Category: London

Britain, History, London, Travel November 19, 2014November 15, 2014

Apple Day at Borough Market

“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
― Henry David Thoreau

Borough Market is currently celebrating 1000 years of history, and this year’s Apple Day pulled out all the stops with a proper harvest festival. Players put on traditional skits featuring English folk heroes like Robin Hood and anthropomorphic woodland creatures, Morris dancers performed, and a Green Man (a pagan throwback, probably to harvest and fertility gods) presided in a fab costume. The big deal this year was a display of 1000 apple varieties, including the oldest known variety to come to Britain. There were tasting stations to try the apples, the kitchens hosted baking classes, and generally a nicely traditional time was had by all!

Some of the varieties of apples grown in and near London throughout the centuries.

The players performing, alongside a Corne Queene, a traditional symbol of plenty and constructed entirely of harvest bounty.

The Green Man (also called the Berry Man and any other number of names across the centuries), a symbolic nature figure who appears in literature and traditions across Europe.

One of the players hands out conkers…

And the Morris dancers immediately start a game!

Britain, Humor, London November 17, 2014November 15, 2014

London Snapshot

Rather wishing for this view back this week…we’re in the gray portion of fall/winter. Which is to say, the entirety of fall/winter.

Friday, Humor, Husband, Links, London, Weekend, Work November 14, 2014November 13, 2014

Friday Links

“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”
― Gustave Flaubert

It’s Friday, I’m putting the Russian event to bed and gearing up for one involving Rolls Royce. Life is surreal right now. It’s also Jeff’s 29th birthday and I get to tease him about being old (while wiser people roll their eyes at us). I have to say, he is aging marvelously.

We celebrated earlier in the week with an excellent dinner at a restaurant we’d both wanted to go to for over a year, and it was worth it! Tonight it’s pizza and movies with presents. Over the weekend it’s freelance, food, and writing/editing. I’m pleasantly tired and looking forward to it. If I could find a way to mix in regular exercise again, I would be downright impressive. Here are you links, with extra holiday cheer, and share anything else worth reading in the comments!

2014-11-11 21.49.02 — The view from Jeff’s birthday dinner. Not bad.

The John Lewis Christmas film has arrived. And I am in irrational love with it. Call me ridiculous, but as the companion of an intrepid and well loved teddy bear, I think this advert nails both the relationship and the general loveliness of the season. Sue me.

Sainsbury too?! Guys, my heart grew three sizes this day.

And speaking of childhood wonder: loop forever.

The madness needs to stop!

Newly working with luxury developers as I am (she humbled bragged), these caught my eye.

In case you haven’t noticed them on The Toast, their women in Western art pieces are hilarious. But this is my favorite yet.

I snort laughed, remembering the feeling of the limitations of my first paycheck well.

Good luck sleeping tonight.

Oh dear…some of Jeff’s “dance” moves are validated…

My religi-crush on the Pope continues.

Britain, History, London, Travel October 30, 2014October 26, 2014

The Quirks of Christ Church, Oxford

“None but the most blindly credulous will imaging the characters and events in this story to be anything but fictitious. It is true that the ancient and noble city of Oxford is, of all the towns of England, the likeliest progenitor of unlikely events and persons. But there are limits.”
― Edmund Crispin

Christ Church College, Oxford, is a unique one. It is the only academic institution in the world that doubles as a cathedral. It’s the seat of the Bishop of Oxford, but incidently in its charter the resident ecclesiastical overseer is the monarch. Which is, of course, thanks to Henry VIII and his truly staggering sense of self-importance. Reformations can be such messy things.

It’s also a really lovely place to visit and is chock full of fun historical odds and ends.

Hideous grounds. How can any right thinking person work there? Horrible…

If the Hall looks familiar, it’s because it was used as a model for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. The pictures don’t move, but Henry VIII looms (of course he does) from the place of honor above the head table.

Sir Robert Peel was a graduate of the college but not always popular in elections. A later student tattooed his political opinion on a door of the college, which let it stand permanently!

The cathedral itself is a beautiful building, but it’s hidden bits are easily my favorite parts. I mentioned that reformations are tricky, and nowhere more complexly than Britain. These might not look like much but they are the remains of a medieval painting that was whitewashed over when Catholicism went out. Since medieval era church art like this was often scrubbed away, stripped, and burned, whitewashing is practically a gift since in many cases it preserved the art beneath it.

One of the most famous graduates was Charles Dodgson, better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. Look closely in the windows of the Hall and you may discover a delightful tribute hidden away. See them?

