A grand old lady

We are in another way of life for now looking after a grand old lady for a while. At the age of 90 she is from a different way of life having lived through the second world war with my father away on those big grey ships serving in the Navy. My parents raised 3 boys during the early years of peace time which they had fought for. They then spent many happy years together touring the countryside and the world.

Mum is on her own now with a cleaner, gardener and food coming to the door to help. We have been attempting to clear out much unwanted stuff. After a week it does not seem to have made much difference ! Some improvements to the house and its facilities are being considered.

We now have grand children of our own and they can enjoy the privilege to have a great grandmother to visit. While away from our own way of life on the boat we are able to keep tracks of waterway life by reading those boater blogs.

Blog visits

We only moved back to Bugbrooke to collect the post and purchase milk n bread at the shop. It was a pleasant walk across the fields and through their Millennium Garden. We just sat for a while to enjoy the peace and quiet by the stream. Molly had found a plastic bottle to crunch and have thrown to fetch. Sadly plastic items are not hard to find in the countryside and the bottle got put in the bin when Molly had finished with it.

Just as we left we spotted Windsong at Bugbrooke! Rog n Pip stopped by next day for a chat and we admired their smart new boat. Then Rock n Roll passed by. Later we walked past a few bridges looking for Geo Cache’s and came across Rock n Roll. George n Carol invited us in for a drink. It is a wonderful social atmosphere on the waterways. We had got to know them by following their adventures on their Blogs. We have also got to know some boaters over the years just by seeing them regularly.
We are now making plans to leave the boat for personal family reasons so please excuse us for not blogging for a while.

Parting of friends

Sue n Vic are going down to the river Nene but this year we are not. We need to return ‘home’ for family reasons. We helped by lock wheeling down to the M1 bridge, all 12 done in about an hour and a half.

Setting off at 8:30 we found most locks full with the top gates left wide open, a lazy boater this time making it easy for us. In past years a serious shortage of water down the flight has required BW to now lock some paddles. The top lock single useable paddle was found later to be left up with the gate open. So we took it upon ourselves to close them.

Moving with friends

We knew they were heading for Braunston and beyond so we were there to greet them. Molly got all excited again and ran off to see her friends Lucy & Meg.

After shopping we moved up the flight together with No Problem.

Going through that bent tunnel is always an event. This time it was passing 5 boats with various odd configurations of lighting. Boats should have one shining up on the roof to show the way and not to blind on coming boaters. One had two at the front shining either side while another had one at each end! “Made it difficult to judge if it was two or just one boat.” At least one boat bounced off the corner of a bend forcing us to stop to avoid a collision in the darkness. The tow path between the tunnel and Norton Junction is much improved but proved to be shallow for some boats to moor.

We stopped at the junction and got the BBQ out to cook beefburgers and sausages and enjoyed the meal inside No Problem with Sue n Vic and a bottle of wine. Then we went to the New Inn to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary, enjoying the company of Sue n Vic outside in the evening coolness.