Oxford for Christmas!!

Here we are. We made by yesterday it with no ice, no flooding (though a fast river Cherwell nonetheless) and we're moored in lovely Jericho. Mooring was fun (not!). We spotted quite a clear stretch of 7 day mooring spots, quizzical why they were still free. It turns out that, without quite a large plank or drawbridge, they are out of bounds for anyone. The towpath has broken into the canal in quite large chunks of below water boulders, meaning that it is impossible to moor alongside. We finally moored up opposite Lucy's iron works, now redeveloped to swish housing, but still had to use the plank and we were sorely grounded with a huge list to port. Finally, Pete took the boat hook to the water and checked the depth ahead of us, as well as the presence of solid towpath edge. We moved Bella up about 50 yards (metres?) and we can just jump off without the aid of a plank. We are a close walk to the heart of Jericho, the street from the canal taking us up to the side of Raymond Blanc's restaurant, for those of you who will know where that is (Gray's? Meachins?). We had a lovely shopping foray today, really enjoying being here, ending up carol singing with many friends from Church in the renewed Bonn Square. Christmas, here we come!