I love this strangely boring picture that I took of North Castle Street in Edinburgh. I noticed that the sky was doing strange things at the very end of sunset and ran down from our rented flat with Ricky’s camera (which he sort of lost for a while, which is why I’ve only recently been [...]
Archive for the ‘travels’ Category
Edinburgh
Posted in travels on April 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
day 13
Posted in Anglophilia, things, travels on November 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh; a brief post with a bit of blue sky (which we are sorely lacking). I stared at a thimble for a while today and tried to come up with something to say about it. That sounds like it could be a metaphor, but it’s not. Instead of a thimble, you get the [...]
a lament for day 5 (and some beans)
Posted in food, travels on November 6, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Day 5 didn’t happen. Oops. Well, it happened—I taught, I napped, I drank horchata and ate pizza—and then I went to bed, forgetting all about my blogbligations (blobligations?). It was a good night. I’ve touched down on both coasts in the last few weeks— here’s a picture of my feet on a cliff in San [...]
Poetry and Owls
Posted in read, things, travels on October 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Oops, I bought some owls. October has been a productive month for me so far… in some ways. I finally finished Wolf Hall; I ordinarily move through books pretty quickly (or else I could hardly be a Victorianist), but this one stalled me for a number of weeks. It was a slow read, in a [...]
Tintern Abbey
Posted in Anglophilia, things, travels on September 15, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Though absent long, These forms of beauty have not been to me, As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, And [...]
henge-by
Posted in Anglophilia, travels on September 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Among the innumerable sites we visited across the Atlantic: Stonehenge. Perhaps it’s a bit generous to say that we visited it. Really, we accidentally passed by it on the way to our rented cottage somewhere in the general vicinity of Bath. I spotted it as we were coming down a hill— “Is that Stonehenge?”— I [...]
Cauliflower-shaped ambition
Posted in Anglophilia, things, travels on August 31, 2010 | 5 Comments »
During our trip to England, I got a chance to do some follow-up research on one of my life goals: to own a piece of cauliflowerware and/or pineappleware, which I first encountered in one of my minor courses last year. I know: aim high. Cauliflower tureen, about 1760-1765 (Ashmolean Museum). I prefer the teapots, but [...]
so much for july
Posted in Anglophilia, things, travels on August 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »
July was a busy month. I’ve been jet-lagged for most of August, trying to recover from my insane return-trip itinerary (fly standby, London to Dulles; Dulles to Newark; drive Newark to PA, PA to WI) and the kind of household chores that materialize during a month-long absence from one’s home. My many travels were wonderful, [...]
Spoonbridge? Ashbery? Minneapolis.
Posted in travels on June 5, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Ricky and I made a trip north last week, to the Twin Cities. There were lots of things to love about Minneapolis and St. Paul—Victorian houses (so many turrets!), flour mill signs along the riverfront, a truly wonderful meal in the shadow of an oddly beautiful industrial neighborhood (local spring pea risotto with mint, flourless [...]
(exhale)
Posted in travels on April 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I am so glad to be home. I missed my little house and I missed my blog, too. The last three weeks or so have been a whirlwind of travel— cramming cats into my Prius, cramming luggage into overhead bins, and doing it over and over again. I put close to a thousand more miles [...]
