July 04 Oswestry (no fireworks here....today)

 Of course I had to do a preliminary walk before Alex and Alex were ready to head out to the British Ironworks Centre  To optimize the time, I opted for a city walk in two parts.  The first part went up to a hill fort—like I have said previously, I totally don't get this veneration of old mounds—but the walk was great!  Interesting city streets, a park, then more country-like paths, and an easy march up to the hill fort where the views, 360 degrees of views, were gorgeous.  

No photos of the views, but there were some black sheep:

There were more than one in that family!

And black cows:

What is a walk without warnings to keep you on your toes? 

 In the countryside:

And in town: 

Precisely at 10:00 as Alex and Alex had promised, we set out on the walk from hell along the A whatever...? which I am sure Alex will describe in all its awfulness what with the noise, the whizzing vehicles and the demonesque round-abouts.  I led the way to be road kill in case some driver didn't like the looks of us, but we did actually arrive, all three of us, unscathed.  The walk was my fault.  "It is nice to walk to your destination," I mused, not knowing what we were in for, which  turned out to be a unanimous  hour and fifteen minutes of "I cannot believe this."  Barely a shoulder and a sidewalk for less than 1/4 mile.  Spoiler alert: we took a taxi back!

The Centre is a huge outdoor sculpture museum upon which alexandalexacrossamerica.wordpress.com will expound in entertaining detail.  I just have to say that it was certainly worth visiting as it probably has no peer, BUT the curation was unrelentingly political...in some instances it was so absurd as to be amusing, but a few times quite disturbing (I will not elaborate).

A field full of bunches of made-from recycled-metal animals:

A mother—or must one say parent—and baby carriage:

A man—or must one say person—and his dog:

When you look at the alexes' blog, you will get a sense of some of the more creepy stuff, although the two pieces above lean in that direction

As soon as we got back, we went to the art gallery across the street where there was, inter alia, a most interesting display of fabric art.  

This adorable crewel-decorated sheep was NOT at the museum, but it suits the narrative, so here we are"

Again, I send you to alexandalexacrossamerica.wordpress.com for details.  Oh, I bought a pair of little silver earrings at the museum, a sweet souvenir.

After getting caught up on the chores of the day, Alex went to the gym and Alex and I headed off to the top rated kebab place in town to buy shish-kabob.  It was delicious!  Now we are waiting for the rain that I hope will stop before morning.