The Duchess is one of my favorite characters. Rare indeed is the cooking expedition in which pepper is called for and I do not belt out, “More pepper!” in honor of her cook as I rummage in cupboards. I’ve even got Jeff doing it, it’s officially a family quirk.

The Mock Turtle is a delight!

Britain, Humor, London, Travel October 23, 2014October 7, 2014

Cambridge Snapshot

Goodness, but it is a pretty place.

Humor, London October 21, 2014

Glass Blowing in Bermondsey

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
― Anton Chekhov

You stumble upon the most unexpected things south of the river. For example, Jeff and I decided to take in a local street festival a few weeks ago (mostly for the food, because that is pretty consistently our top priority), and found a glass blowers shop and studio. I have no idea if it was just in honor of the day or not, but the back half of the studio where the actual workroom was located was open to the public to allow visitors to watch the artists at work.

I know nothing about glass blowing except that it looks like a time intensive process. I watched for nearly half an hour as the artist made seemingly minute adjustments to his molten project, sometimes puffing gently on his stick to slowly expand the glass, tweaking it with tools, rolling the glass on a table, and sometimes throwing off smoke as he rolled the glowing glass in a sort of mitt.

My only other experience with glass blowing is when my family was in Venice. As I recall, we had been taken to the famous island factory by boat and really enjoyed a tour but when we had finished and left the showroom without making a purchase, the disgruntled glassblowers refused to ferry us back to the city! It was a rather ridiculous and unsubtle plot to force my parents to buy something that backfired when my parents promptly said they would pay for a water taxi to take them back to the city instead. It’s been two decades, but I believe in the end they did ferry us back. Grudgingly.

I loved the tools, which look largely unchanged since the middle ages.

The whole process was rather mesmerizing to watch, with glowing furnaces and glass heating the room as blogs became recognizable shapes. It’s always interesting to watch artists work, especially if the medium is a less typical one.

I took no photos of the artistic pieces, obviously, but if you’re ever on Bermondsey Street (also home of the Fashion and Textiles Museum) it’s worth a look in.

Britain, Expat, History, Humor, London, Travel October 13, 2014November 18, 2014

Cambridge Part 4: The Corpus Clock

“Time is an illusion.”
― Albert Einstein

Cambridge has a number of distinguished and distinguishing landmarks, most of which are medieval, early modern, or in some way dating from before the 20th century. The Corpus Clock, housed at the library of Corpus Cristi College, is unabashedly modern. Normally facing the street, for Open Days the wall was turned to allow library visitors to get an up close and personal look at and within it.

Invented and designed by Dr. John C. Taylor (who has an amazing collection of clocks which will also feature in tomorrow’s adventures), it is a strange and wonderful creation. The face is plated in pure gold and the design is a rippled effect, created by explosions within a vacuum. They symbolize the Big Bang, the impact of which set space and time into motion and exploded outward. At the top is a grasshopper-like creature that Dr. Taylor calls the “Chronophage,” meaning “time-eater” (which is apparently a pun since an 18th century horologist referred to a clock mechanism as a grasshopper).

It has no hands and tells time through concentric rings of lights to signify seconds, minutes, and hours. When the hour strikes, all the lights flash. And yet it is purposefully designed to appear irregular and sometimes be irregular; the pendulum appears to catch or the lights race and lag. The whole point is to be functional, but also show the somewhat threatening nature of time. The beast (which is apparently nicknamed both “Rosaline” and “Hopsy” by locals and students) swallows the seconds without ceasing, and if you look closely you may catch it blinking or moving its mouth unexpectedly. Time flies, it’s untrustworthy, it’s easily consumed or lost, and there’s no getting it back.

Pointing out the features of the gold plated exterior.

But look inside…

…and the almost science fiction quality is revealed!

I scrambled up another level in the library to get a less obstructed view because I found the clock unexpectedly delightful. I love seeing things cracked open and their inner workings revealed.

Budding videographer that I am (she laughed!), I snapped a short video of the clock’s function being presented. The speaker does a better job of explaining the lighting sequence than I could, plus you get to see the creature’s movement.

Britain, Friday, Humor, Links, London, Weekend October 10, 2014

Friday Links (Back in the Saddle Again Edition)

“There’s nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere.”
-Vivienne Westwood

It’s been good to be back at work again, but still an adjustment! All the same I’ve been working on a new client project, scouting for even more work, and recapping recent adventures with delight. Not a bad first week back to the grindstone. This weekend I’m going to see a new exhibit at the British Museum about witches in honor of the season, hopefully develop some pitches, and clean the house…which is fearsome to behold, trust.

