Thursday 18 December 2008

Through Heyford and on to Enslow

Today we set out from Aynho in a grey but lovely day. We moored up at Heyford, Bella's old home, and had great chats with the people there. David Dare took Elizabeth to Bicester North station where she caught a train to Banbury and a taxi to Cropredy to collect Reg, then return to Heyford. Our lovely friends there have said that Reg can stay there over Christmas - a quick train hop from Oxford should we need him, but safely out of Oxford's residents only parking schemes.

Today's memorable moments were: Elizabeth, while hovering Bella as she waited for Pete's lock work, was closely visited by a huge beautiful Shire Horse. Pete saw Kestrels, Buzzards and his first Red Kite on the Oxford Canal. We had a tricky time mooring up opposite the Rock of Gibraltar in Enslow, as the first mooring was too shallow and rough and the light was fading fast. But we found another one. But the most odd thing (MOST odd) was that sometime when Bella was moored in Heyford, something swiped the Cyclamen from the hanging pot from the deck railing. Not the pot and compost, so not a human. But something absolutely cleaned the cyclamen, flowers and stems, from out of the pot and compost. If anyone knows what eats cyclamen, we'd be delighted to know. There were huge numbers of mole hills... do moles eat cyclamen????