When we set off this morning – for a day out 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 seemed 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, and an Esso garage had petrol at 190.9 P/L just outside the village. Longborough had signs up regarding an opera festival, and petrol was 186.9 P/L litre at a BP garage; Coyck Hill, Little Rissington, Upper Rissington, and Great Rissington were passed on the A424, I saw a sign saying something about a yellow duck, there were lots of turnings off the main road to small villages, 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 (the country home of the writer, designer and socialist William Morris from 1871 until his death in 1896. Today it is owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London), 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 then led us up 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 rather like a big chamber pot), and another 4 stairs went up to the tapestry room where the volunteer room guide asked what I was writing down (so I showed him my encephalitis explanation card), and Mum mentioned my blog, he asked what I blogged about, so I read out a couple of quick excerpts. There was a game on the table (which was backgammon), the object in the corner was a portable writing desk (and was explained to us), and the metal peacocks by the fire were apparently incense burners from the 1870s. A very dark room was next, and then we went up a split level staircase to the attic, which had another little room – up a few stairs – to one side, and another little staircase and a little room to the other side; and through a tiny short triangular tunnel was 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. 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. It was decided we’d all have an ice-cream, which were chosen; a reasonably shaded spot with benches was between the cafe and a stream, so they were 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 the car was parked in the sun and 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.

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 of the villages passed through was called Filkins) on the way back to the A429, and Burford was another one – with shops including The Oxford Skirt Company, The Oxford Shirt Company, and Three French Hens. The A429 was reached at 3.57pm, Stow In The Wold not long afterwards, Moreton On The Marsh at 4.10pm (when it was 28°c) – and the petrol stations prices there were 203.9p/L for diesel; Warwickshire was re-entered at 4.15pm, Halford had a petrol station where prices were 194.9p/L for diesel, 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 Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the Queen; and we made it home at 4.59pm.