Waddesdon Manor and other Christmas events

On Thursday this past week I attended the St. Peter's Players performance of Treasure Island, a Christmas pantomime. The tradition is for the young male lead to be played by a female and the older female character to be played by a male. The palm tree was almost a character of its own, being moved from one place to another to signify a different part of Treasure Island. 

The audience is asked to cheer, hiss and boo.  The local theatre was the perfect place to experience this tradition for the first time.  I knew several of the actors from various village events.

Such as the monthly music and story telling time at the local pub, which I attended the next evening.  I told them the story of the mysterious spiral staircase in New Mexico.

Saturday I went with a group from church to visit Waddesdon Manor, an extensive estate built in the mid 19th century by the Rothschild's for their weekend entertaining.  

Winter is not the best time to visit the grounds of this house.  they drain the fountains and wrap the statues against damage from the freeze and thaw cycle of the British winter.

We went to the stable area to look at the Christmas market and get a cup of coffee.  These buildings could have easily accommodated a good size community as well as the animals.  It was a about 5 minutes walk from the house.  I wondered how the need for a horse or buggy was communicated.

We then went on a short tour of the wine cellars.  The Rothschild's even now have extensive holdings of wine producing land throughout the world so this is an appropriate display of that part of the family fortune.

Important people like the queen have been here to taste the Rothschild wine. This a display of photos and testimonials. They even have a bottle that was originally ordered by Thomas Jefferson.  The war of 1812 interrupted delivery so one bottle of the order is now on display.  I also enjoyed chairs painted with cherubs.

The wines that are sold in the gift shop are stored in the cellar.  I was with an artist who appreciated the interesting visual effect of the rows of bottoms of wine bottles.

The round room was used for special dinners.  The circle in the middle of the table could be removed and replaced with a container for wine dregs. The sculpture on the table honors the coopers who make wine casks.

We then went on a tour of the house interior.  As is often the case with these historical houses, no photos were allowed.  I did see two very interesting things.  A painting by Giovanni Panini entitled The Ball.  The online photo does not do justice to this piece.  The many individuals depicted in the crowd each have distinguishable facial expressions.  I also enjoyed a more contemporary piece is Porca Miseria by Maurer.  Such a stark piece in the midst of an essentially Victorian setting was quite effective.

After the tour of the house, we enjoyed tea in the kitchen and servant's dining room.  The seasonal decorations were fully evident.

As we walked back to the car, the view of the manor lit for the night was beautiful.

Tuesday afternoon at the office, our team sponsored a soup lunch for the benefit of the Egyptian Bible Society. Our resident French person brought delicious onion soup.  We also had a very good tomato soup, cheese and fresh bread.  I enjoyed helping set up the meeting room to make the meal a festive occasion.

Advent begins

the Christmas season has arrived.  This week I traveled to Gloucester to visit the Westonbirt Forest with the local Botanical Club. The strategic placement of colored lights make an ordinary arboretum into an enchanted forest.

Santa's reindeer were grazing throughout the forest.  Can you see Dancer?

After walking through the lighted forest we returned to the concession area for refreshments.  I had a turkey sandwich  made from a turkey raised on Prince Charles's farm.  Well, the advert said the turkey was locally grown and Highgrove is just next door. I also has some roasted chestnuts and elderflower presse.

Sunday evening I attended an advent service at the local parish church.  Walking down the lane on the way to the church I suddenly heard the church bells.


The service 

was lit entirely by candlelight.  A choir had come from London and ended the service with a beautiful arrangement of the American spiritual Rise up Shepherd.  A wonderful experience.

Beware the following photos might offend vegetarians.

I also went to the Covered Market to see what they were doing for Christmas.  The butchers had their wares out for all to see.  Britons enjoy a number of different meats.  How many can you see in these photos?

Unusual sightings in the changing season

The seasons are definitely changing.  This is the sunset outside my office window, taken at about 1610 (4:10 pm).  By the time I leave at five, it is dark out.

By about 1900 (7:00 pm) the moon is shining over the meadow. The cattle have been taken in for the winter, but the swans have not yet left the small pond and the horses still graze since their owners live on the edge of meadow and can tend to them throughout the winter.

I have not been on any major expeditions recently, so I will share a few disconnected experiences with you.

Being in England, I will not get off for Thanksgiving, but Steph,  a colleague who is originally from California, invited me to dinner on Saturday.  With several other American ex-pats I enjoyed turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  It was a good time.

A couple of weeks ago, I walked through a French market set up on a major street in Oxford and saw these sausages. They caught my eye because I am accustomed to sausages of German descent in Wisconsin 
that are evenly round all along the length of the sausage. The French are more haphazard. These sausages look more like large pieces of bent wood.  The hams looked different as well.

