We set off at just the right time before another boat poked it’s nose round the corner this morning. Here is Claydon top lock with it’s very desirable residence alongside. There is no road to it and it is such a lovely peaceful spot. This is where the Oxford Canal Company used to have their workshops and stables and would have been quite a busy spot in the past. While we waited for the lock to fill we watched the swallows and sparrows busily flying to and fro into the roof spaces where they are nesting. More swans are nesting outside Fenny Marina. That makes four pairs of nesting swans that we have seen since leaving Kidlington Green.
I wonder why we always seem to meet boats in the narrowest places, as we did in ‘Fenny Tunnel’ and again at Bridge 131 which is on a blind bend past Fenny Compton. Bottle sounded his horn and luckily I was up the front looking out when a large old working boat came almost nose to nose with us under the bridge. I shouted ‘stop’ and Bottle immediately began reversing back avoiding a collision. Then we had to hover while another one followed him through. We are now moored up with nb Piston Broke some four hundred feet above sea-level on Wormleighton Hill.
This is part of the sweeping view across the open countryside from our mooring showing Wormleighton’s Eiffel Tower lookalike. We saw a hare bounding over the field and there have been several large bumble bees buzzing around in the grass. Many Sky Larks have been hovering and singing overhead all afternoon. Bottle has been doing a bit of touching up of the paintwork on the bow of the boat which dried off quickly in the warm breeze.
On hearing that we had lost our tiller pin Paul produced a spare one from his accumulated treasures for us, how kind is that, thank you Paul. Now we can dispose of the stand-in one, which was a screwdriver. After sipping our alcoholic beverages in the evening sun we retired to our boats for dinner and have now settled down for a relaxing evenings reading.
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