Travel Tuesday : The Thames Path day 4, Newbridge to Oxford

Walked 5 May, 2002.

Up early and had an unremarkable breakfast -- the only food I managed to eat at the Rose Revived, and then headed out into the quiet morning.

Conveniently the path starts from the garden at the Rose Revived. I took a last look at the inn:

And took a last look at the New Bridge from the garden:

And then I continued downriver, just meandering along. I passed Northmoor Lock. A photocopied pamphlet I picked up at some point during the walk tells me that flash locks were "difficult and dangerous to operate"; while Wikipedia tells me that:

a set of boards, called paddles, supported against the current by upright timbers called rymers which normally kept the level of water above it to navigable levels. Boats moving downstream would wait above the lock until the paddles were removed, which would allow a "flash" of water to pass through, carrying the boats with it. Upstream boats would be winched or towed through the lock with the paddles removed. Considerable skill was involved both in removing the paddles in a timely manner and navigating the boat through the lock. Flash locks of this type have been documented since at least 1295 C.E.

Weir paddles, Northmoor Lock:

Looking upstream to Northmoor Lock, you'll note that they also have a traditional lock, so boats no longer have to be winched upstream or flashed downstream!

Sadly, the path was about to take a diversion. Sharp mentions that there's a foot ferry operated by the publican at Bablock Hythe, and that it was "the best known of all the Thames crossings".

But as the pub wasn't yet open and there was no ferryman to be found, I followed the path. I do wonder whether I could have crossed the river and followed the towpath, which is clearly present on the map, or whether it would have been blocked. But I turned away from the river and followed the roadways around.

As always, it was a relief to get back to the river. Somehow the channel here near Swinford Farm looked very deep.

Soon I arrived at Swinford Bridge, one of two privately owned toll bridges on the Thames.

It was built by the Earl of Abingdon around 1770, and tolls collected on the bridge are exempt from income tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, or VAT as per an act passed in 1767 by George III. The toll was more than doubled in the 1990s, apparently. How much is the toll?

Apparently, before then it was 2p. The toll is taken manually. Yep, manually.

As a pedestrian I could saunter along the bridge for free. Here's a view looking upstream from Swinford Bridge:

Apparently the toll taking huge backups on the road, and a lot of anger in the local community. In 2009 the bridge was sold to a private investor for over a million pounds. Locals have been trying to get the toll scrapped, to no avail.

I managed to catch the toll taker in a quiet moment. We chatted briefly between cars. "Some days I could use six arms, we're so busy!" It reminded me of a guy in a tollbooth in the states who once told me, gruffly, "in a fairy tale I'd be called a troll". The gentleman of Swinford Bridge was much more charming.

I decided it was time for lunch, so I stopped in at the Talbot, a handsome old inn.

Sitting outside in the sun I had a remarkable sausage and chips ... and a pint of cider, of course.

After lunch I re-crossed the bridge (yep, it was indeed busy):



and headed back to the path. 

Very soon I reached Swinford Lock

and then, sadly, my camera battery died! Yep, that's what happens when you don't pack a charger for a three-day trip, I'm afraid.

However, I kept on downstream, going through beautiful Wytham Great Wood and entering the stretch of the Thames known as Isis.

Past King's Weir, along some lovely winding river, and underneath the noisy Oxford Bypass bridge.

I passed the Oxford Boundary Marker,

and then arrived at Godstow. What's great about Godstow? The Trout -- the third Trout on the River Thames.

And it is, indeed, very very lovely.

So lovely that I was able to get my lovely friend Suz, visiting at the time, to go to Oxford one afternoon so I could go back along part of the river where I hadn't been able to take photos! Here she is on the terrace of the Trout.

Let's be honest, it's not hard to convince either of us to go on an adventure that involves a pint in a pretty pub! Fortified, we crossed the bridge that leads from the Trout terrace and headed downstream.

First we passed the weir near the Trout. DANGER.

