DON'T DRIVE INTO FLOOD WATER!

I'm not known for my common sense. I know, I know, that's a major revelation. But I'm chuffed to announce that I have far more sense than the bloke who tried to drive down the lane to the marina this afternoon. It didn't end well for his car. And I suspect that he might be feeling a little embarrassed too, especially since I sent this photo to the local radio station who put it on their Facebook page for everyone to comment on. And they have, most of it involved insults and swearing though so it's probably best not repeated here...

Thankfully, no one was hurt (if you don't include pride) in the events of this afternoon but, sadly, a Rover did die.

He'll have fun explaining this to the missus when he gets home.

 

Floods!

The cat has an uncanny ability to tell us when it's going to flood. She went a bit frenetic a few days prior to the 2007 flooding when she obsessed over a puddle in the car park and "eergh"ed at it. My response was to say "yes, puddle. Pud-dle. Well done, kitty." The next day, however, the puddle had engulfed the marina and cut us off from land.
On Thursday Lolly started behaving oddly again. I think she wanted to evacuate the marina. I jokingly told the manager that she knew we were in for some bad flooding. And lo, it flooded and the water is still rising.

Rescuing cars from the car park.

Rob cycling down the lane.

Me, in the lane. Or the Thames depending on how you choose to look at it.

Bye, bye garden.

Having a read in the park.

Rob cycling through the park.

At least it's stopped raining.

Abingdon Marina Park. I remember when all that used to be land...

A braver man than me. It doesn't take much, mind.

This guy didn't tempt fate on the main flow of the Thames.

The bench I sat on to read is now underwater. Rob is having fun.

Moorings on Wilsham Road.

Below Abingdon Lock at Abbey Meadows.

Moorings in Abbey Meadows. They're going to need a reeeealllly long gangplank.

Samhain.

This is always a special time for us. The last few years have seen a muted observance of the occasion due to my poor health but since I am on the mend we decided it was about time to return to our old ways of marking Samhain.

We decorated the inside of the boat with foliage of Autumnal hues:

And carved pumpkins:

Baby pumpkin.

Can you see the outline of a horse in there?

 Rob made a pumpkin scarecrow to scare our guests:

Rob loves Pumpkin Man.

Scary, eh?

 And he made a stew and I baked gingerbread cats, enough to feed ten people (as that's as many as we can cram into the boat):

We didn't really make everyone sit in the dark *cough*.

We also set aside a bowl of stew for those that couldn't be with us. Later, when all was dark and still and everyone had gone home to their beds, we took the time to think of those we miss.