Bartimaeus

We set off this morning with the intention of getting to the Hillmorton Locks early in the day.  On our way through in the other direction, I had thought they looked like an interesting place, but we had only spent enough time there to get through them.  Before we reached them we saw some workers building up the bank.  I was surprised to see one of them working up to his waist in the water.

I’d planned to moor up before the locks so we could go ahead and explore.  In a line of moored boats there was a gap big enough for us just behind Cousin Hebe.  While we were mooring up, Dawn arrived back from walking their dog so we had a chat.  We walked up to the locks to explore.  We had just found the (excellent) cafe as Bill and Dawn waved on their way through the flight.

On our way back to the boat, Clare collected some “erbs” from the garden by the bottom lock.

We decided that the locks could wait another day, and instead we’d get on with other things.  Clare continued with her knitting project. I tried to sort out the additional table legs I had bought while in Edinburgh.  When we tried eating on the bow deck last month, the table was too high.  I cut the leg to a suitable length, but it seems very wobbly.  We’ll have to see how good it is – it will probably be good enough for meals eaten with a fork, but not for anything that requires wrestling with a knife.

We should have tested the table tonight, but I’d forgotten about it until Clare was already serving up the herby meal.  We would only have been comfortable with at least some of the sides down to keep the wind out.  It seemed like too much effort with the food already on the table.

We went for a short stroll after dinner.  The road bridge under the railway had a strange internal cross-section.  This is the sort of thing we’ve got used to when driving the boat, but a dramatic change in profile is much less common on the road.