26th June '13

moored on the Thames, just outside of the Wey navigation. Wide open spaces again! Anyway back  to yesterdays photos....

Thought this was worth a picture. Very homebuilt but what an individual look! Not sure I'd like to steer it but certainly a novelty.

This old oak is determined to stay alive -- no innards at all but still managing to sprout a goodly crop of leaves. How resilient is that? Trees fascinate me, and I wish I knew more so that I could identify them, but there again, that's what John's here for. I do know oaks though (mostly due to my time working at Sherborne Butterfly Farm and having to go out and pick specific leaves for various moths to lay their eggs on and for the caterpillars to eat), as well as a few others, but not enough really, since I consider myself a country girl.

It's very disconcerting to come out of a lock and see the bank ahead of you. Luckily we knew that the navigation was to the right - this one caused us a few problems on the way up but was pretty easy coming back. The nice thing about these locks is that you can leave the gates open after you, so John can climb on board while we're in the lock and then we both sail happily out together. There's enough water going down all the time so that it doesn't need you to shut the gates, suits us!

I think I've mentioned the signage on this stretch of water before - well here's proof - we were actually going past it when I took this as you can't really see it before you are parallel to it, at least this one wasn't covered with reeds or low tree branches like most of them. The sign is about 12" square.

How's this for a wonderful sight? the poppies could be seen from a long way away and really caught the eye, the photo doesn't really do them justice, they were magnificent.

We're arriving at the Anchor at Pryford Lock. Nice pub. If we ever come down this way (Wey) again, we'll only come as far as here since Mum could get up to here and we can turn and now we've done it we don't really feel inspired to go the full length again.

I took some photos of the Thames Valley Morris Men but unfortunately I took them on the phone then transferred them to my ipad and erased them from the phone. Then I realised I needed them on my computer and sent them to myself by email. Now they are sideways on and I feel a bit of an idiot. Anyway here it is - don't break your necks looking at it but I wanted the proof that we'd seen them.

 

 

 

For some reason last night I had a really bad stomach ache and was unable to sleep, which kept John from sleeping as well. I still felt a bit groggy today so we have just come off the Wey and are now moored at Weybridge in a sort of no-mans-land (or water). The Wey is to one side and the Thames is on the other and we are just sort of here.

 

 



 

 

This is the view from the window, looking out to the weir coming down from the Thames, the lock that we came through at Shepperton is to the right of this.

 

 

 

Here we are and in the background you can see the entrance to the Wey navigation. We need to sort of turn hard right when we leave to return to the Thames proper. I'm starting to feel human again and look forward to a complete return to full strength tomorrow as we continue our journey towards Brentford.