Nighttime Walks

It is March now and the days are slowly growing longer  now--the sun goes down approximately two minutes later every day. On one of the last days of February, the sun suddenly changed from that pale wintry luminosity to a bright summer sun in a bright blue sky. While we still have grey movable skies, the short winter days and mauve sunsets are on the way out. I'm sorry as I love the bleak midwinter skies.

It has been a warm winter and many flowering trees have blossomed. I worry that The Apple Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester will not have its famous show in April.

We don't have a car so we do a lot of walking over here and often at night after events. It looks pretty scary but the only thing I worry about are the bikers often going as fast as possible on narrow walkways! 

We walked along the narrow road to a Grantchester Pub one night. We passed homes with lovely stained glass doorways.

We were on our way to a local pub for the Thursday night music.

The Blue Ball has a new owner Toby who is working to keep this popular pub a friendly traditional pub, not a gastropub known for its food, but one known for its beer. He cooks every day--a big pot of chili or curry or stew so the menu is limited. What is important is the beer and camaraderie.

Inside the tiny two rooms a dog rested while his owner finished his bitter as the wood fire blazed.

We had a nice bowl of chili and later a band appeared. The small pub was packed for the music. 

We often walk along this path to the backs of the colleges, sometimes crowded with speeding cyclists.

We can see students swotting in this library

.

And a red-billed bird in the water.

On another walk by the Cam, we see swans.


We walk through the Sedgwick site where the Humanities classrooms are.Many are new and quite striking, especially at night like the School of Divinity

 and the Law school.

A library

Leaving the Sedgwick site, we end up on Sedgwick Ave (on left), a lovely old road with huge trees that buckle the sidewalk so the walking can be treacherous. In our hall in 1432 Medway, we have a photograph of a beloved painting of this avenue by Orlando Johnson, the son of Cambridge friends. However, it was lost and so now we only have the photograph.

Stretched out on the other side of the avenue is Newnham College. Kevin is walking past the Buttery, a nice place for lunch.


Newnham, one of two women's colleges in Cambridge, is where Virginia Woolf gave her "A Room of One's Own" talk. And today, still a college for contemporary feminists, such as Germaine Greer, Janet Todd, and Mary Beard.

The ceiling over the arched window is blue and white Wedgewood.

The University of Cambridge Library

With book sculptures in front.

St Mary's, the University Church


Kevin under a willow on a bridge crossing the Cam near a fen


And a cozy pub  on right and an Italian restaurant on left overlooking the Cam beckoning us in on this dark night.