Summertime ‘greens’
It’s the summer, and the sound of tennis rackets and cricket bats abound
I know that Pakistan is experiencing an uncomfortable heatwave as I write, and we sympathise. The UK for its part is also enjoying sunny days – but it is at such pleasant temperatures – even so most welcome after such an unusually wet May. As students depart for their summer breaks all over the world, they are leaving a sea of green foliage that has been bursting out everywhere in our College gardens –encouraged first by the rain and now the sun. It is good that the naturalistic look is ever more popular in college gardens. Even so, there is plenty of tidying and shearing to be done.
Meanwhile, our Noon Trust Board has met and awarded new scholarships for the next academic year, at both Oxford and Cambridge–we are currently awaiting confirmation from the scholars. Of course, we expect next year to be much more normalised, but there will be residual impacts from Covid, and the talk is of ‘hybrid teaching’, with much in-person teaching and study but still some Zoom events.
We have missed linking up with our Noon Scholars this year and indeed missed meeting up as a group of involved Trustees. We will need to catch up on social mixing next year!
With All Good Wishes, Dr Paul Flather Chair, VNEF Fellow, Mansfield College, Oxford