Bartimaeus

We always enjoy meeting up with friends and family in Edinburgh. Shane gets lots of cycling done and I have plenty of outings like walks or cafe visits. We almost always get an invite to Kenny and Helena's for dinner. There is exactly how we spent our last evening. 

This visit had been particularly busy for me and plenty of city exploring abroad. A part of me could have enjoyed a longer stay, catching up with other people since I had not been in Edinburgh very much, but I knew I would also be happy back aboard too. Shane had booked our train tickets and off we went. It all went smoothly for us. We are familiar with changing at Birmingham. This time we didn't try to fit in time to tour around and had eaten on the train. I wanted to get a better look at Ozzy the Bull that I had only noticed from above, when waiting on the upper level. It is a gigantic structure, towering over people's heads.

At first it stood gigantic and imposing, a solid structure but I was surprised as the eyes suddenly lit up red. Then it swung its head round as though turning to stare at us and bellowed. Ozzy looked wild and ready to charge.

His mouth opened as he lowed and then we saw the eyelids moved too and the eyes changed colour to light purple, which wasn't as threatening, but the deep call was still slightly unnerving.

The head swung back and with a tilt of the head and adjusting eye movement Ozzy took on a coy flirtatious look, with the eyes still a pastel lilac shade. It was surprising how little changes made such a difference in a giant animatronic creature.

It may have been meant to show the two sides of Ozzy Osbourne, his wild and dangerous stage persona, and youthful drink and drug fuelled escapades then the later "at home" life, which saw him enjoying family life and a close loving relationship with Sharon, extolling the pleasure of a good cup of tea.

At Moor Street station there was a much tamer metal statue. We weren't sure when or if we were going to get to Stratford, by boat, and we weren't going there by train that day but we were going on this line. 

Shakespeare may have seemed a very serious business when in school, but then school copies had the bawdy jokes removed - as I  discovered when a classmate had forgotten their textbook so was handed the teacher's copy. When asked to read a part, he began reading lines that weren't in our versions.  Shakespeare was more exciting than we teenagers had thought.

When Shane and I first moved to the narrowboat, many people thought it a great adventure - and it still is.  There is plenty of exploring. Our early days involved a lot of distance and rushing for the Ribble Link. Also we were more likely to get into scrapes with being less competent drivers, especially me.

Now it is a much calmer experience. We travel more slowly and spend a lot of time watching birds, listening to bird calls, generally enjoying nature. Shane is especially good at identifying the sound of a kingfisher and taking a look to see one and when we came back we found ourselves in a stretch particularly rich in kingfisher sightings. On our first evening back we had blue sky and a soft rainbow too.

We moved on a bit to arrive at the Knowle locks. We stayed there for three days, popping in to Knowle, sampling three different cafes and frequenting, the artisan bakery and the butcher, selling fresh vegetables.  It is a characterful little village, with very good eating.

One of the odd things about Knowle was the exceptionally high numbers on the doors on the main street. This Tudor style chocolate shop might be advertising the age of the building, but this is the address, it seems.

Of course I noticed a post box topper but couldn't tell the theme straight away. Having recently done the big butterfly count, I ought to have guessed. It had a QR code attached (not in wool) to find out how to plant out your garden to attract more butterflies. The background was crocheted, the flowers mainly knitted and the butterflies made of material, cut and sewn.

We tried visiting the church but although the doors were open, there was about to be a school service, so it wasn't a good time to go in. Shane had spotted an amusing sign outside though.

There were friendly people nearby our mooring who greeted or chatted to us each day. We could have enjoyed staying longer but we returned to the place we had left the boat before, with a more rural aspect. The hedge beside us would come alive with birdsong and flitting long tailed tits in the evening, lovely to watch and hear but hard to photograph.

There had been a resident heron in the Knowle locks mooring, and here there were two, but in the field. No fish there.

Our life wasn't wild, but there was plenty of wildlife and we are enjoying the slow relaxing pace, the berries, the birds and the bats. The nightlife is good enough for us round here.