Bartimaeus

The tiny path was a good find and as well as being a short, sheltered route, it was bordered by well kept gardens, with some interesting decorations. One had two tortoise models and another had decorated their path making glass flowers, with imaginative reuse of marbles, to mark their gateway.

Another garden has been turned into a fantasy fairy land, with so many little doors. Sometimes these are dotted through a Woodland, but here it was like a fairy high rise.

When we were going round the museum, there was a small display about the village, rather than the depot, which devoted quite a lot to the miracles of a local saint Werburgh, a princess and an abbess. At the entrance to the village there was a pictorial sign, erected to celebrate the golden jubilee. They were proud of many things but central was the holy lady performing one of her miracles, which apparently took place. The banishment of geese that were eating crops seemed key. More miraculous than the mere chasing of geese, this miracle also involved bring to life one goose that had already been eaten. Fantastic indeed!

Of course I also think it is fantastic to see the canal horse and barge on there. Due to the military stables, cavalry feature highly too, so it’s mainly geese and horses.

Weedon is in two branches and when we were last here in November, Bryn and I had a short trip to the shops and missed most of it. I couldn’t remember it very well, but as Shane and I headed to the shop I remembered the odd juxtaposition of the modern tech solutions shop, Tech Village, housed in an old building, with a dragon decorated frontage.

I hadn’t remembered though the striking gateway to an antique shop. Double tailed mermen, that had once been fountains and stood larger than life (whatever a life size merman is…) beside an otherwise rather unassuming yard

Having decided the village was fairly packed with fantasy, we were returning to our boat, named after a shape shifting genie and found we were moored just along from Pyxis, it is an odd spelling but at first I thought it was a variant of Pixies but I have now discovered it is a vessel, not a boat, but a container. They could contain jewellery but also were used for ointments and incense and used by ancient Greek physicians so might be miracle workers too. This one didn’t look like it held a trinket. The other meanings are a constellation and a mariner’s compass, not a magical creature but a fantastic thing nonetheless.

We were celebrating the magic of Weedon by stocking up on beer. There was a clubcard offer of £1.85 a bottle or £6 for 3. Somebody was having a flight of fancy when they thought that one up, but we got three – we didn’t have a clubcard so perhaps we got a fantastic bargain for our magic ale.

Before cracking the beer open to toast more fantastic days, I finished my knitting, then washed and set it up to block, drying on a dome of upturned bowls. The design (Insulate!) is a science fictional fantasy character hat, but subtle enough to just look like a geometric design, rather than shouting sci-fi alien. It will certainly insulate in soft fluffy alpaca.

Insulate! Dalek hat blocking, soft not shiny