A Blustery Ramble of Epic Proportions, in Which Brenna and Laruen Play their First Game of Poohsticks

GNOME HOLE- so excited to have spotted this.

Brenna and Lauren en route to Pooh Sticks bridge (note appropriate sticks in hand).

Still roud the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate...

Their first game! Brenna's stick got drowned under the bridge, somehow....

Stately tree. Lots of these in the University Parks.

Early flowers.

We spent some quality time under this old tree, looking up into its branches (see picture below)with the wind roaring in our ears. Nothing banishes academic stress better....

Lying under the tree... the ground was only a little wet. Admire practical footwear.

The view from under the tree.

Pink blossoms!

Snowdrops?

Today is Friday, which means I absolutely do not do homework between lunch and dinner. It was a perfect windy day, and I decided to go on a "ramble" (walk) of epic proportions with my two new companions, Lauren and Brenna. I had been running in the parks, so I knew they were beautiful, but I had never taken time to go through them slowly and look closer. We bundled up against the wind (Minnesota-esque today) and grabbed our umbrellas, and set out across town for the parks. When we arrived by the front gate, we were greeted with expansive lawns of perfect green, and many diverging little paths, and gardens with some early, hearty flowers making an appearance. There were little mole holes all over the lawns, and a nearby group of cricket players were complaining bitterly about the mess they cause with their burrows. We walked all the way around the circumference, branching off on one end to get to the river. The girls had never even heard of Pooh Sticks, so of course we had to play. They picked lovely, distinguishable sticks, not like amaturs at all, and we dropped them into the river at the same time, rushing to the other side of the bridge to see whose stick would come out the other side first. We seemed to wait a long time. Brenna and Lauren kept leaning over the railing and wondering if their sticks had drowned. Finally Lauren's came out, easily recognized as the fattest, and then mine, bobbing along, covered in moss. Brenna's stick had been a big dense one with lots of little knobs, unfortunately it never made it out. We suspect that it was so dense it drowned somewhere under the bridge. But we played many more rounds and everyone won at least once. We took our time ambling back, stopping to try to climb a large green tree with low branches (and failling due to lack of upper body strength). We found a little clearing encircled by seven trees growing in a perfect ring. The inside was a carpet of yellow flowers. This arrangement excited much talk about witches' circles and we discussed the possibility of sneaking back at night to tell ghost stories there. Unfortunately, the gates lock at sundown, but it's nice to know people who are interested in that sort of thing anyway... We stopped for a long time under this one enormous old tree, whose trunk was covered in a fine green moss, and whose branches swept down to the ground like a willow. We were lying underneath, talking about boys (which seems to be the best way to bond with people here), and telling stories until we fell silent all at once. The roar of the wind was actually really relaxing, and I let the whole sensation of being swept away overtake me, and especially the stress of my tutorial this morning (it was the first time my tutor really disagreed with my thesis. I was just wrong about the Romance of the Rose ! The allegory was an extolling of courtly love, not a criticism! (apparently)- but he did allow that my incorrect thesis had been creatively and perhaps even artfully defended...) 

Tonight I am looking forward to more peace and quiet, since the majority of people are going out, and I am staying in. I might just write letters and eat crumpets and listen to the secret garden broadway soundtrack, or start reading the romance of the Grail I've been set for next week. Whatever I do, it will be low key and lovely, and I'll still have the sound of the wind in my ears.