Laura Miles' Big Adventure

Visits from Good Friends

This last week we had a visit from Randolph's friend from undergrad, Ruth Berry. They have been friends for many many years and she is a wonderful person. She also happens to be a gorgeous soprano, and she had a solo in our wedding, along with Lori Johnson. Ruthie flew in to stay with us in Cambridge and made a few day trips to places like Ely (with us), Canterbury, Dover, and Norwich. We had a wonderful visit.

It tempted snow all week but never actually accumulated more than a light sprinkling in the morningtimes. We went into our backyard to inspect the bulbs and see if the frost had done them in. Elsewhere there are swaths of slain crocuses but I think my bulbs, which are just rising from the ground, will make it through and really make a show in a few weeks once this cold snap breaks.

I look forward to finding a little folding chair and sitting out to read in our back garden. We've only seen it from mid-September onwards, when it had already gotten chilly out, and I can't wait for the warmth of summer and seeing how the light will come through the trees with all their leaves back on and branches heavy with apples.

Lyvden New Bield

On Saturday we went on a wild day trip to a very far away and random place. It was all the fault of our dear friend Tonya, who thought up the idea to visit this "recusant oratory ruin" somewhere in Cambridgeshire. I will put up some more details about the actual ruin later, but suffice to say it was pretty cool. However I was in no real shape to be tramping across the countryside so it was a bit more painful for me than the others.... the night before being one of our infamous MCR Dinners. Anyways here is a photo of Randolph, Me, and Tonya in the little town of Oundle, where we got a taxi to the New Bield.

Randolph and I are wearing our matching Selwyn Choir scarves. They have the yellow and red stripes for Selwyn, and then the blue racing stripe for Newnham, the girls' college next door that shares our chapel.

Overall the trip was a little stressful because we had to be back for a choir rehearsal at 4:00 pm, but very interesting, and so lovely to see the countryside. Plus I found a beautiful long pheasant tale feather which now rests on our mantle.

My view in the morning

So this is the view from my desk in the morning. I sit in my bathrobe and write emails and read the NYTimes while my bath is running and then cooling. Then I get ready and go to the library for the day. The University Library mostly, these days.

I got this vase for Randolph for Valentine's Day, and after getting it home along with way too many flowers (I overestimated, or just got a little too excited about the daffodils), found out that it leaked. So we had to put it in a pot for dinner.

But then it stopped leaking and now it's just fine. Perhaps it realized it was not in anyone's best interest to leak.

Snow snow snow snow

This morning we woke up to find a most delicate powdered-sugar snowfall on the ground. Very pretty, though it won't hold up for very long. I still want a good robust five inches before winter is over, though I should be careful what I ask for because I don't really have appropriate boots, though I am aware that might be a pressing shopping opportunity.

Randolph just directed me to a really cool website for news....
10 x 10 . Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Today is a busy day. But my paleography exam yesterday went very well I think. Today, actually, is the last busiest day of the MPhil program.

Two nights ago I had a dream about feeling desolate, lost and terrified in a market in some foreign country where no one spoke English. Then I turned around and saw a Tibetan monk much like this one, hugged him, and felt an overpowering transcendent peace. Thinking about that moment still brings beautiful blue skies to my mind. Strange, eh? What do you think it means?

Paleography

This morning I have my one and only exam of the year: Paleography (the study of old handwriting).

I have a long and painful history with Paleography Exams that I don't particularly care to re-live in this public venue. Let's just say that my last encounter was a triumph, and I hope to keep it that way. In this exam we are given photocopies of four passages in Middle English from medieval manuscripts of c. 1300-1450 ish. We have to identify the general and specifc characteristics of the script, do a diplomatic transcript (write out exactly the letters we see on the page, with expansions of abbreviations) and then produce one edited transcription, where we establish guidelines for producing a version a little more accessible to the modern reader than a straight transcription of the Middle English.

Really it's not too bad, but these things make me nervous because you never know what curveballs you might get the morning of. Sometimes the damn things are totally unintelligible, because the scribe had a really bad tick or maybe the cat walked over it while the ink was still wet. However it is one of my favorite aspects of doing medieval studies so though apprehensive I do relish the challenge. Paleography and codicology are particularly pressing skill areas because an important part of my MPhil dissertation is going to be producing an edition of a work in Middle English found in a 15th century manuscript here in the University Library. More about that later, though.

Curious? Take a look at Medieval Writing. Also, St. John's College Library, Cambridge. We have our class in the library, but in the new part, though our first meeting was in the beautiful Old Library. Mostly I use the manuscripts in the University Library, though I could poke around in St. John's if I needed to, and I might for my dissertation.

