Shellfen Log Book (2013-2015)
Tuesday 2ndJune 2013: Hesford’s Marina, Lymm, Cheshire.
Rainy, Front cabin, Candle and lamplight. After three pints of beer and cheese and onion pie in the Barn Owl with Lynette talking boats and horses and Bridgewater/Rochdale and her boat ‘Saltaire’. Umbrella up as it is still light. Warm enough. Phone mostly charged, wash and brush up in the pub. Looks like an early night.I have taken the boat down to Hesford’s from Stretford Boatyard and moored overnight in preparation for the craning out in the morning.
Wednesday 3rd. June 2013
D. Cain lorry arrives about 9.00am. and the lifting is done quite quickly and we are on our way down the motorway stopping at Northampton Services for a Macdonald’s (lorry driver eats 2). Go down a very narrow country lane to get to Winkwell Dock. Get craned in by the efficient team. Buy a couple of piling hooks and proceed towards London, through a couple of locks chatting to friendly passers-by who all want to know what sort of boat Shellfen is. Think I might get a notice board to stick on her. Moor up opposite pub at Hemel Hempstead station and get back to London. Off to Riddlesden. I leave the boat moored on the towpath.
Monday 22nd June. Hemel Hempstead to Kings Langley
A 1 hr cycle ride in hot weather to Euston to catch 12.34 train to Hemel is a half hour journey, so hot. Decide to fix lock, on bike so go to Hemel to Wilko to buy new door handle and hasp for lock +2 new locks for front cabin & back. Eventually set off when it’s a little bit cooler. Through a series of locks at Apsley pass the paper mill pub, and eventually arrive at King’s Langley just as the butty ‘Olive’ is mooring up. Set off on bike to King’s Langley station and leave bike at Euston St. Get a taxi from Green park- too tired to hang about, and get to Sainsbury’s just in time to buy beer and cider. 11pm. (Tuesday day off, lunch with Ben)
Wednesday 24th June 2013: King’s Langley to Cassiobury Park.
Set off about 3.30pm. and finish in the park about 7.00pm. Catch the Metropolitan Line
back, and cycle home (Thursday day off)
Friday- a Day off? Seem to have lost a day somewhere this week.
Saturday 27th.
On the train with bike to Cassiobury Park- hence the bad writing 12.15pm.
(Innes phoned –off down the Anderton Lift on Monday.)/ cycle into Watford and buy some ties for fixing rope fender from Maplins (hub cap holder) they don’t work.
Sit on boat and paint before setting off in the afternoon. 1st lock lots of volunteers help pushing the gates. A series of various locks through Croxley the place where Debbie joined us on Gort last year. The weather looks thundery and pull in at Rickmansworth, cycling along the Ebury way to station and back to Baker Street.
28th Sunday. Day off.
29th Monday Tim back at flat.
30th Tuesday down to Roger’s for J’s party.
31st pick up car and take it to Peugeot in Brentford.
1st August: Catch the train to Rickmansworth. Another long day. Stop for a bacon sarny at Batchworth Locks. Arrive in time at Uxbridge Boat Centre to fill up with diesel, buy a ropeand navigation lights, battery operated (never used) Tie up on towpath side. Bike has a puncture so leave it and catch the very slow Piccadilly Line back. Get in late- and so go for a disappointing curry in Kensington.
Friday 2nd August 2013: Uxbridge to Brentford.
Tim arrives before me by bike and we set off. Stop below a lock to go to the Malt Shovel for lunch, helped through locks by volunteers. Pass Bulls Bridge Junction getting to the Peugeot Garage just in time to see Tamsin. They want me to find a fuel tank on eBay. Long bus ride home. Tim back long before me. Go out to Pizza Express in Notting Hill- good meal.
Saturday 3rd August 2013: Brentford to Kingston.
Catch the bus to Brentford and queue up at the lock with lots of other boats.
‘Buffalo’ and the Commodore from the Pageant were there. Let out at 11.00 stream of boats plastic and narrowboats going through Teddington. Moor up in Kingston and get the train home.
Monday 5th august 2013: Kingston to Eel Pie Island.
Train out to Kingston. Get lost in the town but find the river eventually. Lot of big river cruisers creating wash. Turn the boat round and head downstream to Teddington.
