Indian Summer - Day 25

Our Indian Summer has been intermittent of late, but the cloudless blue sky part of it came back today even though the wind was a bit sharp!

And so what did we do? You guessed it! Up the Oxford Canal and onto the Grand Union at Napton; round the reservoir and across the fields back to our starting point at Napton Marina.
You can hire a boat here from Hoseasons. I put that bit in because the very kind receptionist allowed us into their private car park.                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                          This is where we started, looking under the bridge to the marina - and here is our first puzzle: what language is this painted on the red narrowboat?

Google Ytene: if you live in Hampshire or Dorset you'll see some lovely old pictures. (Ignore the flashing message that says you've won Buckingham Place or something as useless).








If you think the roads are busy, what about this for a bit of parking at Wigram's Turn.  Wigram is the name of an ancient lock-keeper.

If you want to live near to a canal, the house, with a cottage and several acres of land on the right of the bridge in the distance, is for sale. Here's a close-up.

If you would prefer to live on the canal itself you can pick up one of these on a private mooring for £16,000.  It is not the smartest or grandest of the selection: it it was you would be looking at something closer to £70,000!

Whatever, you could enjoy peace and serenity of the countryside here: if you ignore the other boats of course.


When we arrived at the point we ( I ) had decided would be well placed for crossing the canal, below, we discovered no bridge for the purpose. And so, with walking sticks held high, we were obliged to cross by means of the lock gates where the water in the lock was probably around 12ft deep. If you don't like standing on a stool to retrieve something off the top shelf of a pantry you may get an idea of the task!





But we managed to do it without getting wet; which I consider no mean feat!

And then we enjoyed - apart from the gale force wind - a pleasant amble along the side of the reservoir, peopled by anglers dressed like arctic explorers, some in tents and others on the open bank.  Looks peaceful in this picture, but the wind was stilled when this was taken.

The final leg of our own exploration was across a field or two back to our starting bridge: that's the footpath running away across the middle of the picture.
Looks quiet enough here, but as one member of our party of two remarked:
"there's been a lot in the newspapers lately about people being crushed by herds of cattle".
Fortunately we only met a flock of what looked like man-eating sheep!
Some animals are always described as 'man-eaters': Why not 'lady-eaters' in this age of equality?

Our walk was continued by car along this road:

to this destination:  The Blue Lias' pub which was  originally an 18th century farmhouse.
It is haunted by the ghost of a red haired farm labourer who was killed by the enraged farmer who returned from market one day to find his wife in bed with the red haired farmhand.
Google Blue Lias as well - especially for Dorset folk.
With the exception of this picture which I took from the pub's own website, you may wonder how I managed to fill this blog with pictures, after discovering I had left the memory card from my camera, at home in my PC.

They come from a marvellous website
 http://www.geograph.org.uk
where you can see pictures galore of Great Britain; often dozens of where you live, all taken by members of the public and to which you can add. The photographers here are:  
© Copyright Stephen McKay and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
© Copyright Andy F and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
© Copyright Gordon McKinlay and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. 
© Copyright Graham Hogg and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.