Tuesday Claydon to Aynho

We set off this morning around 10 am with very thin ice by Clattercote on what must have been an exposed bend. There was ice on the boat as well but it was much brighter than yesterday. Overnight the temperature dropped to -1 but today it been + 7 with some bright sunshine. Diana dropped me off to work Varney Lock and I noticed a large sign saying "Ongoing Work Ahead" but no sign of life so I assumed BW had done some work and left the signs. As I approached the lock a head popped up inside the lock,BW were replacing the bumper on the cill from the back of a boat and were struggling to remove the old one. The chap said they would only be about 15 minutes and we would be able to get through, so we tied up for a cup of tea and gave them a cup as well. It was probably about half an hour before we were on our way and as they had come from Cropredy we expected the locks to be with us,but with the rate of leakage on the bottom gated of Broadmoor lock there was no chance. We stopped for a few moments to dump the rubbish at Cropredy Wharf, BW now have recycling bins here for sorted waste.
The cottage at Bourton  Lock is still looking quite sad, I fear that if the owner doesn't get a move on renovating it,it will suffer even more vandalism, already there is a notice  saying it owned by a local boater and please report any suspicious activity, but places like that are just a magnet to some people.
We continued on to Banbury, I was hoping to fill with diesel but it looks as if Sovereign are hibernating for the winter. We contemplate stopping for the night but as it was such a bright day and only two thirty in the afternoon we decided to push on to Aynho Wharf. BW have piled the visitor moorings both sides of bridge 168 on the edge of Banbury which is very handy for visiting Morrison's. We met 3 boats on the move today, that's 2 more than yesterday,the last one we met was "Dusty" the diesel and coal boat. We met him between Nell Lock and Aynho Weir lock so he left the gate open for me which was very useful, we did a slight wiggle going in as the Cherwell is just on the yellow and it pulled the bows over a bit. Had I met Dusty anywhere else I would have stopped him for a bag of coal and fill up with diesel, but the light was going and I wanted to get of the river section before dark. There was only one boat on the visitor moorings at Aynho Wharf so we were able to get on the rings, just passed the winding hole, in the failing light at about quarter past five.