Cotswolds

Hello friends, I've just spent my spring break in the village of Cam in the Cotswolds. It feels like spring here with more and more birdsong from chiffchaffs, blackbirds, goldfinches, sparrows, titmice, magpies and jackdaws. The leaves seem to have popped out overnight, too. They are all unfurling in their soft, velvety freshness. During the month of April, the daylight increases by almost two hours in England. 

The cottage I stayed in had two long-haired cats named Freya and Siggy and a spacious private garden for sitting out on nice days. My reading list included Bröd och mjölk by Karolina Ramqvist, Kometen kommer by Tove Jansson, the books on the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist, and Mansfield Park as an audiobook: 'If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.' –Fanny Price in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Cam is nearby the villages of Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge, where I found a stash of vintage knitting patterns—a lot of Aran ones, for some reason. There's also a sweet bookshop and a natural foods shop in Wotton. I went on a couple of rambles during my visit as well as to Gloucester Cathedral for a performance of Bach's St John Passion by the cathedral choir and La Serenissima.  

Cottage home

Walled garden

Spring blossoms

Snail patio

in the garden

Siggy

Freya

Beginning a cardigan

Vintage Aran patterns

Easter Sunday dandelion pancakes

On the way to Cam Peak

The view from Cam Peak

Early spring woods

Cotswolds sheep

Illustration from The Tailor of Gloucester

The tailor's house, Gloucester

Gloucester Cathedral

Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral

Floor tiling in the cloisters

Old pub in Gloucester

The path up Stinchcombe Hill

View towards the Severn River

View from Stinchcombe Hill

Walking near Stinchcombe

Cotswold Book Room, Wotton-under-Edge

Crooked house in Wotton-under-edge

Thank you for reading!

Stately Homes near Birmingham

The last two weekends, I have taken day trips to see a few stately homes near Birmingham now owned by the National Trust. First is Wightwick Manor near Wolverhampton, a Tudor-style house built in the 1800s after the House Beautiful ideal and owned by a family who collected Pre-Raphaelite art. The current exhibition at the house is about the Rossetti family. I like how it emphasises the talents of all the siblings, comparing them to other genius families like the Brontës and Morrises, and that it puts their lives into context. It also features Elizabeth Siddal and Lucy Madox Brown, who were married to the Rossetti brothers.

The other two houses are not very far away from Lapworth in Warwickshire and I was able to walk to them both in a day. Packwood House has a famous yew garden with topiary trimmed apparently to represent the Sermon on the Mount. Baddesley Clinton, surrounded by a moat, was a Catholic stronghold in the 1590s. There is a historic priest hole and the house now contains a chapel and sacristy.

Wightwick Manor

Drawing by D.G. Rossetti

Love Among The Ruins by Edward Burne-Jones

The Acanthus Room

Christina in a Rage by D.G. Rossetti

Tiles designed by William De Morgan

Packwood House

The Lookout Room

The Yew Garden at Packwood House

Baddesley Clinton

Inner Courtyard at Baddesley

Thanks for reading!

Newcastle, Tynemouth, Gateshead, Leeds, and Sheffield

Every time I have a school holiday, I tell myself I will finally sit down to do some translation work—and then I plan a trip! This time it was to Newcastle, Tynemouth, Gateshead, Leeds, and Sheffield. I did get some work done after all, since I visited libraries everywhere and chose some books for our school library. The highlights of the trip were seeing the North Sea coast at Tynemouth, visiting the Lit & Phil in Newcastle, Durham Cathedral, and the Central Library in Leeds (an amazing building, even though it is currently under renovation). I got to catch up with a friend in Leeds who showed me around the university campus including the historic Brotherton Library. And in Sheffield I enjoyed an Ash Wednesday service at the cathedral, seeing the botanical gardens, and browsing the Rhyme and Reason Bookshop. 

Newcastle Cathedral

Jessie Window, Newcastle Cathedral

Window, Newcastle Cathedral

Quire, Newcastle Cathedral

Altar, Newcastle Cathedral

Window, Newcastle Cathedral

Organ, Newcastle Cathedral

Grey's Monument, Newcastle

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

Geordie Translator at Newcastle City Library

Lit & Phil Library, Newcastle

Sylvia Waugh at the Lit & Phil (Mennyms!)

A copy of Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll
from 1928! (still in circulation)

George MacDonald's Fairy Tales
illustrated by Arthur Hughes

University of Newcastle

Snowdrops in February

Tea at Claremont Teahouse
(They have 60 kinds of tea!)

Seven Stories National Centre
for Children's Books, Newcastle

Tea at Seven Stories

Front Street, Tynemouth

King Edward's Bay, Tynemouth

Priory and Castle Ruins, Tynemouth

Long Sands Beach, Tynemouth

North Sea Coast, Tynemouth

Durham Castle

Durham Cathedral and River Wear

Durham Cathedral

Bede's Tomb, Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral

Window, Galiee Chapel at Durham Cathedral

Decorative floor tile, Durham Cathedral

Prior Castell's Clock, Durham Cathedral

Cloisters, Durham Cathedral (aka Hogwart's)

Chapter House, Durham Cathedral

View from Durham Cathedral Central Tower

View from Central Tower

Civic Hall, Leeds (notice the owls)

Inside Central Library, Leeds

Decorative windows at Central Library, Leeds

Floor tiling at Central Library, Leeds

Poetry and Music by J.E. Millais, Leeds Art Gallery

Old Age and Infancy by J.E. Millais, Leeds Art Gallery

Wall Tiling inside Leeds Art Gallery

Brotherton Library, University of Leeds

Sheffield Cathedral

Altar, Sheffield Cathedral

Peace Gardens, Sheffield

Winter Garden, Sheffield

Teapots at Millennium Gallery Sheffield

Ruskin Collection at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

Flowering Tea at Pho in Sheffield

Rhyme and Reason Bookshop, Sheffield

Botanical Gardens, Sheffield

Snowdrops

Forest Garden

Spring Snowflakes

Thanks for reading!