June diary

To Bramley for a couple of days working on CRM, and interviewed Karen Shaw for the Dyalog history. Surfed John Scholes’ couch, spending a great evening cooking and stuffing. (Spaghetti & vegetable sauce, rhubarb & apple crumble, cheeses with apples and figs.)

Leafleted the street again with Hillsiders invitations, this time to the Midsummer Night Picnic, sharing the work with neighbour Ann Glasser.

To Southrop village in the Cotswolds on the 7th as Miki’s driver on an assignment from RSVP magazine to report on their village fête. It was the English classic: cake stall, bottle stall, raffle and coconut shy, displays of dressage and beagling, a refreshments tent offering strawberries & cream, Pimms Nº1, Wadsworths’ 6X bitter from the firkin… and glorious summer weather all in the gardens of Southrop Manor.

Then through the back roads to Broad Campden and a quick scrub-up at The Malt House before meeting Spennie & Pamela Northampton for an impromptu dinner at Caminetto in Chipping Campden. On my bike the next morning to lever myself and huge breakfast (note: Judy Wilkes poaches the rhubarb with fresh ginger) through the town and up to Dover’s Hill on the Cotswold escarpment with views north and west far into the Heart of England. Climbs like this make me wonder if I’ve grown to old to enjoy thrashing round the countryside on a bicycle. Then a 2-mile run down into Chipping Campden spreads a smile across my face again.

Off to Ashton-under-Hill for its annual Open Gardens day, leaving Miki there for a hard afternoon’s work while I fetched Maxx from Shirley. Gardens, cider at The Star, tea at the school, then the drives through the late afternoon sunlight to Birmingham, and through the dusk gathering along to M40 to London and home.

To the RSA to hear Simon Jenkins and Philip Bobbitt disagree about “Terrorism and Consent”. There met fellow fellow and cyclist Amy Rogers and we talked over sherries outside Gordon’s. Afterwards to Tufnell Park for dinner with Miki and Yoko Fukada, passing through town and reflecting on her new life in Australia.