Sandford on Thames

It was really too hot to cruise yesterday and if we weren't meeting up with friends in Oxford tomorrow we would have stayed in Abingdon. As it was, we only went as far as Sandford on Thames and moored on the rough ground above the lock as the dedicated moorings were taken up by cruisers.

Sandford Lock is huge and we easily managed 4 narrowboats with extra capacity for at least another 3.

Perhaps this photo give a better scale. This is the Abingdon to Oxford passenger ship.

After mooring up we went for lunch in the Kings Arms pub beside the lock and I have to say that we were very impressed. After the lack of decent pubs in Abingdon, both the food and beer here were excellent. I had seabass and scallops with crayfish rissotto and Roger had red snapper and giant prawns with lemon and herb couscous and both were perfectly cooked and piping hot despite being served outside. They obviously have a good chef.

When we got back to the boat the cruisers had gone and the lockie had just mowed the grass, so we pulled the boat back onto the visitor moorings and Roger played guitar to ward off the natives. I've been trying to teach Chico to sing along but it was too hot for him. Why is it that even though they are too hot in the sun some dogs just refuse to sleep in the shade? I've tried putting a parasol up for him but he won't go under it, just lies there tongue lolling out and panting.....that's Chico by the way, not Roger.........

I pottered about doing a bit of gardening

My tomatoes are coming along nicely. They're a dwarf variety and I already have a few green tomatoes in amongst the leaves.

I'm also trying a dwarf variety of sweet-pea this year. These have been planted for almost a month now and are only just starting to take off. Sweetpeas are one of my favourite flowers so I hope they are successful.

Once it had cooled down a bit later in the afternoon, we took Chico for a walk around the village. There's not a lot there to be honest but it was nice looking at the houses and gardens and it was cooler under the trees.  When we set off there were four people "picnicing" on the grass. 2 black men and 2 white girls who were getting drunk and smoking weed. When we got back they'd gone but had left all their rubbish and glasses behind. I was going to pick up after them once we'd taken Chico back into the boat but someone else beat me to it as it had gone by the time I'd got a bin bag.