A Day With C.S. Lewis

Those of you who are familiar with C.S. Lewis and his series The Chronicles of Narnia will see Mr. Tumnus on this doorway in Oxford. It is said that this doorway was an inspiration for C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Warning: This is a long post, be ye forewarned…

On Saturday September 17th we had our first taxi experience in Oxford. Our first ride was to Holy Trinity Parish Church in Headington Quarry where C.S. Lewis worshipped.

We had a tour of The Kilns, C.S. Lewis’ home while he lived on the outskirts of Oxford, scheduled for noon. We wanted to visit the church before our tour to see the Narnia Etched Window and to visit Lewis’s grave.

We had the church to ourselves.

It’s not easy to take photos of an etched window.

The church had this prayer by the window.

O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for C.S. Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old alike. Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

From the church we headed out to find The Kilns, a mile walk.

The site was so understated we walked right past it and headed into the C.S. Lewis Nature Preserve. After a roundabout we made it back to the home of C.S. Lewis and waited in the garden for our tour to begin.

As we waited in the garden, several other people arrived to wait for our scheduled tour. Everyone who arrived were also from the United States. The home states represented were Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Florida, Minnesota and Washington State.

Colin was our tour guide and he shared many interesting things about Lewis and his brother. More information about the Kilns and C.S. Lewis can be found here.

The home is modest and is maintained by the C.S. Lewis Foundation.

This poster was in the meeting room in the house with a nod to the Eagle and Child or the Bird and Baby where Lewis and the Inklings would meet up.

Sadly, the Eagle and Child in Oxford was closed when we visited and was closed since March of 2020. Hopefully someone will take over the renovations and open it again in the future.

After our tour we had scheduled another Taxi to take us to The Trout for our meal of the day. We were happy to see the taxi waiting for us when the tour was completed.

We had reservations for a meal at 2pm at The Trout a favorite of C.S. Lewis. It was good we made those reservations because when we arrived we noticed a sign that said they were fully booked and wouldn’t accept walk-ins.

We had a good meal experience and our server took care of all our needs including arranging for our third taxi ride of the day back to our apartment. A very full Saturday and we were happy to enjoy the evening in our apartment making plans for our Sunday.

Oxford Archives ~ Magdalene College

We visited Magdalen College with our daughter Katie in 2004 and we were happy to re-visit the buildings and grounds this past July. What drew us to this college in 2004 was the information we read about Tolkien and C.S. Lewis enjoying walks and theological discussions here and along Addison’s Walk. We wanted to walk along that path, too.

Magdalen College was founded just outside Oxford’s City walls in 1458 by William Waynflete.

The chapel was begun in May 1474. The remarkable West Window of the Antechapel is a dramatic depiction of the Apocalypse and the judgement of souls. This vision was cast in 1637 but has been subjected to subsequent restorations, the re-glazing in 1859-1861 leaving the windows as they appear today.

Above the stalls hangs Giampetrino’s remarkable 15th copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, on permanent loan from the Royal Academy. In view of the bad condition of the original fresco in Milan, (which I had the privilege of seeing in March of 2013) Magdalen’s copy on canvas is a piece of increasing historic and artistic significance.

In 1635, the repaving of the Chapel floor in a pattern of black and white marble tiles.

The doors to the main Chapel were locked so I had to get these photos by looking through the glass on the doors. The choir sings from the middle stalls at either side. Towards the end of the 19th century the Choir achieved renown and played a pivotal role in ensuring an unprecedented fondness of carol singing among the general public by the publication of an anthology of carols.

This is the Hall which was built at the founding of the College. The High Table at the far end seats the President, Fellows and formal guests, just as it did in the early 16th century when it welcomed King James I. Oscar Wilde was a former member of Magdalen.

This post is getting long so I will do another post with photos from the Cloisters and some outdoor spaces.

This September 2022 we are going to be in Oxford during an ‘Open Day’ for the Oxford Colleges. We aren’t sure what that means but we hope it means we can walk onto any of the colleges without a fee and that we can see inside some quads and buildings we haven’t been able to see in prior trips. Time will tell if that is the case.

Back to the present day which is Friday August 5th. We are having a slight relief with our heat dipping into the 80’s for a couple of days and then it will spike up again reaching the 100’s again next Tuesday. It has been nice to start the mornings off in the 50’s instead of the 60’s. Have a great weekend everyone!

Hello March Hodgepodge

If it’s Wednesday it must be Hodgepodge. Jo From This Side of the Pond is coming in like a lion with these questions for the first Wednesday in March.

1. Is March coming in like a lion where you live?

So far March is not coming in like a lion here in the northeastern corner of Washington state.

