The excitement is mounting

We have been asked to put pumpkins in our windows so that children can find them on Halloween. The children are to be accompanied, not ring the bell, but the adult in attendance will give out sweets when they find the pumpkins. This house will be a real draw because there are four or five.

It was a wild, stormy day. I managed a short walk when the rain stopped this afternoon.

For the rest of the day, I've been at a conference at the Bodleian Library at Oxford on female photographers. This was very interesting on many levels. Nearly all the audience were female; just a few interested men.

I found some of the talks more interesting than others. Val Williams, Erika Lederman and Jessica Sutcliff spoke this morning. Jessica spoke about her mother, Helen Muspratt. Erika has been researching Isabel Cowper, the photographer at the V & A at the turn of the last century. Val's talk was more wide ranging.

The thing I found most off putting was that everyone read their papers. The person introducing the speakers also read. She read so fast that she tripped over her words.

Now then, academics out there, please explain to me why people read their papers and don't speak to the subject? I really wanted to get in there and help them present to a higher standard!!

This evening I'm watching a post show discussion of the play reading of Keene, from the Red Bull Theater. It's part of a project on Othello. I enjoyed the play and the discussion is helping me to understand it more. Funnily enough it is set at an academic conference on Shakespeare. (I wonder if the papers were all read there too?)

If you can see Keene, then do catch it. I thought the cast did well in the reading of it.