If I leave for work early enough, I can see the milk truck.  This photo was taken on a fairly cool morning so the milk would stay cool. But even during the summer they have no refrigeration.  I remember the milk truck that came through the neighborhood in the fifties when I was a kid.  They at least had ice over the crates. I remember chewing on a piece as my brother and I rode with the milkman down to the end of the block.

I had lunch recently in a home that had a well in floor.  When the owners built onto the house, they found this well under the area where they wanted to build a new living room. So they just built it into the decor.  Very impressive.

On my way to church,  I pass these two old cars.  This one obviously is not in use.  It probably made in the 1930'2. If it were restored, it would be beautiful.

This one is a Plymouth Valiant, 1962 I think.  It is still used because I've seen it in different parking places along the road.  My first car was a 1970 Valiant, so this one meant something more to me than just any old car. 

In the coming weeks, I will be into the full swing of Christmas celebrations.  I will take a lot of photos.

Ballots, Bonfires and Battles

This past week has been momentous with the election of Obama as president.  I stayed up all night Tuesday to watch the returns.

Late that evening I made my way done this narrow alley, Frewin Court, off the Cornmarket Street.

And up to the Oxford Union Society.  They were hosting an all night election party.  CNN was being broadcast in the bar, but it was too crowded to find a place to sit, even  at 4:00 in the morning.

So, I made my way up to the McCormick Room where they were offering free food and drink. (I thought I might something to keep myself awake.) Besides, this was the only room where I could find an outlet for my laptop.  I spent the next several hours watching the New York Times map turn blue and listening to the commentary on WPR.  Most of the rest of the people in this room were students there for the all night party.

I ended the night in the library where the BBC was being broadcast on a large screen.  I joined a couple dozen other expats.  When Obama was announced the President-elect a cheer went up from the group.  We stayed for another hour to listen to the speeches.  I made my way to the bus stop to catch the 5:50, was home by 6:05 and promptly went to bed, sleeping until almost noon.

The next night the Brits were so gracious that they celebrated our election with bonfires,

Sparklers for the children,

And fireworks.

Actually, November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, commemorating a foiled plot to blow up parliament five hundred years ago.

Sunday we observed the Day of Remembrance. In the US we call it Veterans Day.  They take it more seriously here, probably because both world wars were fought much closer to home and at least during WWI, they lost more men.  All over Great Britain, villages, towns and cities held parades and tributes to the fallen and those returned from war.  I did not attend any of the parades, but others did and have posted photos.

At eleven o'clock, the nation observed two minutes of silence.  The church leaders even arranged the church service so that we could join in this communal remembrance of soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom. A fitting ending for a week full of political and patriotic events.

Spider webs

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago and meant to put them up on Halloween.  Every autumn a common spider weaves webs all over.  These webs were all along the walk to the bus stop one morning.

Sidewalks, Pavements, Footpaths

I did not do anything touristy this week end.  I am saving my energy to stay up overnight on Tuesday to see the returns come in.  I did bring treats for the Friday afternoon tea at the office. In honor of Halloween, I told the story about the Golden Arm.  I am not a very good story teller, but my colleagues enjoyed the experience.

But I thought you would still like to see something of Oxford.  So I have developed a photo essay of sidewalks or pavements as they are called here. 

Another word that is used in Britain is footpath.  I have seen it on barricades telling pedestrians that the footpath is open during construction.  More often the word is used in a more technical manner, meaning a path from one place to another that is open to the public by virtue of it having been walked on by the public for a set period of time.  One of colleges closes for one day each year so that its grounds will not be deemed public footpaths.  The path which this sign indicates runs from near my house to Port Meadow, part of which is called Wolvercote Common.

The regular pavements that run along each side of a city street are usually quite narrow,

except when they are very wide like these that along the main shopping district.   As you can see, construction is is going on here.  Rather than a couple of guys with a truck of concrete, here the city employs at least half dozen men laying down a bed of sand, leveling it, and placing the paving stone evenly, cutting them to fit.  More labor intensive than in the US, but a beautiful result.

More often the pavements are an amalgam of overlapping asphalt.  When the neighborhood needs a new wire put in under the pavement, the workers cut a narrow trench down the middle, place the wire in and put more asphalt, resulting in something like this.

Walking through Magdalen College, where S. C. Lewis taught, is a memorable experience.  For one thing, the covered walkway was paved with stones that were not entirely even to begin with and have become more so over the years since they were put in in 1474.

Behind the Sheldonian in the center of Oxford, you can find this example of a cobblestone walk.  I found it incredibly difficult to walk on and this is a relatively even pathway.  If it were worn unevenly, it would have been worse.

Some of the pavements are even paved with wooden blocks.  This example can be walked on at Blenheim Palace.  I was intrigued to see the actual tree rings in the paving blocks.

All in all I have enjoyed walking the pavements of Oxford and environs.  Next week I will tell you about my experience of watching the president being elected.  I will be watching with other ex-pats and local Oxford students at the Oxford Union Society.