Lilies in the sky

I went out on the river last night with a small group from the local river centre. It was a lot of fun pootling about with a group of like minded people and fun to be in a group of boats, a little fleet! The local canoe club were all thrashing about on the same section so it was wonderfully chaotic with groups of kayaks and canoes getting in each others way, chasing each other about and basically messing about in boats. There was a really great atmosphere and a wide range of ages, genders and skill levels (and even some dogs) all getting wet together.

This was at Pangbourne, a really beautiful bit of the river, and it was a perfect summer evening.

It was also good to get a proper canoe coach to have a look at my technique. I'm completely self taught so I'm sure I've picked up some bad habits - she was highly complimentary however which was nice :)

Later I was (of course) in a lot of pain - the price that has to be paid so I'm not complaining - but I had a reaction to the adrenaline in my opiate cocktail (this is becoming increasingly common) so I had a truly miserable, awful night and today has been an ordeal - hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight but I don't anticipate feeling human until Saturday at the earliest. Still, I managed to go for a short drive over the downs and through some of the villages, ending up by the Thames where I let Jake exercise his nose while I leant on my crutches.