Aslan, Simba, Elsa, The Cowardly Lion…your favorite ‘famous’ lion?

Aslan is my favorite lion introduced in the Narnia series of books by C.S. Lewis.

When a young girl from America wrote C.S. Lewis a letter asking what name Aslan used in our world, he replied:

“As to Aslan’s other name, well, I want you to guess. Has there been anyone in this world who

Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas?
Said he was the Son of the Great Emperor?
Gave himself for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people?
Came to life again?
Is someone spoken of as a lamb?

Don’t you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let me know your answer.”

2. In what way do you ‘march to the beat of your own drum’?

I don’t wait around for my dear husband to plan special events for us. I’m more of a planner and schemer and he is perfectly happy to enjoy and pay for my schemes. This has worked well in our relationship. He’s happy for most of the roads we’ve traveled because I plow ahead.

3. What item that you don’t have already, would you most like to own? Any chance of that happening soon?

The only thing that I can come up with that seems a little alluring in times like these is a very small self contained camping vehicle. Maybe something like this…

Something that is easier to drive than a huge motorhome. There is no chance of this happening soon or ever.

4. March is National Flour Month…are you a baker? Cookies-cakes-or pies…your favorite sweet treat to bake?

I like to bake cookies and cakes…not pies.

What’s the last non-sweet thing you made that called for flour?

Potato pancakes.

5. There are 31 days in the month of March…where were you and what were you doing when you were 31? If you haven’t hit that milestone yet, then tell us where you were and what you were doing 31 months ago? (if math is not your thing, that would be August 3, 2018)

I’ve hit that milestone 2 times over. When I was 31 our two sons were 3 and 1. I was busy being a full time mother/homemaker. We were living in our second home in Huntington Beach, California. We lived around the corner from my sister Vera and her husband Nick. They also had two children who were 6 and 4. Lots of fun cousin times happened in Huntington Beach. We all attended the same church, Huntington Beach E.V. Free. Before I was a full-time mother/homemaker I was an elementary school teacher in the Montebello Unified School District east of Los Angeles.

This photo was taken at Forest Home Christian Camp in California. We signed up for a work weekend at the camp over Mother’s Day in 1982. We worked on various projects to get the camp ready for summer camping season. Dear’s folks came up and shared a Mother’s Day lunch that the camp provided on Sunday of the weekend. I am 31 in this photo.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Here’s a real lion. I took this photo at the zoo in Dallas, I think.

We Booked It

On Saturday we finally clicked on the purchase button for our flights to and from England come September. That first step is always the hardest for me. Now, Lord willing, we’ll be on that plane heading to London Heathrow in September. We also booked an apartment in the Jericho area of North Oxford for 11 nights. 2 bedrooms, full kitchen and living space.

The last time we were in Oxford was in July of 2014. We were only there for several hours and we talked about how much more there was to see and do in this college town and how we’d love to return. We planned our time in Oxford around an Open Day for the Colleges.

We’ll see what is blooming in September compared to July.

Besides Oxford we are venturing back to Canterbury for 2 nights. The photo above is of Dear and me in Canterbury in 1973 or 1974. We will be staying on the Cathedral grounds this time around. From Heathrow we’ll travel to Canterbury and then after 2 nights travel to Oxford for our 11 night stay there. While in Oxford we will explore some neighboring areas on some day trips by bus or train. We are not renting a car.

Update: A woman’s prerogative to change her mind. In thinking about jetlag we are changing our plans and not traveling to Canterbury on this trip. Just thinking about the tube/train and hours it would take was daunting to my brain. We are choosing someplace on the Oxford side of Heathrow to travel to and enjoy for the first two days, instead.

We are excited and Dear is feeling the pressure to finish the construction of his shop by September. Now I’ll look into booking tours of places like “The Kilns” and also some walking tours. We are planning on signing up for a tour with “Go Cotswolds”, too. Decisions, decisions…

So here are some quotes from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, all who spent some time in Oxford. There is a Library in Oxford that houses a G.K. Chesterton Collection that we hope to visit.

From Letters to Malcolm, by C.S. Lewis;

“If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” And equally, if our heart flatter us, God is greater than our heart. I sometimes pray not for self-knowledge in general but for just so much self-knowledge at the moment as I can bear and use at the moment; the little daily dose.

Have we any reason to suppose that total self-knowledge, if it were given us, would be for our good? Children and fools, we are told, should never look at half-done work; and we are not yet, I trust, even half-done. You and I wouldn’t, at all stages, think it wise to tell a pupil exactly what we thought of his quality. It is much more important that he would know what to do next…

The unfinished picture would so like to jump off the easel and have a look at itself!”

