Bidding farewell to our chums at Cropredy, we headed off up the Claydon Locks aiming to reach the summit pound of the Oxford Canal. The Claydon Locks had been closed or heavily restricted recently, but we found no evidence of problems on the way up.

However… the outlook was grim, with sunny spells and wintry showers forecast,. and it was <expletive deleted> cold. We thought we were going to bimble up to the summit pound, not mount an assault on Everest.

Even the buzzard  was keeping his head down.

With lowering skies and proper snow starting up, it seemed a good time to just pack it in, singing

Boating in the snow
Just boating in the Snow
What a glorious feeling
You should give it a go

… and watch Gene Kelly tap dance down the towpath.