Category: Cruising

Having watched the Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Anita Rani BBC programme about recycling we felt compelled to see exactly what Waitrose were up to! A wet day meant we weren’t sailing so we jumped in the car and went to Oxford. Here are a selection of photos…….

Strawberries in cardboard boxes and grapes in paper, loose cabbages and cauliflowers etc too.

I don’t want a home compostable bag as I have nowhere to compost it. I did ask for a paper bag for my loose potatoes but all they could offer was a mushroom bag!

This for me was a bit over the top! How difficult is it to chop cucumber and peel carrots? Each plate of ready prepared veg came with a recipe sheet.

We have seen these dispensers on a market stall in Worcester so this is not a new idea.

We bought a bottle and had it filled with red wine. It reminded me that my grandfather used to go over to his local with a bottle and have it filled with a pint of bitter………The alternative below! Happily Waitrose is still offering free coffee and newspapers with a spend of over £10

Being on the water we always use Ecover products and have done for many years. Sad that this machine was out of order!!!

We always give feedback and having spoken to a charming lady who was in product development but wanting to see how things were going we completed many cards! Here’s one suggestion that would make it really easy for the customer.

So check all packaging, particularly crisps, to see if it really is recyclable and ask how long it takes for a compostable bag to compost! Ask too what is the cost of packaging.

Will this 12 week experiment make Waitrose adopt this in all its’ stores? Take you shopping bags and refillable boxes, your coffee grounds, water filters etc. Will the novelty wear off? I hope Waitrose will roll this out to more stores but I’m not terribly optimistic.

Moorings alongside Workman Gardens and opposite Abbey Gardens

Yes, very odd to have a whale jawbone in Evesham! Apparently the man who captured the whale had a friend in Evesham and sent the bones to him To see the bones you now have to go to the local hotel that has them on display in the garden

In the grounds of the Abbey, St Lawrence is a must see. It is maintained by the Churches conservation Trust and stands next to All Saints which is now the parish church.

The Almonry is the TIC and Museum and it is just charming.

If ever you did O level history you will have heard of Simon de Montfort. He died here at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, defeated by Prince Edward son of Henry 111 We did walk the battlefield trail but there was not a lot to see and the footpath joined the main road at Tesco and Boots! There is a Waitrose store here but it doesn’t have the feel of a Waitrose town!

A rather nice town with a real greengocer selling local produce. The strawberries were delicious and the rhubarb divine!

A busy High Street

An old fashioned Coaching Inn Loved the sign!

The Abbey

The use of modern technology an excellent idea!

Proper recycling bins behind Asda

Add to this Tappers ” Fine Shoes and Accessories for Ladies” and Blue “Ladies Fashions” and it makes it a very attractive place!

Lovely to catch up with friend Jenny again, almost a year since our last get together at Berkhamstead.

We like it here!

Another Open Garden. The front of the house

The terrace with flower beds and pond

The lawn above and below a clever box corner

The bog garden

Rather tasteful white border

Thev wedding cake tree. Should I ever have a garden again I shall certainly have one of these trees Below I always love the veg patch

Another enjoyable day

We took advantage of having a car at our disposal this weekend. Tony was very keen to visit the Jet Age Museum at the former Staverton Airfield

Staverton’s history

The Vulcan nose and the navigators position

The Meteor and below Meteor trainer

The Biplane

The Javelin

Fr

Frank Whittle the inventor of the jet engine

We saw these exquisite tapestries on display in Gloucester Museum. Each one has a notice explaining what happened to the RAF Station. Most of the wartime airfieds have simply returned to agricultaural use

My favourite bit was this wall outlining Women in the Air

If you are an enthusiast then you could spend a couple of hours here. It does have extermely enthusiastic volunteers that like to engage you in conversation! It does have cafe and most gents were tucking into bacon butties.

Bus travel yet again and a most helpful driver dropped us at the entrance. It happened to be the exhibitors entrance but they took our cash and we were made to feel welcome despite this !

