"Andy Warhol looks a scream"

Well, hello there! Happy May Day and all that. Can you believe we're in May already? It seems as though we were only celebrating the new year last month and when I uploaded some photos a few days ago I found myself tagging them as April 2015. We've had some really weird weather round these parts too: glorious sunshine interspersed with snow, hail and spectacular thunderstorms - all very exciting. 

E has been off school for a bit with a real stinker of a cold. I do love having her around but I was just a bit worried as she seemed rather breathless at one point. She also had a couple of presentations to do with hardly any voice but she struggled on. Happily, she's well on the mend now. 

Anyhoo, here are some of the happier moments from our week - I haven't posted the photo of me with a rice noodle stuck to my chin - I hadn't eaten any at that point, there had just been some very vigorous woking going on and I didn't even notice it until E pointed it out - teenagers can still do that incredulity thing, even with laryngitis!

My supermarket tulips - they have lasted far better since I started cutting the stems with a sharp knife, as opposed to crushing it with scissors as my mother taught me. It's only taken me the 30 years to work that one out.

 Renewing my subscription to Country Living with some about to expire Tesco vouchers:

 Noticing the green woodpecker in the garden again and actually having my camera to hand:

Yesterday, I popped into Oxford to collect L after her week there. When I dropped her off last weekend, I noticed a poster advertising an Andy Warhol exhibition at the Ashmolean, so we made a plan to visit. I hopped off the P&R bus near Christchurch meadow:

 Walked past what must be one of the cutest Pret a Mangers in the country:

 ....... and arrived here just in time to meet L:

The exhibition was of the private Hall Collection and included over 100 paintings, screen prints, sculptures, drawings and films. We enjoyed it, but found that we wanted more information about the man himself - I didn't know, for example, that he had been shot at one point. I think I may need to hunt for a book next time I'm at the library.

We decided to buy a couple of postcards each of our favourite works (we ended up with 10 as they were the same price as our 4 would have been!). I liked his screen printed flowers on a hand painted background and L liked 'Twenty Fuchsia Maos', taken from a screen print of the iconic Communist poster. I don't think he was a fan (neither are we!), I think it was possibly making some point about brand advertising, alongside Brillo and Campbell's soup (there was a quotation there stating that he had never received so much as a can of soup from Campbells - you'd think they could have stumped up for a crate of cream of tomato wouldn't you?). Our favourite 4 are currently stuck to the fridge, much to R's disgust. I'm not sure how long they'll survive.

We had time for a drink and a shared slice of mango and passion fruit cake before seeing the rest of the Ashmolean's artwork. Sadly, there isn't a huge amount to see at the moment owing to renovation work.

 Then it was off to a Malaysian noodle bar for lunch.

 Tofu curry, veggie spring rolls and egg fried noodles - it was yummy but really filling and we ended up boxing up the rest to take home for E who's rather fond of a good noodle when it's not stuck to her mother's chin.

 The shots below were taken by L as we drove home along the A34. I'd noticed the lovely Rape as I was driving to Oxford and asked her to get the camera out ready for the return journey. It was easier said than done - the best field sailed by before she managed to switch the camera on and there followed a series of shots of lorries, Dynarod vans and road signs before she finally managed the 2 below!

Anyway, that's all for this week. The photo above was taken out of the bedroom window first thing this morning, so it looks as though May Day might actually turn out to be nice weather wise. I'm planning a little potter in the garden and I might have a bit of a Mary Berry moment and make a quick carrot cake too. How about you, any good plans for the Bank Holiday weekend? I look forward to catching up with your posts later and seeing what you've all been up to.

Toodle Pip for now. x