&...london.

one of the most frequent questions i heard this summer--why would you leave during the olympics? one does get tired of answering the same question over and over, but alas this should be the last time. my response generally included some variety of the following: a) summer jobs are good, b) london was crazy and at most i'd go down for a day or two during the craziness, and 3) only really posh people went to a lot of events--not quite as accessible as salt lake's winter olympics. that said, it would have been lovely to go down for a jaunt, but alas i was in ridiculous cloudless 100 degree heat for weeks. :)

i have had plenty of time in london, and more to come i'm sure. these photos are some of my favorite shots from the last few days i spent in london before i took off for the summer.

chalk farm to stables market to camden market to abbey road to baker street to westminister to kensington to st. peter's dirty mirror ball, the tower bridge and oxford street....& full stop.

&...I'm back.

No posts since May. Yes, I am a slacker and can't seem to post when I'm in the states. But now I am back in Britain and writing away. In fact the other night I wrote this in about an hour: http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/remarkably-clever-the-mormons-and-jane-austen/ Unfortunately, I dissertated about the same number of words in eight plus hours that day. Alas, this is my life some days. Maybe my blogging skills will improve since I've returned to my cute little flat.

&...salisbury.

A couple years ago JR and I were driving around England and we had a few directional issues making it to Salisbury Cathedral. After a few laps of the town, we finally made it to the car park and realized that we could not see both the cathedral and make it to Stonehenge before closing time (wanting to actually go inside the fence). So we chose Stonehenge and were rewarded with a miraculous sunset.

Finally this time I really made it to Salisbury Cathedral, not just the car park. 

Salisbury Cathedral is amazing. Actually breathtaking.

Salisbury houses one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. I supposed I shouldn't have been, but I was a bit surprised at how completely moved I was by seeing the actual 13th century document. 

The print revolution was fantastic and all. And then Al Gore created the internets. And I know I can google Magna Carta and see a copy almost instantly or find a full translation in milliseconds, but just knowing what it says or seeing a photo is not the same thing. The actual anthropology of the document matters. Even though I couldn't touch it and my medieval Latin skills are a bit lacking, seeing it was a really lovely experience.

  

Worship envy.

Oh the blue. 

I had to just sit for a while and take it all in. 

The same glass makers who maintain the windows at Chartres--oh Chartres. I am coming.

And the sun came out. 

It may seem that I have become a little obsessive about the sun. Growing up in California and living in Utah for a while did not prepare me for England. There were a couple beautiful weeks in March that were full of sun and I thought--I can do this. And then came April. I now understand what living in England is really like. You begin to value every miraculous minute of the sun.

Thank you Salisbury Cathedral.
&...Beautiful.