Lovely walk along the Oxford canal before work this morning. Though not as long a walk as I'd have liked because the traffic on the A40 was bad again and the bus didn't get in till about 8.15. All month the traffic has been bad. I don't remember it being this bad last year (showing my age with these curmudgeonly comments!).
Saw the coal barges above by the last lock before the city. A similar barge is referred to in The Lock, when Gerald, the Oxford don having an affair with a graduate student, visits his daughter Alison on her barge and learns about her way of life: 'His questions revealed that the stove was called a Squirrel and that it was kept going all the time in winter. As well as heating the living-area, a radiator in the bedroom was run off it. Coal was supplied by a firm from ‘up north’ who would phone when their barge was in the area.'
Also saw the heron again at the very end of the canal by Hythe Bridge Street--looking rather snake-like, as a friend remarked when I showed her the photo. I say it's 'the heron' but I think this is another one--a younger one.
Later, at about 11.30, the promised rain started and the day stayed pretty grey and damp after that.
It was good to see the canal photos ; how the towpath has changed, though, since I biked home from work there every day in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteCertainly more accessible than the muddy path, but something is lost. More curmudgeonliness no doubt.
I think herons have a judgemental look, and their solitariness is eerily beautiful.