Cavendish Square and Tate Britain

Pictures: 1) Cavendish Square (you can see John Lewis in back middle), 2) close up irises by Tate Britain, 3) Me with iris bed, 4) Iris bed leading to side of Tate Britain.



First off, I want to apologize for the extraordinary length of the Oxford and Cambridge blogs below - they are quite long - but I promise they are interesting! If nothing else, do look at the pictures!

Yesterday I walked to Cavendish Square (the fictional home of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). It was very much changed from Victorian times, but I looked around and it was a nice walk, for despite the cold breeze, the sun was shining and skies were blue. The middle of the square (like all squares around here) is a garden, and around it are buildings. While I walked around the garden I noticed a John Lewis (a department store) and needing a throw blanket for my bed, went inside. The place is about 5 stories high - really tremendous! I finally found a rather large, fleece blanket in a moss green for £20 (which I thought was a bit steep, but I needed it since when Stephen and Krystle come Saturday I'm going to give each of them a duvet to use, and I'll need something to keep warm besides a sheet). When I got it home it was bigger than I thought (plenty big enough to cover a whole twin size bed), so that is good.

From there I started walking back to the flat, and passed a "YMCA Store" - which was a thrift store. I stopped in just to look and ended up buying 2 shirts for a total of £3.90! What a deal! I went to the ULU after that for lunch because I was craving something hot, and I had my first hamburger since I've been in London. It was divine and the ULU has subsidized prices so the burger and fries (chips here) was only £3.90.

Today we met my art appreciation teacher at the Tate Britain gallery. First we looked at the modern installations with my teacher, then when the class was over I walked around the Victorian period art. I really enjoyed that! I got to see Sir John Millais' "Ophelia" which I've wanted to see ever since I saw a print of it up in my English teacher's classroom in high school. "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" is also a beautiful one by John Singer Sargent. They also have the Turner collection there which is really nice. Also, being so much smaller than the National Gallery, I actually got to see all the rooms I wanted to see which was very nice!

As I left the gallery I noticed that on the side of the building there was a beautiful row of irises - absolutely stunning! The vibrant purples made me want to paint them right then and there.

I am now home and rather tired from walking for 3.5 hours, so I think I will read and perhaps rest a bit before my drawing class tonight. It is the last one I'll get to go to because they take very long breaks here between semesters and so this is the second to last week before their exams start. I can't go next Thursday because Stephen and Krystle will be here and I have to go see King Lear that night on stage (since my class is going to see it while I'll be in Ireland).