long walk around oxford

took the day off from running and beth and i walked around oxford and probably did about 15 miles - we started up binsey and down the river and across port meadow. a pretty morning and no rain yet- weather report said we had 3 hours before heavy rain hit. we went across the meadow watching the horses feed and then we cut across walton well lane and over to university parks, a very pretty park owned and taken care of by the university. we did the big loop around the northern path and around the pond and then cut down to the area known as mesopotamia. a nice trail along the water and over to marston road; i misses a turn there and we walked a little further before hitting our right turn, but no problem as we intended to walk for 4-5 hours if the rain wasn't horrible.

then we headed back towards town and took a break and grabbed a bagel and a drink before heading off again. still no rain. and then all the way back home through the city center as they say here. stopped and bought some lunch and went back to the house and had a quick bite and back out again as there was still no rain.

across botley road and headed down the bike path towards osney island and turned around there as the trail was sort of under water/very muddy and headed west. we took the long way around the bike path and headed down to north hinksey village past some more horses and all the way south to the oxford rugby stadium- this is where Gail and i usually run our hill repeats. then we went under the ring road (oxford beltway) and up!!! a steep hill through raleigh park towards harcourt hill and over to cumnor hill. then finally down the hill and towards home.

a nice very big loop around oxford going in all 4 directions- can you hear john fogerty singing in the background? then beth did some stuff and i went off to hit balls and tried to learn how to stay behind the ball and some other things and it went better today. not all good of course, but the good was very good so all i need to do now is get to where i can do that more often and cut out the rubbish.

time for one bucket and off to cornmarket to meet gail. beth bought herself a very cute coat and we went to sainsbury's to get dinner. and after 2 loads of laundry it is time to pay some bills and get ready for the trip to london.

good long day today and no rain- hope it doesn't make up for it tomorrow. april 1st tomorrow. happy birthday grandma sue! many more i hope.

too quick a blog for what we did today but all i have time for. seemed longer walking it than writing about it. but you can pack a lot into a day here and got a lot of ideas walking around. need to go back to deer park as it was closed when we got there today. a pretty city here for sure.