Last weekend Karen and I
noticed a lot of blackberries ready for picking and thought it was early in the
year. Since then I have noticed a lot
more and reckon it’s blackberry and apple crumble time even though we’re not in
September. Maybe this weekend?
When Karen left for work
on Wednesday morning the sun was coming out but by the time I got out of bed it
was pouring. It was still raining at
noon so I had an early lunch and thought I would move on afterwards. Cruising in the rain is fine as long as you’re
dressed for it and take care at the locks as they may be extra slippery.
As it turned out, the rain
stopped as I ate my lunch so I didn’t bother putting my wet weather gear on; I
kept it handy in case the rain came again.
I was going to go up the Bascote flight of locks, a really pretty flight
of four locks, the top two being a staircase.
Two boats were coming up
the lock behind me as I set off, but as they were already paired up I carried
on on my own.
 |
Approaching the bottom lock
at Bascote
|
Although both boats had
crew, I managed to keep one lock ahead of them all the way. I met the crews at the staircase lock as I
was in the top chamber as they got the lower chamber ready. They commented that they had never realised
that a single hander can do locks as quickly as crewed boats. We had a chat about where they were going and
how long it would take etc. and then I set off again.
I reached Bascote and the
place was practically full of boats already.
It gets busy in the winter with people like us but I’d never seen it
this busy in the summer. I feel that I
keep saying that locations, locks, moorings etc. are our favourites but this
location really is a firm favourite.
There are no main roads or railways around here so it is deathly quiet
apart from wildlife sounds. There are also
lots of great walks and it’s only a mile to walk into the little Co-op at Long
Itchington.
When my sister. Judith,
comes to stay she always makes fun of my blog ramblings and is always keen to
point out train noise etc., especially when I've said we're moored in a quiet spot. I’ll have to
make sure she visits us here when we return after Cropredy.
 |
Moored at Bascote – we've had many
happy times here
|
On Thursday, I’ll be
hanging about during the day and set off again in the evening to start up the ten
locks of the Stockton flight. Karen
hopes to get home early and she’ll help me finish off the flight when she
arrives.
No comments:
Post a Comment