englishfields - Tumblr blog

[englishfields]

I'm on the bus leaving Grasmere! This trip has been a dream and I was so lucky to have these people with me for this amazing experience - I am all kinds of weepy, my friends

[englishfields]

last week at the wordsworth trust library we had a session with the wonderful curator there, and he had us attempt to paint or sketch from some art that was done by great british artists who visited the lake district. this was mine! john constable painted the original (top left, obviously) and i was fascinated by the brown smudges across the middle of his painting - it turns out, he wrote the title of the painting on the back in ink, and it seeped through onto the front. whoops! i liked it so much, that little hint of human error, that i copied it onto my painting and titled my painting “whoops!”. 

[englishfields]

we got a bit of true grasmere weather this past week! it was gorgeous and misty and rainy and it was a wonderful break after the overly hot weather we ended up with for part of our london trip! these were taken as we walked over to the wordsworth museum and dove cottage, one of the houses wordsworth lived in

[englishfields]

on my first day in the lake district, i climbed a mountain and got really excited about it (please note that i was equally excited about the sheep).  we climbed easedale and found this ‘tarn’ at the top - a tarn is a mountain lake, apparently. i keep wanting to call it a ‘mountain tarn’ but that would translate directly to ‘mountain mountain lake’ (which obviously sounds ridiculous) so i’m trying really hard to resist the urge. 

[englishfields]

on our last evening in london we went to regent’s park for a picnic! we ordered some indian takeout and sat in the avenue gardens to eat before wandering our way over to the queen’s rose garden

[englishfields]

our last weekend in london was gorgeous and sunny! we took advantage of it by going for a walk around a section of a trail called ‘capital ring’ - i believe it meanders its way through most of london, but we did section 12 and it took us about three hours! we wandered through a bunch of different parks and part of the trail is actually a railroad that was closed that they turned into a public walking path. it was stunning! the little gremlin picture (middle row, left) is actually called a spriggan, and there used to be folktales a long time ago about how spriggans would come and steal your children and leave baby changeling spriggans in their place! wild!

[englishfields]

during our last week in london we visited the tate britain and the geffrye house: museum of the home - we actually visited the geffrye house on ‘takeover day’, which was when a grade 3 or 4 class came and ‘took over’ the running of the museum for an hour or two! they taught us about what homes were like during the tudor period (not super useful for our courses but gosh were they cute !!). they also had activities for us to do that were ‘very easy’ (i am quoting a very serious little boy who informed me that ‘none of these are hard, they’re all very easy’) but i swear.... none of us ‘grown ups’ could seem to figure them out 

[englishfields]

Making myself some coffee, the sun is shining, the sky is blue... ! I'm going to drink my coffee and read my book and then play catch up on some homework and writing and I have lots of photos to post! Here we go! It's my last Saturday of the field school!

[englishfields]

goodbye little flat !! you've been good to me !! i won't miss the little mouse or the little shower or the spotty wifi but this little place was a cute little home for the month of june

[englishfields]

it’s been a wild and wonderful four weeks in london, but tomorrow i head off to the lake district! i’m thrilled to step away from the vibrancy of london and step into the lake district’s peace - we’re going to be doing many hikes and walks throughout our 11 days there and i can’t wait to conquer their ‘mountains’ (which, let’s be real, in BC we’d call them hills... aha) 

i’m not sure how the wifi or service will be up there but i’ll post photos and updates as often as i can!

[englishfields]

i forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago when we went to the national portrait gallery! this is a portrait of kitty fisher - the artist who painted her portrait thought he was clever, and threw in a bit of a visual pun with the kitten (kitty) fishing for fish (fisher). i love love love love it. (and sara, i totally thought of you)

[englishfields]

i spent my day today studying and researching in this cute little art library near where i’m staying - i researched my happy little (nerdy) heart out and it was bliss

[englishfields]

took a cloudy lil daytrip to brighton yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed myself! did some research for a project on the royal pavilion, explored the lanes (these teeeeeny little streets with cute bunting and adorably tiny shops), and wandered around admiring the architecture - i don’t think i’ll ever be tired of england!

[englishfields]

I spent my birthday wandering the Victoria and Albert museum and eating the best kind of meal for a thirty four degree day - maybe I'm getting old, but it was chill (although not literally cool, unfortunately) and perfect

[englishfields]

the estate for the chawton house library has incredible gardens!! the grounds were splendid and i’m pretty sure i could very happily spend the rest of my life there, wandering around

[englishfields]

shopping oxford street on a (very hot) saturday was probably one of the worst ideas i’ve ever had but we stopped at a cute lil juice place for a pick-me-up after and this fresh watermelon-cucumber-strawberry-mint juice was so! good!

[englishfields]

we also visited the chawton house library, which is in a house on an estate that belonged to jane austen’s rich brother, edward. the house and the grounds were incredible - photos to come of the breathtaking gardens!