A Glimpse into Gardens

It was a lovely day for me (Annie). It was Oxfordshire Artweeks - an open studios event with many artists exhibiting. It's become a tradition for a group of my friends to tour for at least one day of the exhibitions - and this time saw at the peak seven of us (plus 2 children) trekking round.

Annual artweeks traditions for us include:

- Trying to visit an exhibit before it's opened, because on the whole we get up earlier than most artists seemingly;
- Visiting our friend Jane, who also used to work with us all, and who has some amazingly colourful paintings (including a recent favourite of mine, depicting the shipping forecast);
- Having a really good nose round some fabulous Oxfordshire houses and gardens, and choosing which one we'd "fantasy" live in;
- Visiting at least one really odd exhibit (this year we reckon it was the 4 foot high metal wedge of cheese);
- Everyone pointing out Cow Parsley everywhere en route (I once rashly stated that there wasn't much Cow Parsley in Oxfordshire, only to find that I was entirely wrong about that);
- Stopping for tea and cake and / or narrowly missing out on tea and cake because we've spent too long faffing about looking at art and everything's closed now;
- Buying something and hoping not to break the bank too much (for me this time it was this brilliant spiky mug / vase, so not too bad).

For Chris, the girls were here and the day was spent pottering at home and doing jobs. He managed to cut the grass thanks to the generosity of a neighbour, who loaned his mower when ours refused to start. The blip is our Wisteria at the front of the house, that is flowering for only the second year since being planted as a young sapling.