I was doing so well and here I am two months behind again!
July began with a road trip to Ipswich for my uncle’s 90th birthday. Of course, the aircon in my brother’s car had broken and this was right in one of the seemingly endless heatwaves we had this summer so cold drinks were very welcome when we arrived.
Heat aside it was a lovely to share afternoon tea with family and friends and particularly to see all the amazing photos my cousins had collated from my uncle’s life and career and hear the wonderful endorsement from AMCA for all his groundbreaking work in the world of (motorbike) scrambling.
I had a couple of days off work so went back to my Mum’s house to stay with her as we had a mission to try and find her some new sofas.
We spent the morning trawling furniture warehouses finally narrowing it down between two in the final shop we went too. We spent about twenty minutes sitting on each of them and Mum made her choice, mission accomplished.
The next day we had a lazy breakfast before heading to Thame for a mooch around the market and charity shops.
Next up was my birthday and as our favourite pub was having some sort of mini festival headlined by 80's band D-Ream, which was absolutely not either of our cups of tea, we decided to head over to Oxford.
It was quite short notice, but I messaged our friends to see if anyone was free and luckily for me they all were.
We decided to go out in Jericho, meeting at the Jericho Tavern first. By the time Himself and I got there Soo, Gav and Dan had managed to nab a great table in the shade outside so we just ended up staying there all evening.
It was such a great evening and so lovely to catch up with everyone. I didn’t go too mad because I knew I had to be up early the next day to head back out into Oxford.
I was meant to be meeting Alex and Charlotte but, in the end, Alex cancelled, so Charlotte and I decided to just meet anyway. There was an exhibition on at the Oxford Museum marking the anniversary of BBC Radio One’s Sound City which was a festival that ran during the 90’s and took place in Oxford in 1997.
Basically all the music venues large and small got taken over for various gigs and DJ sets. Charlotte is a huge Radiohead fan and travelled from London to see them in their huge outdoor closing show, so she was very keen to see the exhibition.
I certainly remember it all happening as I was still very into the local music scene at the time, though I didn’t go to the big stuff as bands like Radiohead, Supergrass and Ride were not my thing. I do remember going to see some of the smaller metal bands that got involved.
The fact the Museum of Oxford is tiny means the exhibition was pretty small, but it was very well curated. It was such a nostalgia trip to see old flyers for venues long gone and copies of some of the local music papers I used to write for, as well as reading memories from locals about the vibrant music scene there was in the city once upon a time.
I was surprised that there was little to no mention of the rock, metal and goth scene that I was part of, the focus was really on the indie, pop and reggae, I know they were bigger scenes with more famous bands but they weren’t all there was. I certainly added some venues I used to frequent to their interactive map of the city, as well as many of my memories.
As we were there, we browsed the rest of the museum before having a leisurely lunch and a good catch up.
The following weekend I finally agreed to do a long walk to Wantage that Himself had been keen to take me on since finding that it was possible to walk there avoiding the main roads.
It was a stunning walk though the countryside was showing distressing signs of the long drought our region had been deep in. Many of my pictures looked like I was in the plains and prairies and not the Oxfordshire countryside!
It has been a while since I have done such a long walk, and I was knackered by the time we arrived. I think with hindsight I could have done with a proper stop midway through and maybe a snack of some sort rather than just gulping some water and plugging on.
We saw deer, buzzards, hares, red kites and a solitary raven as well as a very rowdy wedding party in a huge marquee on the other side of the river to us. I was certainly ready to collapse in a pub garden with a delicious ice-cold pint of cider or three before catching the bus home.
The weekend of the 25th was my Mum’s birthday so we booked Sunday lunch for us all in our favourite pub, taking a slow meander along the old railway line to get there. The food was delicious and thankfully the day was not too hot. The last thing you feel like doing on a baking hot day is eat a full Sunday roast!
The month ended with a lovely long lunch with my friends Simon, Carole and Liz at Liz’s house. We were having such a good time it was a shock to find it was actually almost 7pm!
August started with a trip to Woodstock with Soo, the plan being to visit the Lee Miller exhibit at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum which is based in the grounds of the Woodstock Museum . We met in the morning at the train station in Oxford, then caught the bus to Woodstock hoping to get there before it was too baking hot. Of course, neither of us had checked to see if the Museum might be open on a Monday, it wasn’t, so that was an epic fail!
We had a mooch around Woodstock to find many of the shops were also closed on a Monday, stopped in a café for lunch then caught a bus back to Oxford. The thermometer had reached the mid-thirties by that point, so it was just too hot for being anywhere other than inside for two non-sunworshippers like us.
We rescheduled and headed back to Woodstock on Friday the 14th as this was a day the museum was definitely open. The exhibition on Lee Miller was small but so interesting as it also covered female war correspondents in general, particularly during WW2 and the Vietnam War.
We also had a look around the rest of the museum as we were there. It was fascinating but sobering, I had no idea for example that it was an Oxfordshire battalion that liberated some of the concentration camps, I was moved to tears by some of the exhibits and information. I have to say I was so impressed by the museum overall in terms of how accessible they had made the information particularly for children.
The Woodstock Museum has a very pretty garden and a lovely café where we headed for some lunch. We managed to snag a table outside in the shade and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. We may have had a sweet treat too...
Whilst we didn’t go into the main museum, they did have a small free exhibition on local folklore which we took a look at too.
My second cousin Lisa who’s wedding I went to in April was having a mini honeymoon in the UK during August. She and her husband were visiting my Mum for a few days so Himself and I went over for Sunday lunch to see them both. I also managed to catch up with them both round at my brother’s house before they headed off for a few days in London. I also met an old colleague from my library days for lunch and was rather shocked to find it had been a year since we last met, where does the time go??
For the Friday before the August bank holiday Mum and I had our annual trip to the craft fair at Stonor Park planned. This year we had a spare ticket which we offered to Soo, luckily, she was free so joined me at Mum’s house on the Thursday evening.
After a lovely tea we cracked open a second bottle of prosecco and were at Mother’s beck and call in a test run of decorating the floral arch Mum was creating for Nephew Number One’s wedding in September.
Once we had managed to get it how she envisioned it we were allowed to go to bed!
We had a lovely day browsing crafts and I managed to buy a couple of gifts for other people and treat myself. We called in for a late lunch of freshly made pizza at The Half Moon in Cuxham. We were the only people there and we ended up having a long chat with the lovely lady who made our delicious lunch.
This is my quick gallop through July and August I will try and get September, which was an epic month, done before the end of the year!
