What a Lark!: I want to be alone.... now who said that apart from me?

The next morning was spent sleeping in, having breakfast, drinking coffee and playing cards. You might like to know that Mitch and Verity are card sharks, David less so but he is very scheming and me, who was beaten wholesale but I still love to play the game called Hearts. Its a game for four, so we only really get to play when Verity and Mitch come to stopover. Hence I am rubbish.

Yes it rained, but even so it was fairly buzzy with dog walkers and the like. The cruiser behind left shortly after breakfast, leaving our stake on the verge.

Much later after a lunch of sausages french beans and wedges David dropped off the Fine Company to Windsor in the car, this would give them a much easier journey to their part of London.

It always feels a bit sad or lonesome after darlings have left and this was no exception.

The next morning David departed, he went home without me, he just left me sitting here alone and crying. Well not crying but very happy to be here. I went shopping, snooping and came back to WaL to have a glass of, do some blogging and finally have a nap. He arrived back the next day after attending his meeting which was vital and visiting my mum, watering the masses of tubs we have planted up for our daughter's wedding in September.

He arrived back fairly late on the following day so we stayed that night and departed early the next morning.

We landed at Marlow and really wanted to go to Tom Kerridge's pub The Coach HERE we raced a
Le Boat HERE cruiser out of the lock above Marlow and belted down to try and moor, but not quite quick enough to get the last free mooring in the trees which are FOC, he took that last one, so we came around and popped into a space behind a narrowboat which was almost big enough for us..... but not quite.

So the narrowboat owner was already out and offering to take the ropes, then he offered to pull his boat up a bit to get us in. Lovely chap and I may say we thanked him profusely too.

The cruiser owner of the one behind us arrived back whilst all this was going on carrying two carriers of food, he said they were leaving shortly and as we continued to chat to nice man in front, they pulled away, thus we pulled WaL back and the nice man ended up where he had started from.

Much giggling ensued and the nice man confessed that he was killing time until the weekend when he was meeting guests in Reading, he said he was bored and the mornings messing about had passed the time nicely!!

We had a spectacular time at The Coach, another son-in-law Leon, is a big fan of Tom Kerridge, he has been to The Hand and Flowers (His restaurant) but not to The Coach, he was very envious and I have to say he should be, it was fantastic. You order several dishes per head, a bit like tapas then just keep going..... the octopus was amazing.

Phew, a bit of waddling back to the boat, coffee and a nap on chairs in the sun then a small scandal, we were sitting a little distance from WaL on the grass but not far enough away. The lifeguard from the Leisure Centre came around to collect the mooring fee at a staggering £13, included in that price is a reduced price for swimming plus use of the showers but £13 is super super high, £10 a night is the average.

No supper tonight unsurprisingly.

Our mooring here in Henley was along here

Look who turned up but Dutch barge Dorchester, we have leapfrogged them.

Oh what a beauty, available for hire.

When left alone, a G&T, crisps and my kindle, what a view.

A frequent passer-by. Beautiful.

A wall of plants on the High Street in Henley.

Lots of blooms here too.

David had thought that the Thames would be all riverside pubs, this was the first one we went in, The Angle on the Bridge, they served heir drinks in plastic glasses and a wee pot of olives was £4. We just had the one drink...