the vyne

wow...it's been a while! I've been busy, what with finals, packing up my room/putting things in storage for the while, vacation at home in England, and then traveling back to California and getting ready for work (starting on Monday).

So just a quick post for now.  Picture of the day - from the walled garden at The Vyne, a 500-year-old house in Hampshire.

william henry fox talbot

inventor of the calotype (patented 1841) - this involved a new concept of negative, from which multiple positive images could be made (unlike the daguerreotype, which was a one-off deal).

Fox Talbot was born/lived/died at Lacock Abbey (now a National Trust property).  A lovely place (including Lacock Village) - I hope I can go back and spend more time there soon!

latticed window at Lacock Abbey, 1835

1844

Lacock Abbey - the cloisters - now (er, a year and a half ago...).  The parts that were in Harry Potter.

Speaking of Harry Potter...

clever.

two words, a world of difference - complaining vs. moaning.

"Visitors to Britain are rarely able to grasp – sometimes after decades of residency – the vital distinction its inhabitants make between complaining and moaning. The two activities seem similar, but there is a profound philosophical and practical difference. To complain about something is to express dissatisfaction to someone whom you hold responsible for an unsatisfactory state of affairs; to moan is to express the same thing to someone other than the person responsible. The British are powerfully embarrassed by complaining, and experience an almost physical recoil from people who do it in public. They do love to moan though."


-john lanchester, "party games" (the new yorker, 7 june  2010)

...and i bring you - imelda!

as i have named her.

the keys, from below. how fascinating! they're like...mushrooms or something!

"darcy smiled and said, 'you are perfectly right.  you have employed your time much better.  no one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting.  we neither of us perform to strangers.'"

note to self: get a good camera. this gets more frustrating by the day.

tis the season

...for boot sales!!!

went to my first boot sale since being back in england.  and it didn't disappoint, as usual!

i think i spend a grand total of £5.70!

books, cds, and a lovely bag that i'm very excited about!  (it almost takes away the pain of me deciding that i had too much stuff already and not buying a gorgeous olivetti lettera 32 manual typewriter for only £10...um, yeah. painful i know.  i'm literally in agony.  maybe i'll find something at the bank holiday boot sale tomorrow? one can always hope).