Cowley Road

Today’s adventure was a trip to Cowley Road with Tim.  We left Spencer House, walking, at 11:30am and got to Cowley at 12:45.  Good exercise!

Cowley Road is a busy ethnic district in Oxford – kind of like its “Little Five Points.”  There is a lot of diversity in the people – more working class, blacks, Muslims (there are a few mosques along Cowley), etc.  The shops are more diverse than the usual Oxford offering – I even went in a few pound stores (like a dollar store).   And bunches of charity shops – lots of knick-knacks and clothes.

We ate lunch at a Turkish restaurant – but Tim and I both cheated – we got American-style food!  I had fried chicken, and he got a burger and fries.  The Turkish dishes looked good – especially the stuffed eggplant – but I was so hungry for fried chicken.  It was pretty good too!

Afterwards, we wandered back down Cowley, stopping at interesting shops.  I went in a Moroccan deli that smelled divine.  A woman shopping in the store was raving about some spicy Moroccan sausage, so I bought some.  Also couldn’t resist some dates and baklava. 

We also went in some charity shops – saw an interesting pansy bowl that I had a hard time resisting (but I did resist).  Also checked out a fair-trade shop that sells items from developing countries, made by people who are not being exploited. Then Tim and I both bought some interesting scarves at a vintage clothing store.



Magdalen College

After some ice-cream at George and Delilah’s, we headed back to the City Center, crossing the river (Cherwell) at Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin’) bridge, next to Magdalen College.  Saw people renting punts to go rowing on the river.  Although it was a nice day, in my opinion, it was still a bit to cool for punting.

Walked back to the bus stop at St. Giles, where I took the bus.  Tim headed to Regents Park College to see if anyone was around.  It was a very enjoyable day – not too cold and a bit of sun here and there – with a lot of walking!  A nice little nap was in order once I got home.

Oxford Museum Of Natural History

Today I visited the Oxford Museum of Natural History with one of our students, Tim.   It’s housed in an impressive stone building on Parks Road.  As you enter, you walk into a huge square space that’s surrounded by columns and covered with an arched glass ceiling.  It feels almost like a cathedral – and it is: a cathedral of science.

The Museum of Natural History houses collections in Geology (including Paleontology), Mineralogy, Zoology and Entomology.  The Geology area is impressive with its massive replicas of prehistoric skeletons – from mammoths to giant whales.  There are also skeletal specimens of modern-day animals – as well as stuffed specimens (badgers, owls, tortoises, foxes, etc.). 



Skeleton of an African Elephant



Callie and a stuffed badger



Tim shaking hands with a dinosaur



The most famous replica in the museum is that of the dodo bird, which once inhabited the island of Mauritius.  Europeans help to bring about the demise of the dodo by introducing dogs and rats to the island.  By 1680 it was extinct.  Lewis Carroll made the dodo popular by putting it into his Alice in Wonderland story.

There two galleries above the main floor; one is for insects – not sure about the other one.  At the end of the main-floor hall is the entrance to the Pitt Rivers Museum, a curious and eclectic collection of artifacts (many collected in the nineteenth century) from all over the world.  Tim and I mainly explored the main floor of the Natural History Museum, but we did go into the Pitt Rivers Museum for about a half hour.  There were human skulls that head-hunters had collected, Noh theatre masks, ancient writing instruments, an Egyptian mummy with its inner and outer coffin, a collection of hookahs, a cape made out of bird feathers, a 40-ft totem pole…it was amazing, but I was soon glazing over.

From the museum we wandered over to the Vere Harmsworth Library with my librarian friend Susan.  This is one of my favorite libraries.  It’s a Bodleian library, but it’s relatively new – opened in the early 2000s, I think.  It’s light and airy – a great place to read – and it houses the American Studies Collection.  I’ve been using it for research on Basil Hall, a retired Scottish Navy Captain who wrote about Columbus on his journey to America in 1827-1828.

Grande Dame

Tiff's new name for her band is Grand Dame.  She's got a Facebook band page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grande-Dame/142345075826730?v=app_178091127385

If you're on FB, go to the band page and click "like" (left-hand of page). Please help her build up her fan base!

