Voyages of Gabriel: Water Eaton to Cosgrove

Mon 20th Jun Water Eaton

Sue returned from hospital early and was back on Ten Thousand Reasons. Many people including us, waiting to see who might need help, so we didn’t return our car today.

Graham and Sandra are unwell on Micah. Graham Pope is by himself on Kew. David has left to look after Mary back home. We are trying to recover on Gabriel. Paul and Sue are unwell on Ten Thousand Reasons. Andy and Sue (Springwater) kindly did a shopping trip and came back with paracetamol and tissues for us. Steve and Fiona are OK on Lutra Lutra, and waiting to see if they can help as well.

James went for a short walk down by the river this evening. First, he spotted a kingfisher, with a fish in its beak, holding it by the tail. It flew down out of sight, but it was probably feeding young, otherwise it would have swallowed it head first. It didn't wait for a photo.

Then he saw a barn owl flying over meadows, and resting on a post. While he was watching that, a little egret flew over. On the way back to the boat he saw a treecreeper which kept disappearing round the other side of the tree before he could get a photo. A mistle thrush appeared, the first we have seen for a long time.

And the evening sun on the wild flowers was lovely.

Barn Owl

Little Egret

Mistle Thrush

Sunlight on the meadow

No boating on Gabriel today.

Tue 21^st Jun Water Eaton

A very warm sunny day

Today we were struggling a bit. James managed to do some shopping while we still have a car. He found making choices in the shops was difficult. Hazel’s legs are very swollen. We both have irritating coughs, and we are dosing ourselves up with paracetamol.

We are being asked to jump through some silly hoops by Oliver’s buyer’s mortgage company. They asked us to get a structural survey, which we have done, and sent to them. Now they won’t even read it, because it is in our name. They now say they want it in the name of the buyer. STUPID!! It is the same report whatever name is on it. We paid for it, so it is our report. If they wanted it in the buyers name, they should have arranged it themselves. Bah Humbug! We have spoken to the surveyors, and they think it is a strange request which needs discussion at a higher level. They haven’t yet come back to us.

We haven’t yet taken the car back as we may need it for doctors etc.

Hazel and I managed a short walk by the river, and we saw some swifts. We have had a swan family and a duck family asking for food. Seven youngsters and an adult in each case.

No boating today.

Wed 22^nd Jun Water Eaton

Ten Thousand Reasons and Lutra Lutra left early, before we emerged.

Hazel’s legs were back to normal, after sleeping in the bed instead of sitting up. We both had showers today, and then we drove into Aylesbury via a long way round, as there was a road closure due to an accident.

We bought a few things in Waitrose, picked up a prescription for Hazel, returned a borrowed mic stand, and visited our apartment. We left our car there, with the battery disconnected.

Roger and Jo collected us from there after their duty at More+, and took us back to Water Eaton with our shopping, again via a tortuous country route.

In the evening Roger cooked some Asian spicy noodles, which were lovely. Hazel made a fruit salad. Just four boats remaining- Kew, Gabriel, Micah and Spirit.

We joined the Canal Ministries Zoom meeting, with Jo’s iPad stuck magnetically to the side of their boat. Paul and Sue had reached Grafton Regis – a long day.

No boating today.

Thu 23^rd Jun Water Eaton to Giffard Park

It was our turn to depart, which we did at 8.30am, leaving just three boats at the mission site.

Micah

Spirit

Kew

The first stop was the facilities at the locks, where we emptied three cassettes. We never did get our fourth one fixed. It was pleasing to not that the bins had been emptied, and all the bulky items had been taken away.

Emptied bins

Fenny Stratford Lock and Swing Bridge

After the lock we saw the guy from WOL, who had been at the folk night. He said it was a great evening, but he had also been ill since. We spotted Jubilee moored across from him. John and Jan were away on family business.

We started on the long pound around MK, which was fairly slow due to the large number of moored boats. At one point we met Capital, with Dave at the helm. He goes to the music session at Wing.

As we were going under a bridge, James spotted a black and yellow striped cinnabar caterpillar on a solitary ragwort plant. We usually seem to have one sighting each year.

A beautiful tree. Anyone know what species?

We were tempted to stop at Campbell Park, as there was a space available, and it started to rain slightly, but we decided to do a little bit more. When we saw some new rings at Giffard Park, we thought that was too tempting, so we stopped. James went to investigate the pub, which looked closed down from the Canal – no name board, and one gate padlocked. However, when he got there, it was open. May be later.

Anonymous pub

He checked out the shops as well. The One Stop is now a Tesco Express, and the Rohan shop has closed. The Chinese takeaway is now a café which serves breakfast. Good news. There is also the Cairo Lounge, where you can go and smoke a hubbly bubbly. We were surprised that is legal.

Meanwhile we had a reply from the surveyors, who want to charge £150 to change the name of the surveyors report. So, the mortgage company can either pay for that, or they can read the one we have given them.

It rained a bit harder, so we put the hood up. We went for a meal in the pub later.