I read English at Oxford

So, probably wouldn't stand up in a job interview, but still. There we were in Oxford and there sure was a lot of English to read ...

We went to Oxford a couple weekends ago via Bus, with hoards of Swansea University Students (pretty much International, like us). Its a 4 hour bus-ride. But like I've probably already said, buses here in the UK are not quite the horror they often are in the states. A long ride, but pretty comfy.

Oxford, at its Centre (and there is a lot to it at the edges, where the re-ga-lar people live--and it looks like anywhere else, strip malls and industrial parks) is all about its Colleges. There seem to be dozens (ah, yes, 36 ...) and their buildings and chapels and residence halls dominate the town. Oxford University is the second oldest surviving university in the world (#1 is Bologna in Italy), and the oldest English-language University in the world. It was founded sometime in the 11th Century.

Yes ... so that's, like, a thousand years. A thousand years of students and teachers in the same place. Try to imagine that, oh Californian of the ever-revolving landscape ... There is architecture there stretching back all the way to the time of the Saxons. U.S.A., you were not yet even a dream in the eye of the dream of a zygote ... Poet Matthew Arnold called it, 'the city of dreaming spires' for all its church spires which, I must admit, in the misty gloaming looked fairly dreamy.



We wandered through the streets ... unable, however, to enter the colleges (all closed the day we went). I was impressed by rarefied and sequestered feel of Oxford ... Rather like cloisters. Students are protected inside the walls of the college from prying eyes or outside influences, placed into a context where they exist wholly as students (fed and cared for by the colleges--in fact there are cleaners who clean the students' rooms for them from what I've heard). I imagine there must be a bit of a connection with the way Monasteries, those first educational institutions, were run long ago. I was torn between envy and feeling quite Marxist and revolutionary about the whole thing. (Especially since we couldn't enter the lovely Radcliffe Camera ... since it was open to 'Readers' only ... its is a reading room that is part of Bodleian Library).

Now the Bodleian goes back to at least the 1400's. It has MILES of shelf space and quite a number of treasures. Copy of Shakespeare's First Folio anyone? Shelley's handwritten notes on Ozymandias? Most of the library (which is several buildings joined by an underground tunnel ... no, really) is, like the colleges, off limits (though as a UK university student I could apply for entrance actually ... will have to look into that!) but there are sections which are open. Christien and I stumbled into an amazing exhibit on Shelley, an Oxonian who once was a bit too rowdy for Oxford ... they kicked him out in his day but now seem to have gathered him into their arms as one of their own. In a little room we walked from case to case, looking a locks of Shelley's hair, a guitar he gave to a muse of his, but best of all at his notebooks with their sketches of trees, eyes, profiles, boats. And close-knit, beautiful, but illegible, handwriting ... though in one journal there were three words, written in larger, bolder print. On one page the word 'Illumines' on the facing page 'Own Shadows'. A message floating up from the text ...



We had a chance to climb up up the tower of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin which was well worth 3 quid a piece for the gargoyled views over the fantastic rooftops and skyline of Oxford. And later we even made it to the Ashmolean Museum where we wandered a bit among the ancient art, particularly the Buddhist images from Central Asia.

Ah, to be a cultured posh person, now that Spring is here ....

The New Digs

We moved! Hurrah! It's been a week here, seems less--probably because it just been so busy and with the new Term starting up time seems to be collapsing like a spent accordian ... (just something I was trying out. yeah, not the best metaphor).

Our new digs are quite unlike our previous place ... infact if you think of almost an exact opposite, this is it. Beck House was like a student reservation, removed off the road by a wall and parking lot, set apart, with several blocks for students. There were the fire drills and the 4 a.m. revelries. Our place was on the bottom floor, almost like a basement because it was partly dug into a hill, cold, damp, not particularly light. With no view (except the parking lot) and quite large (but in an empty, echoey kind of way since we didn't own anything to fill it up.

