The Severed Head of Medusa

We all whizzed off to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford today. Part of me wanted to visit the Spellbound exhibition of magic, ritual and witchcraft, but the frank reviews of knowledgeable friends (ok, witches) prompted me to reconsider. Reading the exhibition book in the shop, filled with love potions, green face make-up and magic fish (yes! remember those?), I felt I'd made the right call.

The museum did offer up some interesting stuff though, not least the gold and silver severed head of Medusa, by Damien Hirst.

Afterward, we went walkabout around the university quarter, and stumbled upon the Bodleian Library's exhibition "Tolkein: Maker of Middle Earth". Wish we'd had more time but we got in despite not having tickets to this sellout exhibition because there was less than an hour left of the day. Fantastic show, full of hand written notes and letters and hand drawn sketches. Bought the coffee table book to finish off what we had not time for.

Stopped for a wee drinkie and the extra shows why Oxford is an intellectual capital.