When we set off this morning – for a day out at Kelmscott Manor – (built in around 1577 – a limestone manor house that was inhabited by William Morris – a textiles designer – from 1871 until his death in 1896) – with an old friend of my mothers, there was a quick stop at the post office to stick a letter in the box; then in the town, the Methodist Church appeared to be a polling station today, and I saw a woman cycling along with a big baguette in her bicycle basket. On the A429 – I noticed a car by the side of the road, and the owner – who seemed to be trying to replace 1 of his own tyres; in a little village called Halford – petrol was 192.9p/litre, it was 23°C by 11am (and I was yawning), we entered Gloucestershire 3 minutes later and then Moreton in the Marsh at 11:07 AM. There was a shop called Pet Necessities there, a woman was sat on a bench cuddling a floppy spaniel, a shop was called Unfitted Kitchen Wurx, and a sign warning of wildfowl; Longborough had signs up regarding an opera festival; I saw a sign saying something about a yellow duck, a banner on 1 side of the road was advertising the Burford Festival, and in Burford – a shop was advertising fly fishing and dog accessories. Further along there was a road called ‘Hen n Chick Lane’ in a village called Signet, and a tiny and ancient looking village called Kelmscott was exited via an extremely bumpy lane following a bloke riding a bike and wearing a white shirt that was flapping around a lot in the wind (making it look like he was wearing an airbag), and 11.54am was when we arrived at Kelmscott Manor, and the car said it was 24°C.

While walking to the actual building (rather than taking the shuttle bus) – I saw a little house called The Pigeon House, a pub that I forgot the name of had a massive Golden Retriever flopped in the garden, and at the Manor at 12pm – a table of ‘Grab and Go’ activities was in reception, and a big, loud military aircraft flew over while we walked down to this little property. A small room called The Old Hall had lots of old plates in it, and a fob watch from 1850 on a shelf (among other things); the next room had a very enthusiastic Irish accented room guide, several paintings of naked people, and a few wall hangings and brass rubbings, and the 1 after that was The White Room (with a piano in a corner and a ‘colour box’ awarded by The Science And Art Department on a table).

The Green Room led up to a staircase with a massive tapestry at the side, and a wooden clock at the top said ‘Goodbye Boy’ on it, a small split level staircase went further up to a room with a little four poster bed in it (and I noticed what looked quite like a big chamber pot), and another 4 stairs went up to the tapestry room, where there was a game on the table (which was backgammon), and metal peacocks that were apparently incense burners from the 1870s. A very dark room was next, and then we went up a split level staircase and through a tiny short triangular tunnel to the attic. A spiral wooden staircase went down to the Old Kitchen where I noticed a woman with one arm; and we left the building at 1:07 PM onto the croquet lawn. A little – what looked like a – pet bed was on a table, some odd jet trail shapes were in the sky, and tiny bits of what I thought might be dandelion were drifting around next to the stream.

Not far from a garden gate and under some willow trees was where this friend of my mothers and Mum wanted to sit for lunch, there were lots of butterflies, the friend said a lot about how much she loves golf and how it kept her sanity in lockdown, and her and Mum talked about hayfever and house refurbishment. Then I noticed a duck with a lot of ducklings, Mums phone started ringing for no apparent reason, and at 2.15pm we all got up again; and in the shop, there were pocket mirrors, ceramic pot stands, fridge magnets, William Morris door stops, umbrellas, oven gloves and lots of china for sale. A reasonably shaded spot with benches was between the cafe and a stream, so ice cream was eaten there and I saw fish in the water, and dragonflies everywhere. It was just after 3:00 PM when the car park was headed back to and it was extremely hot, the friend mentioned she was going to go paddle boarding this weekend, and at 3:15pm, we all said goodbye, and – as our car had been parked in the sun and got very very hot, and the seats were heated to near buttock burning temperatures – Mum and I sat there with the doors open until 3:25pm.

On the way home, the cars temperature gauge rose from 24°c to 27°c in 5 minutes, the air conditioning wasn’t working while wiggling through very wiggly bumpy lanes, 1 village passed through had shops including The Oxford Skirt Company, The Oxford Shirt Company, and Three French Hens, and on the Fosse Way, a car followed for a while, had its windows open and a couple of arms were being intermittently stuck out and waved around. I continued to sweat, and when re-entering our home town – I was told the woman in the car behind us was picking her teeth, the river looked high, there was bunting still dangling over a lot of the town streets left over from the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations; and it was 4.59pm when we made it home.