So just how wide is a "Navigable channel"

This mooring proved chilly and grey, we had slept with the back sliding hatch open, plus our bedroom door to allow cool air to come through WaL  (all middle aged women will identify with me here)  but this morning there there was the unmistakeable sound of a body entering the water but not falling in.  

David went out and there was the jolly man from the wee sailing boat behind us undertaking his ablutions!!!     

Now I have swum two or three times this summer but I kept my head up and my mouth closed and afterwards had a shower.....  I did not use the river as my bath.  

It really did make me want to ask that oh so famous gongoozerler question  "Does it had a toilet....?"  to which I don't really want to know the answer.

*see yesterday's photos if you understand not.

So off we go not lingering in Oxford as we did do a full day trip here way back in May  HERE   I'm sure you'll want to re-read that.

This is the famous Osney bridge, this is the one those Gin Palaces can't get under, this is the line in the sand, or as Gandalf says regularly in our house "You shall not pass", I mean look at it, even shortie David had to duck.

Osney Bridge.

The bottom of the Sotuh Oxford canal as it joins the Thames.

A line of house backs as we go north towards Dukes Cut, I wonder if these ever flood?

I have included this next lot of photos to help illustrate how the dreaded willows are over growing, snapping and falling into the water then they grow more, the "Navigable waterway" is growing much thinner in places.  NB Dulcieblue had also abandoned their forays up to Lechlade mostly due to this too, some of these shots are actually from Dukes Cut but I have lumped them altogether.

Dukes

Dukes

Dukes.

Thames

Thames

Thames with Port Meadow coming into view.

So this cruiser slipped under Osney bridge and now look.

I'm not sure where David was thinking of mooring but as soon as I saw this I said here here here here.  I had no memory of this place but when we approached as a NB was leaving the mooring I said thank you very much and goodbye...  

Well how fabulously fantastic!  I do love an old ruin.   I left him to check on whatever he checks when I clear off and I cleared off to have a look.

David checking things, it might be the cricket.

This is the remains of a small chapel

The interior or at least the other side of the walls.

Don't you just love doorways, are you like me and imagine the nuns of the past ushering through on their way to pray?

The abbey had a bit of a colourful past, King Henry II  mistress is buried here, Rosamund Clifford, Henry adored her but really hacked off his Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine.  But that story is for another day and in fact another novel several of which can be found on Amazon.

The Fair Rosamund by John William Waterhouse, well fancy that, more Pre-Raphaelite art that I love so much, image borrowed from Wikipedia.

Much of what remained of the abbey was destroyed in the English Civil War, which I do think is a pity.  But that's history for you, leaves you full of regrets.
We walked to Wytham, a village that is part of an estate so nicely preserved without modern houses, I get a bit twitchy about this sort of thing, I just feel like its been put here by the Disney Corp, these autumn berries were on the way.... could be a sign of a hard winter, all fishwives will tell you that. 

Some thatches in Wytham I can only hope are awaiting to be repaired, we couldn't quite imagine what had made them thus?  Rats, squirrels or its come loose in a storm...?

Wytham village.

We walked back to the village of Wolvercote and The Trout Inn, Sue on NP XL had been here the previous Monday and been told if they hadn't booked they couldn't eat!  I booked online this am and every session was available so we had decided on 3pm, a good move as it wasn't busy and better still the sun came out later and we sat having coffee next to the river watching the Kingfisher dart about, a young Tern sitting on the now closed wooden bridge, dragonflies fluttering and glad to say we avoided Krug's best shot!!  Krug is an antisocial Peacock, it seems to have a home on the roof, it was on the roof when he squatted and fired a jet propelled bullet of faeces into a shrub narrowly missing a woman who wasn't looking.  

Peacocks to my mind belong to the same category as Canadian geese, willow trees and Herring gulls, but that's just me. 

The Trout Inn, been here since the C16th.

Bloody Krug came in the door he was shown the door by a waiter before I could help with my boot.

My Kitchen window this evening....  can this be beaten I ask?

Supper at 3:30pm had been Salt & pepper squid, Cod with only twice cooked chips, but I managed to choke them down then lemon cheesecake and blackcurrant pureé which I shall try at home.  
It was excellent, sorry Sue that you missed out, try it again when you are passing.