Jericho

My walk this morning along the Oxford Canal took me past the Jericho boatyard, another location which features in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. It looks as though work is under way to regenerate it, with plans for a new town square, canalside townhouses, a site for a new community centre, new canal bridges and a new boatyard with chandlery. In the books, Jericho is home to the water-dwelling "Gyptians"; I hope the new development is somewhere where they would feel there is a place for them.

Further along the towpath, I passed an eye-catching mural underneath one of the bridges, so that is today's extra - the closest I'm likely to come to a kingfisher! My walk also included lunch at The Trout at Wolvercote, a frequent location for scenes in Inspector Morse, so it was quite a literary day all round.