And while you're there, listen to some of her music!  "Almost and Maybes" is a little bit country -- the other songs are Tiff's special blend of rock, jazz, blues, etc.

Enjoy!

A Little Bit of Spring

Spring flowers in St. Giles Cemetery -- but the temperature is still cold!

Blackwell's

On Friday morning I went on a tour of Blackwell’s bookstore.  Actually, it wasn’t really a tour of the store – it was a tour dealing with the history of Blackwells. 

If you’re a librarian, you probably know of Blackwell’s.  From their humble beginnings in Oxford in the late 1870s, they have risen to become a multi-dimensional company – but they still deal in books.  At CSU we used to have their approval plan, whereby we chose very specific subjects we were interested in, put a hunk of money (no so much really) in a pot, and every month or so we got newly-published titles in those areas.  We could send anything back that we didn’t want.  Over the years, I think we may have sent back only one book – a book on erotic art that was a little over the top (we don’t have a course in erotic art, to my knowledge!). 

As our guide Peter informed us, Blackwells was founded in 1879 by a young Englishman named Benjamin Blackwell.  He opened a small (like 12 ft. sq.) shop on the Broad Street in Oxford, just across from the Sheldonian Theatre (designed by Sir Christopher Wren). 

The Sheldonian, with its fantastic fence of heads.

Oxford students and faculty needed Blackwell's books, and his shop became an instant success.  He was very keen about not bothering customers; he wanted them to come in and read whatever they wanted – hoping they would buy something, but not requiring it.  Even today, students can come in the store and take a book off the shelf and use it for their paper, then put it back.  They can even take the books to the coffee shop inside the store.

Over the years, the store expanded to cover a whole row of shops along the Broad Street.  The row is interrupted in only one place – by a pub, the White Horse – which would not sell its property to Blackwells. 

After Benjamin was up in years, his son Basil took over the store.  Basil Blackwell was quite a character.  They called him “the gaffer” (i.e. “boss”), and his office was call “The Gaffer’s Room.”  We got to see it on the tour. Still looks pretty much like it did back in the day – with aqua-colored William Morris wallpaper, flower-print cream curtains and Basil’s pipe on the desk. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me the day of the tour or I'd have taken pictures of the room.



Fireplace outside "The Gaffer's Room;" portrait of Benjamin Blackwell (center) and Basil Blackwell (right)

Around 1917, Basil’s secretary was none other than Dorothy L. Sayers, later famous for her crime novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey (regret to say I have not delved into any of these – yet).  For info on these novels see  http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2715365 .  A lot of other people were associated with the shop including Tolkein, A.A. Milne, Cecil Day-Lewis (Daniel’s father), and ….

After the tour, I wandered around the store for about a half hour; it’s about 4 stories tall.  On the top floor were the used books.  I saw a children’s book by James Dickey that tempted me, but I resisted.  Next time we have a really rainy dreary day in Oxford, I think I’ll come back to Blackwells and spend the afternoon browsing through this fabulous bookstore!



What's Up with Tiff

Tiff and Booboo

Wish I could get up to London in the next few days.  Tiff’s got some work in an art show Thursday, and she’s DJing at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on Saturday.

The art show is called “She Said,” and it’s featuring contemporary women artists. It’ll be at the Outside World Gallery on Red Church Street.   Tiff has two pieces in the show.

The DJ gig is for a party being given in conjunction with the Birds Eye View Women’s Film Festival.  See http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/3210/special-events/festival-party.html for more info. (Scroll down for info on Tiff).

She’s also opened an online shop on Etsy.  If you haven’t checked out Etsy, just go to www.etsy.com.  It features original art and vintage stuff.  Tiff’s shop is called Burnt Offerings LTD, in case you want to have a peek!  To find her shop, click on the menu arrow next to "Handmade" and choose "Sellers."  Then type in Burnt Offerings LTD.

Mardi Gras Dinner



Last night we celebrated Mardi Gras at our weekly Sunday night dinner.  Joining us were the Dolans (from CSU) and Rebecca, a CSU student studying in Ireland. We didn’t have masks or beads or elaborate green-gold-purple feathered centerpieces, but we did have some good old N’Awlins-style food (with some English twists).



