Pigeon Lock, Oxford Canal

 Now here is a new sign or two.

Leaving the mooring by Osney bridge was a challenge.  The current was so fast that David had fun getting to the back of the boat after untying the front, before hitting the boat behind.  Then it was foot down through the low bridge, hoping that the water wasn't too high for the bridge to take the satellite dish off.  We got through safely and with relief headed down the Sheepwash Channel and into the lock and the Oxford Canal.

NO MORE B***** RIVERS!!!

The weather was awful. Cold and wet.

The lift bridges have been modified so that single handers can use them.  They have put a lock on the towpath side and now you need a Watermate key to unlock the bridge and it opens automatically.  So far so good.  On the first one I could not remove the key after we got the bridge down.

On the second one I couldn't even get the key to open the bridge, so we called BW out.  Half an hour later a hire-boat arrived and a crew member opened the bridge.  Apparently you have to stand on the lock to make it work.  Duh!

Anyway, by standing on this mechanism I was able to operate the third bridge with no difficulty.

Then we came to Mill Lift Bridge, which had not been modified and is a heavy metal one.  I could not get enough purchase on the chain to bring the beam down  low enough to sit on it and had to be helped by a kind volunteer who happened to be collecting rubbish from the towpath.

The short river section at Shipton wasn't too bad - on yellow and by 1130 David was cold and wet, so we stopped for the rest of the day.

Back to the wedding card.  This time I made it much more simple.  I used a square, white card blank and matted some purple card onto silver mirror card and fixed it to the card base.  I then added another panel of purple and silver card across the top (it was supposed to have gone down the right hand side, but I get confused with square cards about what is up!).

I cut out a label in silver card and then added the coloured figures and motorbike using sticky fixers to make them stand out a bit.

To finish off I added three lilac pearls.

Here is the card seen from the front.  I hope it is a bit more manly.