Canal Walk

A couple of days ago, when the sun shone, (it has gone again now!), we took a walk along part of the Kennet & Avon Canal at Wootton Rivers which is a village near Marlborough. This narrow boat in the lock is owned by The Bruce Trust. To enable wheelchair users to enjoy a canal holiday the boat is actually wider than the traditional narrowboat and very well fitted out.

After an hour or so we rewarded ourselves with a lunch at The Royal Oak pub. This pub, along with many of the other houses in the village, was thatched. There was a very industrious woman sitting in an old shed dressing a wheelbarrow with reeds - apparently there was to be the annual wheelbarrow race in Pewsey that evening.

Mystified by the Cows

The cows are back in the field behind our house - they appeared silently, the calves are grown up enough now not to have mothers calling and making contact with them. Suddenly they are gone again gently swaying through the gap in the hedge to the two fields beyond - then they are back again - and so on. The farmer appeared to check on a water trough and I asked her how far she thought a cow walks in a day given the freedom of a couple of large fields. She said she had no idea! Perhaps somebody else has? I would have a guess at 5 miles?

Harvest at Last

I am so pleased for our local farmer (this our view from back garden) the combine contractors have arrived at her place at last. Dreadful stories of combines getting stuck and clogged in the muddy fields. The tips of the wheat were just about to sprout so they arrived in the nick of time. We now have the roar of hurrying tractors and trailers through the village with their loads of grain and straw. Apparently their dilemma at the moment is to decide whether to haul the loads of grain to the dryers (about 10 miles away) with their own tractors and trailers or to contract lorries to do the job. When she comes to deliver the eggs on Wednesday she has promised me a map of the farm with all the names of the fields - so much nicer to be a bit more informed! I asked the farmer a question which she was unable to answer - so my next post I will be asking the same question to you! (depending upon the health of this spasmodic computer)

Computer on Strike

This dratted computer took 6 hours to load Windows!!! Now that I am online this is just to say - if no word comes forth from me, the computer is in hospital or I am contemplating throwing it through the window through "Windows"

Thatching

We took a day out to Wootton Rivers which is a village near Marlborough and near the Savernake Forest. A large majority of the houses are thatched.

This thatcher was on his lunch break I think! However this photo shows a good example of the art of thatching.

We had lunch at a lovely pub in the village which had these four birds on the roof. Referring to my earlier photo of 'Slinking Fox' - I think most people will realise that these are not real birds - whereas some were fooled by the thatched fox!

Pulling Down the Sails

I expect I have bored everyone enough with these photos of our fabulous holiday. So this is the last I shall be uploading. These sunbeds were strung out in the sea from Royal Clipper marina when we were anchored. I preferred to swim around - slightly anxious after spotting the huge jellyfish.

This is husband (I think explaining two points!!) to our new found Australian friend.

This is arriving at Venice early in the morning where sadly the cruise ended. We made some really good friends and experienced a truly different holiday (and topped up with the old sunshine which has been lacking in the UK this year).

Royal Clipper Clippings

This enormous cruise ship followed us into Corfu. Royal Clipper sailed away in the evening with her graceful sails lit up and music playing. I think all captains are proud of their ships. Our Captain gave 3 ear splitting horn blasts as if to say "We are the best" - all of us on deck had a good laugh. Suddenly the cruise ship responded with three blasts, Royal Clipper responded with two blasts, cruise ship one blast and then as if to have the last word Royal Clipper gave two cheeky pip pips. One of the cruise ship passengers shouted to Husband "What is it like?" Husband replied that it was very hard work for us continually hauling the sails!!!

This is a view taken in Corfu near the cricket ground - I think the restaurant was rather tastefully done picking up the green of the ground beyond.

This is our cabin. We had a Bulgarian stewardess called Diana looking after us - she was great. We appeared to be the only ones that came in after breakfast to find a towel sculpture on the bed. This one is of a crocodile. One night I decided to do a towel sculpture for Diana. I took two biscuits and a banana from teatime and made a smiley face on my pillow capped with my sunhat.