As Karen’s back is still on the mend, she’s been avoiding
car journeys and taken to using the train instead. At least on a train she can stand, also the
seats tend to be higher and therefore better for her than those in a car. We’re only ½ mile from the station at
Aldermaston so it’s easy to get into Reading to visit Ellis in hospital. He is now completely tube free and gets all
his feeds from Lauren. This includes the
night feeds as she has been staying in a hospital flat where she can have Ellis
in the room with her. We all feel that it
won’t be long before he’s home now 😊
Like us, the five boats we are moored with haven’t moved
because the river levels are still too high.
We are more than happy here as it’s quiet with great views across the
fields one way and into the woods the other.
There’s plenty of wildlife to see and hear especially first thing in the mornings
although we’ve yet to see a kingfisher since we’ve been back in the UK.
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| A sunny morning on our mooring |
We changed plans and I skipped the supermarket trip and made
for the car as quickly as possible. By
the time I had walked to the car Karen was on the phone wondering how I was
getting on. She was already on the
towpath and I was still 30 minutes away!
We decided that she should pop into the pub where she could wait in the
warm and dry. It all turned out rather well
as we ended up having a meal there, left the car in the car park and walked
back to the boat in the dry as the rain had stopped.
For the last week we have been moored just up from
Aldermaston on the Kennet & Avon canal.
I have previously mentioned that much of the canal between Newbury and
Reading is actually the River Kennet with occasional cuts that bypass the river
by the use of locks. The Kennet
Navigation, as it was originally known, was opened in 1724, nearly 300 years
ago; the remaining section from Newbury down to Bath was opened in 1810. Coupled with the navigable River Avon from
Bath to Bristol this created a profitable inland trade route between London and
Bristol harbour.
All the locks on the Kennet Navigation were built as turf
sided locks as they were cheaper to construct.
Mind you, as they were sloping sided, it took more water to fill them,
but water wastage wasn’t an issue as it was a river navigation. Only two turf sided locks remain, the others
were replaced by brick sided locks mainly during the great restoration of the
canal from 1970 to 1990; the canal became disused soon after the opening of the
Great Western Railway line from Reading down to Bath.
Looking back at the photos we took when travelling up and
down this canal in the past I’m amazed that I can only find one picture of a
turf sided lock!
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| Monkey Marsh lock in 2012 – the only photo we took of a turf sided lock |
The week ended on Sunday with Lauren’s ‘baby shower’. I know it sounds American (which it is) but
it was really good catching up with lots of Lauren’s friends whom we haven’t met
for a long time. It didn’t seem to
matter that baby showers are meant to happen before the baby is born – it was a
good excuse for a party especially as I was the only man allowed in 😉
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| Tube-free Ellis showing off a hat and cardy knitted by Nanny Karen |
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