Speaking of mornings

Waking (in the city of dreaming spires)


We were up at 4.00 am this morning!

Not quite as mad as it seems. We were in Oxford last night and went to listen to the may day singing from Magdalene College at dawn. Very nice and clear and fresh it was at 5.00 and the choristers looked suitably naughty and boyish peeping through the stonework at the top of the tower, before singing (disappointingly from somewhere behind windows in the middle of the tower).
My favourite piece of information about this event is that some centuries ago, when the annual event was already well established, there was lateness for some reason and in the general haste the song sheets were forgotten. So the choristers sang some hymn which they all knew by heart and that has been the song they sing to this day.
There is usually a crowd some seven thousand strong, gathered in the street below. I see no reason to suppose this morning was any exception (hence the need to be there by 5.00 am). Many of them have been carousing and dancing and generally making merry all night... and the tradition, of leaping into the river over Magdalene bridge and breaking lots of bones and heads after the singing, has been curtailed...the bridge is closed these days.
Frangelita assures me that though she intended to spend all night carousing and etc, she wasn't planning to leap over any bridges. Which set my mind at rest :)
The tower was very tall (I still have a slightly stiff neck from peering up at it for the best part of an hour)So I'm quite pleased with the gargoyles catching a quick drink of dawn sunlight

And the little angels (oh and some guardian angels I guess) waving and clearly loving being up there where I bet they aren't normally allowed. (this one is worth looking at larger to see the little angel face framed by the stonework on the right)
And after the singing, a last look at the tower as the crowds wended.