Rickmansworth

Gently going up the Grand Union now. We moored Friday just above Uxbridge in a much pleasanter spot than we had anticipated. We have done done this bottom end of the GU before and Geoff's memory of it is as a walker. He remembers lines of permanently moored boats and nowhere for visitors. However so far although there certainly are lots of permanently moored boats it has been much better than we thought.
Yesterday, Sat, was the hottest day we have had for a while. It was our second day of cruising and locking with two dogs on board. So far Parga is behaving himself but he finds the mechanics of locking difficult to grasp. he likes his family to be altogether and cannot understand one of us on the boat and one on the shore. When Geoff climbs over the lock gates to do the paddles he is not impressed. However, apart from one incident when he tried to jump on someone else's boat in the lock and then had difficulty getting off as she moved away from the shore, we have all survived.
Last night we were collected (all four of us!) and had a lovely supper with Cherry & Mike at Northwood. I also had the treat of a bath!!! We learned from them that I had been remiss when writing some weeks ago about our trip to Henley that I failed to mention that we had had a visit from friend Greenfly...what an omission......a mental aberration on my part! We have enjoyed all our visits from friends who have made the effort to visit us this year.
On our return from supper we found we had a large widebeam moored directly behind us with sounds of a good party going both on the boat and in the nearby woods. However once we were below we were not disturbed. I do have a vague memory of people coming back to the boat but I am not sure whether I dreamt it or not!!!
Church is planned in Rickmansworth today and a visit from Maggie who plans to come out on the tube from London...thunderstorms are also forecast so we shall see what the day brings.