Rainy April day in London

The cold and rain have returned with no subtle start.  A twenty degree daytime drop, a thirty degree nighttime drop and wet waters dripping from the sky.  Still, there are signs of Spring and the birds have been particularly vocal today and fretting from tree to tree with much conversation.

These blossoms grace the walkway near the university.  I sent the class out in assigned small teams today after a lecture on cooperation, competition and conflict.  Assignment: collect as many photo documents of public art as your team can in 3 hours.  Post on Blackboard with answers to prompts about human dynamics and how we deal with conflict in groups.  Winning group gets 25 points extra credit.  They were, therefore, motivated. One group has 273 photos in 3 hours which I will review when they uploads are complete.

The discussion should be interesting because I deliberately assigned team to break up those most familiar with each other.  We will review how teams came up with a strategy under a deadline and how members solved conflicts.
I was wondering if anyone would figure out that all 200 eggs from the Great Hunt have been relocated to Covent Gardens so I took a stroll over and did not see one of my students.  Opportunity missed.  That could have been a big yield in a short time.  I guess it is like the Rose Parade Floats going to Victory Park after New Years Day.
I did, however, get more photos of the eggstraordinary ones.

On the walk from the tube this afternoon, I watched a most interesting battle between two pairs of magpies building nests in adjacent trees.  There was much scolding going on, squawking, and lots of dashing about among the four birds.

A mother with a buggy and a little preschooler stopped, too.  She was teaching him this rhyme about magpies:

One for sorrow

Two for joy;

Three for a girl, four for a boy;

Five for silver, six for gold;

Seven for a secret never to be told;

Eight for a wish

Nine for a kiss

Ten for a bird better to miss.

The children here have rhymes I have never heard before including this ditty:

"Oranges and Lemons" say the bells of St Clements...(the jingle goes through all 17 churches of central London ending with:

"Old Father Baldpate" say the slow Bells of Aldgate

"You owe me Ten Shillings" say the Bells of St. Helen's
"When will you Pay me?" say the Bells of Old Bailey
"When I grow Rich" say the Bells of Shoreditch
"Pray when will that be?" say the Bells of Stepney
"I do not know" say the Great Bell of Bow
Gay go up and gay go down
To Ring the Bells of London Town

And, I realize one of the loveliest sounds in London is the hourly ringing of the neighborhood church bells.  It does not matter where one walks, on the hour and halves the chimes ring out.

That was also a sound of my childhood--hearing the Mission bells and stopping at noon--even in the middle of jumping double dutch--to kneel for the Angelus prayer with little knees sticking into that knotty asphalt hoping that those three Hail Mary's would end soon.

The bells were lovely, kneeling on anything but tile--not so much so.

I am tired, but not tired of being here.  As Aneejay often quotes Samuel Johnson: "If one is tired of London, one is tired of living."  True that.

I wish I was preparing Passover Seder for my friends--Susan, Vicente--that means your family and mine.  How odd that it falls on Good Friday this year.  So I could not have served brisket on Good Friday--ah, spared a dilemma. 

Sending good wishes for the week to all.