We agreed before we went to bed that we wouldn’t set an alarm but if we woke up in time and it wasn’t raining, we would walk the 45 minutes to a local church I had checked out on the internet, whose service began at 0945. I really should get more adept at reading webpages. Leaving the boat at 9am it took me a while to work out the direction we should be walking as my skill with Google maps is equal to my ineptness with reading webpages! Having lost vital time I then frogmarched R along the road, not wanting to be late for the start of the service. I need not have worried. The detail I failed to pick up on was that coffee was from 0945 – the actual service started at 1015! We were warmly welcomed with the bonus of coffee immediately. The 14century Anglican church of St James, Southam reminded me a little of our home church – ancient, large and costing a fortune to keep in good repair, being a grade one listed building. Interestingly one of its former vicar’s was Justin Welby, our present archbishop. S, who spoke to us, explained that even with the benefit of some large legacies, the size of congregation could not meet the present outgoings and the church could benefit with some modernisation. A few years ago a very large section of plaster just fell off one of the walls, fortunately when no one was around and on inspection it was found that the Victorian plastering was not very substantial so the whole church had to have the plaster removed. As of yet, they have not had enough money to replace it and probably never will. I mentioned crowd funding, which is something I think all beautiful old churches in need of repair could benefit from. There is no way dwindling congregations can afford to upkeep these amazing buildings and yet so many non regular church attendees want the benefit of them for weddings, baptisms and funerals.
Post church we popped into the CoOp where I was intrigued by a self service frozen yogurt machine and set about treating myself to one. Unfortunately I had no idea how to use it and managed to get the paper cup which received the yogurt stuck in the part of the machine where I should have put a frozen pod. The young manager was very good tempered with me even though his machine is now out of order until someone can come and fix it as he was unable to do this himself. I left the shop rather sheepishly!
We had a choice of three local pubs offering us Sunday lunch and choose the one some of the church members frequented, although it didn’t appear they had ever eaten at any of them! I hoped they would have a bottle of sherry, it being Sunday and wanting to toast my mother, but sadly they didn’t. They did have rice pudding and jam though, which I absolutely love and gleefully are a large bowlful. Passing another pub en route back to the boat we saw they had bingo at 6pm so R suggested we returned then and maybe could combine bingo with sherry. Not only were they bereft of sherry but the pub was packed with locals all ready for their weekly bingo session. No room at the inn for us! To be honest the moment I saw the crowds and the absence of any face masks I was quite happy to about turn and return to the boat.
R has continued to forage for small bits of wood, he just can’t help himself. He says he is having problems keeping the stove alight and he thinks this is due to using just coal. The stove was the right temperature overnight to reactivate my milk kefir, which I was worried had been killed off when I was not around to tend it earlier in the week. I now need to find ways to sneak it into our meal plan as there is rather a lot of it and only two of us to consume it. One of us is much keener on it than the other!
An episode of the new Endeavour whiled away the evening as we wait to see what tomorrow brings. I am hoping a working engine! I also managed to measure up the old boat moored next to us which J is planning to rebuild and if I plan the interior we may be able to do some kind of deal! It’s a great way to get back to sleep in the early hours of the morning – working out the most ergonomic use of space and the most efficient and practical layout! My only concern is if it has taken J this long to fix our engine, how long will it take him to kit out a complete narrowboat!
NarrowboatTLC 