A walk along the Kennet and Avon canal

It was a bit warmer this afternoon, with little wind and lots of sunshine, so I went out into the garden to see if anything was getting ready to bloom.  I asked Daisy Mae to come along, but she decided to stay by the fire.

Only the evergreen trees have leaves yet, none on the other trees or the vines.

There are buds everywhere, though.  Here's a bud on the big apple tree.

Some flowers are blooming -- some daffodils, and scylla.

More buds, even blooms, on shrubs and trees.

Some plants in planters are blooming now.

Still, it's not really spring yet.  The big tree is a yew, hence the cottage's name.

Inside, Ros was making a hare by hand-felting wool of various colors.

I think the hare turned out nicely.

Tony and I went to the grocery store and to take Daisy Mae for a walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal, which runs through Hungerford.

We passed a pair of swans, a coot, and numerous mallards.

The female mallards were outnumbered, and each had multiple suitors.

The canals were built for commercial "narrowboat" traffic, as were the canals in the Eastern US.  The canals' heydays lasted only a few years, until the railways made them mostly irrelevant.  Now the narrowboats still cruise the canals, but they're almost all houseboats or pleasure boats now.  A TV report said that there are 15,000 Britons living on canal boats today across the country.

This boat has an unusual name; we wondered if it's New Zealand (Māori).  Note the clothes line on the stern, with the drying laundry.

This man was fishing but not catching. He said the sun was too bright.  There's always some excuse.

We climbed up to see the lock mechanism.  Operating the locks seems to be a do-it-yourself affair.

More boats were moored past the lock.  No idea what Old Guys Rule is about.

This boat was really two boats, with the rear one pushing the front one.  The rear vessel is a houseboat, and the front one is a blacksmith's workshop.

The blacksmith had some of his wares on display.

We reached the Parish Church of St Lawrence and turned away from the canal.

An interesting form of Celtic cross carved into (and through) a grave stone.

The interior of the church.

We left the church yard, and headed back to Ham.

Daisy Mae had a good walk, as did we.