Our new place, though still managed by the Uni is a flat in a row house on a real honest to goodness Swansea street (and a crazy busy one at that). Bryn Y Mor is a main thourofare back and forth from the Uplands area to downtown. So we are now a bit closer to town and though it may be a tiny bit further from school it's only maybe a 5 minute difference in the walk (about 20 min.) It's on the 3rd floor, nearly the attic, and is a studio, so pretty small. We've got amazing light, skylights, views of the bay and of trees. It feels like an entirely different universe.

After a year of a tiny nasty shower that I couldn't stand to get in (okay, I will admit that I didn't shower quite as often as I probably should have because I just hated it so much), we have a shower/bath. And with a huge skylight you can stand in the shower with the curtain partly open and look at the clouds. I plan on having my first bath tonight, by candle-light ... looking up at the stars and moon.

And I am totally in love with the kitchen, which has a floor to (low) ceiling window and a huge skylight as well. And a "breakfast bar" with stools. It is much smaller than our old kitchen but arranged so that it feels like a much more useable space.

So, lots of pics to share, but since I can only load five I will try and give an overview ....



Coming up the stairs -- there is a nice airy landing which I might use for my office ... a little unconventional, but ... why not?



Bedroom/Living room combined -- but it's a nice space.



Bathroom with tub and skylight!




The gorgeous kitchen.





One sample view from out the kitchen skylight over the rooftops!

Rainy Day

It's raining in Swansea. Which is the natural state of things, I know--and not the bright and sunny days we've been having for so much of the summer. And honestly, I do love rain, but today for some reason it feels like a rainy day in almost a kind of Winnie-the-Pooh sort of way. (Perhaps I should make some tea).

The cloud is seamless, low, enveloping. The rain is coming down steadily now in a fine fast fall. Poor Christien is out in it. Everything in the world is damp. The papers on the table are beginning to buckle and curl, the clothes in the cupboard come out of it damp. The cotton shirts I am wearing feel slightly chill with faint wetness.

Ah, sea and rain, I do love you ... but why can't my clothes be dry?

I wanted to keep forging on with Llanmadoc--because it really was such a lovely retreat for us. So I posted about the pups last time (miss them still!) and thought I would post a few pics from the walk which was right behind the house--an enormous steep hill from which you get basically a 365 view. In fact you can see Wormshead (our favorite spot KB & WC) as well as out to the salt march and across to Llanelli and Burry Port. And I just looked it up and found out you really can see Tenby from there on a clear day (it's the edge of the Pembrokeshire coast). We walked up it with the dogs on a few early mornings and also by ourselves (hard to stop for scenic sights with three Lurchers trying to bound off after sheep or rabbits).

It is commons land, so there are herds of sheep that wander up and along it and also a herd of wild horses that was often grazing up there. On our afternoon walk we were wandering back along the ridge when we spied another couple wandering very close to some of the horses (they had foaled, so there were several babies wandering with the herd) and then another family came along on the same path. Well the stallion decided that this was enough and we were treated (from a but farther up) to a remarkable display of stallion herding behavior ... he chased after the mares in a wide arch, with his head and neck out flat (which I read was like a mimicry of a snake, scary--and indeed it would worry me if he was coming after me like that), stamping, nipping, chasing the laggards and rounding the whole group (which had spread out pretty far) into a tight circle. Then he stood guard at the edge--keeping the mares in the circle and watching us humans.

So here are a few pics from Llanmadoc Hill.




Coming up a trail (through shoulder-high rain-wet bracken (ie. ferns) and gorse, the trail meets another road.





In this picture and the next you can see the inlet which is essentially north. There is a huge area of sand flats, dunes, a long stretch of pine wood (that used to be a municions test area) and a salt marsh where sheep and wild horses graze.




This is basically of the salt marsh, underwater. We went to the beach the next day and discoverd that high tide has an unpleasant aftereffect--sheep droppings all along the beach that floated in from the salt marsh!




Here is from our afternoon walk to the far end of the hill--that is looking out toward where Tenby would be.




