Rural Oxfordshire

Tuesday we spent leisurely in Abingdon, Geoff doing lots more walking and me doing some.   I did try to visit an old friend. Marianne,  whom we had not seen for years but with whom we still exchange Christmas cards.  However when I located her address her neighbour told me she was in hospital in Oxford and had been for the last 3 months.  She said she had gone downhill very rapidly and was quite confused so decided that seeing someone she had not seen for years would not help matters.
Wednesday was the day we had decided to move on downstream, but first we went back up through Abingdon Lock to the sani station.   All was well on the trip up but as we set off to come down again the heavens opened and we both got thoroughly soaked.........
The trip downstream continued in the same vein.....they were only showers but quite heavy ones and the wind was blowing well.   I went below and changed but Geoff, ever the stoic, stayed up and braved the elements.
We had decided to see what the moorings above Days lock were like and when we reached there, there was one boat moored and plenty of room for us.
It looked like an ideal mooring, meadowland, clear line for the satellite TV (for the tennis!) so we moored just opposite an old pillbox

The cowpat in the foreground should have warned us of possible visitors, but everything else seemed ideal.

It was not until late in the afternoon when these appeared.

There seemed to be hundreds of them, which is possibly a small exaggeration but I am not keen on cows......

Some were friendly looking little calves

Then we discovered there was a bull amongst them

Hi there, can we chat a while

or something!

All this going on in our front garden........we had taken Barney inside as soon as the cows appeared, much to his disgust.   He likes to sit out.  They grazed there for a couple of hours then all disappeared.

9 miles, 4 locks, 3.5 hours

This morning there was no sign of them as we set out to walk to Dorchester just under a mile away.

We visited the Abbey there 

I had visions of finding a nice coffee shop for our elevens, but I was to be disappointed.   There are Abbey tea Rooms but sadly only open in the afternoon, so it was back to Petroc.   We just made it back in time as the heavy showers had decided to return.......luckily the cows had not.  However I fully expect to see them at teatime again............