't remember if I've ever seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace—maybe once or twice if I happened to be passing by, and I doubt I stayed for the whole thing.

But I enjoyed the Windsor version, even though it was crowded and I didn't have a clear view. Also, it was maybe fifteen minutes from hearing the first drumbeats up the High Street to the last red jackets disappearing inside the castle. I'm not a big fan of parades in general, so consider brevity a virtue.

Somebody's watching me

You do sometimes feel like the castle buildings are just always there. Here, behind a group of buildings by the river (under a truly ominous sky) and later that afternoon, behind the fountain commemorating Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, across from the Alexandra Gardens.

Castle askew

Another photo of the castle, but without correcting for the usual lens distortions.

I'm feeling a little like that castle. I got home Wednesday afternoon, and though I managed nine hours of sleep last night and am more or less back on Eastern Daylight time, four weeks away almost immediately following the eleven day road trip has me quite discombobulated. Too many things to catch up on, and not enough functioning neurons to handle them. I did the easy stuff—laundry and groceries—yesterday; today I'm going to finish going through the mail, make some doctor's appointments, and start some insurance claims for cancelled hotels. At least that's the plan.

Windsor Castle

According to the official website, Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. I'm sure that's true, but my favorite thing about it is that it actually looks like a castle, or at least like a castle as I imagined them when I was a child. It sits at the top of a hill along the high street, and seems to stretch on forever, and you can see the various towers in the distance all over the city.

I went there many years ago, and wasn't tempted to buy a ticket yesterday. It was a beautiful day, and I was happy to walk through the city, watch the swans on the Thames, sit in the Alexandra Gardens and read, and enjoy the castle from the outside.

Windsor

Queen Victoria surveying her Empire from the front of Windsor Castle.

I'm not supposed to be here; I'd planned to be in Yorkshire, seeing Haworth Parsonage and York Minster. But a case of appendicitis that turned out not to be appendicitis derailed everything.

I'm fine, but I was under doctor's orders to stay in Oxford just in case, and I couldn't have handled wrestling all of my luggage on and off of the three trains it takes to get to Haworth anyway. So I'm in Windsor and flying home tomorrow, and longer explanations will have to wait.

In the meantime, this statue is so well placed that wherever you are on Peascod Street, the pedestrian mall full of shops and restaurants heading downhill from the castle, the queen appears to be watching—and judging.

Maybe you really don't need that sultana scone after all.

Sunday bird blogging

This wood pigeon in the front quad at Merton was obviously very proud of that big stick.

Christ Church

I do the walk around Christ Church meadow almost every day, but I'd never actually been inside the college itself. You need a ticket, and they're only released once a week, so I've thought of it as something I'd maybe do sometime. But you can attend services at the cathedral, which is on the main quad of the college, and last Saturday I went to Evensong there.

This is the cathedral entrance from Tom Quad, and the altar inside. Tom Quad is named for Great Tom, the bell in the tower over the entrance to the college. It's the loudest bell in Oxford (I can attest to this) and rings every night at 9:05 pm. Everything at Christ Church is five minutes behind the rest of Oxford, because they still stick to the original Oxford time, which was five minutes behind Greenwich Time. So Evensong began at 6:05.

Bridge of Sighs

This is a famous landmark in Oxford I've mostly ignored because, like the Radcliffe Camera, quite enough pictures of it exist already. But it did look very pretty on a sunny summer day, so here you are.

It joins two buildings at Hertford College, and, despite its antique appearance, is only a hundred years old.

Green Templeton College

I had never heard of most of the component colleges of Oxford University before last summer, though I'm obviously a lot more familiar with them now after spending so much time just walking around here.

This is one of the newer colleges (really new, like 20th century) though the buildings housing it are not, and I peeked in at this charming courtyard on my way back from the Mathematical Institute.

Penrose tiling

I'm trying not to take any pictures of things in Oxford that I photographed last summer, however picturesque they may seem in the moment. For some reason, this has not reduced the number of pictures I'm taking by much.

But this is definitely new. Yesterday I walked up the Woodstock Road to the Mathematical Institute to see these tiles in the courtyard. These are a Penrose tiling, named after Sir Roger Penrose, professor of mathematics, and also a well-known cosmologist who worked with Stephen Hawking. I have a cold—not a bad one, but it's definitely making me too stupid to attempt much of an explanation of aperiodic tiling, especially since I don't really understand it in the first place.

I do know that the tiles have two shapes, a kite and a dart, but the pattern never repeats, and will never repeat no matter how large an area is covered.

Sunday bird blogging

A cygnet at Newstead Abbey, Lord Byron's home in Nottinghamshire, where we took a field trip on Thursday.

There was a whole family of swans, two adults and six youngsters, lounging under a tree. I couldn't get very close because I didn't want to upset Mom and Dad, but I enjoyed seeing the contortions those fuzzy little bodies managed to get into; they clearly weren't sure what to do with those long necks yet. This guy sat up long enough to be recognizable as a swan.

Saturday reflections

Flowers reflected in the river at Magdalen College this morning.

The Cove

This is one of the two stones known as “the Cove.” I have a picture of the house framed by both of the stones but I like this one better. Imagine having this in your backyard!

Standing stones

The stones at Avebury were mostly not shaped, unlike the ones at Stonehenge. They were just dragged from the nearby downs and put in place.

We were encouraged to hug the stones and must of us did. Someone told me afterwards that I looked very “dramatic” when I was embracing my stone, but I figure if you're going to take up stone-hugging, you might as well commit to it.