After days on end of rain, which has seen major flooding in many parts of England, Ants and I decided to chance a walk into town to see the Oxford Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museums.
We've been wondering for a couple of days how long it would take for the rain that's fallen upstream to make its way down to us, flooding Oxford's famous water meadows. The answer: about three hours, between when we walked into town at 2pm (commenting at how high the Cherwell was running) and when we headed home around 5pm.
The pathway that had been dry when we left was now under 6 inches of water for several hundred metres!
Undaunted (and in true English style), we doffed boots, rolled up our trousers and waded through, then came home for a wash, and a nice cup of tea...
The Museums, by the way, were amazing - complete throwbacks to 18th and 19th century colonialist 'collector' mentality - there were Moa skeletons and a triceratops skull, shrunken heads from South America and countless beads, pieces of jewellry and other artefacts from so called 'exotic' cultures around the world. I'll say this in their favour though - unlike the British Museum (aka the 'Museum of Stuff We Nicked' according to my English chum Mark), there is at least lip service given to ensuring that the materials on display have 'mostly' been donated by the indigenous peoples that created them or at least 'traded for european goods'. A good start.
And a jolly fine afternoon!
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