As I put pen to paper for the July blog, I look forward with a degree of intrepidation as Monday 19th passes and we remove social distancing and mask wearing. I thought long and hard about visiting my local night club at midnight to be one of the first to strut my stuff in my micro-mini!
There is no doubt that the month of July has meant getting out a bit more, meeting for lunch, trying to connect with new and existing people desperate to visit the group and to give some support.
We had a lovely return visit to East Ruston Gardens just outside Stalham. The weather again was on our side and we had a delightful get together over light refreshments at lunch and late afternoon. The gardens were well laid out and gave us food for thought for our own gardens, be it on a much smaller scale.
Time to dig up the Oasis archives again. For as long as I have been going to Oasis, July has always been the month of Norwich Pride and I cast my mind back to the many prides I was involved in when Barbara Ross was at the helm of Oasis. We invariably had a stall at the Forum and spent time introducing people to Oasis and meeting people in general. It was always a lovely day with the Pride March through the city centre and the events that took place at Chapelfield Gardens. We celebrated the end of the day with a meal at Pizza Express in the Forum.
Although through the years people came and went, the underlying philosophy for Oasis was to be a group welcoming of all people. In the early days Jenny was very active both at Pride and supporting the Barbara Ross Association, but in the later years now with our new leader, Serena has taken on the baton.
On Saturday 17th we had, hopefully, our final Oasis zoom meeting. It was a low key affair with reduced numbers for a variety of reasons, but went well with some good topics discussed. Again we must thank Petra, now an International star in the Women’s Institute, for hosting all our zoom meetings.
At the end of this month we had our Hoveton Garden visit. In the end 7 of us enjoyed a very nice day, mainly at the cafe! The gardens are extensive and I would recommend you take a visit there sometime soon. Look out for Theresa’s glowing write up.
I am thankful through the lock down at the variety of life stories and articles that people have sent me to post on the website. I hope for those out there, who view from afar but we will never be at our meetings, virtual or real these have been a source of interest. I had a reply from one such viewer who said just seeing other enjoying life and finding their own peace and place in the world was enough of a boost.
Finally let hope that we are able to finally meet F2F in August in as safe an environment as we can. Look out for Serena information regarding this.
Beccie x
oasis norfolk 