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Sheena's mum passed away peacefully in her sleep on monday morning.

I've just completed an epic three day journey downstream. Day one: Abingdon to Beale Park. Day two: Beale Park to Temple Lock. Day three: Temple lock to Bourne End. A lot of hours at the tiller. But, the river was kind, the engine behaved and the journey went without incident. Apart from mister scuffing up the bed in Marsh Lock. Why that particular lock should annoy him so much, I don't know.

Oh, and such was my desperation for pork pies, and wanting to say hello to Vic No Problem (at Reading Tesco), I ever-so-slightly bounced off of Still Rockin's bow. Oops. Sorry. And then attempted to take off while still tied up! Classic. Managed to catch up with Sue near the milk, and conveyed the news to her. It was great to see them both, however briefly. Sorry I didn't have time to stop and chat, George.

To sum up the 2014 season, I would say that it's been "very quiet". There have been the usual manic bursts around the bank holiday periods, as per usual. But boating conditions have been near perfect. With hardly any flow, and beautiful weather to accompany it. Upstream of Osney bridge, it was practically deserted. For, me, personally, there hasn't been the stress of finding somewhere to moor up this year. And with the river being so gentle, manuevering single handed hasn't been that much of a problem, either.

So, that's me for a while. Don't know when I will be back. Sumo is fine, and seems to have forgotten all about his operations. We're needed down in Devon now. Cheers everyone. As my grandmother used to say :-

"Make sure you live every day".

As a liveaboard on the Thames, you get to see this every day. What the picture doesn't convey is the total absence of modern day noise. You can hear the birds sing, and the wind in the trees. There are no car alarms, police, or ambulance sirens. If there is a road or a railway track, it is tucked away at a considerable distance, discreetly behind some trees. Before I moved onto the river, I didn't think such a thing was possible.

Quiet

That is, until a "Le Boat" hireboat decided to moor right up my arse, and then run their water cooled inboard generator (splash rumble splash rumble) *and* engines (loud rumble rumble rumble x2) until 23:30. I blame the hire fleet for not explaining to them that such behaviour would get them labeled as "inconsiderate assholes" by other boaters.

Abingdon WW1 Historical event

The young lad on the white horse was a nice touch. Very poignant. There were a number of other people in period costumes and uniform. Unfortunately, all of them far too old for military service. And rather (shall we charitably say) portly. The event, appeared to my eyes, as more about charitable donation than rememberance. It would have been nice to have seen more young people involved in it. Though, all credit to Abingdon, for putting on something out of the ordinary again.

Autumn is coming

Stopped off briefly at Wallingford, so that mister could stretch his legs. The willows are starting to moult.

Beale Park

He always has a whale of a time here. The perfect place to run around like an idiot.