A good weekend

A good weekend consists of Saturday morning in the workshop doing more on my current project of a sauceboat, and for once things went well and the solder melted into the right places.

Then on Sunday I met friend Claire for lunch

at the Vicky Arms in Oxford and we had a long leisurely (alliterative) lunch looking at the punters arriving on the river, splashing all over the place, but having a lovely time. An inundation of cows who came down to the riverside to investigate, turned out to be a load of bull.

Hot day - iced ginger beer was a hit.

Going a-visiting

Well, I'd be as happy as a dog if I lived here too....this is where

I went to visit friends in the

depths of Hampshire who live in an idyllic cottage just in the throes of being re-thatched, and the process is watched with interest by the wildlife in the river at the bottom of the garden.

The garden is a riot of colour, and pots are over-flowing.
I love the thickness of the thatch, and my friend and I can sip our drinks in the garden and watch the well-honed legs of the thatchers as they shoot up the ladders with their sheaves of straw and their lengths of wire and their expertise.

A very happy visit, and a million light years away from my normal surroundings.

Down by the river

On a hot summer's day, the best thing to do is go for a stroll down by the river. I took a copy of Ted Hughes and sat on a bench and watched the wildlife preening and primping and gazing at themselves in the river mirror. Even the leaves were pretty, and everything seemed to have patterns and designs.