Our weekly outing ...

Sneaked this one in whilst George wasn't looking! (Monday 15th June)

Saturday (20th) we untied for our weekly trip to get rid of the rubbish ...

this week heading upstream to Hambleden instead of down to Hurley

Spot the odd one out!

(click to enlarge)

A week or so ago the yews and lambs were gathered and removed from the meadow and moved to the opposite bank of the river.  We decided this must have been the case when the following day we saw a small group of sheep that had been missed on the roundup - six yews and one lamb and later could hear the lamb bleating outside Still Rockin' and from over the river we could hear mum replying, it was heart rending!  We don't know if the lamb saw itself in our paintwork but he stepped off the bank and of course ended up trapped in between the boat and the bank.  George got down on his front to grab the lamb underneath while I got hold of the wool on its neck and between us we hauled it back onto the bank.  The photo above was taken today and they appear to have become a small unit together.  At least he's not lamb chops ...  the other side of the river has gone very quiet.

Five adolescent swans ...

Canada Geese and Greylags ...

and two white ones!

Who lives here then?  Oh, it's Russel Brand!

On today's short cruise we must have seen at least 20 swimmers up and down the reach ... these ones getting into the water at the Flower Pot slipway

George mentioned that although the water seemed calm there was a bit of 'fresh' about

Approaching Hambleden Marina and lock cut

Arriving at Hambleden Lock landing at 8:50

Taking a few pictures while George gets rid of the rubbish in the boaters bins

Hambleden Mill

George starts to reverse Still Rockin' - he can't wind (turn) until we reach the marina entrances ...

although there's only one weir sluice open the current was strong ...

and was pushing us broadside very nearly into the trees

As we reach the marina two canoeists are heading our way and I indicate to them that we're going to turn round ...

Lots of revs against the flow and we're done ... on our way home!

I wonder if the owner knows that his boat has sunk?

Still Lots of swimmers in the water as we approach the meadow ...

and here we are ... just an hour after setting off.

As I mentioned earlier we would normally cruise to Hurley Lock downstream to get rid of our rubbish but Hambleden is quite a bit closer so that's why we thought we'd try it today, but winding against the weir was tricky so the decision has been made to use Hurley services in future.