Category: Continuous Cruising

Living on a continuous cruiser on the UK canal system under CRT rules.

Bonnie in London

Soon to be….

A move down to ‘the smoke’. Such a casual thing….

Just 4 days sailing and £40 worth diesel. Approximately, in both cases. If the weather changes, (drastically), that may change the temperament of the old Thames.

Boards

On the canal and river system, they have these things called, warning boards.

Red boards - River water flow warning system
River flow warning system

When the boards are on red, you’re not meant to travel.

People do, but the ‘powers that be’ don’t sanction movement on red boards, it’s kind of frowned upon as unnecessarily dangerous.

After periods of particularly heavy rain, you might see the boards turn to red. The majority of the time, they remain on amber or green.

This trip down the Thames will depend the boards remaining off RED.

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The End….

For this owl.

I’ve never seen a Tawny Owl up this close….

I doubt that in another 46 years, I will see one this close again…

Dead Brown or Tawny Owl
Hello silence my old friend……

It was on the convergence of two lines of communication.

The railway, and the road.

The Pig Place

Last tiem I stayed here, there was a dead Badger in exactly the same spot.

I guess they like throwing themselves to their death right about now.

Pig Place - Oxfordshire
Pig Place – Oxfordshire

Everyone has seen a Badger. Roadkill. They are a bit stupid maybe.

Owls…. Supposed to be CLEVER. Aren’t they…..?

This one found itself a little… dead.

Moving on……

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Nearly Deddington

Nearly Deddington, but not quite. A crash on the road home remind us of our mortality.

Yes indeed. This was the scene just outside Deddington when I went on my cycle ride yesterday.

A trailer loaded with bails had toppled over and crushed the motorist inside.

An ambulance was in attendance when I arrived and the road had been closed to all traffic.

It didn’t look too serious, but the motorist had obviously received some injuries looking at the state of the vehicle and the emergency. So, serious but not that serious.

Had it have been a cheaper vehicle than the BMW in certain it would have been a lot more so.

Car crushed by hay bales - Deddington A4260
Car crushed by hay bales – Deddington A4260

Adjourn to pub

Took this as a sign from god to adjourn to the pub where a group of motorists travelling on the A4260 had had the same idea.

Another ambulance and a police car arrived while I was having my Amstel in the beer garden of the Red Lion in the sunshine.

The police got a round of applause when they arrived, they must have felt proud.

During the course of the day I cycled around some of the villages in the Cherwell Valley. It sure was hot! and I had to stop off and get some water, not that I didn’t have some on the bike, but I discovered this ancient water fountain with an inscription over the top, like something out of a fighting fantasy book!

North Aston water fountain
As the birds drink and so lift up their head, so must man sip and think of better drink he may attain to after he is dead.

I’m not sure about the health and safety implications etc. but drink I did, being a bit of a risk taker and all that.

I left feeling refreshed…..

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Things I’ve seen around Oxfordshire 🧐😲😍

Biology in and around Banbury – feeling the diversity from the perspective of a steel machine marine dweller.

Yeah bouy.

There’s so much to live for around here, at least that’s what the animals believe, as there seems to be rather a lot of them. Flying insects and birds…… birds on the water, animals that crawl and creep, hop and swim. There are a great diversity of the critters here. There is no doubt….

What I’d put this down to I don’t know. I can only guess that the local wild spaces by way of the country park and the Cotswold AONB has let some of those that would otherwise have perished, survive.

Time spent – time wasted

Seeing as I have so much time on my hands at the moment, I’ve taken some and committed it to a little fishing.

I’ve been a few times, 4 to be exact, with varying results. 2 times I caught these.

Bream from Cropredy Marina
Bream from Cropredy Marina
A 2lb roach from Oxford Canal
A 2lb roach from Oxford Canal

They are biggies….. especially the second one.

The other 2 times I caught nothing, or very little, just sat in the sunshine drank and listened to Youtube music streaming on my bluetooth speaker until it got dark, or I got bored. Whichever came first.

These two grand specimens more than make up for it.

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