Pitt Rivers natural history museum

 We would have never found this place, a tour guide recommended we visit, its spread over 4 floors, and just fantastic, the items displayed here are just a very small part of their collection, the photo below is from the 2nd floor looking across and down. 

I have never seen an elephant's skeleton, the ground floor was animal related.

On other floor artifacts.

I took over 50 photo's, every where was so interesting, you can visit their webpage, it was free entry with optional donation, here is just a taste, it's incredible and something to entertain everyone.

Steve Reed would love it here, our 9 year old grandson Will has seen my photo's and is asking his mum (daughter) to take him, sadly we did not have the time to take in everything, our 90 minute visit was just not enough time.

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.

More cuts

 Is this cause for divorce, I did tell hubby the acer needed a severe hair cut, I had let the front and sides get too wide, this tree is precious to me. Hubby is not so happy. As the Japanese gardeners say, I have let the light in. Here it is just a month ago

The main reason for the cut is this side section close to the fence which can be seen from our house, it's has died back, I removed loads of dead wood last month. I can see some new growth, hopefully the tree is going to thrive again. It will need another chop later in the year to reduce the width, I have already given it a good feed to keep it strong. Having less leaves will help it in this heatwave.

Whilst I had the loppers out, I trimmed the top of the Olive, the sides need a trim, maybe another day.

I have read this author before, whilst the story was decent, it was dull, one nice twist, just not really my type of book. Book 42 read this year. 

Another great book, set in America, a school bus, the driver and children go missing, everyone is searching for them, one mum who's two daughters are on the bus has a different problem, very clever, it held me all the way through. Book 43 read this year.

I often look online to check before doing anything to our tree's, I do treat them like tall shrubs, our Magnolia gets a professional chop every couple of years, it does need some of the new growth cutting back, that's a job for hubby, he has just purchased a better set of step ladders, which should make the task safer. As you know our garden is small, so keeping things to size is important to us, having two trees in the ground enhances our space, the olive will always stay in the huge pot. 

Hubby has sold his BBQ, it went very quickly, he has always cleaned it after each use and gave it a final good clean, the lady collected it was super happy to have it, we popped to B&Q to check their range of BBQ's and saw a perfect model, more expensive than hubby was looking to pay, but everything he wanted.

We are spending more time inside, this red warning for higher temperatures is no joke, our sitting room is cooler at this time of year, hubby made a net covered frame to go into the open patio door, it's not very wide, but it does let the air in and stops the flies, I read most of the time, I am a fast reader and I have always been a bookworm. Our little ones are all on half days at school, sensible decisions were made for their welfare, sadly we missed all the thunderstorms on Monday, my sister in Somerset sent an amazing video, the storms passed to the north of us.

Weekend

 Everyone loves a BBQ, hubby cooked a simple one, just burgers, sausages and chicken, I made a grown up selection of salads for daughter and us, alongside a cider shandy, bliss. Hubby is going to sell his BBQ, these days it is far to big for us, so he made the decision to sell it and get a smaller one, he has already seen one he likes.

The children used all of the garden again, this space is just so perfect for them, Molly approved of our new sunroom, she was happy to be able to get scooters out, I put the smaller garden rug in a shady spot with cushions for them to play.

My daughter told me there was a prequel to Ask For Andrea, so I found it on Kindle, again I'm not going to tell you the plot, again I could not put it down, a wonderful plot, I'm  off to look for more of her books. Book 41 read this year.

Gardening is on hold, except watering, I  do enjoy the time spent with the hose, checking the plants and surrounding garden. There is very little in the greenhouse, half has a net curtain up to help with shade. These cuttings are all doing well, mainly gaura, 7 tiny ones and 1 bigger plant, 2 begonias, and a tray of mixed salad leaves. 

My peanuts are still doing well, I do hope I manage to get a harvest for hubby, I can't eat these due to an allergy, I check my greenhouse at least twice a day, just to ensure the few plants inside are doing OK.

Saturday evening we watched the live feed of TakeThat circus concert in Manchester, hubby enjoyed it, we shared a bottle of red wine, a very different and enjoyable few hours. I have no desire to go to any of these huge venues, but I do still love music, so watching on our bigger screens at home is just perfect.

We are under another amber weather warning for heat in the next few days, its going to be at least 34° again, I'm not great in the heat, so we are sitting in the shade trying to find any breeze, we have a few nice spots. I'm back watering the garden again. We had planned a trip to Oxford with an overnight stay on Monday/Tuesday, we have delayed our trip for almost a week, just to hot to go sightseeing.