Arrive at Eel Pie, miss the mooring first time and go round the island again and moor up next to tug. Meet Mike and look at crack on the block. Serious weeping at full power. Arrange for them to look at repair and also fix in an alternator, (still not connected up). Leave and train back to Waterloo and buy supper from Tesco’s. Watch Harry Potter. Arrange for filming tomorrow. Early start.
Tuesday 6th August 2013: Eel Pie Island
Morning filming with Kevin & Co. Turn up in the morning for a shoot with G.D. in which Ken at the boatyard is interviewed about the history of the yard. Do some manoeuvring with the boat for filming, then to Henley Leander Club and Rowing Museum, and back for supper with Ben and Tim at Il Postino. Talk to Ken and Mike at the boatyard- it looks like an engine out job to fix leak.
Monday 12th August: Oil the steering chain, mend bike, paint a picture.
Thursday 15th August: Call at boat to take photos of engine to send to firm in the Midlands.
Friday 11th August: Collect car from garage before going to boat. Mike has made a fixing for the alternator. I use the suction pump to try and get more gunge out of the deck. Show Ken the brochure on Nirvana. Talk to boat next to me a five seventh replica of a Duker.
The engine is repaired and we leave Eel Pie.
1. Sometime towards the end of September 2013
Hot day again with a hint of autumn mist as on the day train to Marlow. Late back last night from Marlow. Only a short journey yesterday. Meant to get as far as Henley but failed. Train tickets are a difficulty as Henley is on a different line. Might just spend the day in Marlow today, we will see.
2. On the train again 6.45 from Twyford (Tuesday) via Maidenhead to Paddington.
Changed trains at Twyford from Henley. Beautiful day boating through the locks, get given an apple by a lockkeeper from one of his trees. Moor up in Henley. Looks like a charge of £9 a night – we shall see (didn’t pay). Temple lock was unmanned but Henley Lock and the next Hambleden Lock, the one before Henley where I got the apple all manned. Lady Lockkeeper at Hurley. I think mum and I came to this lock once.
Wednesday 25th September 2013.
Again a late start from Henley. Changed my mind about going to the Rowing Museum , £8.50 entrance charge. As I was approaching Henley lock there is a mr talkative on ‘2 and 6’. He, with the lockkeeper discuss the best place to moor up and they jointly recommend Wargrave behind ‘Omega’ a Freeman Boat which has been moored for months on the 24hr. mooring. Mr ‘2/6’ points at the mooring spot as we pass, no doubt see him again. Wargrave is a short walk from the station, past a house being built on stilts called ‘the Shed’- talk to the builder. Back at flat for quick shower before meeting up with Tim, Holly, Abi and going to Chinatown with Tim and Holly.
Thursday 26th September 2013. Would you believe it, I’m on the Twyford train going to Wargrave-
Hope to get to Reading by the end of the day. Grahame coming tomorrow. Walked from the station via the church. Wargrave church was burnt down by the Suffragettes in error. Angry Suffragettes coming down from London intent on punishing the vicar of Shiplake for insulting them, got off the train at the stop before, and burnt down the wrong church. (They should have had a man with them). It was rebuilt in flint and stone and has a brick tower. The lady vicar invited me to look round, and not much of interest but need to look at my notes: 1950’s stained glass window. Memorial to the dead etc. The long list of names of those killed in the First World War- whole family’s extinguished, interesting red tiles on floor. A village that has moved from the church, now isolated from the town which is a short walk away, once a busy place where now the coaching inn is now an Indian takeaway. There is a flamboyance of riverine architecture with gables and painted plasterwork and lanterns galore. The boat then moves to Reading. Moor up just under Caversham Bridge, a short walk from the railway station.
Friday 27th September 2013
Grahame turns up 8.30 am and we catch the train to Reading. We stop at Mapledurham lock for a bacon sandwich at the café on the lock. They were having a Macmillan Cake Morning where Grahame has two slices- we make a donation. We are now approaching Goring Gap and pass under Goring Bridge. Ask at the lock if there are any decent pubs, but we should have moored up below the lock and walked into Goring. G. amazed that there are so few canal side pubs. We see the ‘Leather Bottel’ and are about to pull in but notice that mooring is for diners only, so continue till we find another pub, but the beer is no good so we continue to Wallingford. ‘2/6’ is moored up here and we have a chat, more advice on conversion- he also suggests the second pub rather than the one on the river for a beer. £2.50 a pint. We catch a train back to Reading and then the train home. Pub and a pizza for supper.
