Theale, Kennet and Avon Canal

Fobney Lock! I hate Fobney Lock! It is huge; it is hard work and

that river landing!!!

Fortunately a boat had just come out of the lock and left a gate open, so that was part of the hard work done.

Then, there were two canoeists camping by the lock and one of them helped me with the top lock (after scrounging some water and offering to pay for a windlass (if we had a spare) as they had lost theirs. David found them one we'd rescued with the Seasearcher.

The locks at this end of the K&A seem very unloved and in need of some TLC.

At Garston Lock I had a feeling I was being watched. Call me silly, but those two eyes followed me everywhere I went.

After my first swing bridge at Theale (completely electrified, thank goodness) we stopped at the 24hr moorings there and I walked into town for a newspaper.
(No letter to Mrs Mills from David published this week!)

A photograph on one of the K&A locks leaking like mad. It is matted onto silver, dark lilac, holographic silver and lime green card.

The base card is a light lilac, and I wrapped some lime green ribbon around the right hand side of the card and tied it with a bow. The three lime green dots were made form the lime green card and covered in Crystal Glaze.

Reading, Kennet and Avon Canal

Because all the locks are now available to use "out of hours" we left Wallingford at 0600. The weather was perfect, sun was shining again

and there was lots of wildlife in, on above the water.

We reached Reading at 1045 and found a mooring just past Blakes Wharf.

My favouritest type of boat.

I don't seem to have any cards with photos of the Thames on (must remedy that). So here is a picture of Dunworkin which we passed at Beale Park.

I just matted the photo onto white and red card and stuck it to a white card base.

Wallingford, River Thames

Yet another unnecessary sign. "Private Property" would have sufficed. Or are boaters really that ignorant?

And two pictures of two birds seen circling over the river.

A kite, possibly a red one and

And a buzzard. But I'm not sure and stand to be corrected.

The Thames was blissful; it was hot and sunny and quite lazy. We went through the first lock at 0800 as the electricity was on and we did not have to wait for a lock keeper.

We bought a two-day licence at Abingdon Lock for £33.00 and were mooring up at more new moorings, in Wallingford at 2pm. The new moorings are on the left hand side going downstream and cost £5.00 a night, payable at the swimming pool kiosk. The pools were packed with children and towards the end of the afternoon, so was the river with kids jumping off the bridge.

A yellow base card with blue dotted ribbon tied around the spine and knotted. The topper was a peel-off stuck onto watercolour paper and coloured in with water colours, the matted onto green, blue scalloped and silver card. Three flowers were then stuck in the bottom right hand corner.

Oxford, Oxford Canal

A completely useless sign here! "Canal Users. Stop here and use footpath to operate lift bridge". I couldn't get the footpath to lift the bridge, I had to hang on as usual.

Here is another picture of the lift bridge from upstream, I liked the juxtaposition with the motorway bridge over it. I waited as long as I could for a lorry to go over the top and then missed it!

We left Kiddlington early and arrived at Dukes Lock at 0715, there was a boat about to enter the lock and another one waiting behind it. Looked like a busy day. Both boats had come off the river that morning.

We travelled on into Oxford and were soon moored up on the brand new moorings opposite the old boatyard at Jericho. A great improvement from the old broken down banks and metal spikes. Shame about the boatyard opposite. So much heartache and no progress - just big wooden fences.

A photograph of a lovely "back end" of a butty. Lots of paintwork and ropework. I matted the photo onto silver card and then onto red card which I trimmed with deckle edged scissors. The light blue ribbon was stuck down the front of the card towards the left hand side and then the darker one with the decoration was tied around on top with a knot.

The picture was fixed over the ribbon with sticky fixers and three glass gems added to the bottom right hand corner.

Above Kidlington Green Lock, Oxford Canal

Left in the drizzly mist at 0500, and surprised the owner of the Somerton Deep Lock as he left for his walk down the towpath to pick up his car.

We stopped around 0845 at Tackley for a rest and left again at 1045 in bright sunshine.

Just as I was about to open the lift bridge at Thrupp and voice called out "Hello Mr David". It was Maffy http://narrowboater.blogspot.com/ He helped me lift the bridge, but David was shouting something and the boat was going backwards.

Apparently a brass bolt thingy had sheered on the gear lever. We managed to get the boat moored up on the landing for the lift bridge. Not exactly the most convenient place to stop, but we had no choice, it was there or the waterpoint.

Sandwiches for Annies Tea Rooms by the wharf, and a sit in the sun to await River Canal Rescue and jumping up to lift the bridge for boats passing through.

The engineer was there by 5, the bolt was replaced and 15 minutes later we set off again. Of course, by now the one vacant mooring outside the cottages in Thrupp was gone so we came on here.

The sunshine today has really brought everything out. We saw cygnets, moorhen chicks, dragonflies, wild roses and elderflowers. The smells were delicious.

One of the cards I made for Caroline's birthday present (cheepskate). The shoe die-cut was made from a shiny embossed card. I stuck it onto a white card base. Then I wrapped some lilac ribbon around a narrow piece of card the same height as the card base and tied one in knot.

Finally, I printed out the sentiment in a font with bubbles and fixed it under the shoe.

Belchers Swing Bridge, Oxford Canal

We hung about to see whether Jennifer had had her piglets, but no, she was still huffing and puffing. After about 45 minutes it started raining and there was some piling, so we stopped.

The Great Western Arms at Aynho had been recommended to us by Sara and Dean yesterday, so we walked down to the wharf and ordered lunch.

A lovely pub, lots or railway memorabilia, but best of all a great chef who cooks wonderful meals. The piece de resistance being pudding - a choice of 6 for two people!

Then it was back to the boat in the rain, a fire and a comfy afternoon

The cygnets from the nest opposite the mooring came to visit for their lunch when we got back. Here are three of the little cuties.








This card began with a white card blank. I cut a piece of black card lightly smaller than the card and stuck a slightly smaller piece of red card on top of that and fixed them both to the card.

The three photographs of working boats were matted onto silver and black card and fixed to the red panel.

nb Acres, Oxford Canal

After a surprisingly quiet night in Banbury we had a latish start. Well latish for us - 0730. There was a strong smell of brewing in the air, and two boats had gone down through the lock before we got there.

Then as we were rounding a corner, just before Nell Lift Bridge we saw a row of off-side moorings with lots of signs outside advertising temporary moorings, fresh eggs and rare breed meat and pens of pigs. How could we resist?

The moorings are £6 and electricity is £2 per night. The Internet was working so I have finally been able to ubdate this blog, and got all the washing done.

Dean and Sara, who run the moorings and small-holding actually live on their narrowboat, Per Ardua with their three dogs and originally bought the site just to moor their boat. Then came the pigs, sheep, chicken and geese.

They are breeding two rare breeds of pig, Sandy and Black (which is a cross Tamworth/Berkshire) and the very rare Lop.

This is Jennifer (a Sandy and Black) and she is supposed to be farrowing today, but no sign yet.



And this is "The Daddy", Jake.

David was in pig heaven.



There is a farm shop selling their meat and some water buffalo ice cream (we saw the buffalo whilst coming up the Napton Locks), there are also chicks in a pen under a heat lamp and a small incubator with eggs waiting to hatch, some emergency food supplies, milk, drinks, coal and wood.





I don't have any pig cards, but there is also flock Hebridian sheep, so I'm showing this one.


I can't remember when I got these tin sheep, but I stuck this one onto some handmade paper and then matted it onto some white and blue card.

The brown spotty paper was "grunged" with a brown ink pad and fixed onto the front of a white card blank and the sheep was stuck over it.