Lazy Saturday

The weather finally warmed up for the first time: the sun came out and temperatures rose to about 60 degrees.  The trees started to bud and the daffodils came out.  ‘Middle of March, and it was finally looking a bit like spring in Cambridge.

It was really too nice to stay in: I’ve been working all week and Saturday would get swallowed up if I gave clients and task lists the chance.  So, off to town in search of adventures.

 

The various colleges plant gardens, ranging from plantings along the walkways at Wolfson to large formal gardens at Clare.  Things are just starting to come up around town and the planting and Pimms are not yet in swing.  But the flowers are starting to dot the riverbanks and trees with blue, yellow, white, and pink highlights, and joggers and cyclists are becoming a more common sight along the paths.  Punters (people poling boats, not taking bets) are filling the Cam along the Backs; unskilled after a winter away from the water, but game to parade their boats and impress their dates.

 

The Fitzwilliam Museum has just opened an exhibit of their Italian Drawings.  I am not a fan of early Italian paintings, finding them flat and repetitive in their religious iconography, but I think that the drawings are endlessly fascinating.  These experiments with line and wash, perspective and facial expression, show all the energy of a work in progress.  There are partially erased lines, repeated sketches of the same object trying to get it right, and studies of faces and hands that mirror my own struggles in life drawing classes.  There is lots to learn from: the only frustration is the absolute prohibition on pictures, unusual for a teaching museum.

 

A charity Quiz Night to benefit the local choir was held in Orwell towards evening.  Our team quickly rose to second place and held the position round after round before being knocked to fifth on the last round.  I blame the emphasis on British Monarchal History and Old County Geography: I really only did well at Maths, Science, and (ironically) Religious Education questions.  Normally I count on American Pop Culture and States Geography to justify my participation.  No such luck last night.