The Weekend

Saturday morning was so glorious that I decided to pull the pins and head into the 'country' for a spot of DIY. Maffi and PJ joined me. We all fitted in Shipton Lock and looked quite splendid as the boats lulled about in the sunshine as we worked the lock though



PJ went for a blast up the Cherwell to Bakers lock before coming back to join us, so Maffi and I turned around and came back through the lock with nb TINKERBELL



We stopped short of the lift bridge, but Tinkerbell went on ahead and gave a fine example of the Banbury/Bunbury pole technique for single handers:



and here it is in place with a lady admiring it:



We had a lovely evening moored up in the peace and quiet. Charlie came to visit too which was good fun - she had a go at doing french plaits in my hair - I rather like them!

In the morning Maffi and I pulled the pins and headed back to our moorings. PJ was rather surprised to see us awake and active at such a bright and early hour - especially as he said he was leaving early to go to Dukes and back... but hadn't!



After he held the bridge open for us, he noticed that our dog Dennis had run off down the towpath with Maffi's boat. Once I was through the lock PJ left his cup of coffee and ran after the dog:



He was in his slippers, so you can imagine what a fine running technique he adopted! He caught up with Dennis, and they both returned back to their boat.



Here is the obligatory shot of the parish church. I love the way it rests against the sky above the canal in the trees.



All in all a wonderfully relaxing weekend. I met a couple of people who asked me about my side hatch - they were lovely and had just purchased their own boat. I was rather chuffed as I had also met some lovely people the night before who had asked me about my side hatch too - they have a Kingsground Narrowboat which is absolutely gorgeous, as Kingsgrounds tend to be!