Saturday 28th September: Steampunk Exhibition
Pub crawl, Blackfriars, and one in the Strand (day off boating). Grahame and others at the exhibition suitably attired outside the Guildhall.
Sunday 29th September 2013 : Grahame’s Birthday.
Give him a tobacco pouch and a lighter. Today we drive to Wallingford and park for free in the car park (free on Sundays) We go all the way to Abingdon where I then cycle about 12 miles back to Wallingford across Wittenham Stump, where there are delicious blackberries. Return to pick up G and drive back to London coming too late to go to Ben’s party. Instead we go out to the Hare and Tortoise and have a pint in the Warwick Arms and one in the Scarsdale.
Monday 30th September 2013 Another car day to Abingdon.
I leave Grahame to take the boat on while I drive to Iffley. We try finding the ancient lock (at Wallingford) but fail to find it, despite the efforts of a friendly dog walker. I return to the car in the car park to find I have a puncture. Change the tyre and drop it off to be repaired in a convenient tyre shop in Abingdon. Get lost trying to find Iffley lock, but thanks to the sat nav get there early. Cycle down the Thames Path to meet Grahame and we go through Iffley Lock then sail past the Oxford boathouses and moor up eventually outside the ‘Poacher’ above Osney lock . Have lunch then I cycle back down the towpath and return to Abingdon to collect tyre before picking up G. Back to London where there is an accident on the A40 which means G misses his bus. Buy him a return train ticket so he may be back.
Wednesday 1st October 2013:
Off to Oxford on the train to arrange mooring for boat while I go off to help Innes. Have to move it from Osney as charges are £100 after 3 days. Try at Godstow lock- no secure mooring, move on past Port meadow and the rowers on the river to King’s Lock, first of the non electric locks. Leave it there paying for five days for £39. Oh well. Cycle back along the towpath pass the rowers again to the station, leave my bike there and catch the train to London just in time for the 5.31pm.
Monday 7th October 2013 King’s Lock to Swinford bridge.
Another short day because being under the weather with a cold. Catch the bus to Oxford,
Tuesday 8th October 2013 Swinford Bridge to Bablock Hythe.
Leave car in the Toll Booth car park(£2) and set off to Bablock Hythe, moor up and talk to Paul who keeps his boat at Eel Pie. He also has a caravan at Bablock Hythe and was in a canoe. Nice bike ride back to Swinford Bridge via Stanton Harcourt. Home to flat to cook supper and watch film ‘Mud’ with Tim.
Wednesday 9th October 2013
Go to lunchtime concert at the Royal College of Music and then set off for Babcock. Leave Car at the ‘Rose Revived’ and another good cycle ride to Babcock. Come up the river as the evening is drawing in and moor up outside the ‘Rose Revived’, another Greene King pub. Phone Roger to arrange to meet at Tadpole tomorrow. Cold improving, supper in pub of cheeseburger- average, annoying barman. Oh middle England where are your extremities?
Thursday 10th October 2013 to Tadpole Bridge.
Woke up late and drove to Witney and Sainsbury’s for a wash and crap and to buy diesel. Stop for a bacon sandwich on the way back. Set off in a gleaming sunny day but 1st chilly day. Through Shifford Lock round the twisty curving bends and arrive at Tadpole Bridge mooring up outside pub. Roger Jax and Jak. Arrive and we go in the pub, decide the menu is too stuffy and end up going to the ‘Angel’ in Witney-cheap and cheerful. Buy food for tonight, plastic boxes. Roger drops me off at Newbridge. (the rose revived) to pick up car. Have returned to boat for a snooze before heading off to Rissington.
Friday 11th October 2013. to Radcot.
Take Jax and Jak to the boat, and after a coffee head off upstream. Get stuck on a sandbank on one of the bends- mistake the red buoy as meaning pass to the left; of course it is the other way. Markers are for upstream according to the lockkeeper we meet. Arrive at Radcot Bridge just as Roger arrives and have lunch in the pub and then back to Rissington.
Saturday 12th October 2013 to Lechlade.
Set off from Rissington to Radcot, late in the morning after lunch at the ‘Merrymouth’ . Sail passed Kelmscot and through St John’s Lock and moor up on the field before the bridge.. Cycle in the rain to pick up car from Radcot and drive back to go out to supper at Nando’s with Tim.
