HERBIE!

Here we are at Belchers Bridge near Aynho with our bellies full of posh nosh from the Great Western Arms where the food and service was as top notch as usual and the beer not bad either.  It's a good job we can't afford to eat like that every day or we'd be even more portly that we already are.

Belchers bridge looks nothing like this.

which is a sketch I forgot to add to the post when we were in Iffley.  People who know the area might recognise it.  Kath and Peter are always sketching or painting something so it inspires me to have a go.

Today we stopped for an all too brief chinwag with Bones as we came through Heyford. I don't know where she gets her energy from, always doing two jobs at once and thinking about another.  I might have been like it her age I suppose, but it's too long ago to remember.

Today I refrained from using our new ratchet windlass on the top paddles at Somerton deep lock, even my old 'unbreakable' standard windlass felt like it was going to break.  I can honestly say that these are the stiffest paddles I have ever operated.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that some folk couldn't turn them at all.  I came close to giving up. Come on CRT, sort 'em out please.