Hiding Grey Squirrel

Was out walking today and noticed I had unintentionally cornered a Grey Squirrel, which is not very common as these street wise rodents are normally very smart.  He hid behind this lattice for about 3 minutes while I just got my camera out and took a few photos, then he was off, along the yard and up to the top of a large tree, for a rest I would think.  I see a squirrel or two most days, they are common in parks and open areas of Oxford.

Road Works In St Aldate

If you are in the road repair business then Oxford is the place you need to be, as we have more road works than any other place I have lived, and if you run out of work you can always redo what you have just done.  As you can see from this photo, St Aldate in front of the Town Hall is having major works at the moment.  This is effecting all the buses and users of the not only this area but those leading up to it, stay away from the High Street if you can it is murder at the moment in this area.

Blossoming Trees in Oxford

Everywhere you go around Oxford at the moment the flowers are starting to open up and show the world all there colours.  This Blossom Tree on the Banbury Road looked great as I walked under it with the blue winter sky in the background.  It is a shame that they the flowers do not stay on them for longer, as I know in about a week the area will  look like it has snowed with all the while flowers falling to the ground.

Windmill Road Towards London Road

The corner of Gathome and Windmill Road looking towards London Road.  This is a typical English Street with a row of Terrace Houses and the Double Yellow lines on the road , which is a no parking area.  Just to the left of this photo out of the camera view is Oxford's Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre which is part of the National Health Service NHS.

Taylor Institution Library

The entrance to the Taylor Institution Library on St Giles.  The Library is part of Oxford University and is it's centre specialising in the study of European Languages. There are about half a million books on European Languages in its building, which was built between 1841 and 1844, have a look at the Library's website to see an engraving of the building from 1847.

Torpids 2008

Just about to put the boat into the River Isis for the final day of Torpids.  This event which started in Oxford is a bumping race between the colleges of Oxford University, where the river is too narrow to have a race side by side, so the crews line up along the river and try to catch the boat in front without the one behind catching them. 

This is year about 1200 University students participated in the event which is held over four days, with the winners being titled 'Head of the River'  This years Mens Winners Magdelen with the Womens St. Catherines, well done.

More photo's of this afternoon's events here. 

Sainsbury's Hayford Hill

Todays photo was not taken by me but by a regular viewer of the Blog, Junior.  It is of the supermarket on the out skirts of Oxford, Sainsbury's in Hayford Hill.  This is one of the larger supermarkets in Oxford, and is open 24 hours a day.  If anyone is interested there is a public phone box just in the entry to this supermarket that accepts income calls.  The number is 01865 771515, have has success in calling this box.

Goose At Sandford

Not a lot of sun around today, this photo was taken down by the Sandford Lock, south of Oxford on the River Thames.  Even with the weather not that great there was activity on the River, if you click on this photo you will see people in the back ground  fishing, walking their dogs and camping along the banks of the River Thames.

There has been a lock at Sandford since 1624, and a lock at it's current position since 1836, interestingly it has the deepest  fall of all the locks on the River, 2.69m or  8ft 9in.

Also spotted another diplomatic plate in Oxford this afternoon, have a look. 

New and Blue Sky

This new development in the city centre is trying to fit in with its surroundings which are much older. I feel that the planners got it right, working the new development around the older parts of the city have worked well.  The sky just looked great also against the new clean lines of this development.

Expect Delays!!!

I am not sure why this period will be different than any other, in and around Oxford the roads are always very heavy with traffic and those in cars and on the public transport are always expecting delays.  Sign was on St Giles this afternoon giving the warning that in Summertown there is going to be Replacement Works from today for x amount of weeks.  

Frozen Oxford Canal

This is the end of the Oxford Canal and as you can see we had a cold night last night as the canal is frozen.  Looking at the Met Offices website it was -8.6c at 0600hrs this morning, so that will explain the freezing of the Canal.  However walking around this morning the sun was out and it was warm while you where in the sun, going to be a good day. Few more Photo's here.

Nothing

I am sure these two businesses are owned by the same person, they are in the covered market and sell slightly different fashion related items.  The on of the left is called 'Nothing', with the one on the right called 'Next To Nothing'.  Great names I don't you agree?

Still Winter In Cornmarket

Everywhere I went today was busy.  Cornmarket was very busy, I am not sure why it was so busy, maybe it was just Friday afternoon in Oxford.It was colder than the last few days as you can see by the clothing being warn in this shot. Everyone is all rugged up, and there was very little sun out in Oxford today.

