Well I lost another Phone then, Doh!!!!!!!!
I am Writing today as I wanted to make it less than two weeks since I last wrote and I managed to do that, I left you last time on Wednesday June 30th having
just moored up at the bottom of Radford locks which was near Leamington Spa it was a lovely spot right in the shade of some trees and so a super mooring for us, we were not in any hurry so we stayed a couple of days to do a bit of cleaning and polishing, “always work to do on a boat” but I don’t think we ever do as much titivating as our lovely friends Jo and Keith on Nb Hadar www.workingboathadar.co.uk just thought I would add that Jo as I know you are an avid reader, and are always at it...... (Cleaning and polishing I mean)! “Now it’s over two weeks as I had a break and only just got back to writing” So we stayed a couple of days and on Saturday 3rd July we started to head up
the locks, it was hot again but, we were getting some help from Andy Lowe, it was his last day, so he helped us up the locks, where I managed to get a super picture of a grass snake that had jumped, or fallen into the lock, I got the pictures because he was coiling himself to try and climb out, although grass snakes are prolific swimmers, he would not want to spend his day stuck in a high sided lock so when the gates opened he slithered out. We stopped off at Whilton Marina to get an ice lolly, Richard got diesel, he always gets stuff like that when we make an important stop for sweets and lolly’s so it’s very handy that these marina’s also sell fuel, I know which was most important for me, Richard has other ideas!! All the locks finished we were not going to travel far so when we turned on to the South Oxford at Wigrams Turn (that’s the very old name for it), it’s also known as Napton Junction we just went round a bridge down and stayed there for the weekend, said Goodbye to Andy and got to doing our own thing, which was exploring we pushed out bikes up the biggest hill in the village of Napton on the Hill, another of those gorgeous villages, but when you’re up you have to come down so although it was a slog pushing the bike up the hill it was a brill coming down the other side making our own cool breeze, at the bottom on the other side of the village we stopped at the local Co-Op just to get the odd thing or too, and discovered the Buffalo Ice Cream, it’s made from mashed buffaloes if you didn’t already know that, they mash them up, put flavours in and freeze em, simple !!, I had Strawberry Richard had a chocolate, they were delicious. Now when you go on the road through a village and when you go through on the canal, it’s a whole lot different as the canal is so twisty turney, it becomes miles, so having rode on our bikes down to The folly which is a shop and pub by the canal at bridge thirteen, we then had to go along the canal back to bridge 110 where we had moored, which would have been o.k on our bikes, but Richard got a puncture, which makes a change from me getting them all of the time, so we had to push the bikes back and it seemed like miles, but hey that’s what we do and we love it really. Sunday Joe and Jayne came so we went to the Bridge pub for a Sunday Roast and it was Delightful, all homemade and not very expensive. We didn’t have a dessert as Joe and Jayne liked the sound of the Mashed buffalo Ice-cream so we went and had some of that they thought it was Delicious too.
On Monday I was going to do some washing so I put on the machine hadn’t told Richard, so when turned the engine off when we got to the first of the Napton Locks, the inverter, thats this magic box that turns the engine power into Electric for the Telly and Washing Machine bleeped and went off, I don’t think it had made enough magic power to run the machine without the help of the engine, so we thought we hadn’t better go on, with lights a flashing and beeping on the magic inverter thingy, so we reversed from the water tap back to a winding hole ( that’s a turning round place for thems that don’t know) and went back to Napton Narrow Boats to see if we could plug into the mains Electric to see if it would sort out the magic inverter thingy, the lads that were working said I’m sure it will be o.k. to come and do that, but then this miserable old git comes from out of the office, and said we ain’t got time for this and sent us packing, we were going to pay, but he was far too busy !! anyway the poor working blokes couldn’t apologize enough, but it wasn’t their fault they offer a repair service so how were the poor blokes to know otherwise, anyway we called Amber Boats and Steve said he would be out the next morning to sort it, as we weren’t sure what to do, but come the morning, I did a bit of fiddling and it started to do it’s stuff I think it was because we switched it off for the night, so Thanks again to Amber Boats, especially Steve who would have come out again, at the drop of a hat to sort us out even though we are over two years old now, now that is an after care service.
