Wednesday morning. At last we’re out cruising, and what a great start we’ve got off to. Only the day before, I was feeling a bit reluctant to get going but today it was a reminder about how good boating can be. Hard to believe but it was actually quite hot by late afternoon. The hedgerows are bursting with dog roses and elderflowers and the canal banks peppered with ox eye daisies and yellow flags and everything is fresh and green. It’s lovely to be out amongst it. But better than that we’ve had a surprise meeting with an old friend. Well two actually. First it was Karen, who recently left her job as our lovely marina manager and is now working at Midland Chandlers in Braunston where we dropped in to look at gas hobs. Then as we were talking to her, who should appear but Adam (sadly without Adrian who was off flying to Toulouse) who had spotted Herbie tied up outside and came in to find us. The big news is that Adam has replaced his trademark old beige Tilly hat, seen on many’s the cover of Canal Boat magazine, for one of a different hue -blue in fact. I could scarcely cope with the shock.
Boaters are all cruising about the network hither and yon and just now and again old friends meet up as paths cross and what a delight it is when that happens. We haven’t seen Adam for simply ages and as he had a couple of days to kill ( although he does have 19 boat reports from Crick show to write up!) we decided to tootle off together up the North Oxford and find a spot where we could moor up for a barbecue together. Adam has an amazing ability to remember bridge numbers and mooring places and was immediately able to suggest a good spot just below bridge 87. So that’s where we went. Once there, Adam provided the gin and us the tonic and we had spare BBQ fodder from our aborted weekend with Grace and so we dined al fresco style until dark and had a massive catch up on all the news and drank a rather too much wine.
So thus fortified and invigorated we head north today to replenish food stocks at Rugby Tesco and thence to maybe Newbold - or wherever fancy (and the canal) takes us really. Deep joy.
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