Oh dear, what a long time it's been since I wrote my website! Sorry! I've been busy! A lame excuse, I know, but it's true. We've also been on the upper reaches of the Thames, where there has been poor mobile connection. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Thursday, 5th June
Today we had to brave the elements come what may. We needed to put the boat into a marina as, yes, we were up, up and away on holiday again! You can't hold a good man down. So we set off, with the help of Judy and Peter from 'Keeping Up Too' who were moored by us. They pushed us off and away we went. It was actually not too bad. The river was running fast and we were going against the current, but the boat performed well. We didn't have more than a mile to go, and there were some tricky bends to negotiate, but we got to Oxford Cruisers, and they helped us in and we moored up.

We plugged into the luxury of electricity and got some washing done, and Trev packed his rucksack. He was off to Northumberland until Monday, on a Boys' Own weekend.

Saturday, 7th-Saturday 14th June
Today my friend Mary picked me up and we set off for a week's holiday in Kent. We planned to visit as many National Trust properties as we could during our stay in Tenterden, and we really had a wonderful week. I hadn't realised how pretty Kent is, only having ever been through it to catch the ferry from Dover. We visited:
Smallhythe, the home of Ellen Terry the Victorian actrees
Sissinghurst, which is famous for its beautiful garden, and was the home of Vita Sackville-West and Ralph Nicholson
Bateman's, home of Rudyard Kipling, and my second favourite
Bodiam Castle, a romantic ruined castle in a beautiful setting
Scotney Castle, which was a beautiful Victorian country house and with the remains of an earlier castle in the grounds. The gardens were magnificent.
Knole House, the home of the Sackville-West's, and a rather forbidding looking building, built of Kent ragstone in the 1500's.
Ightam Mote, My favourite of all and one of the reasons I wanted to come and visit Kent.

You can see all of these places at : National Trust

Now, the sad part of all this is that I pressed the wrong button on my camera, and lost all my pictures . However, Mary has promised to let me have a CD of all of hers, so I shall get some eventually., and will hopefully be able to post some here later.

Another good day was when we went to Rye and Winchelsea, such pretty places. I am a fan of E. F. Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" books and they were set in Rye, so it was good to see the places used in the series. We were also lucky in that on the day we went, five gardens were open to the public under the Yellow Book scheme. So we got into the Benson's garden at Ham House, used as the home of Lucia in the books and also into the tiny but lovely garden of the house next door, where Georgie lived. (If you've never read the books, I apologise!) Rye is just so perfect, impossibly narrow, higgledy piggledy streets, delightful houses and up on a hill with lovely views.

You can read about Rye here

Then we went to Winchelsea, which is again up on a hill, with wonderful views. The town was originally a port and the ground below was reclaimed and is flat right out to the sea. Winchelsea was built on a grid system, with broad streets and such attractive houses. Beneath the streets are the wine cellars of the old port town. It claims to be the smallest town in England.

Click here to see Winchelsea's website

One evening we spent with Marie and Anthony, who are friends who used to live and work in Warwickshire, where Trev and I lived, and who now have moved back home to Kent, though I cannot say to retire, as they are running a lovely teashop in Northiam called Pat-a-Cake. I hadn't seen them since we came to live on the boat, so that's over five years ago, and it was great to catch up with them. We all went to an Italian restaurant in Rye and had a good evening. They live in a real cottage--about three hundred years old, with little nooks and crannies and low ceilings and beams. And a garden to die for--so much space, backing onto the countryside.

So, that was my holiday in Kent. Trev got back to the boat on Monday and moved it out of the marina and down the river on his own, not an easy job with the river running so fast. He moored on the meadow at Eynsham the first night and then went on down to Osney the second night, where he stopped, because the red boards were back and the river was running very fast again. It's not easy to get a 70' narrowboat in to the bank on your own when the river is running so fast, but it was lucky that there was plenty of space at Osney, so that he could get in easily. If there had only been space for just our boat, it would have been impossible, as he wouldn't have been able to get in and stop it in a shorter space. As it was, he came in as slowly as he could and then leapt of the back and tied the rope round a bollard very quickly. He stayed in Osney until I got back on Saturday, and we stayed there for Saturday night too.