We sailed on down to Fenny Compton and moored at the wharf pub, it was Wednesday and the sign at the pub said live music Saturday, so we overstayed our time really but we don’t often do it, the Wharf Inn pub is super they cater for boaters brilliantly, they have a shop a laundry, free Wi Fi and they even offer Hot Baths with Fluffy Towels thrown in if you don’t have a bathroom facility. The food was good there too, as on Saturday 10th Bethan and Chris brought
Carys and Iwan over to see us, so they had a lovely lunch at the pub with us, it is so child friendly and comfortable with a lovely covered terrace with soft leather sofa’s to lounge on, there are Pot Bellied Pigs in the Garden to entertain the children, (well me really) I just loved them, we had a lovely day, Carys had a great time feeding the giant carp at the Marina, see the pictures in the gallery. Whilst we were at Fenny Compton, we met up with Arthur and Freda on nb.Puddleduck a lovely couple and Arthur was paper boy, picking up the papers for us on Saturday and Sunday morning, we were leapfrogging each other and mooring up at the same places until we got to Banbury, the reason they passed us on the way to Cropredy (the home of Fairport Convention Concert)as whilst trying to save the life of a baby rabbit that Rio had chased I lost another phone in the canal, so when we got to Cropredy me and Freda went in to Banbury to get a phone, maybe we will see you when we are on our way back to Market Harborough for our winter Mooring. When we got to Banbury I was able to get some proper shopping done, as we had been out in the wilds since leaving Leamington Spa, I got a haircut, some tinting and waxing done, Richard says I’m always refurbishing myself, “well just cos we live on the canal I don’t have to look like a werewolf” ! Anyway got a few bargains in the sales too, things I needed, shoes, summer things!! Richard despairs off me, “the boat will sink if you carry on buying shoes all the time without getting rid of any of the others” men will never understand “We need the others” .
We were staying in Banbury a few days as I had an appointment on Friday in Tamworth, so on Thursday I stayed with Joe and Jayne we went out to one of those Sizzler pubs and had a lovely Steak, got back to the boat on Friday. As we are so close to Beth and Chris who live in Brackley, we had arranged for them to come over to see us on the Saturday so they spent the day with us and then they took us to Brackley so they could take us out to their local Indian Restaurant for a lovely meal, it was a super day and the meal was lovely so thanks Chris and Beth for taking us it was super and we will see you again along the way as we are in driving distance for you for a while yet. Sunday 18th July
, “yes I have almost caught up again” we moored at a lovely spot by a small holding that caters in special breed pigs, and they also have moorings with electricity, so we thought we would moor up as we had not plugged in since the Magic power box inverter thing incident, so we thought it would be a good test so we did, and low and behold the charger is working the inverter is accepting outside power and everything is rosy in the electrical department. Sarah who runs it with her hubby, let me walk around with her at feeding and watering time and she told me all about the different breeds and explained all about the piglets and which Boar had fathered them and it was just lovely, the piglets were just so cute, you could eat them all up, “now I don’t mean that in a Bacon Sandwich or a sausage roll kind of way”, “but you know when you say a baby is so lovely you could eat them, well you wouldn’t really eat them, it’s just a term of endearment” oh and they were so lovely see the pictures in the gallery. Anyway they are still alive and snorting and we liked it so much that we are going to go back to them to leave the boat for next weekend as we have appointments in King’s Lynn, so we left the piggy farm with it’s lovely piggy smell which I just adore, and Richard doesn’t mind it either, and have come to rest at Ayno, not done much of anything as it is just too hot, so just lay on the bed with barely nowt on and written this, until it cools down and then we will go out for another of our lovely walks, so until the next time
Lots of Love
Chrissie Richard and Rio x x
p.s a couple of Happy Birthdays, my sister Jane on the 1st and Abbi on the 10th love from us and anyone else I may
have forgotten, let us know x |
