Record time for the Claydon flight

Yesterday's weather was a great deal more pleasant and Daisy was the first to soak up a few rays scorching through the windows - just as well she was happy that way as the local gentry were out on a shoot all around us and she and the boys had to be kept in

 they retired at lunchtime for a slap up lunch made by Jennifer Archer whilst Brian flirted with ..... - sorry; getting a bit carried away now. Everyone knows that we're in Oxfordshire not Borsetshire (I don't think that's how you spell it).

 So I trundled off around the pretty village of Claydon

 some of the old buildings are really gorgeous

 and I'm not at all sure that Vic hadn't been through here with his newly serviced chainsaw whilst feeling a bit more artistic than practical

 by the time we returned to MR ...

 ..... G had finished mending the spare bed (I think he might have been about  ready to have tried out a test snooze if we hadn't interrupted)

 Weather was still OK when we left this morning and we shot up the Claydon five locks

 completing them and the pounds in 40 mins

 through the 'tunnel' (now just a cut) and under the first iron bridge; leaving the pretty little classic canal behind us now

by the time we popped into the Fenny Compton chandlery it was chucking it down but that didn't deter us from going to the Wharf Inn for a pint and to stock up with herbs and spices - every spice you could possibly want and loads I haven't even heard of - oh, and (hopefully) good eggs too. A supermarket delivery there at lunchtime tomorrow for the heavy stuff ... potatoes, dog food, Cola, etc...

We met a hire boat couple in there who were heading for Oxford; they weren't very happy as it was, and were even less happy when we told them they really needed to change their plans, wind and maybe head to Rugby as the lock closures meant they couldn't get there. She had already fallen down the steps in the boat and hurt her back and he had fallen 10ft down the lock steps, hit the concrete and bounced into the canal!!!!!!

As we left we heard them say that they might try Benidorm next year - but not by boat.

We'll help them turn the boat in the morning; it's a shame, but it sounds like he's lucky to be alive - I won't tell him if you don't (Derwent 6's traumatic experience came to mind)