A girl I knew in middle and high school (but, sadly, mostly lost touch with) is attending Oxford University for grad school. Every time she posts pictures on Facebook, I get a little ping of envy because she is living in a city I have come to really love and will probably not get to see again for a long time. Also, in the interest of complete honesty, despite my massive objections to GPS and the culture there, I have a wee obsession with old, traditional schools, whether it is John Irving’s depictions of New Hampshire boy’s schools or A Separate Peace or Rory going to Yale on The Gilmore Girls or grand old schools like Oxford and Cambridge.
To get to the point of my posting, the Oxford scholar I am acquainted with posted some lovely shots of Oxford in the wintertime. I wish I could stay there long enough to see the city and the surrounding countryside during all seasons– the snow is too picturesque for words. It’s probably ten kinds of uncool to borrow a couple of her photos and post them here to share, especially since I’d prefer not to out her by using her name in photo credits, but I can’t resist since I post sporadically about my own Oxford adventures. Both are shots I have my own summer equivalents of somewhere– I believe the first is from the cloisters at Magdalen college and the second is along the Oxford canal, where I spent many a pleasant summer afternoon reading and watching the locals bicycle, stroll, boat, and goof off. It’s bad enough not being there, but on top of it we are having almost spring-like weather here in Chattanooga again, and have had almost nary a flake of snow to mark the occasional cold snaps all winter. Proper snow on such a backdrop as Oxford is enviable indeed. I wish I could see “my” manor house out in Yarnton all dressed up in winter white.
EDIT: A-HAH! A little Googling and Flickring found me some shots of Yarnton in the wintertime. A pretty sight indeed!
And here’s a cool one of the heads at the Sheldonian– I love how the snow clung mainly to their hair and beards. It’s like they’ve been colored in.
Hi there,
Came over from your Mom’s site and just wanted to say that this post hit me just right. I left Oxford almost a year ago now and in the midst of an Australian summer, I’m missing those short dark midwinter days in that beautiful city.