Living in Glasgow has its downsides and one of the most irritating is being so far away from many of my friends and by extension, all the Julip shows. This year I was determined to combine both of those things in one big bumper trip.
I haven't seen Tom and Rory since last year's RHS, and as this year's official Julip Live was less than an hour away from their house it seemed like the perfect way to kill the proverbial two birds with one stone and so, last Wednesday I rolled out of bed at the ungodly time of 6:38 am so my dad could run me into town to get the 8am train down south. I’m aware that for most people that’s not much of a challenge but when you’re a night owl and don’t currently have the routine of work to adhere to, anything before 9am is waaaay too early!
In true me fashion however, things didn't start off well. I had a few changes to make on the train journey down and it wasn't until I was getting on the last one that I realised I'd managed to leave my hoodie on the London train! 😭 This is actually more problematic than you'd expect as I'm currently now down to zero hoodies, as I left my other one at Heather's house the last time I was up! The one I left on the train was a little bit special too, as it had been given to me by a friend as a thank you for helping her on her short film and has said film's title embroidered on the back. I've already contacted the lost property office but I haven't heard back yet at all.😔
To break up the monotony of the six hour journey I'd packed myself a little sewing bag (the one I made the other day from scratch!) and stitched up a couple of doll t-shirts.
Finally my train arrived at Stroud where I met up with Tomás and Rory then went exploring the town for a bit, including a lunch stop where I enjoyed this particularly delicious veggie all day breakfast!
(The halloumi and sweetcorn fritters were particularly 👌)
Next stop was Beverston, where we spotted this absolutely delightful old stable block.
Right next door was a partially ruined castle which was attacked during the English Civil War.
Next to that was a pretty little Norman chapel (St. Mary the Virgin) complete with original Saxon sculpture and grave markers that had been built into the walls!
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| You'll need to squint a bit but you can see the circles with crosses. |
Rory had done an archaeological survey of the building at college so was a literal font of knowledge on its history and the area which was really interesting. I often forget just how big a deal the English Civil War was for instance, as well, it wasn't anything to do with us up here! 😆
After drinking in our fill of history for the day we headed back to the house where I was introduced to everyone, including the cats. Tyg proved difficult to photograph but Lottie was a fairly decent subject.
...well, kind of.
Cirencester was our destination of choice on Thursday, with the Corinium Museum at the top of our list!
I live just down the road from the Antonine Wall, so there's plenty of Roman activity in my area, but Cirencester is something else entirely as they actually lived and developed the city there, whereas here they seemed more concerned with keeping us pesky barbarians away from their precious straight roads and fancy bath houses.
The Corinium's collection of mosaics and Roman artefacts was incredible and I could honestly have spent all day in there. Sadly their prehistoric section was being renovated so that was unavailable but there was plenty else to see.
Genuine Roman wall plaster! 👀
Of all the expressions they could have chosen for this figure, why this one? 😂
We're adults, honestly.
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| ..and yes, it does say 'butts' |
Juno approved of the ancient goddess of choice...
'Emperor' the Cotswold ram was a rather unexpected and handsome addition to the tour later on. The wool trade was of tremendous importance to the area and these sheep in particular were the backbone of the industry. They've got such adorable faces too!
'The Strange Helmet'
Cirencester wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I absolutely loved it. It really felt like at any moment we'd turn a corner and end up in Diagon Alley.
All that museuming made us hungry, so we raced into 'He Says She Waffles' for something to eat and daaaaaaaamn, they do good waffles.
It wouldn't be a trip into a historic town without a good long perusal of its antique shops, so we had a good rummage in one massive establishment.
I bought a couple of old postcards for my collection...
...and sorely regretted not buying this amazing mouse candlestick! 😭
Alas, closing time arrived long before I'd have liked, and I had to cut my perusal short. Next time we need a whole day in there I think!
Friday's activities had been planned for months, with a couple of surprises.
I'd discovered that not too far away by the River Severn were a couple of really good sites for fossil hunting, and so we decided to head off to Sedbury, across the border in Wales to see if we could find some. We didn't fancy paying the toll to cross the bridge, (because we're cheap) so we took the long way round instead, which obviously took longer, but was still pretty scenic. Unbeknownst to Rory, Tom had planned on picking up their friend Agata en route, which I knew about in advance. Cue lots of backseat driving from him when Tom 'missed the turnoff' several times...right up until we pulled up on the pavement and our newest passenger gave us all a wave. XD
There wasn't a parking space close to the site so we parked in a layby and walked the mile or so to the river's edge. It was a nice easygoing walk, and along the route were the most abundant bramble bushes I've ever seen in my life.
With the Severn being a tidal river, making sure of your tide times is of prime importance...which was why it was incredibly frustrating when we realised that we'd all forgotten to check in advance and had managed to arrive at the highest point of high tide, making the fossil beach all but inaccessible.
