In which I Travel and Dream | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

“An Autobiography in Five Chapters” and Avoiding Habitual Holes

Anita Mathias — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 21:18:39 +0000

(All images taken on this summer’s memorable trip to Iceland) Earlier this year, my husband Roy and I took a mindfulness course through the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, a truly mind-expanding experience (a wonderful thing in mid-life, when we can ossify in our thoughts and habits unless we make a conscious effort to change). The teacher read […]

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A Christmas Reflection, and Letter

Anita Mathias — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 23:50:22 +0000

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” I have meditated on the Christmas and Easter story every Christmas, for—goodness–decades, and every year find new diamond-glints in it. It’s one of those magical stories which speak to everyone. To the poor and down-and-out, […]

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Even Better than the Alps… Thoughts on Returning Home

Anita Mathias — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 17:16:33 +0000

At Lake Konigsee, Bavaria (More pictures at the end of this post) So I’m just back from a thoroughly refreshing summer holiday, hiking in the Bavarian Alps. On the boat trip to Konigsee, a very formal bugler played his horn, and the craggy mountains echoed the tune. It was a magical moment. We hiked all […]

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When I almost missed the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Anita Mathias — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 23:36:16 +0000

The Doni Tondo, a rare canvas painting by Michealangelo. Scroll down for more images. I spent the first Sunday of January 2106 at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was free, and advice online, as well as unsolicited advice on Facebook warned me that the lines were horrendous. But visiting Florence and not spending a […]

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A week in France (Boulogne-sur-Mer, St-Denys, Chartres, and Paris)

Anita Mathias — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 19:38:57 +0000

I am looking at a year’s worth of photographs in this liminal week between Christmas and New Year. Here are some images from the Channel Port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, a medieval French walled town, with narrow cobbled streets. We walked along the battlements, which were a mile, to the delight of Merry the Labradoodle, and enjoyed a market garden […]

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Images from a Magical Week at the Isle of Man

Anita Mathias — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:44:33 +0000

The Isle of Man is a perfect cross between the glories of Ireland and England. We loved it. We crossed on the Ben my Chree, which has a dog lounge. Merry loved it. Here is the Cashtel yn Ard stone circle, facing the ocean. The burial place of Neolithic chieftans in 1800BC (about 400 years […]

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A Magical Week in France: Chenonceau, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Villandry, Bois des Moitiers, Parc de Marquenterre, Etretat

Anita Mathias — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 16:16:48 +0000

The fairytale chateau of Chenonceau on the Loire, which, unusually, belonged to a series of women, including Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, and his vengeful widow, Catherine de Medici, who evicted her. Zoe, me, Irene and Roy outside Chenonceau It is imaginatively built spanning the River Cher A fairy-tale chateau, isn’t it? I […]

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Dreaming in Helsinki (A Magical Week in Beautiful Helsinki)

Anita Mathias — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 22:04:25 +0000

I love Scandinavian summers, the evenings of late, late light, wading in or sitting around the lakes, with their characteristic red cottages on shore. Tuomiokirkko, Helsinki, the Lutheran church, a mass of domes Seurasaari island. The beauty of an island, of course, is the plenitude of beaches. The sunlight shining on the water late […]

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Images and Magic Moments from my trip to Cambodia with Tearfund

Anita Mathias — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 21:49:51 +0000

Meeting Sambath. “She’s a woman, but works like a man,” the Tearfund worker said–keeping her family going, growing watermelons and rice on unused strips of land she rents from neighbours who work in Phomh-Penh’s garment factories. I watched her give a bag of fresh grown rice (which I had never seen before!) to the Tearfund […]

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On Extra Baggage, Making Peace with Mistakes and Cutting Emotional Losses

Anita Mathias — Tue, 06 May 2014 20:51:26 +0000

So I fly on EasyJet to the Costa Blanca on a retreat at El Palmeral –though a normal heritage airline like BA would have cost the same, the timings are more convenient. Though this may change as I grow older, I normally don’t put a high premium on great comfort for short flights. I am […]

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