Tuesday 15th October 2013. Lechlade
Back on boat. Sunny afternoon, Have a cup of coffee before deciding itinerary. Cycled up to Inglesham to do a painting.
6.00pm. Back on boat, no phone reception here, into town for supplies and a pint, kebab for supper.
Wednesday 16th October 2013 Lechlade
Woke up late, raining, coffee and digestive biscuit with honey for breakfast.
Deciding a strategy for the day…..
Return to London.
Friday 18th October 2013 to Radcot
Leave about 9.30am. and arrive at Radcot 11.15am Roger arrives and we do a car manoeuvre to Radcot. Then set off through St. John’s Lock arriving at Kelmscott. We have lunch in the pub there. Eat outside as pub full of chatty people. Add Morris to list of king prawns, chardonnay, etc. something creepy about the place. Move on downstream to Radcot and moor up outside the pub again. Back to Rissington.
Saturday 19th October 2013 to Tadpole.
Saturday morning labouring on porch, then 3.00pm. off to Radcot down to Tadpole.
Moor up outside pub. Came through rain, sun and rainbow doing both locks myself. Cycle back to Radcot for car. Supper of paté, tomatoes, cheese, bread roll, and wine. Light a small fire to keep damp out, otherwise not cold. Do a drawing with neocolors, no phone reception. Going to lunch with the Wades tomorrow. Go to pub for 1 pint, too awful for 2. Innes phones, he is at Worcester wanting to go out on the river, said I could do it Monday if he doesn’t go tomorrow.
Sunday: lunch at Wades, in the evening to Gort at Worcester.
Monday 21st October 2013 Gort to Gloucester.
Thursday 22nd October 2013
Leave Rissington as Roger starts work on the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom, moving his NASA base forward. ‘Janet’s Party’ was today for her birthday. Drive to Tadpole: Set off to ‘Rose Revived’ around the many twisty bends. Long cycle ride through Cote to Newbridge along quiet country roads and many streams. Cycle along the Great Brook. Drive back to Newbridge to load luggage to take back to London to sort out.
Wednesday 23rd October 2013
Leave London 8.30 arrive 10.00 at ‘Rose Revived’ and order a dry and late breakfast of inedible sausage and overcooked remains of bacon, the toast with no butter had been torn in half rather than cut. I suspect the breakfast had been prepared by someone to whom an English breakfast was a foreign concept. No complaints as it only cost £5.95. I would have paid three times that for something decent. Oh well, in economy the lowest common denominator prevails (I digress). (This is the sort of blog on the web that you skip) (Its actually 3.30 in the morning of Thursday when I write up this so…). Well today was magnificent sunshine, rainbow and showers, warm and swift with the current, river up about an inch, and a following wind. Watch the leaves blow off the boat through Northmoor Lock, just as it stops a rain shower, which had drenched the boat while I stood in the cabin- come out dry. Takes about an hour from Newbridge, and then just under an hour to Pinkhill Lock where there is a young lockkeeper. All the lock-keepers are so mostly very friendly and interested in what the boat is. I tell them “it’s a diesel tanker” “”used to supply the pumping stations on the Fens” or versions of the same with other detail. After Pinkhill I call in at Oxford Cruisers turning off the river into a wharf where I fill up with £65 of diesel and buy some more grease. Owner of the yard lives on a Dutch barge, has another in Antwerp, a forty foot inspection launch from Hamburg, and his son is doing up another barge in the yard. He used to run a hotel boat with a JP3. He tells me I should be running the engine with the expansion cylinders open- makes a better noise so try it. Its true but we make a lot of smoke, but I will persevere. Get to the top of Eynsham Lock- long chat with the lock-keeper who is very knowledgeable about the river. He tells me the river is not being transferred to the Canal and River Trust but will remain with the EA. Many of the lock-keepers worked when it was still the Thames Conservancy before it transferred to the N.R.A. and others. As he put it, there has really only been one boss and that’s the river. I talked about the overgrown banks which he tells me is the landowner’s responsibility in fact to keep the channel clear. Eynsham Lock is only about two and a half feet drop. It was put in because a weir was added here to control the water supply to a branch of the river which barges to deliver goods to a factory a little way downstream. The lock had moved back from its original position. Ask if I can stay on his moorings till Friday. Have lunch, bread and cheese, banana and a cup of tea, 1 sugar. Change clothes as I have also emptied the water in the bilges, loosened the expansion valves and got messy. A short cycle ride back through Stanton Harcourt, explore down a dead end lane where I come across a collection of thatched cottages- I am back in the Middle Ages. The church is full of famous Harcourts lying in standing splendour, two strong gentlemen scowl down at you. I like the 18th C. one better than the 19th C. who was a little bit too lifelike for my taste- although a better piece of work. Lots of historical info on this church lay out in plasticised sheets on a tomb. Learn that the very strange rood screen is probably the only one that survives. It is the strangeness of these parts many little Baptist and Methodist churches and this island of the Old Religion. The marshland around here perhaps protected isolated communities. Nothing but rivers, ditches, ponds, lakes etc. as you cycle along. Stopped at the bridge at Broad Bridges- tooka photograph and painted a picture. Drive back to London 4.30 am. Hope Outlook has finished and I can listen to World Service, the programme is too magaziney- short attention span listening, and I hate the new look presenter’s voices, all smiley and estuarial, and usually female, but I really like Pascal Harta. It’s funny, I always remember how mum used to say she disliked Mark Lawson- he had a smiley voice.
