To this ...
With 50+ miles on a bicycle in between ... Ritualride
Yesterday Mr P&M and myself joined my ex-student Steven Ounanian on the first leg of his Ritualride project.
It had the potential to be hell (lots of rain, heavy traffic, getting lost, desperate shelter in a mega-Tesco cafe, narrowly avoiding a dual carriageway, the furthest I have EVER cycled and inadequate clothing) but somehow by the time we arrived 9 hours later at the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex it seemed something like heaven.
I really have little idea why I enjoyed the experience so much. I do like a challenge but not normally of this kind. It could be just that I was so scared I would have to chicken out and get the train that I was just glad to still be on my bike by the end, but it seemed more than this.
The monastery was genuinely surprising and beautiful, covered in contemporary frescoes and mosaics by the nuns and surrounded by a huge productive garden, kept by the monks. We were soaked to the skin for a final time just before arriving, and it was pretty bizarre to be greeted by a nun under a big umbrella in a downpour after we'd been cycling since 9 am. At first the place seemed rather low key but we went in to their refectory set for the evening mean and it just looked amazing. They made us wheat soup and talked about the paintings. As we went back out to the garden the sun came out over their orchard.
Yesterday Mr P&M and myself joined my ex-student Steven Ounanian on the first leg of his Ritualride project.
It had the potential to be hell (lots of rain, heavy traffic, getting lost, desperate shelter in a mega-Tesco cafe, narrowly avoiding a dual carriageway, the furthest I have EVER cycled and inadequate clothing) but somehow by the time we arrived 9 hours later at the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex it seemed something like heaven.
I really have little idea why I enjoyed the experience so much. I do like a challenge but not normally of this kind. It could be just that I was so scared I would have to chicken out and get the train that I was just glad to still be on my bike by the end, but it seemed more than this.
The monastery was genuinely surprising and beautiful, covered in contemporary frescoes and mosaics by the nuns and surrounded by a huge productive garden, kept by the monks. We were soaked to the skin for a final time just before arriving, and it was pretty bizarre to be greeted by a nun under a big umbrella in a downpour after we'd been cycling since 9 am. At first the place seemed rather low key but we went in to their refectory set for the evening mean and it just looked amazing. They made us wheat soup and talked about the paintings. As we went back out to the garden the sun came out over their orchard.
posted by Nina at 11:11 PM
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