Bartimaeus

Last night’s walk with its added loop took us past an arrangement of large stones. There was much debate about buriels or follies, or was it the local geology? Much internet searching of the location that evening gave no answers.

This morning Benny and I went to the shop in Napton. We were momentarily confused about the route on the way having misremembered the distance but Benny confirmed we were in the right direction with his map on his phone. He had been hunting for information on stones by looking up ‘Folly’ as that was marked on the map, but it was only a local pub that came up and their website gave no history to its name.

At the well stocked shop we got some interesting bakery items and vegetables. We found an answer to yesterday’s query over the identity of the black bovines we had seen yesterday. They really were water buffalo as the shop stocked Napton Water Buffalo Cheese. We have some on board now.

Back at the boat we were visited by the cygnet again. She had her neck right in the hatch dripping water across the table. She nibbled rice off the gunwale. We have found that swans eat dry and cooked rice happily. I found some other scraps too, pepper seeds and celery leaf.

The canal loops round the windmill after Napton. It is visible for quite a long time. It looks pretty small but Heather’s camera was able to zoom in.

Then we spotted some more stones in a field with similar structures to the rounded stones up the hill. There were several of them. Was this a local habit?

Benny and Heather and I were finishing breakfast while Shane drove. I rubbed my eye and felt it sting. I hadn’t chopped any chillies but that was just what it felt like. Had someone chopped chilli on my plate? No reason was evident for it and I was just having to wait for the streaming to stop….and not touch my eye again. It was some while later that it dawned on me that the pepper seeds I had fed the cygnet were from a chilli not a red pepper. Mystery solved.

Heather and I went for a walk, or rather Heather went while I worked at quordle. I said I would join her when I had solved it but when she called from a bridge (a good place to get off) I was still stuck on one word, so I had to join her with the puzzle incomplete. We enjoyed the sight of 3 chaffinches. Shane called to us he had seen a woodpecker in the tree. We saw some extensive building. We know there is some HS2 work along here so was it a station? Perhaps a bridge or school or something else. Shane later remarked that he wondered what it was too. 

At one point I slithered on the path. The fallen crab apples were so dense it was like a carpet of ball bearings. I demonstrated to Shane how slippery they were, forgetting about the photographer with me.

We romped through the wide locks as a speedy locking crew, even though we often were not sure what was happening ahead or why. Heather drove through the locks and then through the Braunston tunnel and took photos at the same time.

A boat was ahead of us in the tunnel but when we got out of the tunnel they repeatedly seemed to try mooring. We wanted to stop before sunset but it was slow and pulling in sometimes. We saw a spot we could stop and they pulled in twice. Still they weren’t mooring. It was getting dark. We passed them. It seemed they were not mooring at all but pulling in to let us past. If they had not pulled in we would have moored there!

We soon stopped. Unusually for me, I knew what I was cooking for tea so it was not a mystery meal. We are still none the wiser about the stones and the building but I did finish quordle.