Oxford

Oxford is an historic city, full of colleges, historic buildings, 

this one below was Tudor.

Loads of towers everywhere with decorated columns all built in limestone.

Tall chimneys

College buildings covered in plants.

The colleges had wonderful gardens

Everywhere on the river were boats to rent, we did not participate, I'm not happy on water in small boats.

I found this shop in the covered market place, another lovely place to visit, small independent shops selling a huge range of products and of course food stalls.

 

We had two amazing days in Oxford, the weather was dry, a bit cloudy and much cooler, perfect for walking, which we did loads of, we also took the tour bus to understand a bit more about the history of the city. We found the locals were so friendly and helpful, often giving us tips to enhance our stay, everywhere was in walking distance, the only place we did not visit was the modern shopping area, shops just don't interest us. We did visit the botanic gardens, but much like my garden at home they were suffering from the heat wave, the beautiful rose garden was past it's best.

We use a Travel lodge near to the northern park and ride, we were not impressed with our room, whilst clean it was very dated and lot's of things felt cheap. It was nice to park the car and use the bus, the park and ride was cheap, fast and never a long wait for a bus. Oxford has fallen out of love with cars, which made walking everywhere so much easier. I have another post following this one, a trip to the museum. 

June round up

 Again no craft spend, other than cross stitching, I'm not doing much, in the garden there is so little required, I'm splitting plants and setting seeds. BUT, I ordered a table green grape vine, and then all my spring bulbs from Farmer Gracy, with a 10% discount, expensive month. 

My half year figures are good, I managed to stay under £500 for the first half of the year, hopefully I can do the same in the second half and come in under a grand, in other years I have always spent more in the spring and early summer.

9 Books read this month.

I wish Blogger would sort out the issues with our reading list, so many of my favourite blogs are not shown as they are published, some show hours or even days after being published. 

Just a pair of shorts no other clothes, I did get acrylic nails for my sisters wedding, I'm already wishing I had not had them, they look good but hinder me when doing anything, I have started filing them myself and using my own colours. 

It was an expensive month for our credit card, all the extras for the sunroom, plus we needed a new microwave and hubby got a new humidifier, it's all paid now, then new ladders and a BBQ, nothing else required for the house, we now have a local internet provider, much cheaper than Virgin and tied in for two years. We don't stream an extra channels, we hardly watch TV.

We have purchased new mugs, 2 each, they are smaller than our others, I drink 3 cups of strong black coffee each day, hubby drinks 2, we are cutting back, drinking smaller amounts, probably saving a good spoonful of coffee each day.

Kitchen waste goes into garden composter daily, I'm not keen with the council food waste, we don't put much in, it used biodegradable bags, we never fill them, I don't really want to use one bag a day, I'm worried about flies and smells in the summer heat.

My weight I lost 5lbs over the weekend I was ill, I've kept most of it off, living on salads helps. 

Shh don't tell hubby

After chatting with my sister, I searched for table, dessert, hardy green grapevine, I found one with  5* reviews, so I ordered it, it has been grown in the UK and is already hardy, it won't be ready to fruit for two years, I can wait. She set the challenge with if I can grow them so can you, I have a perfect spot for it once the temperature drops, for now it can stay in it's pot.

I popped to look at the plants in our market, his plants are always sturdy, I'm not a dahlia lover, I do like red pompoms, mum always grew them in her garden, so this one followed me home, plus 6 begonia bedding plants for my big blue pot. I have taken 2 cuttings off the dahlia, they do root well in water, hopefully some extra free colour by next month. 

Kitchen window sill is a sunny spot, my spider plant loves it here, it looks good in my hand painted pot, in front our my latest cuttings, dahlias, white lavender and more gaura 

Foolishly I then saw Farmer Gracy had their tulips listed and went a bit mad, I am determined to have a good show next spring, I already have new pots, I think I had better stop looking and pack my bank card away. Last year the tulip bulbs I got from our favourite garden centre either had loads of bulbs failed or in a couple of cases the wrong colour. These will arrive September time.

To finish the deals, I got this gypsophila at Lidl, just £1.99, it's in my big blue pot with half of the begonia bedding plants. This one does not grow too high, not need, just another I saw it so I got it. I think it looks much better than just begonias, hubby took the other 3 for his front garden.

I used the poppies from my summer silk flowers here, so the arrangement looked a bit pale, I was looking for replacement red blooms, until these orange ones caught my eye. I'm happy it fills the small corner by the patio doors, bringing the garden inside.

It has been an expensive couple of weeks, I can always find nice plants and bulbs, I keep saying the garden is full, but I always find spaces, I happily pass on purchasing anything for the house or myself, I have been recently been good on our last trip to B&Q, I did not look at plants.

We are on our delayed couple of days in Oxford, the weather is cooler for us, it's a few years since we visited, I love all the old buildings, this being our last trip away until September when the children will be back at school, we will stay local for the summer holidays, we plan to pop to Somerset to visit family, the village and towns are not so full of people, our area is always very busy.

Red warnings

The yellow roses are blooming, these I purchased 16 years ago, they are pure sunshine, the climber by the garage has slowed down, it will pick up again once the temperature drops. There are buds on my red rose in the big grey pot.

I have allums in 3 spots in the garden all blue, they are just starting to open, for a while I did focus on just white or blue plants.

Another bunch of sweet-peas, again popped into the bathroom, their scent fills the room.

Lilly is still outside more often, she is not keen on our tower fans, this spot behind the high raised bed is always in shadow, and cool, I often find her here, she is drinking loads, I check her throughout the day, we are not concerned about her. Every day I change the water for the birds, we have different spots around the garden, I often see Lilly drinking there.

I have read this author before, another good plot, your daughter goes missing on a shopping trip, is it linked to your husband's past, the focus is on the adults until the middle of the book when the daughters plight is revealed. Book 44 read this year

Some unwanted excitement in our village on Thursday morning, we missed it all, our local facebook page is full of it as is the local newspaper. 

We spent Wednesday and Thursday hibernating inside, in this heat the sunroom is unusable after 10am, if there is a breeze we can sit under our parasol, we did nothing, went nowhere. Housework was ignored as are other little jobs, all can wait, we are eating loads of salads, drinking pints of cold water. I am watering pots and edibles most nights, the flower beds have dence planting so there is less evaporation, having less bedding plants does help. Our hedgehog has been visiting again, Lilly now ignores it, it can get to water, I'm not feeding it, hopefully it's eating slugs and snails.

Daughter kept her three home on Wednesday, Molly's eczema is flaring, George can't cope with the heat, and Will is exhausted, the schools shut on Thursday, all sensible, they stayed cool and avoided the boiling car journeys, Friday they have a half day, so they can play in paddling pool all afternoon,  it's in a good shady spot.