Montreal

Just a few of the things we saw passing through Montreal

A fun train near the St Lawrence River

A tattoed Mannequin at the same time

Then in town at night: fountains

and a free fashion show.

The Brick store - New Hampshire

The Brick Store in Bath, New Hampshire, is one of the oldest general store in the United States, and serves lots of interesting foods.

It is like a time machine almost, except the baby boomers and records from the 1950s and 1960s are vintage now.

Just behind it a historic covered bridge crosses the Ammonoosuc River.

A Boston Terrier in Boston

 Trinity Church, Boston from the steps of the library.

 Boston Library.

And A Boston Terrier in Boston seen in the Street near where JFK grew up.

Arrive in New York

 
Yellow taxis. High buildings. Crossing places.
 
Crowds and bright lights at Time Square.
 
 Cool people in Central Park.

Cowley Road Carnival

The Cowley Road was closed today (Sunday 5th July 2015) for the Cowley Road Carnival.  There was a lot of loud vibrant music, some outside concert venues and pubs, some outside more makeshift venues, and some from sound systems on people's front steps. There was also a lot of food outlets, and other entertainments.
 
The theme of the parade was ‘Creating our Future’. Oxford Brookes University is celebrating a 150th anniversary.

The groups in the procession, included many school children.


 There were wild and wonderful costumes.

So colourful! So much hard work went into the costumes!
Dance and music groups were in the procession including Horns of Plenty, with their Street Jazz. They were at Alice's Day in Oxford yesterday, and back at the Cowley Road Carnival,
It was a wonderful colourful parade, lots of fun, although some had a more serious message for the future ....

Time is running out.

I know it is for me. Can it really be 33 years ago that I lived off the Cowley Road, not far from the Divinity News Agents (long since disappeared). But Tesco is still there, as a Tesco Metro.

International Workers Day Rally - Oxford Bonn Square

Public Services, Not Private Profit –

Living Wage – Solidarity Not Racism –

Trade Union Rights – UNITY IS OUR STRENGTH.

Demolition of the Westgate Centre Car Park in Oxford

The multi-storey car park at the Westgate shopping crentre is being demolished as part of a redevelopment that will see a lot more shops, including a John Lewis.

Tom Tower can be seen behind the demolition excavator.

Demolition began in February.

A temporary multi-storey carpark has been fabricated the other side of the Oxpens Road to take some of the cars.

Harcourt Arboretum

This was our first visit to the Harcourt Arboretum for fifteen or twenty years.

It was a pleasure after all these years to meet the writer of the Views of the Ock Blog. He and we were taking pictures of the peacock near the entrance.
 
They don't allow dogs and so we did not visit while Harry was around.

There were a dozen or more different types of daffodil in bloom. In three or four weeks time the bluebells will be in bloom.


We rediscovered the Acer Glade where a tree was dedicated to my dad, and amazingly found the tree.

As well as the trees there were some fun things: an Easter Egg hunt, trails for the children, a barn, and a charcoal burner. Charcoals had been used to mark some of the wood round the charcoal burner.

Heritage Days Seminar and London

I went up to London for a Heritage Open Days event where we shared experiences of organising Heritage Days. We attended some seminars. The key message in 2015 is to try something new.

The event was held at the Freemasons Hall. The Hall was built as a memorial to the 3,225 Freemasons who died on active service in World War I. This figure is a detail from the war memorial.

Being in London, I also looked in at the British Museum,
 
and wandered nearby streets including the area round Tottenham Court Road underground, which is being redeveloped to make a cross-rail terminal.

Then it was home via Marble Arch.

Don't mistake the message

Don't mistake the messenger with the message.

DID YOU KNOW ...

... your village has a new website?

www.dorchester-on-thames.co.uk

And if this is not your village it is still worth a visit as it is a lovely village with a very good website.