1976 and all that.

 In a couple of weeks it'll be just 50 years since Kath and I got married.  1976.  It seems oddly appropriate that exactly like then we are now hoping for the end of a long hot drought.

At the time we were pretty skint so our wedding was a DiY affair.  We made the food. A friend made the beer. The man at the local home brew supplies shop gave us a gallon of home made wine. Another friend wangled a free hire of the old gospel hall, and pals of mine made up a band for a ceilidh.  Others got up and sang old folk songs and Kennet Morris Men did what Morris men do (mostly drink beer). Someone commented that the reception was like something out of Thomas Hardy which I suppose it was. It was wonderful. After it finished, we were left to sweep up.

Next day we set off on honeymoon in our beloved Citroen Dyane (the only one of the fifteen cars that I have owned that I truly miss). After a night B&B in Cheddar where we bought 5 gallons of scrumpy in a polypin, and a pound of Cheddar cheese strong enough to peel the skin off the roof of your mouth, we headed on to Dartmoor where we pitched our little two man tent somewhere near Mary Tavy. I remember chickens scratching round the tent in the morning.

On the Wednesday the long drought came to a sudden and dramatic end with pelting rain and thunder and lightning, so we packed up and headed home. So a four day honeymoon.

We don't want a big fuss for our golden wedding so we've booked a few days in a hotel in Lyme Regis which is a favourite place of ours.  Looking at the weather forecast it seems like it will probably rain which seems strangely appropriate doesn't it. We don't mind a bit. At least we can afford a hotel these days.

Making the best of it.

 Well, it's official; the Oxford canal from Claydon to Aynho is now shut. All the locks will be padlocked shut and boats will stay where they are. The reason of course is lack of water in the feeder reservoirs.  There are quite a few boats moored around Cropredy for next week's Fairport festival, so they'll be worried about getting home afterwards. I think there's some talk of a short window to let a few boats escape around festival time.

Meanwhile Herbie is lucky to be on her home berth here in the marina, while we potter about tidying her up inside and out. It's too hot for painting a lot of the time, but I have got a few bits done, most notably the rear deck port side handrail. After removing most of the wooden handrails earlier this year, I opted to keep the wooden rail by the aft deck as it was in better condition and it's nice not to handle very hot or cold steel when climbing on and off the boat. It still needs stripping and repainting of course.

 So I sanded it down and undercoated it and now it waits for the right temperature to put the red top coats on.

I've also made a small start on the port name panel which wasn't included when we repainted that side of the boat a couple of years ago, the main reason being what to do about the sign writing. I don't want to strip the panel right down because the existing paint is mostly sound but has gone chalky and there are some rusty spots on the coach line and the border. I have already prepped the upper border and that's ready for a topcoat.

One bite at a time I'm slowly eating the elephant!

So the plan is to overpaint it all in the dark grey. Then  hopefully I will still be able to detect enough of the signwriting to repaint it over the top. It might work and it might not! I won't use so much masking tape this time and do it a bit more freehand as taught on the signwriting course I did last year.

Anyhow Mikron Theatre are in Cropredy tonight, so that's our evening entertainment sorted.

Catcalling

 Here we are moored below Slat Mill lock on the dear old Oxford. We're slowly making our way back from Banbury where we spent the last two nights. Mooring was not a problem and we got a favourite spot by the entrance to Spiceball Park. 

Cat calling

Ship's cat Gertie liked it a lot and spent all her time hunting in the bushes. This was not mainly a Good Thing. One, because she presented us with a couple of voles which we had to catch in the boat before releasing them outside and Two because we couldn't get her to come back into the boat at night. She just sat deep in the hedge ignoring our inducements to come back onto the boat. One of the voles was brought in at about 1:30am.  Grrr.

Slow progress 

We had all sorts of plans for where we might cruise, but a mixture of hot weather and our old age proved a limiting factor so we've slowed right down.  Like the old saying "the bottom is too near the top" hereabouts and we've run aground two or three times.

Water issues

Our marina manager warns us by email that CRT is considering closing the canal between Claydon and Aynho sometimes soon. No decision yet but we wouldn't be at all surprised.

Here's a thing.  I just did some sums.  Cropredy lock drops the canal 5.5 feet and the next lock down hill is Slat Mill which drops 8 feet.  If my calculations are right  that means that Slat Mill takes 2500 gallons out of the pound whereas Cropredy only puts 1700 back in. I'm not aware of a feeder in between. No wonder that pound is notoriously low.