It's a hot day in Abingdon

It’s been a very good day today, with Sally settling in and us playing with Sheila’s new toy, a 13” MacBook. It’s become very hot again, so it’s quite hard to focus on what to say in this post, especially after taking Sally for an hour’s walk.

I have put up some photos of the Swan Uppers on Flickr, and here’s another, to show that it appears that it’s not necessarily the swans that get treated an an undignified way ;-}

I guess that if you just wanted to take a census of the swans on the Thames, two guys from the RSPB could do it a lot more cost efficiently, but that wouldn’t add to the gaiety of life in the way that this performance does.

For those who are interested, there’s a full account of the history of the tradition here, together with a YouTube link.

I can’t speak too highly of Abingdon’s welcome to boaters, with free five day moorings, an excellent shopping centre and lots of activity to observe whilst loafing on deck. Admittedly, a rowdy party boat went down river just before ten last night, and came back even more rowdily some time later, after we’d retired to our well earned rest, but you can’t have everything, I guess.

Tomorrow, we set off again, carrying on up river, with the plan being to reach Lechlade sometime next week.