WANDERING AROUND OXFORD

                                             Mercury Fountain, Tom Quad, Christ Church College

Last summer was my fourth visit to attend the Oxford Experience.  Since I'm in the mood for a return trip I am posting a few pics I snapped as I wandered around Oxford.

                                              Cloister Fountain, Christ Church College

                                  One of ten windows in my room--this latch is perfection.

    Food trucks are something new to Oxford.  This one served the best pizza and it was parked right
     outside Christ Church College.

                                           This truck even had a wood-fired oven to bake the pizzas.

                         

                                               I never tire of the classic red phone booths.

                                     

                                        Afternoon tea at the Randolph is always a must.

                                                         Gardens of Christ Church College.

                                                   Tom Quad, Christ Church College

                             Roaming around Oxford through pictures was just what I needed.

                                                  (All photos taken by Kimberly Wold)

SEZINCOTE GARDENS

Sezincote House and Garden was another Oxford class field trip.  Have you ever heard of Sezincote?  I hadn't.  I didn't particularly love the house (it's the inspiration for Brighton Pavilion), but there were a few interesting water features that I would love to replicate.

This is the pretty side of the house.  It is done in an Indian-style which looks a little odd in the Cotswolds (in my opinion).

 The Orangery is gorgeous and curves around this beautiful grassy area.  It is now serving as a    lunch/tea room.

                            The best part of the garden is away from the house and down a slope.

          I immediately thought better of the owners for having two swings in such a perfect spot.

                      After a bit of swinging you can walk down the lawn and over the bridge to

this delightful running spring that will bring a smile to your face--it did mine and it still does as I type this.

                Honestly, I don't know if that is a gravel pathway or a stream of water--any guesses?

 This was my favorite water feature.  After our group traipsed through, I came back to take a few photos and to sit a bit and just think.

You can hop along these limestone steps and either go straight on through to the wooded area or

turn left and hop on over to this bench for a quiet spot to think.  It was hard to get a really good photo but I did my best.

THE OXFORD EXPERIENCE - Again!

            Cannot believe I had the good fortune to attend The Oxford Experience for the fourth time.

                             It rained almost every day we were there--a treat for Arizona girls.

        We checked in, got the keys, threw our stuff in each of our rooms (my room pictured),

took a quick look around

                   
                                                                   snapped a few pics

        opened the windows and then took off for a long walk along the Isis River to find some lunch.

I had been reading Deborah Crombie's book, Water Like a Stone, which featured canal boats so it was fun to see a few home-sweet-homes docked along the path.

Leslie had remembered this place having the best fish and chips, sadly they no longer serve that treat.

                                Whatever we ate was good and we would definitely return.                                    

I know I've taken you on a tour of Oxford before (click here, here, or here) but let's have another go.  First, this little pizza truck was new and was parked right outside of Christ Church College.  Wood-fired pizza--excellent.

                                               
                       Look at those doors!  Some lucky students get to enter these every day.          

           
                                                     Another beautiful college.

                               Back to Tom Quad at Christ Church College--my alma mater!

ISTANBUL AND THE MOTHER COUNTRY

Image source here

Have you been to Istanbul? Well, soon I will be checking that off my bucket list as I will be heading
there later this month with my darling friend, Leslie.  One full week in Istanbul--no touring outside the city, just completely absorbing the sights, sounds, and smells of that fascinating and ancient place.

Following Istanbul, we will be returning to the Mother Country to roam around the English countryside, attend a week-long class at Oxford, and then spend a few days in London.  I shall take loads of pics and report back all the happenings.

Here are a few things we've already booked:
 
A private guide for the day to tour Istanbul

Class at Cooking Alaturka

Tickets for a Whirling Dervishes ceremony

A day on the Bosphorus

Visiting the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent

Chatsworth House (finally!)

Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, Surrey (thank you, Jeanne!)

Lunch at the Wolseley, London

                                                            Dinner at Rules, London

And, of course, a return to all the faves: Liberty, Fortnum and Mason, Mulberry, Abbott and Holder, etc. My, oh my, I cannot wait.

TRAVEL ACQUISITIONS

Travel is very conflicting, don't you think?   We all love to travel and to sleep in pretty hotel rooms, we love to be home and sleep in our own bed.  Can't wait to leave, can't wait to return.  Unless you are plopped on a beach for a week, travel is not restful or relaxing, but an adventure.  And it is addictive.

Part of the fun is collecting items for my home as I travel along.  Each of my little finds serve as reminders of villages, crazy-busy cities, people, monuments, etc. 

Several years ago on a visit to London I had purchased two French furniture drawings in water color from Abbott and Holder.  I regretted not buying more.  So a few months ago while browsing at Abbott and Holder, I asked the manager if he had any more the little faded gems.  He dug around and by the next morning had unearthed five!  All for a reasonable price.  I bought them all.  Haven't had them framed yet--framing sometimes is more money than the actual artwork.  But one by one they will be matted, framed, and placed on a wall to remind me of my visit.

This gorgeous silver journal was hidden on a "sale" shelf at Liberty.  Marked down because of a slight tear on the last page of the book--half-off, it quickly became mine.  I thought it was fitting to fill it with notes from my Oxford class.

And, remember these beauties?  What I didn't show you was how pretty the books are inside.

Matching bookmarks and endpapers.

Really, Persephone thinks of everything.

Belgian is known for its chocolates, linens, and lace.  For me, chocolates and linen are a definite yes, but lace, not so much.  So I purchased one dozen of these unbleached linen napkins. Thanksgiving will be the perfect dinner to be introduced to the family.
 

In Brussels, we stopped by a tiny little needlepoint shop full of tapestries and pillows.  These whimsical and colorful pillows caught my eye.  I purchased a total of five different patterns.

Hen and Hammock sells an authentic English Sussex Trug made from sweet chestnut.  Harder to find than you might think and too much money to have shipped to the states, I placed an order to be delivered to Christ Church College.  Then I had to figure out how to get it home in the flimsy box it came in.




Suddenly the thought came to me to reinforce it from the inside (thank you, Dad!)  and I did so with extra cardboard found on campus.  By reinforcing the box and padding the trug with clothes, I was able to check this on my flight (with several "fragile" stickers) and lo and behold it made it home in perfect condition.

Twice, I have carried large breakable bowls onto the plane to bring home (from Ireland and Austria).  It was worth the inconvience to cart these heavy bowls made by local artisans because not only are they beautiful, but I am reminded of who I was with and where I was when each were purchased.

Sometimes you have to be creative in getting your new acquisition home.  I once kept every empty plastic water bottle from a trip and used them to pad my breakables stashed in my luggage and it worked--nothing was broken. It's worth a bit of inconvenience to bring home tangible memories of great adventures, don't you think?