Garsington

Garsington Opera are building a new Arts Hub which will provide rehearsal space plus an educational facility for local music students. Garsington's landlord (Mark Getty) gave them a 999 year lease on an old farm and farmyard. They are keeping the old farm buildings, such as the cottage in the thumbnail, and surrounding them with state of the art new buildings. If you click on the link, you will be able to see the cottage in front of the architect's plans for the whole development. They have reached the stage of constructing the steel framework. We spent a happy afternoon in high viz jackets and builders' helmets exploring the building site, before visiting the library and having afternoon tea.

The only problem was that there was a huge fire on the M40 this morning which has closed the eastbound carriage for the whole day as they resurface the motorway. The only alternative roads for the traffic are our little country lanes, which have been gridlocked all day. It took us three and a half hours to make the 6 mile return journey.