Skyuka Falls

After church on Sunday I took a walk down to Skyuka falls.

  

 I knew it was a long walk but didn't realize just how long it was until I got there and had to think about walking back up.

It is 2.6 miles down and 2.6 all the way back up again. 

 The spring itself was lovely and cold.

 Behind those rocks is a cave-like space full of mosquitoes.

 The water was particularly photogenic. It was clear and cold and shallow.

 There were a myriad of flying things buzzing over the water.

 Unfortunately, the walk was longer than expected and I ended up missing church and coming back home around 8 pm.

 I found this large beetle on the walk back up. It was between 1 and 2 inches long.

 I came back right around down and snapped these pictures of plants in the twilight.

Writing is such a useful method of procrastonation

So, Oxford is definitely going to happen. Through God's grace and a lot of incredible generosity it is more than funded. I leave on the 29th of May and get back on the 3rd of July. God even provided an amazing summer job!
After I get back and recover from jet-lag I'll be staying at a farm by my town working with wagyu calves.
But Oxford! I'll be taking two classes of C.S. Lewis because I have no self-control. One on his beliefs and how Christianity is and can be a rational faith and the other on the Inklings and the effect of the classics on their work. Intellectual heritages are something that delight me and I very much suspect that the second course will feed directly into my SIP.
It's funny how God works things out.
When I came to Covenant and knew I had a Senior Thesis looming over my graduation, I planned to figure out my topic sometime in my junior year and begin studying it between my junior and senior year. I just figured it would be me and my local library, but I never dreamed that it would be me and the Bodleian! While I always suspected it would have something to do with intellectual heritages, the courses I'll be taking in England and the ones I'll take Senior year seem to have come together nicely into one beautiful conglomeration of Classical and Renaissance writers and thinkers.

After Oxford I'll be taking 4 days to travel to the continent. I will most likely find a hostel or place to stay like it and just try to live on one place for bit in an attempt to soak in the feeling of the place.

A New Camera!

How exciting! By an act of Divine providence I purchased a used Nikon D3000 a couple of weeks about and have been having a blast learning its quirks. It takes such lovely pictures I hardly need to do anything, but I'm sure once we get truly acquainted they will be simply marvelous!

There's nothing quite like carrying around an impressive camera. People always assume you know what you are doing. I had a photoshoot last week for a friend's senior pictures.

One day while figuring out some features I stopped next to a bush as it was handy to get some closeups. I had just finished taking a series when I looked up to see a stranger walking up the path and he gave me such a look that said "What are you doing you crazy, mad woman?" so I gave him my cheekiest of smiles and walked on.

 Flowers are such a nice fall-back as a photographic subject. I've found for pictures like the above where there is no obvious plane of focus that I can use the camera's auto-focus to find the plane I want, turn it to manual and it doesn't give my any problems when I shoot.

How we celebrate a 21st Birthday on the Mountain

My roommate celebrated her 21st birthday with a surprise birthday party, only the people who were invited were the ones surprised. We ate sweet potato pancakes with lots of toppings including fresh strawberry sauce.
We finished it with sparkling grape juice because we are classy that way.

I might be going to study in Oxford!

I was flabbergasted when I learned I had been accepted to a summer program at Wycliffe Hall, one of the colleges within Oxford University. I applied over winter break and then waited anxiously for their decision. It was a relief and a source of more anxiety! Oh joy. I have a slew of paperwork to complete by the 15th of March. More concernedly, I also have to raise/ find around $8,300 dollars. Suggestions on how to do that would be appreciated. My main two approaches are 1) apply for scholarships and 2) ask people for money, which I really don't like to do, but I'm not sure why.  According to this article, even bank robbing isn't that lucrative.

When I get there, I'll be taking two seminars and a lecture series, as well as 4 field trips that are built into the program. After the program, I'm planning on taking some time in the UK and the Continent. I can put my pitiable French to the test.

All this is assuming that I get the funding, of course, so prayers for peace and funding would be greatly appreciated. I also broke my camera, so good suggestions on where to get a new one would be appreciated.

Matthew 6
In all this, I pray that I am seeking first the Kingdom of God, and not just the treasures of this world.

Snow! So much snow!

Down here in the South we had a monstrous blizzard! We must have gotten 2 inches!

My camera broke at the beginning of last semester so I have not been able to share any pictures here. Since that tends to shape what I post here I have had little motivation to create any content. I'm wondering whether I can justify buying a decent camera but that is neither here nor there.

Since I can't show you what it looks like here, I'm going to share a selection of photos I took when I was back home on break with my parents' camera.

 We got two significant snow falls while I was home. This and the following one were taken then. The camera's batteries died shortly thereafter.

 This one is looking upstream at the grill created when the water level falls after a time of freezing. The river iced, which created a base for the snow. You can see that the water fell in two main stages. I won't say how close I came to falling in a few times trying to get this shot.

 The following photographs were taken after the second snowfall. We got a deep layer of powder. While it was very sunny out, there was a bitter wind, and the batteries froze up a lot more quickly than I would have liked.

 This reminds me of a caravan of camels marching head to tail, though perhaps Hannibal attacking Rome from the north with his elephants would be closer.

 Snow Dromedaries.

A sycamore tree. You can see how the snow has stuck to the sides from the wind when it fell. 

 The house, framed by the Castle's door. 

Two more weeks!

It's hard to believe, but school is starting up in two weeks!

I've ordered most or all of my books, and they are slowly piling up at the college. One of the funnest days at college is gathering my packages from the mailroom and opening them all. I suspect I am going to have close to 17 different boxes at least.

I have a number of things to do before going back. I just bought 4 yards of a dark navy, almost black, wool suiting that I will use to make a dress. I figure it's about tine I went and made a Little Black Dress, a la Audrey Hepburn. Right now it's drying in the middle of the living room. Today I'll go start work on the pattern. I might have to draft one, or I might use the Jackie pattern from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Famous-Frocks-Instructions-Recreating-Dresses--10/dp/0811877914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376498175&sr=8-1&keywords=famous+frocks
Here is a picture of the pattern: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/7052935533_7de9831064_b.jpg
I'd like to rotate the top darts to point more at the shoulder, and make the top have more of a bateau neckline, but we will see what I can do.

I'll be in the Student Apartments with three girls this year, which will be very interesting! I'm looking forward to the various things that come with running our own house.

Classes are going to be really fun, and I'm toying with the idea of setting up a independent study for creative writing. I'll have to figure that out.