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song over hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”~J.R.R.Tolkien

“He admires, but he won’t clap, which must be very discouraging” Dorothy Sayers in her book, Documents in the Case. This speaks to me on how important spoken or written encouragement is.

“Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live.” G.K. Chesterton

Enjoy the last week of February!

Eye Has Not Seen…

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NKJV)

⁹But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

It’s time for me to forewarn that ellen b. will be away from the computer and all reading material for a time. On Monday I am scheduled for Vitrectomy Surgery in Spokane. My right eye has enough floaters to form my own galaxy. They affect my vision in my right eye. The surgery will involve removing the vitreous (the clear jelly like substance that fills the middle of the eye). They will replace it with saline (a saltwater solution). I’ll be under Dear’s care who will have to instill 3 different eye drop medications in my eye at different intervals for days. I don’t really know how long it will be before I feel like typing or reading so when you don’t see anything on my blog you will know why. I hope some of you will pray for me when God reminds you by His Spirit. Thank you in advance!

This is the latest devotional book that I am reading along with my daily Bible passages.

It’s proving to be a book I copy quotes from into my journal. Piper shares this quote from C.S. Lewis and then I’ll share a subsequent paragraph from Piper.

In the middle of the last century the British writer C.S. Lewis got it shockingly right:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His fee and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (Mere Christianity)

Then Piper goes on to say:

In other words, Jesus will not be domesticated. But people still try. There seems to be something about this man for everybody. So we pick and choose in a way that shows he is on our side. All over the world, having Jesus on your side is a good thing. But not the original, undomesticated, unadjusted Jesus. Just the revised Jesus who fits our religion or political platform or lifestyle.

These quotes are just from the preface. I’ll be jotting down many more thoughts to ponder as I continue to slowly read through this one.

Happy Monday to you all. Hope to have Dear add an update on this post on Wednesday to let you know how things are going.

Quotes of the Week ~ 5

“Well, that was life. Gladness and pain…hope and fear…and change. Always change! You could not help it. You had to let go of the old and take the new to your heart…learn to love it and then let it go in turn. Spring, lovely as it was, must yield to summer and summer lose itself to autumn. The birth…the bridal…the death…”

~Anne of Ingleside, L.M. Montgomery.

“Go forth today, by the help of God’s Spirit, vowing and declaring that in life—-come poverty, come wealth, in death—come pain or come what may, you are and ever must be the Lord’s. For this is written on your heart, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.”

~ Charles Spurgeon

This quote by C.S. Lewis comes from Mere Christianity

Most of us find it very difficult to want “Heaven” at all – except in so far as “Heaven” means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.”

I added a C.S. Lewis quote this week because yesterday was the anniversary of his death. He died the same day as John F. Kennedy 55 years ago.

On the lighter side…or heavier.

“When you are overweight, no matter how wrinkled your jeans are when you pull them out of the dryer they will be smooth as silk when you put them on!” ~ ellen b.

The photo I chose for the top of this post this week was taken a few years ago when my friend Heidi and I were reunited with our friend Alice (in the middle) from our single years. Alice made the remark that we were “partners in crime” some 35 years previous to the time of this photo. Alice lived in San Francisco and would travel to L.A. to spend time and we would escape to San Francisco and spend time with her. Alice died on Tuesday and we were so shocked and saddened to hear that news. Alice’s death prompted a long phone call between Heidi and me. Keep your friends close…

On the same day that Alice died, we received word that a lifetime family friend passed away, too. George was the youngest member of a family that was dear and close to our family from my parents days in Persia. Our hearts are heavy. Praying for George’s family that they will find comfort and peace with the Lord. I don’t have a photo of George. We saw him recently at our Pop’s funeral. He made the effort to come even though he was ill and suffering. He was also at our mom’s funeral and gave a sweet tribute. Rest in Peace, George.

Flashback in Film…

For our daughter Katie’s high school graduation, Dear and I took her to Great Britain in April of 2004. Katie is a reader, a learner, a writer, a poet and an artist. We asked her what she’d want to see and she came up with the brilliant idea of following some of her favorite authors and characters around the Isle! This is a photo log of our trip that we can highly recommend to all lovers of Hobbits, Inklings, Literary Giants, 19th Century England, Harry Potter, and wacky Holy Grail enthusiasts! For my flashbacks I’m going to cover less ground in each post. This first post will be our Oxford experience with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien on our radar. The photos on this trip were taken the old fashioned way with a camera that was still using film!

