Checking in

I'm in my fourth library in a week. If this is Monday, it must be Cambridge.


This trip is very focused: one manuscript per library. I wish I were here longer, both for the sake of more research and for the sake of having a bit of fun. A colleague of mine is spending three months in the U.K. this summer, and when she talks about theatre in London and some of her walking excursions, I feel twinges of envy. But I don't want to leave Sir John alone with all the cats for too long. They are more than a handful, especially Basement Cat. (From what Sir John says, BC seems somewhat chastened by my absence; but maybe it's just that Sir John is more authoritarian than I am.)


Fortunately I am not getting many twinges from my ankle, or only when I've done a lot of walking.


My colleague and I had a lovely tea in Oxford, with sandwiches, scones, cake, biscuits and champagne, over the weekend.


Other than that, it's pretty much all work and no play. I saw Another Damned Medievalist in the BL last week, but we couldn't quite get organized to do anything. I read a novel on the coach from Oxford to Cambridge yesterday, if that counts.