Here are your links, add anything worth reading in the comments and let me know what you’re getting up to yourselves.

h/t to my friend Chris whose company and technology worked on this.

Fall is here and that means layers. I’ll take some of these.

xoVain is one of my favorite beauty sites. Though some of their pieces are misses for me, I enjoy the overall tone of the site great and delightfully BS free, and the comment community is downright magnificent. But this piece, by my favorite writer of theirs, should be required reading for teenage girls. Or anyone interested in makeup, for that matter.

Interesting, interesting story.

I’ve followed this scholar for a while, but I’m always thrilled to reintroduce his delightful finds!

HELL, no.

h/t to Jessica for this trove of formerly black and white photos, which you all know I can never resist.

A frightening but helpful piece on the timeline and spread of the Ebola outbreak.

Humans are magnificent.

Intrepid friend Janssen of Everyday Reading had her first piece with Conde Nast Traveler, congratulations!

It’s odd what transcends cultural and linguistic barriers, but still pretty fascinating.

Jeff is an odd man. His culinary aspirations are modest at best, but every once in a while he gets this Big Plan to make something Truly Impressive. Irritatingly enough, it always turns out delicious. His latest scheme is this, though I’m taking bets he’ll balk.

“God” weighs in. (The quotation marks alone in this story get me.)

Britain, Expat, Humor, London, Travel, University October 9, 2014October 9, 2014

Cambridge Part 3: King’s College

“Cambridge was a joy. Tediously. People reading books in a posh place. It was my fantasy. I loved it. I miss it still.”
– Zadie Smith

King’s College is the jewel in the Cambridge crown. It’s a glorious Early Modern architecture find with the imprint of the Tudors all over it, and the chief attraction is the chapel. The spires dominate the whole city and in good weather (which we had, because the weekend gods were kind) the composition just gleams.

When Mum was a student we could get into the chapel for free. So when I was on “study abroad,” and therefore dashing home on weekends with armfuls of friends in tow for home cooked meals and general Rodgers clan entertaining, we’d wander through it before trotting down to the Cam to be punted along the river by attractive male students in various degrees of shirtless-ness. Memories.

This visit was much more dignified. I adore the chapel for another reason: it’s choir. Come Christmas time, they dominate the both my iPod and Spotify and I wander around in a state of perpetual fuzzy holiday bliss.

That fan vaulted ceiling at one point was the wonder of Britain. Architecture nerd fact.

We took our time going over every nook and cranny of the chapel and I found many delightful elements I hadn’t noticed before.

Like the greyhound on the right, which looks like it’s judging us.

Afterwards we wandered down to the river a bit and circumnavigated the grounds. The weather has taken a sharp turn for the chilly this week but up until then, this summer and early fall have been absolutely glorious and the gardens have lasted much longer than usual.

Britain, London, Travel October 8, 2014October 8, 2014

Cambridge Part 2: Christ’s College

“I feel very strongly indeed that a Cambridge education for our scientists should include some contact with the humanistic side.”
― William Lawrence Bragg

Christ’s College was founded as a proper college by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the formidable matriarch of the Tudor dynasty, in the 15th century. She gave birth to the eventual Henry VII at 13 (which is pretty horrifying), and then went on to successfully maneuver her way (to say nothing of her son’s) through the Wars of the Roses before settling into a bossy and busy old age. That’s a history to get behind.

As we poked out heads into the grounds, I realized that something was afoot. Unfortunately, though understandably, if you’re not a student or faculty member, you have to pay to view the Oxbridge colleges. Rates tend to be low and there are concessions for children, seniors, and external students, so I think they are well worth seeing if you get the chance. But! Far better to luck in on an Open Day when the fees are waived and the doors thrown open!

The beautiful Great Gate. Old university towns are brilliant for history and medievalist nerds like me, there’s symbolism and art and artifacts every which way you look. As the name might hint, many of these colleges have religious origins…although Christ’s has a nice little twist for fundamentalists.

Charlie D. himself graces the entry way! Darwin, Milton, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury are all famed alumni. As is Sacha Baron Cohen. The border between genius and madness, etc.

All the grounds are beautiful, and each college has its own peculiar flavor that is fun to get to know.

What’s really marvelous is how vast some of the grounds really are. From medieval or early modern buildings, most colleges now stretch to vast campuses that still retain their charm and personality in spite of modernization. Hidden behind stone walls, you’d never guess how much is there until you get a chance to sneak in!

Small Dog Syndrome