Nature and Bicester Christmas Market

I wanted a quiet day, so while Bruce went off to the pubs I spent time with my kitty cat charges and tried to catch up on my blog. In the afternoon I decided to walk around Bicester. There are lots of wonderful little paths just off the road with signage pointing to areas of interest. I followed a sign to the Bure Nature Reserve. It is owned by Bicester Town Council and managed by Cherwell District Council. The River Bure runs through the park and supplies water to a pond which, I read, has great crested newts. I didn't see any of them. Too bad. I did, however, enjoy the fresh air and the peace and quiet.

The area had had record rain recently and a lot of the fields were still quite flooded.

From there I just wandered vaguely in the direction of the city center. I passed the Bicester Methodist church - not particularly old, but quite lovely

and ended up in the city center which was having its annual Christmas market. I was rather surprised to find that the Christmas market was more or less a giant bar. There was stand after stand of beer, mulled wine, whisky drinks, gin drinks, Bailey's cocktails, most of which looked like they could kill you from the sugar content alone. Lots of junk food stands as well.

Among the stalls selling goods for the holidays there was one nice stall of driftwood animals and the rest was a giant collection of tat. I passed through looking for somewhere to grab a quick bite, but virtually everything was made with cheese or egg. Just to punish me, there was a crepe stand and even a raclette stand - I love those! (Damn these food allergies!) I left this not-very-tempting market and headed toward home. I passed this wonderful sofa outside of the big supermarket in town. At first glance it looks like tufted leather, but it's actually made of bricks. So clever.

Not the most exciting of days, but sometimes it's nice to just have a bit of a wander.