We had a wonderful time in Thrupp. It mizzled a little one day, but other than that, we enjoyed summer weather. This is a shock for us! The longest summer since we've lived on Bella. The second night there, we had lovely dinner guests and celebrated with Cava, cream cheese and caviar, pastas with fresh herbs and garlic then finished with chocolate fondu. The beautiful scientist amongst us had never had either the starter or the finish and the fact that we had a set of glasses for each liquid brought some hilarity amongst our boater friends. What a hoot!
The next evening, we had a BBQ on the towpath around one friend's boat whilst we listened to tales of the cut from Rose who was born on a working boat and spent much of her life working them. We learnt to say 'motor and butty' not boat and butty and learned how to correctly pronounce Braunston. Our dear meal provider, Kate, tells Rose's tale in A Boat's Yer Whole World http://www.roundhamlocktheatre.co.uk/edfes.htm. We saw it in Banbury last year and loved it. On Sunday morning, we wandered the country lane then waterside to climb the ages old steps to Shipton on Cherwell parish church. We were SO warmly welcomed and it was good to worship with a friend whilst not in Rugby or Oxford.
We ended our stay, after Elizabeth went to Manchester for an overnight meeting, by having a BBQ outside our other friend's boat (s). What fun. Much conversation about deep and complex things and the enjoyment of the passing (Very Loud) birds. Or cars and lorries. This BBQ was around a fire, outside the boats, next to (in?) the car park, right by the Banbury Road. Brilliant. We'll go back to Thrupp.
The pics are of the moorhen family we watched frequent the opposite side of the canal from our mooring and of the lovely Thrupp evening. That's the Jolly Boatman pub with its lights on just on the right of the bridge. We love the reflections...
