Fresh light

My beloved town hasn't appeared lately because we've been swirling in that nasty trinity of dark, cold, and damp. Round about 3pm each day, the sun gets sleepy and starts to sink. That is why you've been stuck with photos of lame food. We've turned a corner, everyone!

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Bring those hands together in a huge yayo for the sun coming to town this morning. Today is new, fresh, clear (I just can't say warm).

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Good morning, sunshine!

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Morning wipes away nightly haze, and days like today make me think of the persistence of forgiveness. The colours were waving at me furiously, making sure I knew it really wasn't winter yet. I could have thought it was any season if not for the ice cube tray that my fingers became.

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Ok, I get it.

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But you have to admit, colours, the trees are taking out their crochet needles and looking lacey.

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Ok, I'll let you win again with this one. Call me picayune, but check out the tree forming a Y. YMCA. YELLOW.

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Someone commented several posts ago that I haven't mentioned half of this town's reputation, which is the university. Why haven't I taken campus photos? 'Cause the campus is sprinkled all over the town. In an effort to salve my readership, and show that we really are up there with Oxbridge on the beautiful buildings chart, welcome to the Uni!

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Just some ordinary dorms like any other college . . . (this is where William and Kate met.)

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I'm afraid I might start sounding like the admissions office, but honestly, no arm-twisting. Our classrooms really do look like castles.

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This is the main quad, and yesterday you would've thought Santa had dropped all the shaving foam meant for every guys' stocking in the world here. Raisin Weekend is done, at last.

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To give you the full picture, I walked under this menacing arch to lower college lawn, feeling a bit like a photo crusader.

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I'm never sure if we're actually allowed down here, but I risked it for you, my dear reader. I didn't get caught, and I caught it, so it was a fair deal.

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Stone, stone everywhere. The stones may have been here hundreds of years, but at least the students keep them well entertained with ridiculously posh get-ups,

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and the gates reach out to befriend them this time of year. With such beautiful friends, those are some lucky stones!

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Here I am, an old alumnus recollecting the good old days, grateful that I had a year in these halls with the best of lecturers and the best of friends.

And here we are, caught between seasons. For a holiday week, and the plants showing it (don't you think these bushes want to be Christmas trees?),

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for instants of colour tangled in duller days, for the sun,

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we give praise.