Oxford!

We have a co-workers car this week to use and Saturday we drove to Oxford! we walked around the town a bit; it's busy right now in the summer season with tourists. Then we drove over to The Kilns, where C.S. Lewis lived. we almost didn't find it because our directions were not adequate, which would have been very disapointing as this was one of the main places I really wanted to see. We hadn't made an appointment in advance to see the inside of the house so we viewed it from the road and then walked around the nature reserve / pond next door, thinking about woodland creatures and St. Annes and Belbury (from That Hideous Strength) As we were returning to our car to leave, we met a local resident and started talking to him. He told us we should knock on the door since we'd come from far away. We knew it was by appointment only so we said it was ok, we didn't want to bother the permanent residents. In the end, the neighbor (who as out walking his dog) ended up seeing Stan, who turned out to be none other than the director of the C.S. Lewis foundation (who owns the Kilns)! He was there in Oxford finishing up a three week summer institute program they hold triennially. The C.S. Lewis foundation is based in Redlands, California! (where my grandmother lives) We had a nice conversation and he let us see more of the grounds. What a pleasure!