Come to the maypole, haste away, for 'tis now our holiday

I expect you may have been wondering what happened to the last day of April? Oxford (and rain) happened; and no access to a computer to edit the blog and upload pictures. . . . . I'm suffering change-ringing withdrawal symptoms. Already? I'm not quite at the sea-side once again. Southampton. A guest at Des and Marion's in Bitterne. I left Silver End for Oxford yesterday morning; this is the car I'm driving

I found my way to Braintree and was promptly mystified by the roads none of which were at all familiar to me. I didn't 'find' myself' and feel confident until I reached Hemel Hempstead and recognized a pub, the Leather Bottle. Ha! I was on the right road. I've noticed that some reliable, sensible pub names have changed. At Aylesbury I followed the signs to Oxford, but I missed Thame . . . oh well. Julian's black cat, Caesar, didn't swear at me when I let myself into the house, I guess he got socialized during his week long stay with Clare's cats and all the coming and going of people at Silver End. First order was tea, as it is everywhere; Then a walk down to the Plain, across Magdelen Bridge

Then right along Long Wall to snap the original Morris works

From there into Holywell

to Broad Street; look at all those bicycles - must be term time.

I resisted the temptation to go browsing in Blackwell's then made my way to Carfax for a trip up the tower to take more pictures in the rain.

As the intensity of the rain increased I made my way past the castle and back around to the bottom of St Aldates to Folly Bridge over the Isis (known everywhere else in England as the Thames) Do you find all these parentheses tiresome? I shall I stop making them if you like. By now the rain was hard enough to dissuade me from walking along the tow path to Iffley lock as my dear sister had suggested; instead I walked in Christ Church meadowson the city side of the river where some fine old cows were browsing. Affixed to the wall behind Merton there is this plaquecommemorating the first 'fire' balloon flight. I arrived back at Princes Street just before Julian left for his evening duty in the kitchen at Lady Margaret Hall (now co-ed). I settled down with bread and strawberry jam and more tea and World Championship snooker from Sheffield Crucible on the telly. Very relaxing. Clare and Robin soon arrive with loot from a shopping trip in Oxford and we settled down to an evening in front of the telly watching the news, Eastenders and My Family; and the Clare let me play with the Wii after she'd had enough of Guitar Hero.

May Day I got up bright and early to go down to the Plain

to hear the choir and bells of Magdelen sing in, and bless, May morning at six o'clock. The bridge was closed, a very unpopular measure to prevent revellers jumping into the shallow Cherwell from the bridge, so I couldnt get into the city. I missed the Morris dancing! The bells rang up in peal but I couldn't hear them very well for the noise of the crowd. I returned to Princes street for breakfast and went to the shop to replenish the larder and buy the morning newspapers before packing ready to set off for Southampton. I miss my trusty navigator (Kathy). After we'd had an initial catching up with our news chat Marion and Des took me to Romsey Abbey church, one of those very large parish churches of cathedral dimensions. We plan a trip to Winchester tomorrow. Stay tuned.