bluebell valley-Wytham Woods

We missed the "prime time", but the blooms were still impressive. According to SH, it would be much more impressive if we came 1 or 2 weeks earlier.

- where do asparagus come from?**Farm outing** & blue bell valley day

We went to Rectory Farm in Oxford to "pluck" asparagus yesterday morning. May is the British asparagus season, and I wouldnt want to miss the experience. If I did not go yesterday, I would have to wait till next year because all my weekends are gone until mid June (which will be the strawberry season!).

[list of PYO farms in Oxford]

The day started off grey, and MS was somehow delighted, I guess. He hated the sunlight, but I was wondering why are you so worried when you are in a farm? There should be some cover! Wrong!

When we entered the farm and SH pointed out the asparagus plots, my eyes strained to see where the asparagus were! Those looked like bare plots! Nothing there! Rows and rows of brown-greyish land. Where is the asparagus? I finally understood when we got off the car (and given plastic bags to PYO-pick your own).

Asparagus are some kind of sprout- we need to pluck- ie bend it, break it, tear it off and pop it into the plastic bags! The asparagus we saw were nothing like those in the supermarket. Firstly, the colour is purplish, not green. I know why it is green in supermarket- By this morning, some of mine turned greenish. Therefore, green= not so fresh anymore. We pluck those thick juicy looking ones- thicker than the size of most fingers! I even tried one on the spot. I found it edible& crunchy. The rest found them horrible.

I plucked quite a bit and was expecting to pay at least £10. Just 5-6 sticks in the supermarket comes up to £1.99. Guess what we paid? About £3 for just less than a kg. WOW!

Yesterday night we had asparagus-juicy, crunchy, sweet. Much better than the usual stuff! We had it again during lunch, and will have enough to last use till Tues, at least. :) Thank goodness it is the bank holidays, and I can afford to let our urine stink. Asparagus gives you urine that smells like heaven.

After plucking the aspragus we went to the town centre to have lunch, before hitting Wytham woods(Woods of Hazel) for blue bells! We missed the "season", but found a patch in the valley which was still blooming. It was as if we were in a fairy woods. I will post photos when I am done with my mugging.

Related sites:
www.asparagus.org
http://www.asparagus-in-kent.co.uk/growyourown.htm

Oxford's Saxon Tower

Full name: THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL AT THE NORTH GATE
with
ST. MARTIN AND ALL SAINTS

This is probably one of the oldest buildings in Oxford

The Saxon Tower of St Michael at the North Gate is nearly 1000 years old and is Oxford’s oldest building. This is the tower which could offer you a view of of Oxford-what Samuel Johnson referred to as the “city of dreaming spires”. But if you are as cheapskate as we are, then hit the meadows.

I have been there at least 2-3 times, this time to bring ET there. It is sad that many tourists just walk pass this boring looking building (when you compare to the others in Oxford!), without realising that this is probably the oldest public building on Oxford!

What attracted me, and brought me in, are the stained glass windows. It is not one of those wow wow stained glass work, but perhaps being OXFORD's City Church, it always have something to amuse you, be it a simple poem, or a some of words strung together to form a sentence. The war must have taken given a lot of pain here, and a lot of love have been etched here and there within this building in memory of some loved ones.

These caught my attention:

When you go home,
Tell them of us and say:
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.

That was something from the POWs.

Oxford photos... one fine summer's day.

This shop is just at the bus terminal, and the first thing you see when you get off Oxford Tube. Yummy Danish pastry, and powerful cappucino at £1.50 for breakfast. What more can you ask??? Oh yeah, there are free copies of newspapers at the terminal, so you get entertained if you arrive early in one of those £1 Megabus tickets.


Stingy me did not pay money to get into any colleges, so I took this at the entrance.

Errr.. did I tell you I happen to be very very " urgent", and asked the gal on duty whether I could use the toilet? Well, she let me, and I got to walk pass the lawn, free. Ok, I am cheapstake.
This is the sheldonian theatre. I think roof is another Christopher Wren thing. Yeah, that guy who did the St Paul's cathedral in London. The picture below is that of the lawn, behind the church. I was having lunch, drinking coffee, and reading a book there. I stayed in the shades, cos I am no longer young. And spots which appear, dont disappear on their own!!


Another college. It was so long ago I forgot which college. Mary Madgalens' or Christchurch, I forgot. :P

The Oxford visit...

We went to Oxford to visit some friends. To make use of the Megabus promotion, we woke up at 4.00 am , and on a bus- Oxford tube by 5:30. Dawn by just breaking. Between some semi-unconcious effort to check out the scenery enroute and desperate need to catch some sleep, we reached at about 7am.

Warning!!!! No toilet at the bus station at these times, as the two 24 hour cubicles had been vandalised!By who? I wondered. Isnt this supposed to be a genteel town, filled with intelectuals? The public toilet would only be opened at a later time. I spent the rest of the time, filling up suduko from the free papers, and fighting the urge....which was intensified after copious amount of good old cappucino and very yummy danish pastry for only £1.50 from the corner shop.
















It was a rewarding day though. Managed to see quite a bit of places.
We were "lost", after missing our bus-stop, but was rewarded with the nice scenery and beautiful cottages meant as student accomodations further from town, and some nice B&Bs along the way. Pity our friend, waiting for us at the bus-stop. Anyway, the driver was nice, and we just remained in the bus, and get off on the "way back".

We were lucky to be spared from looking for accomodation in Oxford. Hotels or even hostels and B&Bs in Oxford is known to be Expensive. We are returning to another visit again, soon!

We pass by some of hotels and B&Bs to our friends' home. These are really charming cottages to stay in, will be nice for couples etc.

Here are some images captured by my handphone. I will get nicer ones from our friend later.

The crest of colleges on a door.

One of the back lanes of Oxford. It is really really "ancient"!.