And finally, past the gorse and heather--Wormshead!

Carrington in Chichester

I want to write a bit more about Llanmadoc, but we also had another fun adventure, the week after we got back to Swansea.

We found out in the Spring that there was going to be an exhibition of paintings by our favorite two painters in the whole world/over all time: Leonora Carrington and Rememdios Varo -- at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. Pallant House is a museum endowed by Edward James, who was a Lord of some kind (I think) who had a taste for Surrealist art and acquired a large collection. The museum, in association with the government of Mexico, developed this exhibition.

Carrington was born in the UK, but at a very young age she fled her family's social demands (she was a debutante and supposed to behave and marry well) and went first to London to study painting, and then to Paris--where she met the Surrealists and fell in love with Max Ernst. She and Ernst were together for only a short time before the threat of the Nazi's interrupted their artistic romance. Ernst, as a German alien in France, ended up in a camp. He was released briefly but ended up back in a Nazi camp after the Germans invaded. Carrington stayed in France for a while but eventually was forced to flee to Spain. In Spain she had a breakdown and ended up in Santander Asylum. Her family meanwhile tried to get her designated insane and committed permanently in another asylum in order to try and mitigate her "damage" to the family name. She was released from Santander, managed to give her family's agent the slip, and got away. She married a Mexican diplomat in order to obtain a visa to be able to leave Europe. After some time in New York she went to Mexico City. There she divorced (it had been a marriage of convenience, for the visas) and later married Emerico Weisz, a photographer and expatriate Hungarian Jew.

In Mexico City she continued to paint and develop a truly unique artistic style and an amazing body of work. She is now considered a Mexican artist--though she also spends some time in the US each year. She is about 93, still working.

So consider this part one.

As a p.s. There was a contest to write 150 words about the story behind one of Carrington's paintings. There were 3 paintings, 3 chances. Christien and I both wrote little poems to go with the images. So I will include one here to go with the image of one of the paintings ....




Are you really Syrious?

It is a dawn sky, the first of summer. Sirius rises: flame, fire. He noses up from the underworld where for two months he scented out the tunnels and caves, tracking through the maze. Weaver webs his progress on a loom of sails, each line of feather-fine silk is a line of light that Sirius scored through the dark. And now he is returned. There are dances to be done, another mark to carve on the totem. The long nails of the dogs scratch patterns across the marble tiles. They will all go hunting soon. Rabbits, through the dew-damp flowers. Antelopes, through the tall bent grass. The dogs will chase the hard hot heartbeat, hearing it far off in the cool morning, following its echo down toward the waiting river.

Puppies, puppies

Quite behind as usual ...

So--we were house-sitting out on the Gower for two weeks. It was gorgeous. A lovely house, lots of light. Our bedroom had windows to the north and south. South was a great rising hill topped with cairn/ruins. North was the trailing arm of the dunes out toward the tidal inlet, and a skeletal metal lighthouse (which once went on auction for 1 quid--they just wanted someone to take responsibility for the place's upkeep).

Morning one was us waking up at quarter to 7, stumbling downstairs to make sure the dogs didn't need to burst out of doors. But no, Lurchers seem to be a little bit camel (in the opposite sense) and never in a huge rush to go out and pee in the garden. But they were quite keen to get out on their walk and we rushed out the door, unbrushed, half-dressed, trailing bits of dream and sleep in our wake and bounded up the hill top (gasping desperately for air). Lurchers are part greyhound, sleek, fast, strong. Even Bella, with her injury, was a handful. They pulled us up and down. They long to chase and heaven help the sheep, rabbit, or cat who dashes past their nose if we were to lose the leads. (We managed, sometimes painfully. I brusied a finger holding onto Lyra when she lurched after a cat on one of our evening walks.)

After that first scattered business we learned how to cope better--if not gaining the upper hand exactly, we made a sort of compromise with the dogs. I came down early, let them out, had tea and a few almonds. Christien came down a bit later after stretching, and then I went up to change for the walk. Much more coordinated and organized.

