Daylight walk, Friday Night With Friends, Makings
I promised you last time the same walk as the moonlight walk but in the day. This is the path across Marston Meadows.
A lot more of the photos came out so this will have to be a part 1. A lot of the ice in the ditches at the side of the path had melted.
Parson’s Pleasure- see previous post for details.
The rollers for punts so they can go from one level of the river to another.
WordPress still isn’t recognising portrait photos, but this is a beautiful tree in Uni Park.- details in previous post.
In the early Victorian period, this was sheep and cattle grazing with elm trees. Many other varieties have since been planted (1865 onwards) which can cope with poor soil.
Dogwood (Cornus alba) really makes a stunning display at this time of the year when there is so little colour.
Rainbow Bridge a graceful 1923-4 construction.
Looking up river from Rainbow Bridge towards Lady Margaret Hall.
Down river view.
Close up of the down river view of Uni Park.
These birds all took off at once, I was lucky to get a photo.
The duck pond created in 1925.
The cricket pavilion designed by Sir Thomas Jackson, who had a hand in how Oxford looks today.
This is the only first class cricket ground where you can watch for free in England.
North lodge
Keble College- see link in previous post.
Natural History Museum. Want to go inside next time?
Here’s what I’ve been making this week- a cardi for my daughter in a darker blue than pictured.
A second pair of Aino Sibelius mittens as designed by the wife of Sibelius, as sold in a kit by The Flying Mitten Jarvenpaa, Finland.
I am feeling a bit like I have broken through a glass ceiling having finally finished Pumpkinville 7 by Bunny Hill Designs. This block has waited for months and months. I thought of it as a wip but it was really a UFO.
Last night was Friday Night With Friends, (42 of us if you want to see) so I prepared Pumpkinville 8 to be needle turned that evening. I didn’t have time for the embroidery but at least all the shapes are on.
Posted in Knitting, Quilts, Travels by House Elf with 19 comments.
Moonlight Walk and makings
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.
St Peter in the East C12th church on Queen’s Lane.
Oxford University Examination Schools
My fav dog grotesque on Magdalen College.
My fav dragon grotesque on Magdalen College.
There was a beautiful sunset from Magdalen Bridge over the Botanic Garden.
The tower of Magdalen College and Magdalen Bridge (where Magdalen School Choir sing from on May Morning) taken from the Angel and Greyhound Meadow.
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!
A Narnia moment with a lamp post.
The air was crisp at -2C /28.4F
Each step on the frosted grass was a soft crunch, a bit like eating flapjacks where it is crispy at first then gives way.
Someone else had broken the ice on a flooded field.
Mist came off the River Cherwell in the cold.
There have been no naked dons bathing at Parson’s Pleasure since 1991, and there are no trace of the buildings.
The rollers for taking your punt to the higher river level are still in place.
Uni Park Cricket Pavillion
Keble College Chapel -Holman Hunt’s Light of the World is here.
A Victorian Gothic revival cottage style building by the Natural History Museum.
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.
Broad Street by moonlight.
Radcliffe Square.
My fav door in town. Let me show you why.
Beautifully shaped door with a Green Man carved on it leading to Brasenose College.
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.
Victoria 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.
Talking of feet- I made these on my trip so am calling them my Moonlight Socks in commemoration of that walk.
This idea began as a punch needle rug design in a Winter’s Simply Vintage magazine. I changed it to applique,
added a snowman and left out the original lettering, and quilted stars and trees in the border using freezer paper templates.
It was meant to be a Christmas present but instead it will be a birthday present for that person this year.
A friend showed me a French glove pattern, and another friend translated it for me. These are the result!
A little bit steam punk and a little bit dressy. These will be a birthday present too.
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 House Elf with 6 comments.