Oxford

We have been over to Oxford to see Mark and Shona and their kids over the weekend. They are off to the south of france - near Perpignan for the last week before school goes back. Big M and little M went to a beautiful village to wander about while Tegan went trail riding (some pony club event). Little M had a short ride on Tegans pony. I took J and Callum out on a hire boat on the Thames while that went on. Boys had a great time - up through the lock, stopped to gorge on blackberries overhanging the river (they are all perfectly ripe just now). Joined the girls for lunch which was a bit interesting - my phone ran out of power so we had no idea which of the several pubs we had discussed they were going to be at, plus there are several pubs in some of the quite small villages they could have been in so did a tour of pub car parks until we saw Shona's car.
Saturday morning we found spot which hired pedal boats and all went out for an hour after lunch before heading back to Abingdon.
We took the guitars over and Mark and I had a great time jamming. Mark is a fair bit better than I am, but we tortured our wives with a short performance (which M videoed and posted on youtube so our shame lives on). Kids got in on the act for a while too but we only had 3 guitars - once we tried to include recorder and clarinet it all got too hard and we had to chuck them out to play!
On the way home we visited Woburn Safari Park. This is the Duke of Bedfords estate, mistake to go on bank holiday weekend though. The roads were all really clear of traffic, so we paid to be in a traffic jam...

Manchester

Big M went to Manchester to work with one of her co authors and friends so we all went along for the trip. Nick and Denise have a cute house in Didsbury which as about 20 minutes by bus from the city centre. Took the kids in to the see the Museum of Manchester and the Science Museum (lots of steam engines from t'mills). Highlights for them were the local park and playground and riding at the front upstairs on a double decker bus. The canals running through the city are interesting - we even saw a narrow boat passing through the locks under a highway.

The science museum was in Castlefields which, not surprisingly, turns out to be the site a Roman fort and small town (forget the name - probably mancunetium). There is a reconstruction of one of the gates on the foundations of the orginal.

On the way home we drove over the Derbyshire peaks in driving rain (of course) and visited Bolsover Castle. This is a ruined Tudor mansion. The fountain was reputedly the lewdest in England.

The frescoes on ceilings and walls were supposedly by Reubens (according to M).

Since we were in the area we stopped in Sherwood Forest. This big oak is over a thousand years old.

London

We took the children down to London to stay with Zoe and visit the Tower, Natural History and Science Museums last week. Hadnt made it to the tower before so we had to make sure we got there before we leave. Managed an overnight trip with just 2 small day packs between the 4 of us which is a major step forward!

M volounteered to work the big catapult in the display of medieval weaponry at the tower. Kids very impressed with mums prowess at knocking down castle walls.
On the second day we went to the Natural History and Science Museums. There was a butterfly house on the lawns of the museums which was a big hit.

After a hard day of sightseeing catch the train from platform 9 3/4 back to Hogwarts.