Luckily there was no real rush, so we sat by the shore and talked for what felt like hours, watching the river go by and random videos on our phones.
The area directly in front of us was muddy saltmarsh, while the rocky beach we needed to get to was further up the path. At some point there was talk of seeing if there was anything to find at this part of the shore, and thanks to some epic miscommunication, Tom leapt down, expecting the rest of us to follow, which we er...didn't.
It was VERY muddy down there as he soon discovered.
We finally got him out in one rather grubby piece and headed off towards the beach. The route took us through some tall reeds, then onto a path that was just as muddy as the foreshore. This picture does it absolutely no justice, it took us forever to traverse as it was just so slippery and I ended up resorting to clinging onto nearby trees just to stay upright!
Finally we arrived. It wasn't the most attractive of beaches, but the fossils really were everywhere!
Almost every rock you looked at contained some kind of fossil, but it was the ammonites I was most excited to find as they really aren't something you see round where I live.
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| I counted at least ten in this rock alone! |
I didn't find quite as much as I'd have liked, but I did get a couple of decent fossils to take home.
Rory easily had the best find of the day - talk about beginner's luck!
Finally we headed back to the car, laden down with rocks of all shapes and sizes.
I'm absolutely godawful at selfies.
The three stages of reactions to my puns:
On the way back we filled an entire punnet and two plastic bags full of brambles. There were so many it would have been a waste to leave them there!
The famous red cliffs of Aust are on the other side of the river and I'd love to see what we can find over there another time - they're famous for bones and bits of ichthyosaur!
Once we'd dropped Agata off we headed home for an absolutely amazing Ethiopian peanut and sweet potato stew 👌😭
Saturday was the Julip Live, and a post about that very event will be posted immediately after this one. :)
The only phrase that adequately describes Sunday is that bed is life.
All three of us had planned to spend my final day in Tetbury on another road trip to an interesting location but we were all completely shattered after the show so spent the entire day in bed in our PJs, playing really cheesy horse games and vintage PS1 classics whilst the lovely Tyg kept us company and put up with our antics.
I'd had a bit of a sore back and stomach cramps the night before, but didn't think much about it as I'm often prone to that kind of thing. Rory spent most of the afternoon asleep and there were a few points where I genuinely felt like drifting off myself.
Later in the evening my back ache got a lot worse and I started feeling nauseous. I rushed to the bathroom and discovered that throwing up really isn’t fun. 🤢
I haven’t been physically sick since I was a very small child (when I puked all over a cushion on my bed and even after it was washed it was somehow never the same again. 😂) so it was really disconcerting and horrible as I only had vague recollections of how it felt the last time and the sensation of not being fully in control of your body is horrific. Afterwards I discovered that I wasn’t alone, Tom had been having his own vom session earlier when I was downstairs getting a drink and Rory joined in an hour or so later.
Whether it was something we’d all eaten or something we picked up at the show we will never know, but it certainly wasn’t the way any of us wanted my visit to end!
After our stomachs finally calmed down we just tried to get some sleep which was easier said than done unfortunately. Rory stuck on an audiobook of Dracula so we had something to listen to in the background as we were too exhausted to talk, and I must say, there’s a lot less vampire action in it than I was expecting! I woke up a few times during the night and it was still going, and while I’d long since lost the thread of the plot, there was something strangely comforting about the gentle cadence of the voices.
The following morning we emerged, pretty drained and feeling crap, but alive. My train north was at just after one, so we had plenty of time to get ready.
In keeping with our lack of good luck, we hit major traffic jams and delays en route to the station (including a Land Rover full of golfers who insisted on staying at 45mph in a 60mph zone!!) which meant that I had to full on leap out of the car (difficult in a two door hatchback) grab my stuff and humph everything over the railway bridge (with the aid of a kind stranger who helped me lug the suitcase up the stairs) to catch my train...which pulled away moments after I set foot on the right platform. 🤦♀️
Cue instant stress meltdown. Luckily a friendly train man took a look at my ticket (after suggesting I take a seat and a breather) and went off to find me a new route I could use my existing tickets on. He came back a minute later with a printout and bottle of water as I looked a bit frazzled! 😂 It was just so typical as I didn't even have time to say proper goodbyes or hugs!
This is why I don’t consider myself a responsible adult! 😂😂😂
I was feeling a bit nauseous again on the last leg of the journey and asked the snack trolley guy if he had any mints for sale (as mint is supposed to help with nausea) but he didn’t have any so I told him not to worry about it and just got some water instead, only for him to suddenly produce a wee cup of mint humbugs and offer me one! Apparently he kept them on hand ‘just in case’ 😭
I may be cursed when it comes to travelling but I’m blessed with train staff! 😂
Random sickness aside, I really loved my little trip down south and I hope I can come back again soon! :D
Julip Live post up next!
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