Formal Gardens

This morning we took Laura back to university - or more precisely, Laura drove herself and some of her stuff in her car, and we drove our bigger car, full of the rest of her stuff! Classes don't start for another week, but she has band camp this week. Unfortunately, she and her roommate have drawn the short straw this year when it comes to dorm room. Not only is it smaller than they had last year, but rather than having fitted closets it has free-standing wardrobes, which take up even more of the limited floor space! On top of that, its not air-conditioned, unlike Laura's room last year - not much fun when its 90F outside which it was today! Fortunately that shouldn't last too much longer. It only takes about fifty minutes to drive up there, and that's just as well, since despite giving the appearance of having been pretty organized (we packed most of the things in the car Saturday morning and then kept it in the garage for safety), she forgot the most basic thing as far as this week is concerned - her flute! So, having unpacked the car, and done a certain amount of putting away, she went off to help with band camp registration, and we came home, to return later in the day! After a quick lunch, we went to cool off at the pool, then late afternoon, returned to Oxford. Having "rescued" Laura, we decided to go for a stroll around the formal gardens, which we hadn't yet explored. They looked really pretty in the late afternoon/early evening sun. Since by this time it would have been rather late to fix dinner when we got back, we had a very nice meal out in Oxford.