Having spent seven weeks
at Lapworth in the winter it feels a bit like coming home now we are back
here. We will only stay a couple more
days though as we want to get down the Oxford canal to Cropredy by the end of
July.
As part of our morning
walk, Buddy and I went to the nearest water point to fill up some old drink
bottles. We give fresh water to the
plants that we will be eating so have to fill the bottles up regularly. Our tomatoes are now producing ripe fruit so
we shouldn’t have to buy any for our daily salads for the next few weeks
hopefully.
The canal levels are
fairly low at the moment and Buddy hasn’t found anywhere he can get down to
drink the water. This means he has had
to resort to drinking tap water from his bowl.
There was a muddy old puddle by the water point and I had to keep him
away from it as he was lapping it up.
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Buddy getting a mud drink
whilst I filled up the water bottles
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As it was washing day and
the sun was out I stayed put during the morning so the washing could dry
outside. I was surprised how many of the
local dog walkers remembered us even though I couldn’t remember many names.
Even Buddy remembered
John, who lives in an old lock cottage, and his three spaniels. When we were living around here in February
and March Buddy soon learnt to avoid the spaniels as they were grumpy and
snappy. When we met them again on
Monday, Buddy seemed to remember and gave them a wide berth.
I took my lunch to the bench
by the lock near where we are moored as there was quite a bit of boat movement
and it’s a pleasant way to while away 20 minutes.
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Having my lunch and looking up part of the flight we
came down on Sunday
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After lunch Buddy and I
set off down the remaining six locks to join the Grand Union. There were quite a few tourists out walking and so
many wanted to chat that it took ages to get down the locks. Still, it didn’t matter as we weren’t going
far and it was good to have a break from the heat occasionally.
At one lock two separate people
came up to ask the way to Birmingham via Kings Norton. There are two main canals here with a major
junction and if you don’t have a map it is easy to go wrong. Both people had gone the wrong way up the
Grand Union when they should have turned off onto the Stratford. Both sets had moored at a pub and soon
realised they were on the wrong canal when chatting to the barmaid. They then walked into the village and found
the canal where they should have been and I explained how they could turn around
and get back on track. The towpath
around here has recently been gravelled, horrible stuff, but great for drawing
maps on with a windlass!
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Why it's easy to get
confused round here
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As the six locks were
close together I did quite a bit of walking back and forth between the locks to
get them set and close them up. Buddy
soon got fed up with this and just stayed at whichever lock had the boat in.
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Buddy waiting lockside
whilst I go back to close up the previous lock
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Unused stanking plank
structure at one of the locks
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Karen and I both think
that this is one of the better parts of the system as it has locks, junctions,
walks, pleasant moorings, good boater facilities and also tends to be quiet.
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Taking the arm to the
Grand Union with a small area for residential boats in the background
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Karen had a great idea at
the weekend and thinks we should do the Hatton flight (21 locks) on Thursday
evening. She reckons she can get home
from work early at about six so we should have just enough time to get the
flight done. It’s always fun cruising in
the evenings especially in the summer. So,
this week Buddy and I will slowly make our way to the top of the Hatton flight
ready for Thursday.
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| Our mooring for Monday night |
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| Monday evening's view |
I was conscious that I hadn’t
included a picture of all of us celebrating Matthew’s graduation in Prague at
the weekend but Sophie found one so here it is.
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Evening celebrations
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Sophie also sent me this
one of her and Yanos and some silly man in the background,
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