Tea & Cake & Boats & Boats & Boats & More Boats!

It was a grey day but not wet and not cold. I caught up with laundry this morning as well as a visit to the gym (!!) and Waitrose. Most of this afternoon I spent making a start at getting caught up with some work tasks at the computer, in preparation for going back to work in a couple of weeks. Which I am of course totally excited about!!

I decided I needed an outing so I drove to Sonning-on-Thames where there is a tea garden at the lock. I enjoyed a mug of tea and my favourite bread pudding (not to be confused with ‘bread and butter pudding’). I used to bring Dolly here after a walk along the river - we’d often sit right there on that bench where the lady and big dog are in the middle of the collage. I missed her today!

The garden was extremely busy but I went there about 30 minutes before they stopped serving and soon I was the only one there! They’ve never kicked me out, but once I was done I left because I wanted to see some action in the lock and you can’t actually see the lock itself from the garden.

This is a good time of year for boat spotting. I saw the locks empty and fill up and empty again - two or three cycles - and each time there were 3-4 boats in the lock, of all sorts of shapes and sizes from a rubber dinghy to a large swanky barge! It’s always very entertaining!

The narrowboat was particularly fun to watch - a friend and I rented one for several days from this same company two years ago, though ours was maybe not as long as this one. Even Dolly came with us! I counted about 10 people on this narrowboat, and the really long ones CAN accommodate that many people. They were a little noisy, though - is it really necessary to play loud rock music while floating along the Thames at 3 mph??

A beautiful spot, even on a grey day. I’m blessed to have this right on my doorstep!