Sunday, 15th and Monday 16th June
Then we set off. The river was still running fast and we first went down through Osney Lock to turn round. Trev tried to turn just below the lock, but the weir stream was running too fast and we ended up at right angles to the bank, so we went on downstream to a wider spot just before Folly Bridge and turned there. Then back up, thorugh Osney Lock and on upstream. We passed Port Meadow and went through Godstow Lock and onto King's Lock. There was a boat in front of us, hovering as it waited its turn to go into the lock and we realised it was Audrey and Ray on 'Livien G'. We shared the lock with them and had a quick chat, but they were bound for Duke's Cut and the Oxford Canal, whereas we were carrying on up the Thames to Lechlade. So it was Hello and Goodbye and on we went, through Eynsham Lock to moor on the meadow again. As you might have guessed, we quite like it here!

We stayed here for two nights and on Monday we walked into the village to shop and Trev treated me to breakfast at a lovely little cafe which has opened in the village, called Harrison's. In the evening we had a barbecue, all on our own out in the countryside. Perfick.

Tuesday, 17th June
We set off upstream today, Lechlade is our goal, but not today. We're having lovely weather at the moment, ever since I got back from Kent. (I had lovely weather in Kent, too.) We went through Pinkhill Lock and past the mobile homes at Bablock Hythe. It looks a nice site, I think I would quite like a mobile home here, if I could get one on the riverbank, without close neighbours.

Just after Bablock Hythe, we met a couple on a cruiser who were trying to get a sheep out of the water. They'd been trying for half an hour, but sheep are very heavy when wet, and all they had managed to do was to keep the animal afloat. We pulled in to help. In the end Trev got into the water up to his knees in mud, and between the three of them they got it out. Off it ran, without a backward glance, and on we went through Northmoor and Shifford Locks. I steered for part of the time, round some Very Tricky Bends. Trev congratulated me on doing well. As the river approaches Lechlade, the bends get ever more twisty and tight, and I sounded the horn at every one, as you can't see round them, to see if anyone is coming.

We moored up at one of most favourite moorings, just above Rushey Lock. Peace, perfect peace. We're so lucky to be able to stay in these wonderful places. There's nothing there but a grassy bank, the river, the countryside and total quiet. At night there is no sound here, and we're so far from any inhabitation that we feel completely safe. We always lock up at night, but here it feels quite unnecessary.

Wednesday, 18th June
We set off this morning, hoping to moor at Kelmscott, where the William Morris's house is. It's only open on Wednesday, and a few Saturdays in the summer and I just love it. I get a really good feeling when I go there. But sadly, there were lots of boats there and no mooring space. Some of the boats looked as though they were there for the duration, neglected and deserted and taking up space which would have been better served by allowing other boaters to moor there and enjoy a visit to the village and the house. What a pity.

So we went on up to Lechlade and attempted to moor there. This was easier said than done, The wind was very strong and all the best places were already taken. The only mooring spots were well away from the bridge, before the river bends round, and we know that is shallow. However, we tried to get in, and had real problems. I managed to jump off the front with the rope, and Trev tried to get the back in. But it was too shallow, and the front got blown out by the wind. Trev jumped off the back with the stern rope but I couldn't hold the front rope against the wind and had to let it go. Away went the bow, straight out across the river and it described a 180 degree turn and ended up facing the way we had come. I dashed down to help Trev hold onto the stern rope, and it was only the fact that we were grounded which stopped us from losing the boat altogether. Trev did a huge leap back onto the boat and I threw him the rope. He managed to get the back off the bottom and off he went, at speed down the river, driven by the wind and the current. He went down until he could turn and then came back up again. By this time I had hammered in a mooring pin, and when he came back up, I seized the front rope and tied it round the pin. He managed to get the back in, though it wasn't against the bank, and he threw me the rope which I held on to, until he came through the boat, jumped off at the front and went and tied up the back. So we were moored up, though not very prettily.

