Napton Reservoir (Neil in a jam jar)

On Wednesday evening Buddy and I took a walk across muddy fields and joined the Southern Oxford canal.  Once we joined the canal we could see the restored windmill at the top of the hill at Napton-on-the-Hill.

The windmill at the top of Napton-on-the-hill

Many fields are still waterlogged after the wet winter and we were in quite a state by the time we met Karen at the Folly Inn for a cheeky midweek after work drink. 

The Folly Inn at the bottom lock of the Napton flight

The Folly is another one of our favourite canal side pubs and I always remember the first time we went there.  There were three older guys at a table and they had a jam jar on the table full of dust.  When I asked them what it was they told me it was Neil, he used to go on boating holidays with them and still does.  I wonder if we’ll go back one day and see one guy sitting on his own with three jam jars for company?

The South Oxford canal has stanking planks at the bridge holes and we passed some on our walk.  These are the first shelters we have seen built in the style of carports.

Stanking planks and shelter on Southern Oxford canal

Whilst I was having breakfast on Thursday morning these guys went past.  I thought they were checking the depth at first to see where needs dredging.  They weren’t stunning fish as they didn’t have a generator running.  But then I noticed they had nets so maybe they were clearing stuff – a bit strange out in the country as you wouldn’t expect to find bikes and supermarket trolleys out here.  

 

 

Buddy and I crossed to the towpath side of the canal to start our morning walk and passed our boat on the way.

Our offside mooring at Napton Reservoir

The path Karen follows along the canal to get to the car is rather overgrown with hawthorn (as can be seen above) so in the afternoon I got the bush loppers out and did some pruning.  At least she won’t rip her clothes now.  

The afternoon was so warm I took all the side hatches off, cleaned the hinges and greased them – they had got really stiff over the winter.

Later on I met a couple of birders who gave me details of good local butterfly sites, unfortunately the weather seems to be changing for the worse over the next few days so visits to the sites will have to wait.

Napton Reservoir (mooring on the offside)

There were quite a few male Orange Tips on the wing on Tuesday looking very fresh..

Freshly emerged male Orange Tip

I only saw one female (they hatch a day or so later than the males) but she never rested long enough for me to get a shot.  The females lack the bright orange wing tips. I spent some time looking for the eggs on the larval foodplants but without success.

Ladys Smock (aka Cuckoo Flower) - one of the foodplants for Orange Tip caterpillars

Hedge Mustard (amongst other names) - the other main foodplant for Orange Tip larvae

Tuesday evening was glorious across the country and when Karen came home from work we sat on the towpath for a couple of hours watching swallows catching insects above the water; we saw our first swallow last Sunday.  

When we came in I folded up our chairs and put them away in the cratch.  I had forgotten to check for my phone and it must have fallen off my chair into the water when I was putting it away.  Searching with the magnet was useless as the phone wasn’t magnetic.  Oh well, I was going to replace it at the end of the year anyway.  Stupidly, my contacts weren’t backed up so, as I am keeping the same number, please text me your name and I’ll start rebuilding my list of contacts when I get a new phone in a couple of days.

Wednesday promised to be another fine day so as we needed water Buddy and I set off for Calcutt locks on the Grand Union.

Whilst filling up with water I passed the time of day with Ian and his wife on the water point.  They are both 80 this year and have been living aboard for 20 years – as you can imagine they had plenty of interesting stories.

Buddy relaxing in the sun whilst we take on water

After filling up I had to reverse back 300 or 400 yards to moor by Napton Reservoir.  This is one of the few places where you can moor on the offside (the side opposite the towpath).  Generally private landowners own the land up to the canal on the offside but as the reservoir is owned by the Canal & River Trust (it is a feeder to the canal), mooring is allowed on the offside.

Whilst reversing back I pulled alongside Mark on Callisto who was serving a couple on their boat, Together Forever.  I needed to replace a gas bottle and took the opportunity to have the diesel tank topped up too. 

Three abreast for refuelling.  The water point I had reversed back from is way in the distance by the lock gates

Karen can park the car in the car park for the reservoir and walk across a causeway to get home.  We are now only 13 miles from her office.

Karen's causeway

We will probably stay here for a week or so as there is lots of exploring to do and it is rather a pleasant spot especially with the noise of all the water fowl on the reservoir. Our friends Gordon and Jan are out on their boat at the moment further down towards Oxford but we hope to meet up at the weekend.  It will be good to see tham and at least we'll be easy to find.

Looking across the reservoir - we are moored behind the trees on the left side of the picture

Lower Shuckburgh (a bit about butterflies)

Over the last few days we have seen all sorts of weather from balmy sunshine to strong winds and hail.  At least Karen has had some chances to get to grips with her new camera by taking some butterfly pictures.

Peacock butterfly - named from the peacock looking eyes.  This species overwinters, or hibernates, as an adult hence the reason why this one does not look fresh.  It is very difficult to tell the sexes apart on Peacocks

Jo visited us for a few days on her way back to Edinburgh from Cornwall.  

Jo in the disused church at Wolfhamcote when we had a walk on Thursday

Polly and Steve also stayed over on Thursday night as Steve had a meeting in Birmingham and Polly came up to Yorkshire with me on Friday to visit my parents.

Polly arriving in Braunston with sensible footwear

Steve looking concerned that I may not open another bottle of wine

Our friends Mike and Aileen popped over on Wednesday.  They have just got back from a few months in France where they have been investigating the French way of canal life - they are taking their narrowboat out there for a couple of years from next winter.  It was really good to catch up with them and we will miss them when they go away, although it will be a great excuse to pop over to France for a visit of course!

