Bartimaeus

We had had an evening stroll in the park and noticed that there plenty of other free 3 day moorings.With a noisy weir and boats passing close, Shane decided it would be slightly more peaceful a short distance down. He liked the idea of being close to the geese. We do enjoy their antics and had been won over by the goslings on the stroll. We sat outside for dinner and remembered being near the geese isn’t necessarily peaceful. We still liked watching the goslings ducking under railings and dropping in the river. The parents watch closely and we had seen some earlier in the river going in a very orderly row.

Some were particularly noisy as I expected to be woken by them, but it seemed they were not morning creatures. Getting up on Saturday morning I didn’t hear honking but there was a megaphone. I opened the blinds to see we were moored at the starting point of the park run. A beautiful day had brought a good crowd. Some were walking dogs and there was limbering up going on before announcements about defibrillators and barging was not to be tolerated.

We had a less energetic morning planned: going to the post office and checking out the museum. I had a small parcel for Nye. I had given him a gift already in advance, which did not post well and felt what was in my parcel was pretty small and unexciting (Shane had a larger but even less exciting parcel to post, for administration purposes). On the way we saw a craft fair advertised with a man calling that it had “dragons to jewels”. I decided to take a quick detour. Shane took his hefty pack and plastic recycling to the co-op (other supermarkets were not available for recycling and a post office within) while I browsed. In no time I found two friendly stalls that were his very thing with little items that could be popped in the envelope and one provided tape to reseal the parcel. I knew she was the right stall when she had a dress with alpaca on it…the giant axolotl attracted my attention but didn’t fit in the envelope.

We returned to Bartimaeus with shopping and set off back out to the museum. Outside the museum was a stall with free plants. I have picked up a little tomato plant though Shane is doubtful of its success. I don’t have a green fingered history but I live in hope.

Apart from being an interesting nicely laid out museum, there was a quilt exhibition on. It was turning out a craftier day than expected. There appears to be a regular quilt challenge and this year was alphabetical in theme. There were many beautifully crafted, imaginative quilts and I picked a small selection.

Shane showed a particular interest in the exhibits explaining about the local tradition of throwing buns out to crowds in the square to celebrate special occasions. There was even a quilt about this tradition and the museum. It may have been a sign his mind was heading lunch wards. We stepped out of the museum which had a cafe next door, named after the very tradition. Shane was remembering that the museum had a cafe in the basement but you had to go round the back to find it. We had accidentally hit upon the Abingdon Climate Emergency Centre and it also served food. We saw people sitting down to curry and two women said they were leaving soon, if we wanted an outside table, they highly recommended the food and said they would keep a table for us. Inside a man serving drinks greeted Shane by saying “you put me to shame!” It emerged he was berating himself for dressing dully and being complimentary about Shane’s attire! The lady in charge of the vegan curries and pakora was super obliging and we soon agreed that she was a great cook too. She was gratified to pass by shortly after and see us cleaning our plates. We passed on what we had experienced by recommending the place to a passing couple. Since they were hungry vegetarians they were delighted to be pointed there. Inside there were some recipe cards, and I picked a few up, though sadly none were for the curries.

We spent the afternoon digesting our lunch and I made some progress with turning the heel on the stocking and knitting the cardigan and we have enjoyed people-watching by the river; swimmers walkers, paddlers, canoers, paddle boarders and accidental dippers in the boys trying to fetch a ball from the river. A man let them use his boat with a ladder to reach the water more easily… the third time. It was all too relaxing to want to go anywhere.