And then the ruins of Godstow Abbey, founded in 1139. It was the burial site of Rosamund de Clifford, a former pupil of the Abbey and mistress of Henry II. Rosamund -- "the Fair Rosamund" or "The Rose of the World" was famous for her beauty. After she died, Henry II paid to enlarge the Abbey. 

The Abbey was suppressed under the Second Act of Dissolution in 1539, and fell into ruin. Amusingly, according to Sharp the best preserved part of the Abbey is the Trout Inn, originally built as its hospice!

A little farther downstream is lovely Port Meadow, across the river from the path. 

Sharp says it is "unchanged since William the Conqueror presented it to the burgesses of Oxford as a free common".  Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), used to take the Liddell daughters on picnics here; one day he rowed them up the river while telling them the story of Alice. 

Meanwhile, on the west bank where we were walking, we passed a field that still clearly showed its medieval field pattern and I got a tiny, nerdy thrill. 

Not long after we spotted some cows across the backwater, on Fiddler's Island. 

And then, suddenly, terrace houses and we were in Oxford proper.

Then the bus back to London!

Next up: Oxford to Clifton Hampden

Acanthus Stitch-a-Long, part 5

First and foremost, I hope you are all well and safe. It's been a very strange three weeks; other than slipping out at 6:15 every morning for a walk, I've been out of the house three times, once to pick up a prescription and twice for groceries. We've been very very lucky so far; I hope you have been too.

Of course, staying inside and not commuting does mean more time for stitching, if there's such a thing as a silver lining here. And I've made a good bit of progress. Here's where I was last time from the front:

and, because it's so hard to see, here's where I was from the back:

A couple of weeks of stitching later and -- hooray! It was time to roll the frame. Here it is from the front:

and here's the back:

So then I rolled the frame up, which was a little like having a new start. The top of the pattern is just past the curve of the frame!

Here's the back, just waiting for progress (note that the pattern ends just there!):

And then I still had a week to stitch ... so here's where I am now! I stitched the two bluey-green leaves, and started in on the big browny leaves.

And here's the back:

It's interesting to see how the pattern isn't an exact match from side to side -- though whether that's by design or accident I don't really know. But I still like to do the leaves in pairs, if only to remind myself what the different colors are. By our next check in I'd like to have the brown leaves, the grey-green leaves, and the limey green leaves visible ... and perhaps even roll the frame in preparation for the last set!

The other stitchers in this stitch-a-long all make amazing, and inspiring projects, so check out everyone's blogs to see what they're all up to.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, and Linda

See you on April 19th for our next check-in!

March OMG complete : embroidered dish towels, part 2

Hi everyone -- hope you and yours are safe and healthy.

I'm happy to report that I completed my March OMG to embroider the second dish towel. Here's where I was at the start of the month:

And here is the result -- along with the towel I stitched in February.

It's humbling and yet satisfying to see that I became a better embroiderer as the projects went on! It's obvious which one -- and even which part of which one -- was stitched first. Anyway, I think the recipient will be pleased with them, and I hope she actually uses them.

The One Monthly Goal link-up is organized by Elm Street Quilts with the idea that we can just focus on one task and make progress. You can see how everyone did in their March projects on the Finish Party page! Or choose an OMG project of your own and join us in April. I still haven't decided what to pick up next, though it may be a sashiko project that I've been thinking about for a long time. We'll see!

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal March Finish Link-up

North of 60 : Kicksledding and other adventures in Yellowknife, day 3

We had seen our post-Blachford days in Yellowknife as something of an "insurance policy" -- extra chances to see the Aurora, plus a visit to the Snowking Castle were the only things on our list. So how to fill the days?

Enter Sundog Adventures.

I'd seen a brochure in the hotel lobby offering kicksled tours across Back Bay on the Great Slave Lake. I looked on their website and saw that the tour included a visit to the Ice Cave and I was sold!

We stopped in at the Dancing Moose Cafe for breakfast -- we both had the Arctic Char Eggs Benedict in the cosy spot. We were lucky and got a table right away; soon all the tables were full. But service was great and the food was excellent. No wonder it's popular!