Moored outside 'The Rose Revived' at Newbridge.
The 13th C. Rood Screen in Stanton Harcourt Church.
Friday 25th October 2013: Eynsham
Tablets in churches, memorials, life passing, talking of which we have just shot through the Goring Gap on the crowded train to Oxford, boats on the river. Had to wait till I could buy an off-peak ticket after 9am. (£17 reurn). Weather holding up. Last night Tim and I went out for an indifferent meal at Carluccio’s refusing to go to Il Postino, then a tense drama of a film- ‘Captain Philips’. He stays the night.10.10am. about 15 mins from Oxford then bus to Eynsham. Arrive at the Toll bridge just as Nigel and Chris arrive.
Set off through the lock and fine sunny cruise through King’s Lock and Godstow. Moor up outside the poacher for lunch, then train back to London leaving the boat till Tuesday morning. Nigel and Chris catch the bus back to Eynsham.
Tuesday 29th October 2013: Oxford.
Arive by train. Quite strong stream lucky through Foley Bridge no traffic. Once on the broader water much better. Heading for Wallingford, starts to get dark at Benson’s Lock, and try at get to Wallingford but lose my nerve. Luckily pass a pontoon, turn in the stream and moor up for the night. Find my way across a couple of fields and into Wallingford along an unlit road. Have two good pints at the Town Pub, then think of having a curry but buy beer and wine at Waitrose and fish and chips. Walk back to the boat for supper.
Wednesday 30th October 2013: Wallingford to Reading and onto the Kennet and Avon Canal.
Another swift day of travel. Stop at Mapledurham Lock Café for breakfast then through Reading with another small narrowboat in the locks. Follow them to 'The Cunning Man’. Walk along dangerous road to A4 where I get the bus to Reading and train to London.
Thursday 31st October 2013. (Nirvana demolished)
Wednesday 6th November 2013.
Drive out to boat and have lunch in ‘The Cunning Man’ and then drive off to find somewhere to fix the exhaust on the car. Call in at a garage in Burghfield and they recommend Aldermaston Motors where they can fix the exhaust at 4.00pm so spend the afternoon exploring Silchester roman walls. Talk to an owner of a Luxe motor back at the boat before driving home.
Friday 8th November 2013 Reading to Theale.
Meet up with Fenella at Paddington and get a taxi from Theale (£10) to the boat. Set off through the lock, and stop for a coffee as it is pouring with rain. Arrive below the lock at Theale and walk to pub but too late for lunch. Have a drink then tidy the boat leaving it below the lock and then catching the train back after an abortive attempt to find a cup of tea in Theale.
Saturday 9th November 2013: Theale
Late to the boat. There are a party of Finns mooring up below the lock as I bow-haul the boat above the lock and leave it just before Theale swing bridge. Shortest boatng day? Maybe- weather foul. Meet the Finns again as they ask directions to the nearest pub in Theale. Back to London.
Tuesday 12th November 2013: Theale to Aldermaston
Luckily the resident in the canal-side cottage, Bill, helps with the bridge. Tells me a lot of the local history. Site of an airfield once. The ‘Biro’ factory now moved across the canal. His father was valet, coachman to a house near Bisley, used to own the mill there, now being restored to generate electricity. Pass through lock 100 and a couple of swing bridges. Get help with Tyle Mill Swing Bridge and lock from a local boater. After Padworth swing bridge which I do on my own, moor up just below Padworth Lock (96), walk to Aldermaston station after a cup of coffee and home.
