Ivy, in iron

 While standing around the square near the entrance to the Bodleian I noticed this rather lovely bit of railing at the base of one of the stone columns:

Spotmatic/28mm/FP4+/Foma133
I reckon this would lith well.  It's a while since I've done any lith printing - I'll rectify that soon.

I like the way it wends its way around the column, almost like an ivy.  Although the little spikes look like happy jesters (or sad, for the drooping ones).  Either way, it must have taken a bit of skill.  

My mum was listening to a radio programme the other day and it happened to offer a reason why the beautiful buildings in Oxford weren't obliterated during the Second World War.  It's an interesting reason.  Wanna take a guess?

Scroll down and I'll tell yah, then.

The reason?  A certain Mr Hitler rather fancied setting up home in Oxford after his successful invasion of England. Obviously he didn't want to live in a bombed out shell of a city.  I told you it was a good one!

Contrast to Bath, which was bombed a lot, especially around the Circus and Royal Crescent.  Amazingly both survived untouched, but most of the buildings around them were destroyed.