Afterward we went up to the Bush Pilots Monument for stunning views of Yellowknife on such a gorgeous day. Amusingly, I watched a woman take two dogs on a kicksled across another part of the bay and thought, "That looks like what we'll be doing." Spoiler alert: I had seen some of our dogs and our guide!

We walked across the bridge to Latham Island and went to the Sundog Adventures cabin, where our guide greeted us and told us about kicksleds. They're Scandinavian in origin, where they've been popular for 150 years. The "modern" kicksled design, of two ski-like runners with footbeds connected to handlebars that you twist to steer, appeared in 1909. They're most often propelled, as the name implies, by kicking -- like you do on a skateboard, sorta. But you can also attach dogs to them!

Our kicksleds had been adapted for being pulled by dogs with the addition of a "brake pad" that you could step on, suspended between the runners, which added enough friction to make the dogs stop. After trying out the sleds in the cabin, we walked across the street and onto the frozen lake to meet the dogs.

The dogs were resting happily in some straw-filled shelter boxes. We had been a little worried, before, about the dogs and how they were treated, etc., but they were clearly happy and healthy, and very nice. We met all the dogs, including puppy Tuk Tuk, who was just along for the run.

We got on our sleds, the dogs were attached, and we were off! We had been told three commands:

• "Hike up!" to get the dogs moving or moving faster; a "let's go" sort of thing.
• "Whoa whoa whoa" to get the dogs to stop; and
• "On by!" to move the dogs past a distraction.

Thus armed, we set off. The dogs knew the trail and where we were going, so I didn't need to steer. I did attempt, once, to assist the dogs by kicking, but it made me feel super unsteady and I felt like I almost lost the sled for a few seconds. So I just stood evenly on the runners and let the dogs do the work.

When we got to the other side of the bay, we unhitched the dogs, put them in more straw-lined boxes for a little break, and we walked through Back Bay Cemetery. Apparently the soil wasn't deep enough to bury folk on Latham Island -- it's that Canadian Shield bedrock -- so the buried their early settlers across the bay. There are more than 40 people buried there, but they were all hidden by the snow.

A few minutes walk and we arrived at the "Ice Caves" -- not really an ice cave, but also not really a frozen waterfall ... there's just a steady seep/drip of water that grows and grows over the course of the winter. Still, it's pretty cool.

Eventually we headed back to the sleds and hitched up the dogs again. We kept the same teams (I really liked Wacko and wasn't about to give him up; he reminded me of the canine version of our Bubble.) This time Wil sped off, doing a lot of kicking to help the dogs along. Me? Well, I managed to kick a few times, especially as we got closer to the home base... probably because I was less worried about losing the sled!!!

Once back we said goodbye to the dogs and our guide, we wandered back to downtown, stopping in at The Woodyard, the brewpub operated by NWT Brewing Co. Having had a huge breakfast, we weren't even slightly peckish, but we managed to snag a pair of seats at the bar and enjoyed the beer amidst the bustle.

Then home, and a lot of hassle with our flight reservations. Some sort of miscommunication between the "Chase Travel Concierge" and WestJet and Delta -- all of them agreed that we had reservations and flights, but no one could agree on the ticket number or allow us to check in) which meant an hour plus on the phone and in the end just the advice to go to the airport early and let them sort it out. Spoiler alert: they did, thank goodness.

Later in the evening we had excellent Ethiopian food (yep, you read that right) at Zehabesha, which is the #1 rated restaurant in Yellowknife on TripAdvisor (yep, you read that right, too...).

Late at night, having packed and gotten everything ready, we bundled up one last time and stood in a nearby park for our last Aurora glimpses -- even with the city lights, it was still pretty magical.

Our trip home was tiring and a increasingly odd. Calgary Airport was huge yet seemingly pretty empty, and we had to walk nearly the entire way across it. (Okay, we could have taken the little bus/trolley, but we wanted to hustle...) And then landing at Sea-Tac, where we saw hardly anyone and there was only one person in the Uber/Lyft area. It would be the start of several strange weeks, and we're already wondering when we will get to travel again. I hope you are staying safe, social distancing, and washing your hands.