Walking across the fields at the back of Kings Sutton you will come across this gem. It looks like the kind of feature you may find in a public park, but the second picture tells the story.
Back across the field near that big tree top middle is this sculpture.
Moored at Tyle Mill I took a walk into Kings Sutton across the water meadow which, because of the lack of wet stuff from the sky, was dry. KS is bigger than I thought and further away. It felt like many miles. I got lost there and was lucky to do so because I found the Old Post House. Now this is odd because the OPH, the smaller building here, has always been a stable. In fact the hayloft is still there. So what makes it a Post house?
Set in the wall behind the mini-skip is this George V post box made by W T Allen of London. It will have been there a little over 100 years. There is still a W T Allen in London. Examples of Allen’s castings can be found all over the world.
There is an older version of this one in Odisha, India that is still in use today!
There are times I feel a right twat (no correspondence will be entered into). I made good time time to Enslow. Shipton Lift Bridge was chained up. I had help at Shipton Weir Lock. Bakers was in my favour. I manoeuvred under the road bridge nb Tadpole was moored between the two bridges , old and new, and just as I came out of the second bridge I bumped into nb Rainbow 11. No not in a meeting kinda way but in a wasn’t concentrating kinda way. I pulled one of his piling hooks straight. It was a very stern Captain Birdseye dressed in a Popeye tee shirt that came to see WTF was going on. Well I was so embarrassed I hit him I couldn’t apologise enough. I am really gutted.
It is amazing how a few words from a coroner on the lines of ”you need to look at your tree management system and up you game,”can change the face of our canals. Trees are being felled all the way from Isis Lock north.I have not reached Lower Heyford yet, but have seen trees down all the way up including a very beautiful Poplar at Northbrook Lock.
Well I wasn’t the first one on the water point yesterday. I was woken by Rocket passing through, who himself would want to fill and empty so there was no rush. I turned over for another hour. I was reawakened by Dusty who invited me into the Jolly Boatman for breakfast. I said I would go for tea. He moored next to “It’ll never happen’ but in doing so passed my boat 5 times (back and forth pushing the ‘ice floes’ out of the way). He came back knocked on the door and said did I want a breakfast? Apparently Andy didn’t like the idea of me sitting drinking tea watching Dusty eat a full English and so provided for me also. The best Full English ever.
I walked Molly across the fields and stopped at Annie’s Tea Room to say hello. More tea. Going back to my boat I noticed that the other two boats had moved. I could not put it off any longer. I moved at the slowest pace I could to the water point where I topped up my water and emptied my black tank then off I went. I moored on a friends mooring in Shipton where I will stay for a day or two while I construct a box to go on my roof. I should have done it at the pub where there are benches I could use for sawing.
17,000 Army,
11,000 Navy,
5,000 RAF,
56,000 NHS,
16,000 Police,
710,000 Public Sector,
0 Bankers.........
Nuff said
The Oxford canal was opened today with the arrival of two hire boats from Oxfords premier hire base Oxfordshire Narrowboats. Getting the boats around the corner under the bridge took some 20/30 minutes to cut through the 2.5+ cm thick ice. The hirers reported being threatened by a private boater with a pick axe handle and several who verbally abused them for navigating the canal. They were complaining about their blacking, but there comes a time when a mans right to navigate, something he has paid a lot of money to do, overrides another mans blacking.
I shall be moving off in the morning unless the temperature plummets overnight. Hopefully I will be first to get to the water point so I can do my pump out before I travel on to my next mooring on the way to Stratford.
Some time ago I visited an art exhibition and was amazed at the content. There seemed to be a lot of what I can only call ‘daubing’ on display. I thought that’s not art! I can do that. So I went to the art shop, well THE WORKS, and bought some small canvases and paints. This was my first effort. 
I called it Crowded Spaces. I don’t suppose it took more than about 20 mins, even allowing for drying time, but I was very pleased with the end result. Bones liked it so much she ask for it as a birthday present, which I duly gave her. It is displayed on her boat.
I have done others, but none that I liked and felt pleased with as this one. This isn’t good, it’s a daub, but I really like it and other people like it too. Is it art? That’s not for me to say.
Edit: I have probably done this item before.
you’re breaking my heart,
you’re shaking my confidence daily.
Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please to come home.
Simon & Garfunkle
