-ini music... Consonanze Stravaganti

Another candle-lit concert at Exeter College chapel. Marini, Paquini, Frescobaldi, Ruggieri, Corelli, Rossi, Buonamente, and Vivaldi.  A pair of baroque violins and Kah-Ming Ng on harpsichord - Charivari Agreable.

Kah -Ming Ng explained a little about the various pieces, describing one as "Latino dirty dancing", which spread from the Iberian peninsula " faster than syphilis". He propped up his over sized sheet music for one piece with a padded envelope. And Bojan Cicic, a violinist, knocked his music off the stand in his exuberance. He started to read it as it lay on the floor, but an audience member who was seated in the choir stall right behind him picked it up and restored it to its rightful place - all without missing a beat.

These concerts are delightful.

Iffley

This morning, Colin and I walked the two miles along the River Thames tow path to Iffley. This village has one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in England. The parish church was built in 1170 and has wonderful beakhead carvings around some of the doors and windows. There are also dragons, mermen, and creatures eating their own tails. It's more like churches found in France and Italy than in England.

The rest of the village was interesting too, with a 17th century thatched cottage, a 15th century tithe barn, a late Elizabethan stone cottage, and a 16th -17th century long barn. All very pretty, but also a bit eerie - this is how picture postcard English villages are supposed to look.

We had lunch at the "Prince of Wales":

Cumberland sausage

mustard mashed potatoes

onion gravy

Henry's smooth bitter to wash it down

And then we walked back along the tow path to Oxford with views of water meadows full of sweet meadow and bucolic cows grazing.

Twelfth Night at Wadham College Gardens

No Standing ovation, one hot chocolate, one wool blanket, two Pimms, two curtain calls, three layers of clothing, three (approximately) hours of entertainment, fifty something degrees Farenheit. This is madness! English summer evenings are meant to be balmy. At least it didn't rain. I felt very sorry for the actor playing Malvolio as they had him in yellow Speedos and yellow socks, and only those items of clothing, for much of the second half of the play. At least he was locked inside the little beach hut for some of it.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The last time I saw an open air production of this play was at Durham in 1977. It was a student production and not nearly as exciting as this one. That's Oberon above. He and Titania were on stilts. Titania was played by a man. A very camp man. Puck was exceedingly Puckish, and Bottom had an East Midlands accent and rode a yellow scooter. There was dry ice and magic tricks, wrassling and music. It was a promenade production, with scenes set in various locations around Headington Hill Park. We sat on logs, or the floor if your knees would permit, and followed Puck, or the actors, to the next scene. There was much running off into the distance. It was great fun and well acted besides. And, for you Atlanta readers, NO STANDING OVATION. Three curtain calls, but the rest of the world saves the standing ovation for truly amazing peformances...

Poetry reading

There is a sad little garden gnome in our garden. Karen Head, a GA Tech professor here with the summer school program, and also a poet, was inspired by him to write a poem. You can read it here

This evening, Karen and her friend, poet Grace Bauer, treated us with a poetry reading in the Linbury Room at Worcester College, preceded by a reception at their lodgings. It was a very special evening.

You can read some of Grace's work here

Building as forest

I was looking for somewhere to go while our Scout did what he does in the hobbit house on Tuesday mornings. I had no idea that the University Natural History Museum would be so fantastic. And that I would be so enthralled that I would take Colin there that very afternoon, because he just had to see it. The building that is. I didn't even look at the contents the first time I went.

A competition was held to design a building to house the University's physical and natural sciences. This design was the winner. It has a glass roof, held up by iron pillars which are ornately decorated with sculptured plant life. There are Venetian arches, iron girders, and highly detailed carvings everywhere. It was completed in 1860, which coincided with the publication of Darwin's "Origin of the Species".

All the carvings were made by the O'Shea brothers who came from Ireland. They based their work on plants brought over from the University's Botanical Garden. Each column, each capital, each base of each column is unique and utterly charming. I was enthralled.
Of course, the project was so ambitious that they ran out of money, and not all the columns are quite finished. Legend has it that the O'Sheas were fired for depicting some of the dons as owls and parrots, when really it was lack of funds that stopped the work.

One of the people working there told us to look out for the cat's paw print on a brick in an arch going down the stairs. How fitting! If ever you are in Oxford be sure to visit this Museum - you won't be disappointed. Oh, and the exhibits are interesting too.

Heaven on Earth

Another gray day in Oxford. I really had forgotten how abysmal the English summer weather could be. So after dealing with another domestic situation - a new washing machine has been ordered - Colin and I went off to get a caffeine fix at Blackwell's Bookstore.


They boast serving "the finest espresso this side of Milan". Don't know about that, but the view was interesting.


This is the air-conditioning - an open window. Actually, it's really weird because, as there usually isn't any A/C, it can get uncomfortably stuffy inside stores, even on cool, cloudy days.

And here's the cappuccino. Unfortunately, I had to gulp it down as they closed at 6pm and so we got kicked out. This is no Borders...