Update

The days are moving swiftly now. With term beginning, there is so much going on.

We love the prestigious Darwin Lectures--a series with one theme. This year the theme is Games. We attended the first one in the huge Lady Mitchell Hall. We went at five for a 5:30 lecture and the lecture hall was already half full.  The first one was given by the very attractive Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a lawyer with many hats and honors and the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet. She was recently named by the Equality and Human Rights Council as the most powerful Muslim woman in Britain. Her talk was "Personal Principles and the  Political Game."

Her story is riveting and about her resignation in 2014 from the House of Lords because of the  Government's morally indefensible policy on Gaza. This was the time when the Israelis were bombing and killing hundreds of Palestinians using arms from UK( and I assume from USA also), as well as destroying the infrastructure in Gaza. And it is important to know that this damage has not been repaired.

Of course, the story is much more complex but she is quite the hero over here. Recently she has made headlines criticizing David Cameron for suggesting English language requirements for immigrants, especially the women who tend to stay home.

We have attended several formal dinners now in college and the food has been delicious. Cameras are not allowed in dining room so I found this photo of a formal dinner in the Wolfson magazine. There is much better art on the wall now than then. The founders of this college wanted good art rather than portraits and there is not a high table in this dining room thus dining is much friendlier than in other college dining rooms.

This particularly dinner was black tie; the red represents PhDs. Normally the dinners don't require a black tie but rather academic gowns. Kevin wears a gown but I generally wear just wear black.

There are two formal dinners a week. The dessert following coffee is fruit and port wine.





I traveled to London and met Helen Bredin at the V and A to see the excellent exhibit of Julia Margaret Cameron's photographs. She liked to photograph young women and girls. This is an early print and she is experimenting here with photograms of ferns framing the young woman.

Helen treated me to a delicious lunch. Here we were looking at the duck who has a yellow frog in its mouth.

 Then we traveled by tube to the East End and picked up Lucy from The Orchard School. Helen showed me her pet project. The school was recently enlarged which cut into the lovely old playground which was once an orchard. Helen and some other parents managed to have a lovely playground designed.

There is a green house and planting gardens, a composting center,  bug and worm habitats, all intriguing matters of interest for children.


A magical space!

We enjoyed a tea party.

And then I took off for a quick shop at Liberty's, admiring the posies outside.

And a quick bite at Garibaldi's, one of Helen's favorite London restaurants. I enjoyed watching the bustling crowd on Argyll Street.