First round here I will post a few pics of the dogs ...

Sweet Bella, who broke her foot in February, had just started wearing an orthodic brace and taking longer (45 min) walks with the rest again.


Lyra is the rescue that was abandoned in a parking lot. She is very shy--but warmed up to us by our first walk that evening and by the end of our two weeks we were very close. She loved to play and fetch. Can't believe a person who abuse such a sweet creature.


Terran was the baby, antsy, energentic and wicked strong! She loved to run straight up the garden and straight back again ... forget fetching.

Updatey

Just an update on the doings here.

Starting Saturday Christien and I will be house-sitting for two weeks for a family in Llanmadoc, which is out on the far north end of the Gower (right down the road, about 20 miles from Swansea, you'll remember us talking about Rhosilli, we will be north of there). Not the most glamorous of house-sits, we had looked into some in France, Spain, and Ireland ... but the most practical for us right now, basically no travel costs, etc. The owner is a Professor at Swansea U, so they were glad to get someone there associated with the school and who knows the area. Plus we figure with a "local" recommendation (all things going well, hopefully) we will have a good start toward some holiday getaway/house-sitting gigs in the future. They have 3 dogs, Lurchers (which are a mix breed, with greyhound in them) which need lots of walking. The house is right below a hill which we will be walking with the dogs every day, with 360 degree views of the sea and peninsula. They are just up from pine woods, dunes, and beach. No market except a tiny co-operative place just down the road. A real Welsh village. So we will take lots of pics and I will update how it goes! We will have internet, but not on our laptops, so I will have to post pics later.

In other news, our move will likely be the week of Sept 10th, sometime between the 10th and 17th. We are moving into a studio apartment -- which will take a little getting used to after all the enormous amount of space we've had here at Beck. However, with fire alarms and workmen and landscapers and 3 a.m. students talking outside our room, I think we are looking forward to a change. And the place will be cheaper, as well, which is good cause we need to save money, as usual!

I leave you, then, with a Swansea shot ....



This is down at the boardwalk near the beach looking back up into Brynmill and toward the Uplands. The lights and stands of the Cricket/Rugby grounds you can see right in the foreground.

California Dreaming?

Is it me, or are these California Poppies? They really look quite like them. There are a couple plants growing from a wall down on Pantygwdyr Street. I've now seen a few similar flowers at the botanical gardens in Singleton Park, but not in the pure golden California shade.




I've realized that in the past we've been very bad about taking atmospheric shots of places that we've lived. We take shots on special sorts of trips, like hikes, or of special kinds of things, like castles ... but I've realized that so much of what makes Swansea interesting is just the streets and the garden walls, and the alleys (I love the alleys) and the way you know you're in a sea town, even when you can't see it.

C & I both had a working Sunday this weekend, wrote, etc. -- but we stopped at 5 pm and walked down to the beach together. The tide was in, which I always like because then I get to touch the water. There were a number of fishermen down on the beach, and a whole group of sail boats doing S's around the buoy's out in the bay. Very lovely. Anyway, why did I bring that up ... oh ... cause I realized that even sitting in the flat with the breeze coming in through the window, you know there is sea out there--its just in the smell of the air, and the salty, seaish feel of it .... How's that for brilliant description? Hmmm, yes.

Back to the poppies--they could be transplants, there are so many plants here from all over the world. And the weather here is very California coastal ... a bit cooler perhaps. We've been averaging in the 60's -- low to high -- but that is beach weather I suppose.

I include, besides the poppies, a couple of my attempts at recording more of the everyday atmosphere of Swansea....







If you take a zig-zag route through Brynmill (neighborhood) down toward the bay you have to climb. You come out at a spot where there is a school with a gorgeous and very nautical bell on it with an amazing view of the bay and the lighthouse at Mumbles, and a great white fence. Just up from here is a pub and a chip shop (of course)


I just love rust ...