Water, water everywhere

We packed bags and headed south by car for a walk with a friend. A warm steamy day in prospect, we remembered to take a water bottle

The walk started here in Buscot village (one 't'). We followed a small Thames tributary to Buscot lock, which includes a picturesque weir. Crossing the river here to reach the Thames path requires crossing four separate channels, before we could meander with the flow for a couple of kilometers to Kelmscott (two 't's - famous for the home of William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement)

Here we must double back on ourselves along another tributary before finding a bridge to cross it and head for the village pub. A friendly place that let us know immediately they had no mains water, so no tea and no food. We had cold drinks and sat in the garden to consider our options and make scornful jokes at the expense of the scandalous Thames Water. Eventually, the pub decided they could make sandwiches

A different return route still required re-crossing the tributary upstream, re-crossing the Thames downstream and crossing yet another of its side channels and a final small tributory. Buscot had water, so we still needed tea, and the village well, built in 1898, demanded a photograph. I couldn't believe my luck with the clock. There wasn't 'honey still for tea', but shortbread and cherry cake served very well, and the poet's name fits the theme

The wooden standpipe on the well is original, apparently, but the tap has presumably replaced a hand-pump