It began with a visit to Asthall Manor, near Burford, a week or so ago when its owner Rosie Pearson introduced me to some wonderful examples of garden sculpture being shown in her on form 06 exhibition. Our tour of the gardens of this lovely Cotswold house once home to the Mitford family was followed by an al fresco lunch during which I got to know some of the artists involved. One of them was Richard Aumonier. Readers who share my interest in some of the more obscure writers of the 20th century might like to know that he is the grandson of Stacy Aumonier (1887-1928).

I have learned since from Rosie that the show is proving a big hit in part, I feel sure, as a consequence of Jeannine Alton's warm recommendation in last week's Oxford Times. The gardens have been filled with visitors, and a good number of pieces have been sold, including works by both my lunch-table neighbours. The show continues until Sunday, July 9. It is open every day (except Mondays and Tuesdays) from noon until 6pm. For further information, see www.onformsculpture.co.uk Last Saturday, I travelled to the opposite end of the county indeed, across into Buckinghamshire for the lunchtime private view of An Imaginary Journey, a summer exhibition at the Dadbrook Gallery, in Cuddington. The gallery unusually (in my limited experience) doubles as a private house for its owner Clico Kingsbury and her family. Again, the show offers views of a glorious garden, for while most of the work is indoors including stunning pieces from the Chinese painter Qu Lei Lei, who exhibited last year at the Ashmolean Museum no visitor will want to miss the outdoor sculptures by Serena de la Hey, who created the UK's largest known willow figure, the Willow Man, a 40ft piece near the M5 in Somerset. One is Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe which is on permanent display in the rolling greensward leading down to the lake. Inspired by the Manet painting of the same name, it consists of three seated figures.

Specially created for the summer exhibition (and priced at £533) is The Woven Willow Monkey, which I persuaded Clico, usually an unwilling victim of photography, to pose with for a photograph. She told me: "Serena brought him up here last week (as well as a gaggle of geese) from the Somerset Levels, where she lives, and reported that he enjoyed the ride. He evidently caused caused several near misses en route . . ."

The Dadbrook Gallery's summer exhibition, which also features work by Sue Peake, Caroline Meynell, Graham Brant, Alan Halliday, Rhoda Partridge and Johnny Dewe Mathews, is part of the Bucks Open Studio fortnight, the county's equivalent of Oxford Artweeks, which continues until July 1. The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm daily, except Sunday and Monday. Directions and map are on the gallery website, www.dadbrookgallery.co.uk My third exposure to garden sculpture came in Stadhampton on Saturday night when I attended the joint birthday party I cast a veil of discretion over the ages of my old friends Bob and Frances Campbell. A sculpture of an owl by Michael Cooper was a joint gift from their three children, Tom, Chloe and Nancy, the first of whom I met as a babe in arms at Oxford Town Hall some 30 years ago when his mother was a city councillor. The statue was unveiled in the presence of the Campbells' many party guests. Bob, the president of Blackwell Publishing and son of the late naturalist Bruce Campbell, said they were delighted with the gift. What precisely it was had not been revealed in advance, though the sudden presence of a large shrouded object visible from their bedroom window provided a pretty good clue that the present was not going to be a box of chocolates.

Michael Cooper works from Grange Farm, Radnage, (www.michaelcoopersculptor.com). Some of his pieces can be seen in the grounds of that wonderful restaurant the Sir Charles Napier, up in the Chilterns, near Chinnor.