Mud, mud and more mud everywhere! Raw recruits attempting drill watched by nurse and ambulance driver

First world war cyclists were an important for carrying messages. Look at the guns on the cycles

The wounded

The airfield has a number of Nissan huts, The ladies in the post office and store were keen to welcome Tony who walked aound for the whole afternoon with lipstick on both cheeks

Note the tin baths!

Many came in uniform

Hard to believe my father carried all this kit as well as driving his sherman off the beach

A quiz, answers at the end!

Then a display by US armies

The confederates were not quite so well armed

More vehicles

My favourite tanks were radio controlled with moving figures. Very impressed!

Quiz answers How well did you do? 12 is a good score!

We have had rain every day since Friday 7th June and just look what happens! This is 10th June and the river level is normal – green

The gauge has changed and is almost on Amber which means “proceed with caution” This is 11th June

By June 15 at 9.30

And by 4.30 is almost at 4′ This means the River Avon is five feet above normal for this time of year (you add the amber to the red) So this means no boat can go out. Happily we like it here. Here are a few more flood pictures

Rescue Volunteers returning after their patrol. Note the path on the left. It later disappears under water

Floating debris A tree is now blocking the channel under King John’s Bridge

Before and after or after and before!

All the small footbridges are now under water

Lock mooring but no lock needed! The levels of the Severn and Avon are equal. Here’s how it looked on 26 May

Here is the lock keeper going home after shopping on Thursday 14th. She said there are three flood levels: wellies, waders and dinghy! She is wearing waders!

Another after and before

We walked to look at the river Severn. It had begun to claim nearby fields The brick building is Severn Trent water treatment establishment

So we have now had eight days of rain! Climate change predictions for an english summer: cooler and wetter. I leave you with that thought!

We met the curious Eleanor and her family from Baddesley Clinton, whilst at the lock, and she and her father & sister came aboard for the short trip into Stratford. Mother and dog had to walk!

The perfect mooring. Google thought we were attending a performance at the theatre!

A charity relay race was to take place in the evening and the start/finish was to be alongside Matilda. There were over 100 teams of four running 2km each. There were prizes for the best fancy dress won by the unicorns and a prize for the team where there combined ages were over 200!

We enjoyed a local beer and the chicken wraps

Saturday we walked a considerable distance in tropical temperatures to meet friends on the canal and help them down the locks, Stratford canal is a narrow canal. There was a problem with the last lock so the CRT had to come and remove the obstacle and get the gate opening. They were really nice chaps working in heat of the day and Tony got them all ice creams. When he mentioned to the stallholder why he was buying ices and who they were for she returned his money ! Yet another act of kindness.

Leaving the canal basin . Note I am still on lock duty!

Busy riverside and even a punter! This theatre dates from the 1930s and must be the ugliest building in Stratford

Safely moored up. The batteries had to be replaced the following morning! So much for a supposed luxury hire boat! We pushed on to aim for a mooring at Bidford on Avon, and saw this interesting sign

You have been warned!!

Not an amazon in sight just swallows nesting under the floating pontoons and rabbits hiding under cars!

We moored in the marina for a few day in order to attend the funeral of Tony’s Father. It is quite extensive and has river moorings and basins on the River Avon as well as the River Severn. It is incredibly well maintained. Each morning someone will walk around to check the boats, clean the pontoons of duck muck and dust down cobwebs on the electic posts. The recycling bins are full of recyclable materials and rubbish is in the rubbish bins! And the laundry room is clean! Add lovely landscaping to this and excellent welcome.

Swallows are nesting under the pontoon by the white blocks. They fly so quickly it’s impossible to catch them on camera, however this one liked sitting on the electric post

And here is the Watership Down contingent

Quite glad we are here in the Marina as the rain began again about five in the afternoon yesterday, continued overnight and is now at 3pm quite heavy again. The River Avon has gone up by six inches. Our rainwater harvesting system is working well and the water tank is full!