Back online -- and nearly back...

A rainy afternoon on our last day in Oxford brings the opportunity to post another blog entry – without the rain, I’d have to be on the North Oxford Golf Course one more time before we leave.

The lapse in postings has been evidence of a good thing, as the past several weeks have been chock full for us. Dad’s visit gave us ample opportunity to get “out and about,” to the Cotswolds, Greenwich and London, and Ironbridge Gorge, as well as visiting several of the local taverns for pleasant dinners together. We’ve clocked many of the famous ones – The Turf Tavern where Bill Clinton famously did not inhale, The “Bird and the Baby” (or Eagle and Child) where the Inklings met (JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and others with only initials and family names), The Bear, The Kings Arms (oldest in Oxford), The Royal Oak – as well as the lovely Trout Inn on the creek in nearby Wolverton, The Rose Revived near Faringdon, and the very local Turnpike Inn. We’ve learned to enjoy ale quite a bit, as well as Ploughman’s Platters, English pies, several puddings (desserts), and the generally cozy, comfortable ambience of these old places.

We’ve sampled Birmingham of a Friday evening and discovered the classic Old Joint Stocks Tavern, watching from the upstairs Gallery over what was once the shares trading floor and taking in a very engaging one-man, one-act adaptation of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman at the black-box theatre on the tavern’s third floor. A Sunday morning walk around Dublin introduced us to that city and its allures, which are measured mostly by the pint.

We’ve enjoyed the warm hospitality and good company of new friends, Wendy and Brian Fidler, whom we met in Istanbul and who hosted us at tea in their home in our first week here. Wendy is chair emerita of the Oxford CCJ, a retired public health science administrator who is completing a master’s thesis at the CJCR in Cambridge, and Brian is a retired executive with a passion for old cars. We missed one possible outing with them because he was busy winning a “best in show” silver plate at the Rolls Royce club event at Belvoir Castle that day. Their home is exquisite, overlooking the city of dreaming spires from Hinksey Hill, and their welcome is unparalleled.

Our leisurely Cotswolds tour ended in Chipping Campden where our stop to photograph a thatch roof under reconstruction brought us into a conversation with the neighbor, sheep baron Jim Gladwin. His family has raised sheep on the hills southeast of town for generations, and it became clear that both the press of real estate development and the habits of planning councils in relation to it are very similar the world over.

We’ll be off to Coventry tomorrow, then to London for the end of the week. The return to Coventry after 32 years is one we have anticipated, as the old/new cathedral complex is a sublimely beautiful and inspiring site. In London, we look forward to a day at the Tate and some excellent theatre. We may or may not post again before we leave.