Summer days

A boat waits to go into Goring-on-Thames Lock.

When we were down in Berkshire in July we met up with my husband's sister and her husband (over from Italy) and took them to Streatley and Goring-on-Thames before having lunch with our grandson no 3 as he had the afternoon off from work.  This area was another favourite one where I would go with my parents and spend some time watching the boats go through Goring Lock. DH and I would take our own children for a walk up Streatley Hill overlooking the river and have a picnic.  It's also the route we would often take to Oxford and it's a pleasant one where the road north of Reading follows the wooded hills by the river.

Goring and Streatley Bridge.  Down river is Pangbourne and Reading.

Goring-on-Thames village in on the Oxfordshire bank of the Thames and the village of Streatley is on the Berkshire side of the river. (Streatley Hill lies just beyond the woods in the above photo).

One of the quiet back waters in Goring

The old Goring Mill

From Goring we retraced our steps across the bridge and went back to Pangbourne village for lunch. Last time we were there it was just before we had flooding in some of the villages by the Thames.  July's weather was very different from the continuous rain that was experienced earlier in the year.

Pangbourne means 'Paega's People's Stream' and was home to a Saxon chief and his followers.
The sign also shows a pictorial reference to 'The Wind in the Willows' as the author, Kenneth Grahame, lived in the village.

Lunch in the garden of The Elephant Hotel......

....followed by a stroll and a sit down by the river.

It was good that we could all meet up for a relaxing day by the river. (Our trainee chef grandson 3 had to get back to work later in the afternoon).  My sister-in-law and her husband were pleased to be back in Berkshire with their family, of course, and this time we all enjoyed seeing their daughter get married. Now she and her husband are back in Italy and two of their children and partners and some of their grandchildren are also there for the rest of the Summer holidays.

The happy couple's wedding cake

Here are some other 'Summer days' in our household........most of the time we've been staying home and going out for a morning or afternoon. This weekend we have some more family gatherings before our local daughter moves to a new house.

We passed by Stonehenge on our way back from our grandson no 2's garden party in Wiltshire.

We also celebrated my husband's birthday with a bar-b-q in the garden, Pavlova and Prosecco wine and on another day we went to a local Italian restaurant with the family as part of the celebrations.

The garden mid July to mid August

We planted the apple tree in the lawn after letting it rest in a pot over the Summer.  There are vines climbing up an old washing line post, a couple of plum and peach saplings, an orange tree and, of course the fig tree.

There are not so many pears this year as last year, but plenty of French beans coming on.

We had a few basketfuls of peas and broad beans.  Now we're harvesting French beans.

The pots of lavender and pink pelargoniums are still looking good.

A new climbing rose has now been planted by the other old washing line post.  The yellow rose (Arthur Bell) was grown from a cutting off the original.

Climbing rose 'White Star'

black/purple figs

Cucumbers and plum tomatoes by the kitchen door. Different varieties of tomatoes have been grown in the covered way, the veg. plot and in the flower borders!  End-of-season garden centre sale dahlias and standard rose with small pink flowers (bought for the bargain price garden containers). I also bought some more Welsh slate pieces for the sitting out area under the fig tree.