Sunday 9th September 2018 in Pangbourne.
M's friend Linda is coming to join us for the day; this definitely warranted a wash down of the roof!
Linda lives in nearby Caversham; she and M go back more than sixty years to their junior school days!
Alongside the "Chestnut Walk" is a wrought iron fence with Oscar Wilde's words worked into it. "Oh Beautiful World" runs the length of the walk.
On either side of the gate at the end of the walk are words from Paul Muldoon's poem "The Gate", commissioned by Reading Council to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of Oscar Wilde's death on 30th November 1900.
As I roved out between a gaol
and a river in spate
in June as like as January
I happened on a gate
which, though it lay wide open,
would make me hesitate.
I was so long a prisoner
that, though I now am free,
the thought that I serve some sentence
is so ingrained in me
that I still wait for a warder
to come and turn the key.
The gate itself depicts the unmistakable outline of Oscar Wilde himself in that distinctive hat. When viewed from the front you really only see the outline.
M went round to the back of the gate to get a picture with the light behind it. When she looked at the photograph she was absolutely astonished at what she saw.
Every detail of the face is clear - a totally remarkable effect, all the more so because it is not immediately apparent at first sight; it only "came alive" when viewed in the photograph.
M walked into town via the Abbey Ruins, where they were clearing up after last night's concert. The Abbey Ruins are very impressive. It must have been a magnificent sight in its heyday.
The Abbey was founded by Henry I and his body was brought back from France, where he died, and was buried in the nave of the Abbey. Unfortunately a school has been built on the site of the nave, so this is the closest that one can get to where he is buried.
From one monarch to another. Judging from her expression, Queen Victoria was clearly not amused to have a pigeon perched on her head.
The pigeon, however, was looking decidedly pleased with himself. In the background is the magnificent Town Hall.
M returned to find that Linda had arrived and was having coffee with Robin. It was lovely to see her again. Shortly afterwards, we set off for the final lock on the Kennet & Avon Canal, Blake's Lock, overshadowed by the now redundant gasometer.
So finally, we said goodby to the Kennet & Avon Canal; a lovely waterway, very popular with narrowboaters, increasingly popular with wide beam boats, yet sadly greatly in need of routine TLC from the Canal & River Trust. Many, many leaking and damaged gates, badly maintained, ungreased and broken paddles, shabby unpainted beams, a shortage of good moorings and generally an aura of neglect. Pity, it could be so much nicer and work so much better.
At different times, we chatted to several C&RT chaps working at the sharp end and all complained bitterly that senior management took no notice of their pleas for improvements and didn't seem to know what they were doing. It seems that ugly expensive new logos and corporate lingo are more important to the C&RT management than proper maintenance. They recently referred to the waterways a "a product" - what???! (Sorry, rant over!).
We are now on "Old Father Thames" but not rolling down to the sea - we turned left up towards Oxford.
This post box at Tilehurst never fails to amuse us - how on earth can anyone ever have posted anything into it and how could the postman have emptied it? There is no sign of any structure under it, the wall just drops straight into the river!
Linda took a lively interest in our progress and also appeared to enjoy the peace and quiet as we slowly made our way up river.
The cruising was lovely and the weather was much better than forecast.
We moored up outside "The Swan" in Pangbourne after a very helpful gentleman kindly moved his canoe to allow us room to get in.
M walked up to the railway station with Linda so that she could take the train back to Reading. It was a super day with her. M returned to find that the landlord of The Swan was happy for us to stay on his mooring overnight; great news as moorings are scarce on this stretch of the river.
We were rewarded by a brilliant sunset.
Today: 7 miles, 4 locks and 3.6 hours.
Trip: 263 miles, 178 locks and 186.3 hours.
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