Botanic Gardens

Yesterday's trip was to the Botanic Gardens. I had a couple of tasks to complete on the way which meant another little wander through town. I must admit, I rather enjoy wandering the streets of Oxford. I'm still not sure what I like about it. Maybe it's the old buildings. Maybe it's the difference from what I'm used to. Maybe it's the weather. Who knows. And does it really matter.

I walked to a place called Shoe Lane - some lovely names they have here. Shoe Lane, Blue Boar Street, Beef lane, Ship Street.....

From there I wandered through the Clarendon Centre and out onto Queen Street. The nice thing now is that I've got a bit of a sense of direction on these main streets so when I came out, I knew which way I was going.

The next thing I spotted was this:

Now how kewl is that. A fence around the branch of the tree, and support for it.

This was the University Church of St Mary the Virgin

And there's the tree in all it's glory.

The church also has some incredible sculptures. The pigeons loved this one:

Again, the pigeons have found themselves a warm spot to rest.

And this appears to be a real gargoyle rather than a grotesque:

It took me several goes to take this one. My hand kept shaking while I was zooming in so I got bits of it. But I finally got most of the gargoyle. Isn't he gorgeous!!

Then at last, the entrance to the botanic gardens.

Now that's quite something. It's not really the way you go in. There's a new building off to the left which has a shop.

A close up of the top.

During my travels I found this:

And this sign said:

So I come all the way to the UK to find Australian plants in the Botanic Gardens. I also saw this:

Aren't they stunning. The tree:

And guess where this one is from:

Bloody Canada. For those of you who know me, that's where I was born. How funny is that.

I was particularly looking for English plants but found the map they gave me useless so I was wandering aimlessly not really knowing where to look.

I found these triffid looking plants.

Miscellaneous flowers

Cyclamens

Dahlia bud

And a dahlia. You can just see the bee in the centre. It's pretty much the same colour at the flower.

As I was wandering around the edges of the gardens. I spotted this:

Punts on the river waiting for someone to come and take them for a ride.

The bridge:

And the punts:

And the original purpose of the gardens (surprisingly the sign is readable):

By this stage I was getting hungry and running out of steam. I left the gardens and walked and walked a bit more. I finally decided where I was going to have my lunch and had a lovely Italian feed.

This was where I had lunch, on the corner of Pensons Gardens - that little lane between the buildings.

When I finished I realised how tired I was and how rotten I was feeling and grabbed a bus and headed home.

I arrived home feeling quite sick to find K at home in bed. Whatever I've got, she's got it too. So we spent the rest of the day curled up feeling sorry for ourselves and reading books. Still not the greatest today, sore throat and a bit achy so a rest day today.

Cheers folks. Maybe this afternoon I will write about another walk I did over the weekend.

Madeleine

Thursday, 23 October 2008