Ghosts of Oxford

There is something about Autumn and Oxford that seems to go hand in hand.

An energy hung in the air. Ingrained in the stone. Centuries of thought and knowledge. Ideas sparked and creations birthed. The ghosts of so many minds, gathered in one place. Seeping between the streets and buildings like blood in veins.

Maybe it was because of the time of year, just a few days until it was Halloween, when folk speak of the veil being thin?

It was a good energy. The kind that you absorb deep inside to refill your own creative well. So we soaked it in and we wandered and browsed in book shops and sipped hot chocolate.
 Our main reason for going was to catch the Tolkien exhibition 'Maker of Middle Earth' which was in its last few days at the Weston library. I had been meaning to go since the summer when it opened, but never got around to it. So it was a last chance, before it headed off to far off lands.

So over the misty mountains we went...

Through the door,  or past it at least.

And into a lovely exhibition displaying Tolkien's sketches, paintings and notes. His desk and chair, old tobacco smoking pipes and paint set were on show too. It was wonderful for a short while to be immersed in snippets and details of his world. How incredibly small his writing was, so perfect and the attention to detail was a joy to see.  Sadly photographs inside were not allowed, so instead I will share the postcard set that I bought, which shows some of the art work which was on display.

Although the exhibition has moved on now, you can browse Tolkien items to buy in the Bodleian libraries shop here including the postcard set that I bought.

Afterwards we headed to the Eagle and Child. This is the pub where Tolkien used to meet up weekly with C.S Lewis and other writers to discuss their works in progress.

We sat in the very spot, ate lunch (a veggie burger, just incase you were wondering ;) ) and enjoyed a drink or two.

It was a lovely day out and I got to tick off the Eagle and Child off of my long list of things to do and places to visit.  

Across the River Severn to Wales for a Day.

It's been a mixed bag of weather this past week. Last Saturday felt like the warmest day so far this year. We walked along the canal and it was the first time that I took my coat off as the sun felt warm. It was hard to believe it was February but the masses of catkins reminded us.
Sunlight shone across the glassy water and there were shoals of little fishes with red fins. I think they may have been young Roach?

I spotted a wonderful Fungi growing on an old tree stump . 

Hoping the weather would stay fine, on Sunday we crossed over the Severn bridge into Wales to Cardiff. Only an hour away from here. A day of ticking off one of my 'to visit' places off my list.  Not Cardiff itself but St Fagan's National History Museum
It's similar to the Weald and Downland Museum in Chichester that I visited last year. Cottages and farm buildings that were threatened with demolition or falling into disrepair have been moved here and preserved.

The weather sadly didn't match the day before and instead it was grey and drizzly. That didn't matter  though, as it was cosy inside the cottages.

I love that feeling of stepping back in time, the smells so familiar seem etched in my memory from my ancestors?

There was lots to photograph, but the simple compositions caught my interest the most. An old sewing machine, an iron, shells in a window sill and the simplicity of the lime washed plaster and wall paper.

A wonderful old white washed church, enclosed within a white washed wall looked as if it belonged in a fairytale.
Before being moved to St Fagan's, St Teilo's church was originally from Landeilo Tal-y- Bont beside the river Loughor. It is believed to date back to the 12th century and is said that as recently as the 20th century, that some worshippers still reached the church by coracle on the river. It's a little sad that it had to be moved, but if it means preserving it then that's a good thing. Plus it did look so at home surrounded by the trees.

Inside was a beautiful space,  warm and filled with angels.
It has been been rebuilt and redecorated how it would have looked in around the year 1530. The original paintings that were uncovered have been preserved and kept by The National Museum of Wales.

It was a calm and very peaceful place to be.

In the gardens of St Fagan's I met some rather interesting folk made of stone. 

 I wonder if they wake up at night and wander the lawns by moonlight? 

I love the crouching young maiden and the young boy, with the look of sheer wonder on his face.

As it was February when we visited  unfortunately the main house was closed for winter work and cleaning, so I think I may have to return again one of these days. I love this house and seeing it and some of the other ones at the museum has inspired me to add some to future new paintings.

Thank you all for your kind comments left on my last post. It's still very quiet in the garden with out Robin Goodfellow. I've named the new little Robin 'Puck' and had a good chat with him today.
Have a good weekend whatever you are up to.

A trip to a Sussex Museum

Houses often have faces. Sometimes they look happy, sometimes sad, occasionally grumpy or even scary. They sometimes also have a feel to them. A good warm feeling or a cold hard one. Maybe the feelings are the echoes and memories of those who have lived in them. All those moments of energy in one place. So many layers of laughter, tears, birth and death. This house doesn't look happy or sad to me, maybe a little unsure or slightly worried? I like this house, the inside had a good warm feeling. It reminds me of the simple houses that children draw. It reminds me also of a children's TV series that I can remember from childhood. I must have been very young as I remember that it scared me a little and it has stayed with me for years. All I could remember of it (until recently) was that it was about a house with someone trapped upstairs. They were trapped upstairs because there was no staircase. It's only recently that I found out what the TV series was, by searching on youtube. 

I came across this house at the Weald and Downland open air museum a couple of weeks ago.  

The Museum is just outside of Chichester in West Sussex. It's home to a number of old buildings that were rescued instead of being demolished from various places in Sussex and the Eastern surrounding counties. I love old buildings so this has been on my list of places to visit for a while now.

“The old house had a thousand doors in it.

All old houses do. You can see them if you know how to look: the noontime shadow of a windowpane crawling with intent across a floor; unmeasured angles of wall meeting wall; fireplaces grown chill with unused years. Archways with unseen contours you can trace with a finger in the cracks as brick grinds against brick in settling walls. Some nights, and some houses are doorways entire, silhouettes against the evening's last light black on black like an opening into a darker sky. You just have to look. An eye-corner glance will do, if you don't turn and stare and explain it away.”
~ Michael Montoure

 

“It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that had ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years.
Wasn't it, after all, a kind of life?

And there were houses, he knew it, that breathed. They carried in their wood and stone, their brick and mortar a kind of ego that was nearly, very nearly, human.” 

~Nora Roberts  Key of Knowledge

This one below is an old market hall.

Just as beautiful on the inside, as the outside.

As well as houses I also spied a beautiful gaggle of geese. 

And this handsome fella and his friends...

It was a bitterly cold day and the fires lit inside some of the cottages were very appreciated. 

There are many other buildings and things to see, but the tudor style is where my heart lies hence the pictures. It's a lovely place to visit, I would like to return when it is a little warmer though and next time I will hopefully get to look in the little gift shop which sadly had already closed by the time we had finished looking around.  

Back at home amid our local beautiful timber framed buildings, the time had been turned back and a whole street transformed for Shakespeare and his friends. A new tv series about 'Will' the young William Shakespeare. I felt very much at home amid all these props. It was a visual delight.

Wouldn't it be fabulous if it was a permanent fixture, so much better than parked cars don't you think? ;) 

The talisman that I showed in progress in my last post are now finished and in the shop here.  Over half of them have sold already, so make haste my dear friends, if you were hoping to snaffle one up. 

Have a magical week. 

X