Thursday 15th July

We were awake quite early for us! There was a farmer’s market in Lechlade so we all wandered up there and Sue and I bought some lovely local produce. I got bread and Cotswold Brie for lunch and Sue bought some lovely cherries. Needless to say we did buy other things too! It was so windy that when we got back to the boat one of my flower troughs on the roof of the boat had blown over and one of the solar lights must have fallen in the river. We put the troughs down in the front of the boat after that! We set off down river to Radcot where we were to be joined for lunch by my sister, Penny, and brother-in-law, Jim. They were on their way home from two weeks on their narrow boat which they had left near Litchfield. We had a lovely lunch of local produce but unfortunately we couldn’t eat outside as it was so windy. After Penny and Jim (and Niamh their dog) had gone we set off again at a rate of knots! With the wind behind us and going downstream everything seemed to whizz by! At one of the locks I asked the lock-keeper how the water level was and he said pretty much as they expected. It is a fact that after a long spell without water, when it rains the river level goes down! This is because in a dry spell the trees go into shut down but as soon as it rains they “revive” themselves again and drink like mad – clever eh! We stopped for the night just above Shifford lock where we had stayed on Monday. Millie seemed to recognise where we were and went off very happily as soon as we moored up. We were sitting eating our dinner when she appeared at the window with a mouse in her mouth – thank goodness the window was shut – as Dave is a vegetarian and I don’t think he would have appreciated mouse omelette!