Why isn't everyone here? It's lovely

I'm a dope. I've been taking quite a few photos for the blog with my camera, but I forgot to bring with us the lead to get the flippin' photos out, and as you all know, Ipads don't have SD Card slots, so you'll have to manage with my deathless prose and a couple of not very good pics I took with my phone.

This first one like me, is poor but kind of interesting. It shows a bee or a wasp(I suspect the latter although it was rather small) flying towards a hole in a lock gate beam at Kings Langley lock.

 

The little darlings were coming and going all the time as I waited for the lock to empty, so there must be a nest within. No animals or humans were harmed during this photo shoot, although Kath nearly died of boredom while waiting for the lock to fill a few minutes earlier.

I know lots of boats never venture down to the southern GU, but they are making a big mistake. Even we had forgotten how lovely it is when you get past Ricky. Once again my phone failed to catch the beauty of the scene, but here it is anyway.

Today, we have arrived in Uxbridge in glorious autumnal weather. Yesterday was rather dull, but only weatherwise for we had a jolly evening with Mr and Mrs Rainman at the pub quiz at Wetherspoons. As is our usual custom in these events we were doing swimmingly until the round about soaps. No it is not Knights Castille and Imperial Leather to which I refer, nor indeed the humble Wright's Coal Tar, but something called Corrie and Brookside and stuff like that. We did however get one right referring to Dr Kildare, which I suppose shows our age.

You don't get down to this lovely neck of the woods without paying the price in terms of hard graft lock wheeling. I suppose it might be doing me good, but sometimes it feels more like it's finishing me off. The prize though for Best Lock (maybe I should save this for the Herbie awards but what the heck) goes to Lady Capels. It was such a nice change to find gates that don't swing open after you have shut them, and paddles that wind smoothly and lightly and balance beams that don't require full on brute force. And as a treat, you get to cruise through the elegant Grove Park afterwards with it's lovely turnover bridge.

At least with the GU's double locks, you get to meet new friends as you share locks. Today we have travelled with Nb Vox Stellarum, aka The Fender Trading Co, makers and purveyers of beautifully crafted thingies wot dangle under your tiller pin, and monkey's fists and stuff like that.

We have met some very nice people. Yesterday, near Cassiobury Bridge lock a boat was about to pull out in front of us as we approached the lock, but he stopped and waited. It was not a posh boat, in fact very much the opposite and the young man on board looked very much like many people do on such boats. I rather envied him his hair, which extended to not far short of his waist. Anyway, he enquired if we would be stopping at the water point, in which case he would let us go first because he needed to go from empty to full, (although he was in front of us and had every right to take it. ) He was well spoken, charming and polite. How nice. It just goes to show you should never judge a book by it's cover. By the way, we didn't need water, we were heading to go in the lock, so the young man got his water straight away.

Speaking of books, I am now up to 12598 words in my second novel. One or two of the words are quite good. One of the main characters speaks in a broad Geordie dialect, so it is in part a foreign language novel. I can't understand a word he is saying. I still have no idea of where the plot is going. I'll just have to keep writing to find out. All I will say is that it is still about Eric, who is still in trouble.

 

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