
Morning on Grimsbury Wharf and a very particular pastoral symphony.
Birdsong mingles with the shoosh-whoosh of cars racing the Hennef Way to the motorway; the scutter&flap of ducks dressing feathers enriches the steady thrummthrumm of boat engines charging depleted batteries.
Wickes’ carpark is filling with weekend DIY-ers, car doors slam; in the garage the sounds of tarting up cars and touting for trade; and above the activity of the canal an occasional loud wheeze of steam erupting from the chimneys of the ‘coffee giant’- the huge factory that dominates this end of Banbury and produces a coffee-coloured, coffee-flavoured powdery coating that dusts the boats.