Here is an image of a medieval manuscript, the London, British Library, Harley 2253 miscellany from around 1340. It is written in an Anglicana hand. This is from the facsimile edited by Ker, E.E.T.S. 255, London 1965.
It is an lyric in Middle English, IMEV, no. 3939, here edited by G. L. Brooks from 'The Harley Lyrics' (Manchester, 1968).

Off to School, uphill both ways!

My usual weekdays begins when I wake up a little while after Randolph has started running his bath. It's most likely overcast out, but sometimes, like this morning, it's very clear blue with big white fluffy clouds. Randolph heads out to work a little after 8:00. Then I sit in my bathrobe at my computer with some tea and check my email and read the NYTimes and BBC and take care business. I run a hot bath, and after that, I try to get out of the house as quickly as possible before I get wrapped up in some unproductive project or other and waste away the morning. I walk to college and check my pigeon hole, then walk through the Selwyn Gardens to the Sidgwick Site where the English Faculty is.

Everywhere around Selwyn are beautiful bulbs just getting some momentum up for the spring. There's huge swaths of purple crocuses on the croquet lawn in front of the house where our friends Josh and Amber live. I walk that path everyday, and each morning there are different little flowers peeking out.

From my house to the English Faculty or the University Library is about 4 minutes. I feel very spoiled.

If I'm not doing work in the Manuscript Room in the University Library, I like to study in the English Faculty. It might get a little noisy sometimes with all those overeager undergrads but nothing the iPod mini can't drown out. There's a lot of light and all my books are right there so I quite enjoy it. Plus I can check my email on a computer, have some very bad 50 pence coffees from a machine, and attempt to socialize for little breaks.

Some Late Night Entertainment

Here are fun things to look at when you don't want to read ANY MORE MIDDLE ENGLISH EVER AGAIN.

My all-time favorite, online guide to Fugly . This is a wonderful word whose origins you will have to ask me about in person. But I bet you could guess.

Also, for the fellow accessory-obsessed, Manolo's Shoe Blog. It's very educational.

If you are a man, it would be wise to read up at Manolo for the Men. Believe me, no matter how cool you think you are, there is a lot you can learn about the classy look from the Manolo.

Another thing I look at more rarely is The Defamer. But it can be entertaining at times.

As always, on Sunday you must check The News of the Weird.

And to top it all off, here's a really random close-up of a Vermeer painting I found in my documents folder.

Goodnight!

That Winning Feeling

I got another email bearing good news last night. It was one of those lovely, rare letters which, over the coming years of dissertation hell, with one glance back at it will banish any feelings of worthlessness and innate stupidity that might creep up everynow and then.

So now I'm accepted at 4 PhD programs across the Atlantic, with 9 responses still to come in.

I'm particularly pleased about getting accepted this year to a program which rejected me last year. I guess they learned their lesson good.

Again, flowers and chocolates and pats-on-the-back can be sent to Selwyn College, Cambridge CB3 9DQ.

Wheeeeeee!

Gus

If you are lucky one day, you will walk through the big wooden doors of the front tower, past the porter's lodge, and cast your eyes upon the great green-striped expanse that is Selwyn Old Court. To your right will be the dining hall, and just beyond that the Master's Lodge. As you walk towards the steps to hall, a little friend will trot up to you just to make sure you are allowed to be in Selwyn in the first place.

His name is Gus, and he is the Selwyn College Cat.

He's very good about not going on the grass, which only fellows are allowed to step on. (Powerful Burning Lasers have been installed on the roof to discourage those persistent undergrads and grads). He's a rescued cat so he looks a little scruffy, but blends right in with the worn tweed elbows that dot the SCR. Gus has a tendency to join you wherever you are, in your room, in hall eating, wherever he might slip through the rungs. In fact, we recently received an actual email from him with a few requests:

Dear All.
In my role as College cat, I have a tendency to wander through any open door I can find, without thinking very hard as to whether I can get out again. I would be grateful if you could deny me entry on such occasions, as I cannot be responsible for my actions and I would not wish any student to be unfairly blamed for any mess in the halls or someone's room. Similarly, if you find me where I should not be, in Hall or the Buttery, for example, where I am told I am a grave threat to health and safety and possibly life and liberty, please have no compunction in subjecting me to either deportation or, in extremis, defenestration. I am also a little concerned about my weight, which may have something to do with the number of vulnerable mice in the vicinity of Old Court. Please do not feed me. Lastly, the Master has asked me to tell you that the matted hair down one side is not a sign of mistreatment in the Lodge but the result of much stress in a former life. It is being dealt with slowly, since my claws are rather sharp. Thank you.
Gus

Winning Streak!!

So far, 3 for 3, for the PhD!
Yay!!!
Feel free to send congratulatory emails or phonecalls my way, so I can give you the juicy details.