In place of any real news

I’m an overachiever in personality (though not practice), so I feel pressure to take advantage of living here and plan all sorts of trips and activities. Jeff is more realistic and, working five days a week, perfectly happy to stay home and relax on the weekends. But we did get out to Blenheim Palace on Saturday. We wandered around the extensive and lovely grounds and toured the palace, full of portraits of past Churchills all looking eerily alike (either the first Duke of Marlborough married his twin sister or everyone in the early 1700s was painted with long noses, slightly bulbous blue eyes, large foreheads and small mouths). Winston Churchill once said he made two important decisions at Blenheim: to be born and to propose to his future wife, Clementine. We saw the places where both events occurred, and while touring the small exhibit about his life I was astonished to discover that he was not unattractive in his youth. We closed the day at the Marlborough Arms as we waited for the bus back to Oxford. We’ve certainly visited some wonderful pubs, and with the weather still blustery and damp, their cosy fireplaces are a little slice of heaven.



I recently saw my first "Bookcrossing" book in the flesh. It's a really great idea I first learned of a few years ago from Utne Reader. People read books, register them online, and then leave them in public places for someone else to find. When everyone participates you can track books around the world through the Bookcrossing website. Since I've always loved finding marginalia or inscriptions from a book's previous owners, I think it's another way to create kinship among readers. I didn't pick up the book because I knew I wouldn't have time to read it for a few months (I have quite a backlog). But I took a picture. Here is the website if you want to know more: Bookcrossing


Speaking of the book world, The Guardian reported this weekend that the Canadian government suddenly seems to have lost faith in its cultural exports. Statistically speaking, authors and artists don’t tend to support Harper. They may be paying for that now.