The Eagle and Child (The Bird and Baby) Oxford

We set out from our first B & B base in Cheltenham to tour Oxford. We were still getting over our jet lag just arriving the day before. We found a park and ride outside of Oxford and rode a bus into town. Our first stop was The Eagle and Child (The Bird and the Baby) where the Inklings would meet and discuss their current writings, thoughts, etc.

The pictures on the wall are of C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and other Inklings, plus letters, etc. We had a bite to eat and a pint was raised to toast our respected authors! “It comes in pints?”

Addison’s Walk

Dear and Katie on Addison’s Walk. This walkway is on the grounds of Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin) where Tolkien and Lewis would walk and have long conversations, after which C. S. Lewis converted to Christianity. We found it, walked it and reflected on the beauty and wonder of it all!

This next photo shows a spot on the walkway that we took a photo from different directions in 2004 and in 2014.

And here’s one of the beautiful courtyards that we took photos of both of these years.

We saw the iconic phone booth on the grounds of Magdalen, too.

Walking from Magdalen College back to the center of town we saw other familiar sites, too.

The Bridge of Sighs

Radcliffe Camera

In 2004 when we came across Logic Lane Katie insisted that we take a photo of her dad under the sign. In 2014 we came upon Logic Lane again so I had to take another photo.

We walked about to find this address where Tolkien lived at 21 Merton St. after his wife died in 1971.

Katie would not let us leave Oxford till we found Tolkien’s grave. This was no small feat! Here we are at Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford at the graveside where he and his wife are buried. His son is buried here, also. Katie left a note in Elvish, (yes, she learned to write and speak Tolkien’s Elvish).

EDITH MARY TOLKIEN
LUTHIEN
1889 – 1971
JOHN RONALD
REUEL TOLKIEN
BEREN
1892 – 1973

Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford

We headed back to our B & B in Cheltenham to rest up for our next days adventure around the Cotswolds in search of Hobbits.

The thing about film photography is that we didn’t know if the photos we took even turned out well till we were home and had the film developed. Aren’t you happy we have digital cameras now? You can see if you chopped someone’s head off or missed the top of a beautiful cathedral etc. These photos that I took with film in 2004 were scanned and uploaded onto my computer and in a lot of cases lightened up and sharpened and sometimes cropped.

I’m linking this post to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC Team.

F is for film photography.

I’m also linking to Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveler.

D is for Doors!

It’s time for ABC Wednesday and the letter D. Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt and the ABC crew for hosting this weekly meme.

D is for Doors!

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Our tour guide in Oxford said that there are stories about this door being an inspiration to C.S. Lewis on the writing of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as he was housed behind this door from time to time.

and just to the right of this doorway was this…

…the lamp post that served as the model in the story.

Good story if it’s true and you can see the inspirations are there. The Chronicles of Narnia are a favorite of mine.

There is so much great history to hear about and see in Oxford. We are already talking about spending at least a couple days in this city the next time we visit Jolly Old England.

Magdalen College ~ Cloisters

The 15th Century Cloisters construction commenced in 1474 which makes this medieval square of stone among the oldest parts of Magdalen.

Balancing on the buttresses that jut from the Cloister walls are the figures later known as ‘hieroglyphics’, the ‘GARGELS”, Magdalen’s very own gargoyles. Some are biblical, some heraldic, all symbolic. Since they entered the College in 1508-9 they have been keeping their emblematic eyes on the comings and goings in the Cloisters and the quad.

Wanted to let you all see that we did “keep off the grass”.

From the Cloisters we headed out to Addison’s walk and the New Building following the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis along one of the paths that leads to the famous meetings of the “Inklings”.

As you can tell from my posts from Oxford there is a lot to see in this city. I still haven’t shown you photos from Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera or the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. These places have been seen in many Masterpiece Mystery series and scenes from Harry Potter movies, too. My last post of Oxford will be photo heavy.

Back at this old house the renovations continue. We were hoping for things to be wrapped up today but that’s not happening. Maybe by Tuesday…

We have Fleet week and SeaFair and Hydro races and the Blue Angels in Seattle this weekend. What does the first weekend in August hold for you?

University of Oxford ~ Magdalen College

Magdalen College was founded just outside Oxford’s City walls in 1458 by William Waynflete.

In 1635, the repaving of the Chapel floor in a pattern of black and white marble tiles.

This post is getting long so I will do another post with photos from the Cloisters and some outdoor spaces.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: C.S. Lewis

A Day With C.S. Lewis

Oxford Archives ~ Magdalene College

Hello March Hodgepodge

We Booked It

Eye Has Not Seen…

Quotes of the Week ~ 5

Flashback in Film…

D is for Doors!

D is for Doors!

Magdalen College ~ Cloisters

University of Oxford ~ Magdalen College