Introduction

We had come back from Devon and I had been working hard on computer industry business and then we took a break for a day trip on the boat with an overnight stay as the weather was so nice and too good to be working otherwise

Detailed Content

The sequence opens with some panoramic video footage of our riverside gardens on Sunday 2nd September 1984 pausing on ‘Duck City’ (00m10s) which had had built and extended as a sectional ideal home for my flock of free-ranging Khaki-Campbell ducks. They were released during the day and kept in at night to lay eggs; thus needing little artificial food and being the absolute opposite of Freda and Alf’s menageries from the point of view of financial viability!

The scene moves to the family aboard The Lady (00.35s) with Di at the bow and Daniel at the helm as they tried to get the vessel off of the soft mud. Daniel then gets the boat fee and navigates along the river to round the Paper Mill island (downstream of Paper Mill Lock) (1m15s) and then I film our productive espalier pear trees (2min15s) and my shed and gardens before he returns for me to get aboard. The film continues recoding the trip (3m0s) with Daniel still driving as we pass the fields in Paxton. Diana is managing the children (4m0s) and seems fine Debbie joins in (4m30s) and likes the boat and playing with ‘Donkey Kong’ as Daniel carries on at the helm. Past Paxton and Offord as my old burgee is depicted 05m 50s) and then we stop waiting for Offord lock by the river for a sandwich lunch (6m0s) from a picnic basket. Nice shots of Daniel and Debbie and then Daniella (7m0s) being fussed and teased by Debbie and then being examined by them all (8m5s). We arrive and moor The Lady at our favourite Godmanchester moorings, alongside the swings and sandpit (08m22s) where Di nurses Della and Debbie immediately finds friends and plays in the sandpit ‘digging a deep hole’ (08m30 and 12m0s)whilst Daniel ‘trogs’round in the outboard motor-powered dinghy (09m30s and 11m40s). More shots of The Lady (10m40s) and the playing fields. Diana and Della playing aboard (13m12s) and taking a walk (13m50s) in the folding push chair wheels that fitted better on the boat. More shots of Daniel on the tender (14m30s) and then I get aboard and film from the dinghy (14m45s) cruising along the moorings and back to film The Lady from the water. The Godmanchester front and picturesque Chinese Bridge (16m0s) and weir spotting Diana and Della walking ashore. The back of the houses from the river (17m20s) and then back via the lock (19m25s and 20m35s) where boats pass under its guillotine gates. The sequence ends with the Godmanchester church bells ringing.

Summarised from journal entries transcribed 10th April 2013. David Broad