The practice shoot was pretty well set up by Brian by the time I arrived. Being the last before Christmas we had mincepies and cake at the interval. Mincepies warmed in a microwave powered by a generator. Unfortunately, the rain came down for the second half of the shoot which was a three person flurry.
Get Together at John and Carol’s
The ex-Walkerites met at John and Carol’s for a late lunch, Chicken liver pate, cheese stuffed Pepperdews, followed by BBQed turkey and rounded off with Bread & Butter pudding . For the record there were, John & Carol, Steve & Rosemary, Peter & Janet, Chris & Ann, Nigel & Barbara, Robin & Tessa plus Stuart & Greta. Goodness, not even Christmas yet & already feeling full!
Joan and David
Met Joan and David for lunch at The Swan Inn in Denham for lunch. Nice pub, tasty food. Luckily the Christmas party from Xerox were not too noisy. It was good to see them.
Kingswood Gun Club Evening at Canaletto
The Kingswood Gun Club met up for a drink (or two) at Canaletto’s. Happy time chatting.
League Shoot, Snowed Off
I was up early to help load the traps for the League shoot, I also had to transport the batteries to the shoot. I immediately became stuck in the snow as I tried to get out of the garage. The combination of loose stone and snow was too much for the car. I phoned Jennifer to ask if her father Jim, could come by and pick up me and the batteries. I was told the shoot had been cancelled. So instead, I walked across the fields in a blizzard to pick up the newspapers. There was a lot of snow, very wet snow, which snapped several of the trees in KarIn’s and Duncan’s garden and hedge. Keith was soon on the job with his chain saw. We even had to shake the wet snow off the Bay Tree which was bending under the weight of the snow.
The path to the village shop was difficult to navigate, there is a section with trees that lean over it. This section was difficult to pass, so the trees were bent so much lower, I had to really stoop low to get through.
Some pictures of snow in our field and in the pub car park. This is really the only significant snow fall we have had since Christmas 2010.
Village Christmas Dinner
Our annual Kingswood village Christmas dinner was again hosted by Ian and Julie. How they manage to quietly cater for 30 plus of us with no signs of stress is beyond me. It was a lovely evening out with the various friends in the village. The weather was cold walking there and back, but dry. Snow forecast for tonight.
Mottisfont Dressed for Christmas
Instead of visiting Waddesdon for a Christmas spectacle, we decided to visit Mottisfont. There was a special Kaffe Fassett display on, so Rosemary was interested in going. We would also get to see the house dressed for Christmas.
We arrived and headed straight to the house to see the exhibition and house dressing. Not quite to the scale of Waddesdon Manor, but still very good to look at. The Kaffe Fassett show covered four rooms and had a lovely embroidered chair, pullovers and lots of patchwork quilts. Incredible work, though you could see the work was done at speed and not always finished neatly.
We stopped for lunch in the stables, and then we went on a guided wetlands nature walk. It takes you through wetland woods areas where you are not allowed on your own . We learned that peat was dug here, and that lakes and navigation were also built to get the stone close to the construction site of the original Mottisfont abbey.
There was not much to be seen in the gloom of a cloudy dismal winter day, excepting that two kingfishers were spotted flying along the dykes.
We also learnt that the river fishing rights were owned by the National Trust, and that this is one of the most expensive trout fishing river in the UK, the River Test. The art of the dry fly tying was realised here. We saw some trout who became very active when some food was fed to them.
Back to the stables for tea, and then on home.
Bicester Village
Bicester Village, the outlet retail park, has expanded. Tesco was demolished, and rebuilt on the other side of the road. The land where Tesco was became an extension to Bicester Village. This extension opened in October, We visited the village for the first time in ages. We went in the evening to see the Christmas lights, and not to buy. Was easy to park, being a Tuesday. It was bitterly cold. There were some new shops, and some disappearances. We were intrigued by the only electrical shop which sold wifi/bluetooth speakers for more than a grand: the Devialet Phantom range.
Rosemary said she liked the lights and planting, but rather preferred it when Tesco was there.
Kingswood Firework Party
Our usual Kingswood firework display at George and Annie’s, with firework maestro, Ian. BBQ food cooked by Keith and Duncan & served by Karin & Charlotte. It was a lovely evening, no rain again, with a glimpse of the moon. Bonfire made from pallets and garden waste.
The Jam Factory
We went into Oxford with Valerie and Norman. Norman went his own way to see an exhibition at the Ashmolean, while Rosemary, Valerie and I walked on to the Jam Factory. It’s near to the rail station, and is a café/bar /restaurant /exhibition space /entertainment space built from a converted, yes, Jam Factory. We went to see a set of post card sized art works produced by numerous artists which were being auctioned to raise funds for Sobel House. We all selected a few, and started to bid on them over the next few days. Only my bid was successful for an evil looking cat which I bid £5.01 for. I say successful, because no one out bid me. I still did not receive it, it was lost or sent off to someone else. I did receive a replacement card, a Lion, on whom no one bid, but it was not my evil looking cat. Yes, a tad disappointed.
We drank coffee and chocolate while we perused the cards, and looked at some of the other paintings. The men’s loo was decorated in old Beanos. The place was quite pleasant and had some interesting food on the menu. Probably worth while returning to, instead of eating in the usual Vaults and Gardens where we now headed off to.
We passed through the covered market which was semi open on a Sunday. There was an excellent Halloween cake sculptured into the shape of a hacked off leg in the cake shop.
On the junction of Turl Street and Market Street, outside Norah’s Antiques was a production team filming a scene from an episode of Endeavour. We waited and watched them film a street scene with Roger Allam (Inspector Thursday) considering the shop window. There were also quite a few old 60s cars parked in the surrounding streets, so I expect there was quite a bit more filming about to be done.
We walked on to the Vaults and Gardens for lunch, where we were quite quickly served and found somewhere to sit.
After lunch we visited All Souls Collage and took walk around their quads and the chapel. There is a magnificent screen with niches containing statues of saints, bishops, and monarchs, arranged in rows on either side of a Crucifixion scene, just above the altar, and a Last Judgement, high up under the roof. The original statues, destroyed in the sixteenth century Reformation, were not replaced with the present Gothic imitations until the nineteenth century.
After All Souls, we split, Norman and I took a quick walk around the university parks, while Rosemary and Valerie headed to the new Bodlein library to see the latest Treasures and Jane Austin.exhibitions. We all met up at the library and then went for a beer at the Lamb and Flag before going home.
