Alice in Wonderland

Yesterday, me, Mom, Josh and Thomas visited the Botanic Gardens. They were absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. Wandering through the gardens, I felt a little bit like Alice in Wonderland. The overgrown plants and winding paths along the river were reminiscent of a fantastical world. It is easy to see where Lewis Carroll drew his inspirations. My favourite part of the whole garden was the lily pond. I found the fish that were swimming there to be quite amusing and the many variations of lilies to be quite beautiful. It was really unfortunate, however, that my camera battery died halfway through wandering the gardens. Mom gave me her camera to take pictures with but it just wasn't the same. A slightly terrifying experience I had was sitting on top of Joshua's shoulders to take a picture of the giant rhubarb for Thomas. Everyone found this amusing except for me. Despite this, I enjoyed my time walking through the Botanic Gardens.

Today we went to the Bodleain Library for an Alice in Wonderland exhibit that I was interested in seeing. There is a large emphasis on Lewis Carroll in the city as of late because it is the 150th anniversary of his book "Alice in Wonderland", and this exhibition was supposed to showcase how different artists have found inspiration in his books. I thought that this sounded like a very interesting concept, however, the exhibit turned out to be quite disappointing. There was only a small display of ten or so books featuring different illustrations of the famed book that artists have done over the years. We looked through the entire exhibit in less than five minutes. As mom said, "Thank goodness it was free". We then decided to also go to the Charles Dickens exhibit which was much more interesting and featured a fuller display. After our expedition to the Bodleain Library, we wandered through the covered market. To end our afternoon adventures, we had tea at The Grand Cafe. It claims to be England's oldest cafe, being established in 1650. Isn't it amazing how there is a cafe in Oxford that is older than our country? Once again, I felt a little bit like Alice in Wonderland though the tea in The Grand Cafe is much classier than the tea that Alice has with the Mad Hatter. We had some delicious scones, chocolates and sandwiches to accompany our tea. All this talk of Alice in Wonderland gives me a great idea for a themed tea party.

I guess you could say it's a mad world.