Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Monday 23rd June 2014

(contd) The following day, we ascended Napton Locks.



Lock 10 was damaged, and had only one operable bottom gate paddle. It was attended by a volunteer, who praised Grace for being the first boater to avoid hitting the boat against one part of the lock or another.



Water buffalo being farmed for Mozzarella cheese



It was a hot and muggy day, and the skies got quite stormy

Nothing came of it, though

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Sunday, June 28, 2020

"Revisit this day, Sunday 22nd June 2014" Another reminder from Google Photos.

The other day, good old Google (others may think differently!) pointed me to photos I'd taken on 22nd and 23rd June 2014. We were headed out with friend Michelle towards Banbury, giving her a short holiday.

Descending Braunston Locks



Bottom Lock - "Ooh! They sell ice-cream!"

The pumphouse

Mooring below Napton Bottom Lock





We'll be ascending the locks tomorrow

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Friday, June 26, 2020

Is this "getting back to normal"? It was certainly very good.

Nostalgia bites hard, but I really wouldn't want to be boating in this heat! (The 9.3° is the minimum we've experienced inside Kantara since the beginning of the lockdown.) This was Tuesday at around noon. The max figure was 33° at 7:00 pm.


On Thursday, we arrived at Upton House Gardens at just past 1:00 pm. There was no queue to get into the car park. The control of arrivals by timed tickets was working well. The cheerful lady who ticked us off her list was the only member of staff we saw in the whole afternoon, and social distancing was maintained entirely by visitors. It was all very relaxed and sensible, and very beautiful.

A friendly sign by the hand sanitiser at the entrance to the gardens read, "We'll forgive your lockdown haircuts if you forgive ours."

That's one heck of a front drive!


There was plenty of shade from trees, and folk were picnicking, lounging, even sleeping, all around the gardens.

Understandably, house and garden both looked the worse for the neglect of previous months

Weeds were in profusion, but did nothing to spoil the views

We particularly enjoyed the way they had taken over the stone steps





A lot of the garden had been tended, though, and was really beautiful
It was a wonderful place to relax in.

The pond put us in mind of Claude Monet





By 3:30, we'd walked all the way around, and looked back at the house
from the entrance gate. Yes, it's there in the distance!

This had been the hottest day of the year so far, beating the past two days by several degrees, and, by the end of it, we were both feeling rather overwhelmed by it, despite keeping to the shade as much as possible. But it had been a really good break. Well done, and thank you, National Trust.

This morning, we booked to visit Canons Ashby next Wednesday.


(Preview)

We returned to the boat yesterday to find the temperature on the well-deck to be 52.8°C, and the nasturtiums were cooked. We didn't think to leave the cratch cover open. Sigh.


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Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Out and about at last! (Landlubbing)

Yayy! We've booked to visit National Trust's Upton House Gardens on Thursday. Visitor numbers are controlled by the allocation of a limited number of tickets for arrival slots at half-hourly intervals. It'll be the first time we've been out for anything other than for shopping since we arrived here on March 3rd! Needless to say, we're looking forward to it very much. We'll only be allowed in the gardens, not the house, but that's fine with us. We've been there twice before, and have a huge collection of photos of the interior. This time, the sights, smells and sounds of the gardens will be plenty enough; a panacea to our souls.

(Preview)

The local swallow community have got a new trick when it comes to catching flies to eat. It seems now that there's a number of them who have learned about out-sourcing the job. At least, the wet part of it. For now, not wanting to get their beaks/faces/heads (depending on the height of the waves on the water) wet, they swoop around looking for some other mug who has got wet and got a fly. And when they see such a bird, they fly in and snatch it from their beaks! It's crazy, but it's what it really looked like, though I have no idea how often these fly-snatches succeed.

I've been very pleased to be re-acquainted with Rona House. Rona did a solo circumnavigation of the globe in her yacht, Cacique, in 1990-93. She introduced herself to me by email while she was reading my first book, Life with our feet under water. I was intrigued by what she told me of her solo journey, and she sent me a copy of the log she had kept in the form of letters sent as she travelled. These are now available on the web, and I do recommend that you read them. It's fascinating, and very scary in places! There's a link there that takes you to her Flickr collection of photos taken at the time, but click here if you want only to see them - or to see them first. 


Now retired from yachting, Rona is spending half of each year in NB Patience here in the UK, and loving it. (What is there not to love?)  Photos and videos of her canal and river experiences are also on Flickr.

 NB Patience

And from me, clouds!



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Saturday, June 20, 2020

Relaxed Lockdown day 19 (or is it? I might have lost count)

We've had wonderful rain this week. I think Tuesday was the best. At about 6:00pm it started very sporadically, with very large drops falling in in brief spells while clouds built up. Then it poured noisily, heavily, accompanied by spectacular lightning and thunder. The humidity of the air inside the boat has risen to around 70%. It's good to have the dehumidifier.



And it's been like that for the past few days. This morning I discovered that rain was running down the inside and the outside of the stove flue, puddling on top of the stove as well as in its fire pot. The cowl on top of the flue was turned so that the rain could beat into the flue, so putting the cap on it instead of the cowl stopped the ingress of water for the time being, but there remain some questions to be answered. Like, how did water get in down the outside of the flue? And why did putting the cap on the top stop that water as well as what was running down the inside?

NB Achernar set out when the weather looked as if it might have finished its wetness (it hadn't). They're off on their annual cruise, then. I won't deny we felt, still feel, envious, but we remain resolved to stay put until the daily data starts to show regular zeros. If there's going to be a second wave of the Coronavirus, as many experts think there will be - and as several other countries are experiencing - then we don't want to be away from our comfort zone; the marina. There are several couples here who share that attitude, though it has to be said that all of us are in the age group that is deemed to be more vulnerable to infection.

Having said that, the experts have changed their minds on this issue at least twice since April 1st. We'll take no chances.

On another note... After the crows came the red kites.

(photo from Unsplash)

They're not at all uncommon around here, (are they uncommon anywhere in England now?) but on Tuesday I had five of them wheeling above me as I enjoyed my coffee ritual. Of course, the crows took exception to their presence, arrogant bullies that they are, and did their best to chase them off. I was amazed to witness one of them regretting his attack.

Two kites were being harassed by this one crow. He'd picked the wrong ones. The time came when they'd had enough. He was being very persistent and quite violent, so, while one lured him to pursue her, her partner spiralled up to a great height. There, he folded his wings against his body, then plummeted vertically at great speed, and knocked the crow out of the sky. The victorious couple flew off to join the others. It was all over in seconds. I wish I'd been able to video it.

(photo from Unsplash)

(similar photo by me. Oh! It's a cormorant!)

The day had a beautiful, monotone face first thing yesterday morning. I was fast asleep when Grace took these photos. It had mostly cleared by the time I woke up.




I've not sat at the end of the jetty for the past couple of days because of the rainy wind (and windy rain), but it's sunny now. I'll go and make up for it!

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