Of boaters and ducks

We watched Miss Congeniality last night, and mother decided that I was just like Gracie Hart. So did most of my friends and colleagues that I shared this with. I think I’m flattered.

Slept in again this morning, which was lovely. We had a flight of 12 locks to deal with, which were very picturesque, if a little bit hard work. Some of the paddles needed some enthusiastic persuasion to turn.

We met many interesting people, such as the volunteer who had loads of information on the building of the locks to share, and his companion who was painting numbers on all the lock gates.

There was the boat ahead of us, who had also had problems with swing bridges, although not the same ones we had problems with. There was a boat full of Norwegians who were having fun. There was a boat with a very cross lady on board because the boat ahead of us lock jumped them. There was a boat whose wife (on the shore) made her husband (on the boat) run aground because she was cross with him, and there was the boat who used his bow-thrusters all the time, which almost pushed the boat in front of us into the adjacent cow field.

The wildlife today was good. Buzzards came close enough to see individual feathers, swallows were skimming the canal catching insects, and there may even have been an owl making a quick flight through some trees. We saw more herons, squirrels and swans for the first time, and some ducks with late clutches, the ducklings still fuzzy and squeaking. One solo duck followed us for a while, flying and landing to catch bread thrown, and attempting to hover with the most inelegant flapping of wings over the stern to announce her presence.

Mother took a rather impressive flying leap from the back stairs (but is okay), father has gone to climb a nearby mountain, and I think it must be Pimms o’clock, but maker of Pimms (mother) appears to have been distracted by a moorhen.