Moonlight Walk and makings

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WordPress has decided to read all my photos as landscape so please tilt head appropriately.

I was back home for a little while so grab a cuppa while I walk you through town. Radcliffe Camera.

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St Peter in the East C12th church on Queen’s Lane.

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Oxford University Examination Schools

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My fav dog grotesque on Magdalen College.

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My fav dragon grotesque on Magdalen College.

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There was a beautiful sunset from Magdalen Bridge over the Botanic Garden.

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The tower of Magdalen College and Magdalen Bridge (where Magdalen School Choir sing from on May Morning)  taken from the Angel and Greyhound Meadow.

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These days though it isn’t all “Dreaming Spires”. There is a minaret on the sky line with the new construction of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

Time to refill your cuppa.

Imagine you have had a wonderful evening where you come in at midnight and get offered a mug of hot chocolate or a midnight walk under a nearly full moon. Well of course I jumped at the chance of a walk!

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A Narnia moment with a lamp post.

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The air was crisp at -2C /28.4F

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Each step on the frosted grass was a soft crunch, a bit like eating flapjacks where it is crispy at first then gives way.

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Someone else had broken the ice on a flooded field.

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Mist came off the River Cherwell in the cold.

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There have been no naked dons bathing at Parson’s Pleasure since 1991, and there are no trace of the buildings.

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The rollers for taking your punt to the higher river level are still in place.

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Uni Park Cricket Pavillion

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Keble College Chapel -Holman Hunt’s Light of the World is here.

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A Victorian Gothic revival cottage style building by the Natural History Museum.

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The New Bodleian Library (Art Deco). This is just the upper part! There are many huge floors below ground under the road leading to the older parts of the library by the Radcliffe Camera. A copy of each book published in the UK comes here. Reader requests would arrive by vacuum capsule to each layer in the stack, where the book would be found.

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Broad Street by moonlight.

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Radcliffe Square.

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St Mary the Virgin

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My fav door in town. Let me show you why.

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Beautifully shaped door with a Green Man carved on it leading to Brasenose College.

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The legend is that the 2 faun carvings holding the porch up inspired CS Lewis’s Mr Tumnus’ character in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

It is so important to have beautiful buildings to inspire new generations. I am glad that the centre of Oxford is preserved for all to enjoy.

IMG_2506Victoria Fountain at The Plain.  This area of Oxford was a Danish enclave in 1002AD. Ethelred the Unready ruled that all Danes (Vikings) should be expelled from England in what is known as St Brice’s Day Massacre. The Danes of Oxford fled to St Frideswide’s on the other side of town to claim sanctuary, but the locals burned the church down and killed everyone they could while they fled there. Bones possibly backing up the story have been found (2011) in St John’s College in St Giles which would have been outside the city walls at that time.

Next time I will show you the walk in daylight. It was a truly wonderful and special walk in the moonlight with scarcely a soul to be seen. We went inside at 2am and had that hot chocolate. I think I was grinning from ear to ear, happy to be home and feeling the history under my feet.

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Talking of feet- I made these on my trip so am calling them my Moonlight Socks in commemoration of that walk.

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This idea began as a punch needle rug design in a Winter’s Simply Vintage magazine. I changed it to applique,

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added a snowman and left out the original lettering, and quilted stars and trees in the border using freezer paper templates.

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It was meant to be a Christmas present but instead it will be a birthday present for that person this year.

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A friend showed me a French glove pattern, and another friend translated it for me. These are the result!

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A little bit steam punk and a little bit dressy. These will be a birthday present too.

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This is currently on the needles- a cardi for Daughter. It is a much richer darker teal blue but my camera wont photograph it accurately. It is a much darker Gorjuss blue like in this link.

Off to see what you have all been doing now and replying to comments left to my last post. I’m slowly getting back in to the swing of Blogland.


Posted in Crafts, Knitting, Quilts, Travels by with 6 comments.

Sunsets and Sea- Couple time.

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We’re back and nearly caught back up with ourselves.

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Our first 2 week holiday since our honeymoon.

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We needed some couple time after all the strain for the last few years.

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So we explored together,

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visited an old winery,

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changed my whole concept of “forest” into that of a fairy tale land, with twisting trails that may never lead anywhere.

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Then there were the skies and sunsets

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Even the sun wore shades! lol

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And that relaxing sound of the sea and the way the light played on its surface.

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We needed this couple time to explore who we were and see if we still got on as individuals rather than Mum and Dad figures.

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Slowly we unwound like springs which were too tightly coiled for too long.

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We started to talk like a couple rather than a family.

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We read books and took photographs.

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We slowed down.

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The sunsets from our balcony overlooking the sea fed pool were beautiful.

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Colours and textures.

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The stars seemed closer so I zoomed into Venus. We fell asleep to the sound of the waves.

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We woke to the sound of waves.

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We felt closer to the landscape and what is real about life.

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There was time for history and archaeology. (I will share later).

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But most of all there was time for us as individuals,

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And as a couple.

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We are close again and can see where we are going.

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We picked up a little passenger for our journey Tia Maria, arriving in July. There were 5 others I wished I had space for.

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So now we are more relaxed and more focussed.

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Prepared for the next stage of our lives together.

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The only way is up!


Posted in Travels by with 8 comments.