Emily's Shrimp and Grits

Emily made a delicious starter of shrimp and grits.  (I brought a big bag of Jim Dandy grits over with me in January.)  She tried baking the grits in muffin tins, hoping they would firm up into little cakes.  They didn’t.  We found out after dinner, when she went to remove the leftover grits from the muffin tins that we should have let them cool completely to solidify them into cakes (then we could have heated them in the microwave).  Regardless, the dish was yummy!



Callie's Red Beans and Rice

For our main course I made red beans and rice.  I had also brought over a bag of Camellia-brand dried red beans.  However, with 9 people for dinner, I also mixed in a bag of local dried kidney beans.  I had to cook the beans in 2 pots on top of the stove for about 6 hours since I was without my handy-dandy crockpot.  I couldn’t find andouille sausage (I should have looked at the Covered Market), so I bought some English smoked sausage which ended up being pretty bad.  Couldn’t find ham hocks either, but I used pieces of pork belly, and that was actually quite good!  All in all, it was very tasty – nice and spicy – and many folks had seconds.


Emily cutting her King Cake



Then for dessert, Emily did a variation on a king cake.  This was a babyless King Cake, since a plastic baby was nowhere to be found in Oxford.  She could have use a dry bean, but we didn't have any of those either (not dried ones). King cake is usually bread-like and dry, so Emily kicked it up a notch by adding custard as a filling (she rolled it up jelly-roll style).  She also ended up putting marzipan on it – topped with purple, green and yellow icing.  It was really good!

So Happy Mardi Gras, everybody.  Laissez le bon temps rouler!





Meeting at the Anchor Pub

This afternoon I ventured over to the Anchor Inn, an upscale gastropub located near Spencer House.  Before I go any further, I know some of you are saying “Gastropub, what the hay????”

Well, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a gastropub is a public house which specializes in serving high-quality food.  To give you an idea of what kind of food a gastropub serves, here’s a sample list of the Anchor’s main dishes:

·         Highland Venison Sausages with Beetroot Mash, Mustard Sauce

·         Spiced, Smoked Haddock Fishcakes, Leaf Salad, Ginger, Lime & Coriander Mayonnaise, Chips

·         Steak & Kidney Pudding, Mash & Greens Ballottine of Rabbit with Apricots & Bacon, Celeriac Mash, Red Wine Sauce

·         Grilled Centre Cut Rump or Bavette Steak, Tomato & Thyme Butter, Creamed Spinach, Chips

In other words, not just cottage pie and burgers and chips. 

The Anchor’s food is very good, but it’s not cheap.  The dishes mentioned above run from about 12GBP to 16GBP (that’s about $20 - $26).  Today, I went to the Anchor at 2pm; I had just eaten so I only ordered a Diet Coke – 2.30GBP (about $3.60).  

I went to the Anchor to meet with a women’s research group.  These are some folks that Amanda, my predecessor at Spencer House, got together with last fall.  They meet once a week at the Anchor to chat and discuss their research projects (most are academics). 

There were only two women there today – besides me:  Suki, who is British and is doing research on the concept of property (she’s a political scientist).  The other woman was Robin, an American who is on sabbatical investigating the University of Oxford’s learning technologies.  There are about 3 others in the group, but they weren’t able to make it today. 

Of course, my research focus in Oxford is genealogy.  I’m trying to trace the descendants of Christopher Wren’s uncle Matthew – to see if any of them could have gone to Virginia (my Wrens were there by 1750, and they were teachers).  However, I’m also working on an article for Muscogiana on Basil Hall, a 19^th century Scottish aristocrat who ventured to America in 1828, and during his 14-month journey in the eastern states, managed to visit Columbus, Georgia, while it was being laid out.



Robin and Suki



Restaurant side of the pub.



Anyway, we each talked about our projects and set goals for next week.  It was an interesting afternoon and I really enjoyed making some new Oxford acquaintances.  I hope I’ll get to meet with them on a regular basis.  The atmosphere at the pub was nice too – although I wasn’t too keen on the high-priced coke!



The outdoor patio at the Anchor; too cold to sit out there today.

 



On the way to the pub, I pass by the boyhood home of
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)