Friday 26 July 2013

Oxford: meadows, dinosaurs and plants

So the other weekend instead of staying home and being a tennis widow, whilst the husband was doing a tournament in Oxford I went with him in order to have an exploring day roaming around the town, drawing and looking at nice plants.
 
One of my favourite museums in the world is the Pitt Rivers museum, an ancient place stuffed to the gunnels with ethnographic ephemera from Somerset witches posts to Inca skulls and much of my morning was spent wandering, saying hello to the shrunken heads and lusting after things I would never have. Adjacent to the Pitt Rivers is the equally lovely Museum of Natural History in a fabulous Victorian space which is much like a greenhouse...sadly it is being renovated; however I did manage to say hi to the dinosaurs
 

There was even one of the college gardens opening the next day for the NGS although I had to peak through gates to see it.
 
I also popped into the Ashmolean for some inspiration to feed my Ganesha and Bali obsessions



Then ended the day at the Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanic garden in the country which was guarded by a huge gate and right next to the river where I spent some time watching people trying to punt and fall in

Its a great little botanic garden with some greenhouses for steamy inspiration and one of the biggest European Fan palms I have seen. They also were trialing some perennial wildflower meadows which were looking at their best, overflowing with pollinators and colour...this type of gardening is very inspiring if you can get it tow work and flower through the whole of summer!


I am still lusting after Veratrums...



I have no idea what this is!

I always forget I have bought one of these, then weed them out thinking they are thistles!






 
 

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