Memories

28th August

On Wednesday we moored in Runnymede and took a walk to the Magna Carta memorial. Then an early night as we had been travelling quite long days in the rain and both of us felt exhausted. This being more justified for Pete than for me as he had been out in his canoe.

On a much warmer day, travelling on through Staines, I noticed my old friend's workshop door was open. They had no idea we would be passing, so fish-wife-like I yelled 'Ali' and much to my delight he came out and waved, then called Georgina and Emma whereupon we all waved frantically and we hooted and then we were gone!! We hope to moor up to see them on the way back, as at the moment we are on a schedule to get to Kingston to see my Mum and take her to see Small again.

With the sun shining intermittently we moved on to Shepperton; Lindsay's Lawn (as we know it, although where we got this from I can't remember) . Lots of memories here of mooring the barge several times at this spot with various collections of our boys when they were much younger, we don't think we have been back since. We have old photos of ball games, bbqs, and splashing about in the barge's tender, Squirty. It's a lovely grassed area in the Desborough Cut, backed by trees beyond which is a cricket ground - Pete used to play a game sending the boys to search for cricket balls and certain tree leaves and conkers; kept them amused for hours, whilst we set up lunch or a barbecue. Good times.
They have restricted the mooring space now for no reason that we can fathom. Such a shame.
The sun came out strongly in the afternoon, enough to dry some clothes and for us to sit on the bank and soak it up, then off to the the Kings Head pub for a pint.

Location:Shepperton