Surprised

(Sunday) Caught up at last. We have WiFi. 

Upper Heyford boasts a tithe barn, and here it is. It's just behind the church but we couldn't visit as it's on private land. 

Just around the corner is a working lift bridge. In the old days I would always have to operate the bridge because when the captain tried, it looked as if the bridge had St Vitus' dance. Up it would go, come down a bit, go up again, down, up - until I tied up the boat and we swopped round. The problem wasn't the raising of the bridge but the transference of weight to hold it open. Nowadays, all you need is a key and, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Best not to raise it when people are crossing. 

There we go. 

In parts the canal gets narrower because of all the reeds growing along the edge. 

Sometimes it feels as if you're in the Amazon rain forest. 

Not much room either side. 

Approaching Pigeon Lock you can see all the gongoozlers on the bridge anticipating a fun day out. No fun for them with the captain at the tiller, slipped into the lock as neat as a button. Even remembered to pick me up on the way out. 

Sunday afternoon treat of anglers on the bank. Not too many today luckily. 

The poor old Rock of Gibraltar pub is no more. All boarded up and looking very sorry for itself. 

Now, I must say that I am impressed with the captain's steering. We passed through 3 tricky bridges and navigated past all these moored boats with no problems at all. Gold star captain. 

Had a surprised phone call from Brian this afternoon. Not sure who was the more surprised, Brian or us. The phone rang and Brigid answered, knowing it was Brian because the phone said so. "Hello Brian" "Who's that?" "Brigid" "Crackle click buzz phone click land buzz line - beep" When we had a better signal, we phoned the landline. "Hello, what do you want" (We both asked the same question) After a confusing couple of minutes we sorted out that Brian had only turned on his mobile phone and somehow managed to call us. Still, we had a nice chat with him. 

I spy the Earth satellite station at Enslow. 

We're on a short stretch of the river Cherwell where we can speed along faster than on the canal. 

The captain's at the helm. 

And off we go. 

Moored just before Shipton-on-Cherwell in time to cook a roast chicken dinner followed by an apple & blackberry crumble - and we watched the Grand Prix as well. 

Happy Sunday.