'Unofficial' WWOOFing!

On Bank Holiday Monday I returned to my Mum's house in Cheltenham (aka base camp) where I was staying overnight. In the afternoon of the Bank Holiday we went to a lovely flower festival in a Saxon church at a place called Deerhurst just the other side of Gloucester. We were very lucky with the weather and the flower displays were awesome - I have no idea how people can create such fantastic arrangements and with a theme, too.

On Tuesday morning I did a quick re-pack of the car and headed back to Oxfordshire to Kidlington, just outside Oxford to stay with my aunt and uncle (actually, we worked it out that my aunt is actually my second cousin, I think - I find all these relationship things very tricky to work out!). Neither my aunt nor my uncle are enjoying the best of health at the moment, so I volunteered to go and help out in a sort of 'unofficial' wwoofing capacity, to try and get the garden straight for the winter and sort out the garden shed in return for board and lodging. It was really nice to spend some time with them as I have never really known them on an adult-to-adult basis - I think the last time I went on a family visit was when I was in my teens! Of course, we have met up at a few family functions since then, but I've never stayed with them before.

Strangely enough, they are quite near to the Oxford Canal and I went off for a wander along the tow path one afternoon and ended up walking miles. I assisted a couple of chaps through one of the locks and they offered me a lift to Thrupp where they had a cottage and their mooring, but I declined as I didn't know how far it was and obviously I'd have to walk back. Typically, I ended up walking all the way to Thrupp anyway, where I stopped and had a cuppa at a little cafe before walking back the way I'd come! I was very glad that I'd remembered, once again, to take a bottle of water with me - I must be improving.

This morning I re-packed the car again and retraced my steps to Cheltenham across the Cotswolds. Once more the sky was a hazy, autumnal blue and the sun was turning all the cottages and the standing straw in the fields to gold, and the tapestry of little fields folded away from me on either side of the road. As I came down the A40 into Cheltenham behind a car doing 50mph I reflected on the fact that about 40 years ago I came down this same gently curving road at 100mph riding pillion on my boyfriend's BSA! The last time I did a similar thing was 20 years ago on the road across the top of the Mendips - different bike, different boyfriend! I see a pattern emerging here - perhaps it's time I did it again? Just to prove I've still got the bottle!!

Tomorrow, after another quick stopover in Cheltenham, I am off to another aunty in Cwmbran who has just had major back surgery and needs someone to help her out for a couple of weeks - that should keep me gainfully occupied until I start my next 'official' wwoof assignment in Stroud at the beginning of October.