Last week when I changed our bed I left the summer duvet (4tog) out and we used just the cover, it was so hot, but yesterday (Sunday 29th) when I changed the bed again we put the duvet back in. The temperature when we got up yesterday was a mere 15°c, the wind was vicious at 42mph and the short blasts of rain were spiteful catching out a lot of walkers and the occasional boater too.
This morning (Monday 30th) it was slightly warmer, the wind has dropped to 30mph but gusting up to 50. The sun is doing its best to shine through the clouds and it feels soooo fresh although there is still some rain in the forecast for today.
After being cooped up in the boat over the weekend it was great to step outside and walk into Sandford, here passing the empty Sandford Lock which is the deepest on the non-tidal Thames with a fall of 8'10".
We walked over the lock, through the Kings Arms carpark and up the hill towards the village turning off the road onto a footpath
into the meadow where the De Vere Hotel is situated
and from where we could see the galleon
The field bindweed bordering the pathway is very pretty
and ooh there are the two buildings we want to visit ... St Andrews Church and the Talking Shop
Off the path and onto the Henley Road ... to our left is the entrance to the De Vere Hotel ...
such a pity it's situated next to this ... it belongs to Thames Water and it stank!
This is the rear of award winning Talking Shop (so much more than a shop) to which we returned for a bacon bap and a cup of coffee after our visit to the church ...
over what appears to be a fairly new children's playground with some very interesting apparatus but there were no children here at the moment.
Sandford is a small village mostly set on a hill and apart from the lovely terraced houses down by the pub there are just these older properties here and some new properties to our left as we ...
turned right and into the church yard of St Andrew's Parish Church
Good job George is not taller, he'd have to duck his his head to get through the porch door!
The inscription was composed by the church minister in 1646
The inner door was even lower going down the steps ...
Could this be father in WWI and son in WWII?
Sunday services are held here every week
Lovely 19th century stained glass
13th century font
The Bell Tower
Leaving the small, very simple Parish Church of
and into the church yard once again ...
was an asylum for the paupers of the area and was opened in 1846 and finally closed its door fairly recently ... in 1996.
Bread would have been handed out to the poor parishioners from the table top of the tomb
We left the church and returned to the footpath continuing towards the Thames where we could just glimpse Still Rockin'
A narrowboat with trees on the roof!
I discovered that until at least 2006 'the galleon' was licences as an Unpowered Houseboat
and is now in need of some tlc.
On the way down the hill I noticed that no 12 River View was for sale. It's the left-hand half of the Edwardian villas in the link above on sale for £635,000 ...
... and we're home.
The front and back doors to Still Rockin' are standing open and the wonderful breeze is filtering through ... absolute magic after the hot humid temperatures of the last week or so in the low 30's c ... it feels sooo good!
