Hobbiton and The Shire?

After our picnic at the Rollright Stones, we stopped off at a nearby farm shop for ice cream and a chance to pat the baby water buffaloes.


Then we drove to the town of Burford, a very charming place indeed. I popped into quite a few shops on the main street and found a sweet sleeping hedgie statue for my collection. The flowers on the stone buildings were magnificent. Tabs found some very cute summer shoes in one of the shops. I heard requests for more ice cream, but Joanne seemed to remember that some had already been eaten; drat.


Then we drove on over to Oxford for a quick look around. The colleges were all closed for the day, but we strolled around the streets outside, past several colleges and the Bodleian Library. I was thrilled to see the pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and his colleagues used to hang out.

If I had been alone, I probably would have gone inside and ordered a pint, then sat there dreaming of being a hobbit or something equally "me."

After that, we had to get back to Watford so the kids could get into bed - school the next day. It had been a beautiful day out in the English countryside - just what I had wanted, so I went to bed tired and satisfied. And full of pudding, too.