winter colours, oxford, uk

Burano (see my last post) is not the only place with brightly-coloured housefronts.
Here are some in Oxford, UK.
Why the colours?  The story goes that in years gone by, University dons would spend the summer months working as offshore trawler fishermen.  On their return to the mouth of the Thames, they would transfer to skiffs or wherries for the journey upstream to Oxford, where each would be able to identify his own house, from some distance, by the colour.