Touring

David here: Well, today I officially lead my first tour of the house.  The attendees were just 2, a lovely couple from Cardiff.  They had read many Lewis biographies and Douglas Gresham's books as well.  There was a sense in which this made the tour easier, because there were stories I did not have to tell, but then again, it made it a challenge because they knew so much!  But it was fun, and they were lovely.

Then, in the afternoon, Peter Cousin - famous for taking people around Oxford - gave us our own little tour, visiting many sites related, not only to Lewis, but to J. R. R. Tolkien as well.  He is a real treasure trove of knowledge about Lewis, and we learned a good number of things from him.  It was so nice of him to approach us earlier this week and invite us to ride around with him.  He's retired, and no longer does tours as he used to.

I took a few pictures.

Of the many houses we visited related to Lewis' life, I was especially concerned to get a picture of this one, because it is here that Lewis and the Moores lived while he was keeping his diary, later published as All My Road Before Me.  This diary is an important source for the paper I plan to present during the Trinity term at the local C. S. Lewis Society.

Mr. Cousin also took us to see Tolkien's residences and his final resting place.

In the same graveyard as the Tolkiens, Mr. Carpenter - biographer of Tolkien and the Inklings - is also buried, so we paid our respect to him as well.  A delightful afternoon with Peter, a very generous and kind man.

McGrath Lecture Tonight

I just posted this on the C. S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga Facebook page:

McGrath speaking at Christ Church (Blue Boar Theatre) tonight - should have brought my better camera.

Hey, Folks: Went to a lecture by Alister McGrath tonight covering important aspects of his book The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis. He emphasized Lewis' use of imagery related to light and sight. Lewis' apologetic was not propositional arguments, but "Try to see things in this way and then ask if the Christian story doesn't give sense to it all." He mentioned Lewis' idea of "joy" and the argument for God from desire being a use of Augustine's famous statement in the beginning of his Confessions about our restless hearts finding rest in God. He spoke very highly of the depth of thought and apologetic genius in the Narnia books and reminded us that, even though Lewis is very accessible because of his engaging language, yet we must not take him as shallow. Much on the contrary! Well, that's some points I took away from it. Now I need to finish the book. Here's a picture from the lecture tonight. 

Dinner at the Kilns

Recently, Sheila prepared a dinner for our scholars.  She went all out, as usual. 

Here she has the table all set out for them - including candles in the fireplace, which she likes to do

And here we are about to partake of her fine cooking!

C. S. Lewis Society Meeting Last Night

Last evening, we attended the second meeting of the Society for this term.  The speaker was Dr. Evelyn Perry from Framingham State Univ.  Her topic was: "Rereading the Subject: C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as Memoir."  She stayed with us at the Kilns for several days and we got to be good friends.  I have pictures this time!  One of my nieces complained about not having pictures, so I took my camera.  Well, not a real camera, but my phone, so the shots are not that great, but they work.

This is a shot from the corner of the room.  The Society meets in a room in Pusey House.  It was a big crowd - over 50 - but that happens when someone gives a talk on a Narnia book.

Here is Sheila talking to a friend of Prof. Perry named Martin.  Martin is a leading scholar in the study of World War II evacuees, such as the children depicted in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Here we have James Crocker, the current Society president, kicking off the meeting, announcing that Alister McGrath is going to be speaking next Monday night at Christ Church about Lewis and Christian apologetics.  Seated beside him is Prof. Perry.  Sheila, in her hat, is sitting next to Martin and to her right is Sarah Clarkson, the student-writer who I mentioned in another post of this blog.

And of course here we are with Prof. Perry. 

Pray for a young lady

Magdalen College Chapel

Last night we did one of our favourite things, which is to go to choral evensong at Magdalen Chapel.  We got to sit right behind the choir; it was almost like be in the choir. It was lovely.
Walking back to the Kilns with one of our scholars, Sheila noticed a young girl - looked like a student - who seemed upset.  She noticed that the girl was walking up to people and the people were walking away from her.  Sheila decided to talk to her.  The poor thing had either lost her purse or it was stolen and she didn't have enough money to get a bus back to her lodging.  Sheila gave her what she needed.  Please pray for her and that this bad circumstance will be used to bring her closer to the Lord.
Today I'm spending all my time trying to get the car over here transfered and insured and all that stuff so we can drive it.  Sheila's been cooking up a storm!  We are going to have a house dinner tomorrow night with our resident scholars.  She's using Suzy C.'s minestrone recipe - will be excellent!
Tomorrow, the remnant of hurricane Gonzalo - yes the one that just hit Bermuda - will be hitting the UK and they anticipate gale force winds in places.  Not the time to be on your bike!

The blog of a new friend

I want to share with you the writing of a young lady we met at the C. S. Lewis Society meeting last week.  We were actually looking for her, because she and her sister attend Wycliffe Hall college and their brother may be spending a few months with us at the Kilns.  She is a very artistic writer and I think you could benefit from taking some time to casually read her posts.  So, without further ado, here's the link to Thoroughly Alive.

Toyota's answer to the Smart Car

Lots of interesting small cars over here!

The Smart Car

The Toyota "IQ"  :-)