Thursday 14th November 2013 Aldermaston to ‘Rowbarge’ at Woolhampton (Midgham Station)
Swing bridges and locks. Lift Bridge at Aldermaston have to do on my own. Get help at the last one from a passing couple just about to have lunch at the ‘Rowbarge’. Moor up above Woolhampton Lock on 48hr. mooring.
Tuesday 19th November 2013: Midgham to Thatcham.
Arrive with Debbie and have lunch in ‘Rowbarge’. Bright sunny day. Get to just below Thatcham, Colthrop Lock before it gets dark. Walk along towpath, time for a pint before train back.
Friday 22nd November 2013.
On a train to Reading, need to change trains for Thatcham, wrote up diary. Re-taxed boat for six months. Debbie went home yesterday. Hoping to get to Newbury. E mailed Canal and River Trust about moorings- very vague. I shall just keep mooring. Instructions from Malc about next Thursday moving ‘Bart’. Coffee on train. Walk down the towpath to Colthrop Lock. Set off under willows. Moor up just other side of bridge at Thatcham where an engineer is working on a boat. Wrap up engine, drain down. Walk up to lock, sit the other side behind pill box and paint a picture. Get the four o’ clock train home. Bike back wheel not working.
Saturday 23rd November 2013
Up early to catch 8.18 train from Paddington. Switched off inlet valve but it has been leaking in- so have to bail out engine bay. Off through Monkey Marsh Lock where I painted the picture yesterday. Warm and sunny day. Entering Newbury pass Marinas and the dry dock on the river Lambourn. A builder with his little dog talks to me about conversion of Shellfen. “As a builder I would keep the profile of the cabin and follow it through, raise the deck and re-use the steel”. He had a very good eye- best interpretation yet. Newbury is a dump- I mean in the nicest way. Soon through it but lose my glasses at a lock’ Go back and find them. Large narrowboat coming up so follow them through a swing bridge and let them take the next lock. A woman, very like Wyn on board- cheerful with a rather dour elderly man. They leave their boat and the last I see of them is walking down the towpath with plastic bags. Moor up below Benham Lock- too dark to go through. Light the fire to dry the bedding, and then walk with the torch across the railway line to the ‘Red House’ at Marsh Benham. Arkell's beer and excellent fish and chips and a really friendly place. Mine Host tells me about ‘Fish and Chip Thursday’ and ‘A Free Pint and a Pie Wednesdays’. Definitely a place to visit again. I thought pubs were becoming so predictably chain-like and dull- but this one was worthy of the name, still a good food pub though, but that’s the way now, back on the boat before nine, boat too hot as usual, but better than cold. Got the porthole open and can hear the water running through the lock. No phone signal here so out of touch.
Sunday 26th November 2013: Kintbury
Woke up late just in time to get the lock as a boat coming through. Locks then all in my favour all the way to Kintbury where I moor up on the 48hr moorings. Get the replacement coach to Reading and back to London.
Monday 25th November 2013
Lunch with Sara at the ‘Dundas Arms’. Decide to leave the boat where it is and go and visit Roger.
Friday 13th December 2013
Come down to go to the Hungerford Steam Fair on the train from Kintbury. Have a kebab and shop at Tesco’s
Monday 23rd December 2013
Down to Kintbury about lunchtime and eat supper at the Dundas Arms. A stormy night. Boat banging and smoke blowing back down the chimney.
Tuesday 24th December 2013
Woke up to a sunny morning- go for a walk into Kintbury to post some late Christmas cards. Waiting for C and Z to arrive to go to Bas’s. Just realised I have been on the 48 hr. moorings for a month.
Boxing Day 26th December 2013
Dropped off in the afternoon by C & Zand go for a walk along the river while fishermen are sitting on my boat, did not want to light fire. Back by 3.30pm. and they are gone- light fire, read books and go to bed early after a pork pie and a bottle of beer. Stormy night again, leave the lid open a small crack, but because it’s windy not much rain comes in.
Friday 27th December 2013
Up at 9.00. Trains running to Theale where there is a bus service to Reading- planning to get the 10.05.
(to be continued)
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