On Saturday we dropped Jo at Birmingham coach station for her trip back to uni in Edinburgh and I took Buddy for a wander whilst Karen said goodbye to her.  We came across an exposed part of the River Rea which used to flow naturally through the Digbeth area before industrialisation took over.

River Rea in Digbeth

By Sunday we had been moored at the Puddle Banks at Braunston for 14 days so, under the terms of our licence, we had to move on.  We moved 3 ½ miles to Lower Shuckburgh where there is a stretch of piling right next to a quiet road bridge where we can moor and park the car.  We won’t be able to stay too long as we are running short of water and also the internet signal is very poor.

Our mooring at Lower Shuckburgh

On our way to Lower Shuckburgh Karen saw the first Speckled Wood of the year but it didn’t pose long enough for her to get a decent picture.  We did pass this mallard with 16 ducklings (we saw her the previous day when she had 17).

Losing one a night is not a good average

Female mallard winding Buddy up - he was sitting on the back deck a few feet away

This boat had been moored just up from us in Braunston and the cat was a bit of a bully and would stay in the middle of the towpath even if a dog was approaching.  I generally kept Buddy on a lead when walking past her as he’s not really used to cats.  

The lady who lives on this boat has been painting her in this interesting finish over the last two weeks

We are slowly training him to leave ducks alone if they are sitting on the bank but he finds it so hard to resist them.  On Sunday when Karen and I took him for a walk we rounded a bend and there were chickens on the towpath, unbelievably Buddy came to heel as soon as I called him otherwise it would have been a catastrophe.

On our mini cruise to our new mooring spot we passed this group of boats that we have seen in the area many times over the years.  The box on top of the middle plastic boat is a cage of ferrets.  The black boat is one that we have watched being built and is now lived in,  The blue box thing at the back is a massive generator which the guy used to run his welding gear.

Continuous Cruisers on the Grand Union

We have also seen this couple in the past.  They moor up, hang coloured bottles in the trees, set up a tent and put all their china ornaments on a table.  They sit there polishing their ornaments, using the tent if the weather is inclement.

Man polishing his china.  Woman watching pensively

The towpaths are still very muddy and on the particularly muddy bits Buddy seems to think, “Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound”, and madly rushes through, turns round and runs back through again.  He tends to get rather muddy lately!

Buddy going for it

We saw a few freshly emerged Orange Tips on Sunday but again none were obliging for photographs.  The caterpillars feed on Garlic Mustard (Jack by the Hedge) and Cuckoo Flower - both are pretty spring flowers.  The caterpillars are cannibalistic so the females lay their eggs singly so need to find many plants to lay their 100 or so eggs.  The males are the only ones that have the distinctive orange tips to their wings.  Orange Tips are generally the first butterflies seen in the spring that have not overwintered as adults; they overwinter as pupae.

Male Orange Tip

It's usually this time of year that we start to gather Ransoms (aka Broad Leaved Garlic or Wild Garlic) but we haven't seen any yet.  The stretches of Oxford and Grand Union canals we have been on over the last few weeks have been a bit too open and consequently not the right habitat.

Braunston (family visitor week)

This is going to be a busy week.  Jo is down from Edinburgh uni for a few days and Polly is coming up on Thursday as she and I are off to Yorkshire to visit my parents on Friday.  Steve is also coming on Thursday for a sleepover as he has meetings in Birmingham.

Last weekend Karen and I took a few walks to decide where to move to next but first I took her on a walk to Flecknoe which is a village that had taken my fancy last week as a place to retire to.  Karen really liked it too and was tickled by this bit of gardening.

Interesting addition to garden wall in Flecknoe

There are quite a few unclassified roads in this area that cross the canal often the bridges provide ideal places to park the car and boat.

Unadopted road near Nethercote

Unfortunately when this lane met the canal it was far too muddy for the car – a pity we don’t still have the Defender.

Where unadopted road meets the canal - too muddy to park our car

Now the weather has become warmer we tend to have the side hatches open during the day but it does mean you have to keep things out of reach of the swans.

Swan hoping to grab some food

These three ducks are constantly round our boat – seems a bit odd at this time of year but she is quite content to have two males with her and they never seem to fight.

The male mallard on the right bears the marks of being attacked on his chest (it wasn't Buddy)

One of the two males that have made our boat their territory

On one of our walks we followed a bit more of the original line of the Oxford canal and found another section still in water…

Section of original Oxford canal still in water

…and this line of trees marking the route across a field.

The line of the old canal running across a field

This is bridge 100 on the Oxford canal which looks a bit precarious.  The numbering starts at 1 at Hawkesbury junction (where it joins the Coventry canal) and ends at 243 at Isis lock in the middle of Oxford.  The whole canal is 77 miles in length and also has 46 locks.

Bridge 100 on the Oxford canal

One evening we took a walk along the Grand Union up to the tunnel at Braunston which is over 2,000 yards long.  Not sure why Karen took this picture but I’ve included it anyway.

The western portal of Braunston tunnel on the Grand Union canal

We passed a mile marker a mile out of Braunston which reminded us that the Grand Union has iron mile markers all the way from Brentford to Birmingham and also along its various arms.  The stretch between Brentford and Braunston is 94 miles long and the markers count down (or up) the distance to (or from) Braunston.  This stretch was the original Grand Junction canal, hence the GJC on the mile marker.  The Grand Union canal company was formed in 1929 and combined several canals such as the Regents, Erewash, Loughborough, Leicester and Grand Junction canals to create what is now known as the Grand Union canal.