Easy work and lets get the chairs out.

So we were to go this am, but not just yet as I was watching a cute bird and was trying and trying to A) identify it and B) get a photo of it.

 Well a bit of a fail on the photo front, but I did get a jolly good look through by fantastic binoculars, but they are, speedy little zippers to photograph, just when you spot it, then raise the camera, lose sight of it for a split second and its vanished.  But it was a Blackcap  HERE  
So later we did set and made a pretty way down to Napton and the flight there.

A rather lovely surprise as we waited for water at the bottom was a greeting of Neil and Kath from NB Herbie  HERE  

Both David and myself have long been fans of Neil's blog, and more than that Neil's books, he's written two and here is a link to the first   HERE  if you like to laugh out loud when reading then this is the book for you.

I couldn't decide which photo I liked best so I put them both in.

The flight was pretty quiet, we had the benefit of having every lock bar one empty for us.  

I met a crew member and in chatting to her as I normally do, she remarked that they had come from Reading, well the Kennet and Avon canal..... 

Oh how did you find it I asked?

Dreadful!  I was a bit surprised to hear this as although when we went on that canal    HERE  admittedly I did "Never again" but we were newbies and innocent and after what I understood to be a tightening up on Continuous Moorers on the K&A, I had rather thought that conditions might have improved but according to this lady with very up-to-date it was dreadful, another word she used to describe the moored boaters was "Hostile", in fact at one place when we moored up I drew the curtains she recounted.

I was bemoaning the loss of view of the Napton Windmill as a much loved landmark, I said to David I would buy it, chop all the surrounding trees down and restore the landmark.  David thought I was being a little undemocratic.

On and around the corner it hove into view, I thought some of the tress had been felled after all

Nice view though a gap in the hedge

Yellow and blues, I have a whole section in my garden at home planted up with yellow and blues.  Inspiration from Hidcote National Trust Gardens in Gloucestershire, a place that David and I love and may well pop over to in the car from the South Oxford canal.

Gorgeous.

Approaching the upper section of the Napton Flight with views over the surrounding countryside 

Then around the bend came this lovely narrowboat,  

NB Waiouru.  Ex-owners Tom and Jan HERE  Tom the boat was looking very good and loved.

Like I said earlier, the run up the locks was most enjoyable, warm, mostly sunny and with all the locks in our favour we decided to keep going and not moor up a couple of locks down from the summit.  I was so very sad to see the house here at Marston Doles over looking the last lock.  I am so sure that in the past it has looked well loved and cared for but today with bits falling off, boarded up windows.  But today its the latest in the list of houses I want David to buy so that we can restore it to at least some glory.

Sad sad sad.

Now its partially hidden but I thought it was a Ford Capri, a real blast from the past

 We moored up using stakes on the straight section just along from the last   lock.  We were all on our own in full sunshine, a bit more rubbing down of the cratch ensued.                                                                                                                                                         

The view from my kitchen sink tonight.

 

Supper was a huge portion of asparagus, chilli prawns and salad and a celebratory Chablis.