To Radford

A familiar trip down to Radford on low pounds.  The early morning light was beautiful and had that yellowish tinge that often precedes rain.   However, the translucent clouds thinned rather than thickening, and soon we were under bright sunshine.  It was too warm to sit and eat outside the Two Boats, so we retreated back to the boat.  The mooring above Radford Lock was unusually quiet.

One thing that I'd forgotten about, boating at this time of year, is spiders.  We tend to be fairly tolerant of them on the boat, after all they spend more time aboard than we do, and do a useful job keeping the insect numbers down.  This time of year though, they are just too numerous.  When I pushed the hatch forward this morning I thought I'd dislodged some drops of water from the overnight rain.  I soon spotted though that what hit my head and shoulders were spiders, startled by the sudden movement and abseiling down to what might be safety.  There was a particularly large one that had taken residence in the hole in the tiller, and came out at speed as I dropped the tiller pin in place.  In the early evening you can see them emerging from somewhere to spin their hopeful webs across the tops of the windows.  There are too many, and there will be evictions.