Orchid Anniversary

Today was our 28th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed it out on the river, which we had all to ourselves again. Sheena operated Cookham lock, while I steered the boat through the fiddly bits. There still isn't any current, so it was a great pleasure to just pootle along at low revs, and not worry about getting swept away downstream. Made it back through the eerie early evening mist, and tied ourselves up just as night was falling.

Spinnaker Posse

Thankfully, the rain's gone, but it's still very windy. Which is causing us to bob about like a cross channel ferry. The local sailing club were out in full force, and seemed to be enjoying their racing.

Field Fungus

It's rained very heavily over the last couple of days, and the cow fields by the river have sprouted many different types of mushrooms and fungi.

Roger's Mushrooms
Edible and Poisonous Fungi
Visual Fungi

Oil Leak

Wiki: A governor, or speed limiter, is a device used to measure and regulate the speed of a machine, such as an engine.

It's a good job we've been stress testing the engine on our river trails, because we've discovered that the governor is leaking. According to Steve, there are two ways of describing what's wrong. First.. "There's lateral movement on the shaft". And secondly, "That spindle arm is waving around like a prick in a bucket".

It's nothing too major, and easy enough to fix. Just a few convex/concave washers, and a new rubber ring. But it's meant we haven't been able to 'mess about on the river' for a couple of days. Upside of the problem is, now we know what a governor does. And how to tweak it. Slowly, day by day, mysterious bits of the engine are revealing their secrets to us.

Grog!

On board the HMS Arethusa in 1805, surgeon Thomas Simpson described treating crew member John Downie, who performed animal impressions in exchange for alcohol.

Simpson recorded: "He can imitate the howling of a pack of hounds, the crowing of a cock, the bellowing of a bull, cow or calf and a number of other animals. On account of these curious qualifications, he is often solicited by his shipmates to give a specimen of his talents and a glass of grog is of course the regard."

Source: Newspaper Article

NB 'Harnser'

Hi Brian & Diana.

I saw you go gliding upstream past Bourne End this morning. Forgive me not waving, but I was still stumbling around in my underpants with my first coffee of the day.

Hope your journey is a good one.
Nice weather for it.

Narrowboat Harnser's blog


Edit: Oops, Sorry. The boat that went past this morning, doesn't appear to be your one. This one was green, and you appear to be blue? But it was definitely a 'Harnser'. Do you know them ?

Free Fruit

We walked up to Wooburn Green today, and on the way, investigated the abandoned apple orchard. The trees were still fully laden with tons of fruit. We did a quick 'taste test', and discovered that they were all crisp, sweet and delicious. There were six different varieties on offer, including a purple one, which looked like a large Plum. I've not encountered it before, but apparently (according to google) it's called the 'Bloody Ploughman'. Great Taste!


Sheena asked a local woman who was gathering crab apple branches for the Church harvest festival about the history of the place. The courts have ruled that the local council can't build flats on the land (like they'd wanted to) because local people have been walking and enjoying the undeveloped land for over 20 years. An ancient by-law has saved this beautiful spot from being bulldozered.

Sumo likes foraging, and helped himself to a nice juicy apple from a low level branch. When we got back to the boat, he also ran off with, and scoffed one of my bloody ploughmen, which had rolled out of the over stuffed fruit bowl.

Sumo likes apples.