Last week was a very hectic week. In preparation for the first long weekend trip to Ireland, which goes from Wednesday to Sunday, we had an extra day of class on Friday to make up for missed Thursday classes this week. As soon as possible, I packed my bags and headed to London for the weekend to see friends Michael and Todd, and to check out the big LAPADA antique show in Berkeley Square. It is only an hour train ride from Grantham to King's Cross station and then just a quick trip north on the bus to Michael's flat. It was a bit jarring to be back in the hustle of London after five weeks in idyllic Lincolnshire walking through the cow, sheep, and horse pastures.
We had a low key weekend overall. I slept in on Saturday morning and enjoyed a leisurely day looking at some of the most beautiful furniture, paintings, and other old stuff. There were four George I dining chairs...only a cool L28,000. Madonna and child statues from 14th C. Alsace, Munnings paintings of horses, a breath-taking 8"x10" painting of three hounds (only L8,000), and on and on and on. The show was really in the park too...under what looked like the usual white tents but then you went inside and you felt like you were in a building...solid floors were put in around (!) the bowls of trees...carved to fit snuggly against them. So there you were looking at one booth and you'd turn a corner and run right into a tree trunk!
Sunday I was up early and first in the queue for Matins and Sung Eucharist at Westminster Abbey. I sat right in front of the Canon of Westminster in a seat closest to the high altar but in the choir pews. The choir sang Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, his Preces and Reponses, and some other lovely anthems. No offence to the Harlaxton Village choir (all seven of them) but I needed to hear some real music for a change. It was such a lovely day, I wandered from there through St. James Park...up past Clarence House to St. James' Street and Fortnum and Mason's. I walked up Old and New Bond Streets looking in the shops, stopped in to an auction preview at Sotheby's, and found my way to Oxford Street and eventually back to the flat. It really was one of those rare gorgeous days in London.
I headed back to Harlaxton on Monday morning and was back to my usual teaching routines yesterday and today. But tomorrow...I'm off with the political science professor and her husband to the Orkney Islands off the northern tip of Scotland! We're going to fly from Heathrow and rent a car to travel the small cluster of islands to see as many of the islands' 5000 neolithic sites as we can. Crashing waves, cliffs, ruins of towers, standing stones...you get the idea. What an opportunity! Stay tuned for the details of this new adventure!
I do hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all alot!
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