Thursday, 19th June
A few boats left today and, as the wind had died down, we decided to move on up a little and try to get a better mooring. This time we had A Strategy. I went ahead with the hammer and a mooring pin, and hammered it in ready for when he arrived. All went well this time and we moored up a lot more easily, with the help of Eric on the boat in front. We had been moored up to his boat in Little Venice in May.

We walked across the fields to Inglesham, in Wiltshire, where there is a delightful little church, now in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust.
You can read about the church and the work of the trust here
How lucky we are that there are such organisations in this country who look after our heritage. The church was a joy, so tiny and old, it had a real feel to it that you only get with places of such antiquity. I've felt the same at such places as Haddon Hall, Stokesay Castle, Bishop's Castle and Chastleton House; just a feeling that I'm teading where others have trod for so many centuries, a feeling of continuity and endurance.

When we got back, we walked into Lechlade, and I made an appointment to get my hair cut the following day. I've had my hair cut in some interesting places. The last time it was cut was in Albany, Western Australia! Last year I had it cut in France. We shopped and then went to the fish and chip shop and bought some for our tea. In the evening there was aknock on the side of the boat and a man had come to collect the mooring fee of 4GBP. We've never paid here before. He said that there was a sign on the meadow, but he's only put it up yesterday and we had come in the day before so we hadn't seen it.

Friday, 20th June
I went to have my hair cut the next morning. Trev came to meet me and we went for coffee and cream scones at a lovely teashop called "Colley's Supper Rooms". It was so well presented and a most attractive tea room. Their main function is evening meals, they've only just started doing teas and lunch.

Colley's Supper Rooms

Then we set off back down the Thames. I was sad to be leaving, it means our visit to the upper reaches is half way through. We went through St. John's Lock with a narrowboat called 'Tricky Endeavour'. When we were equipping our boat, we were looking for comfortable chairs. We went into Westmede Furnishers in Warwick, and talked over our needs with the manager--well owner, as it turned out. We said that he probably wouldn't know the answer, but we were trying to find good recliner chairs which would fit through the doors of a narrowboat. "Well," he said, "As it happens, I do know the answer, because I have a narrowboat myself! And I can assure you that these will go in!" Tricky Endeavour was his boat, though this time it was his son and girlfriend who were on it. Oh, and the chairs did fit in--the backs came off. And they are very comfortable!

We travelled with Tricky Endeavour for a while, but they went on and we moored up again at Rushey Lock. We had heard that the weather was going to be bad for a few days, so we stayed at Rushey for three nights, and managed to avoid travelling in the worst of it. I ran out of wine, and that hero of mine walked into the nearest village and fetched me two bottles! It took him about an hour each way. Where would I be without him? Stone cold sober, probably!

Monday, 23rd June
We set off with the intention of mooring at Bablock Hythe, but got sidetracked! We offloaded our rubbish at the facilities at Rushey Lock, and went on downstream through the delightfully named Tadpole and on round some very wiggly bends. But we found a lovely spot and decided to stay. Oh this is really a grand life! We set off today and travelled downstream intending to moor at Bablock Hythe, but just before Shifford Lock we found a lovely spot, all on its own, and decided to stay.

Tuesday, 24th June
Ever onward and off we went. We were hoping to be able to moor up for a short time at Northmoor Lock. They have a large sign there advertising the local store at Appleton about a mile away. Trev intended to cycle there, but when we got to the lock they said there was nowhere for us to moor. So why advertise the shop? We were sharing the lock with another narrowboat, and the woman on the boat kindly gave us a pint of longlife milk, so that saved us. We went on intending to moor at Bablock Hythew, but there wasn't much space. We squashed oursleves in, but the people in the boat in front obviuosly didn't like us being so close, and wouldn't have eye contact. we didn't feel at all comfortable, and so moved on downstream. We found a lovely spot, much nicer than the one by the miserable toads at Bablock Hythe.

Trev walked into Stanton Harcourt for a paper, about three miles each way.

Wednesday, 25th June
We went on through Pinkhill Lock and stopped at Oxford Cruisers for diesel--85p per litre. Phew. The most we've ever spent. Thenn we moored up on the meadow at Eynsham and walked into the village for shopping and a coffee at Harrison's, followed by a quiet evening on the boat.

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