Love For Sale

On this day St Valentines Day, I have seen many places selling Love, on Walton Street out the front of this small store the theme is Red Love Hearts, however I am sure the prices are a little more on this special day than what they are the rest of the year.  A dozen long stem red roses - £85!

Sunny Afternoon On Walton Street

After a very foggy start to the day, the flog lifted and it was a great day, everyone was out enjoying it, like these people in Walton Street Jericho.

Is The World Coming To An End.

This is post is not about the photo, as this could be anywhere.  What made me take this shot this afternoon while I was in a major supermarket car park was as I was looking at this empty shopping trolly bay, a news report was on about the stock market, share prices falling and the global financial melt down.  I started to think what planet are these reporters on, as I was listening to this report about the end of the world, people were going about shopping, picking there kids up from school as if they had not heard the bad news, in fact in this car park most of the spots were full and trolly's hard to find, so what planet are these financial reporters on, things looked fine in Oxford this afternoon.

Snickers and Maple Syrup Please!

Back in October last year I took a photo of Moo Moo, one of the newest Milk Bars in Oxford.  At the time of taking that last photo I had not tried there Milkshakes, I now have thanks to my sister who send me £20 voucher for Moo Moo's and I think I have converted from the other Milk Bar that I used to visit.  They are great, and I now know why there is always a line, my favourite milkshake is Snickers and Maple Syrup.

EAT Will Open In February

If you pop back to the 30th of January post you will see that I took a photo of a new take-a-way business opening up in the old Thomas Cook offices in Queen Street.  EAT, it had a sign saying that it would be open in 'Late January', well from that post I had an email from Matt Hart the Customer Service Manager for EAT saying that they have been having contractor problems and that they are now working for an opening in 'Late February'.  I was walking in Queen Street this afternoon and also saw that they have updated there advertising on the outside of the store.  Thanks Matt and I hope to pop in and see you when you are open.

Headington

On the hill over looking Oxford and the Rivers that meet in Oxford is Headington.  If you travel from London to Oxford by bus you will go through Headington on the way in to Oxford.  This photo taken this morning is of the busy intersection of London and Windmill Road.  In Headington you have the Oxford Brookes University and also the Headington Shark, which I will put on this blog other day.

Warm In Oxford

It was really warm in Oxford day, about 13 and looks like it is going to be that for the next 5 days or so.  I was down by the River Thames under the Donnington Bridge enjoying the sun when this large group of Geese walked on by down into the river.  Also near by was a family of White Swans, Mum, Dad and 5 young, talking to a lady walking her dog she was happy to see them as they had not been around for awhile, all the flooding of the Thames had displaced them.

Year Of The Rat

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.  Lots of people celebrating in Oxford today and over the weekend as the Year of the Rat has begun. 

Still No Perch?

What a great day in Oxford today, Spring is really in the air at the moment.  January last year took a nice photo of a vintage car in front of the Perch which was a good little shot and then a few months later in May I took a photo of the Perch after the fire. Today when I visited Binsey the Perch is still being worked on and you can not actually see the buildings as it is covered in all this scaffolding and plastic.  Have a look at this website if you are interested, it has a few older photo's of the Perch, with a photo taken in 1977 when there was another fire at the pub.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

This is a new eating place on George Street, well is not that new, but I have not need been in, but hope too. We are starting to get alot of new resturants in Oxford which I am sure are doing a good trade. Started by a couple of New Zealanders in London who missed the burgers from they started the GBK, and they now have locations across the UK, including Oxford.

Don't you just love Oxford City Councils rubbish collectors, this photo was taken at 1pm and they rubbish still had not been collected!

Osberton Road

Sun was out today, and this gave me a great shot of the houses along Osberton Road from Middle Way, when you looked down the road the white second story's really stood out.  In 1919 there was a Radiator Factory on Osberton Road named Osberton Radiators, which supplied radiators to the Morris Car Factory in Cowley, and buy 1925 the company was taken over by Morris Motors and the factory moved to Woodstock Road, where I am not sure?

Italian Classic In Summertown

Don't see enough Moto Guzzi about in Oxford, however this one was very well looked after as you can see by the nice reflection.

Winter War Memorial

Very cool in Oxford today.  This photo is of the War Memorial in St Giles which I have taken before, but not from this angle.  Today I am looking at the memorial from St Giles Church looking towards the city centre.

Lady Margaret Hall

Looking across the quad at Lady Margaret Hall, which was the first woman's college in Oxford founded in 1878. In 1979 along with most of the other women only colleges, Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) started in admin male students.

More recently three students from LMH last week stripped off and jumped naked into the swollen Castle Mill Stream in the city centre, with one of the students refusing to be rescued by the emergency services.