Vets and up the flight.

Hi Friends.

Brrrrrrrrrr it has been a freezing day, with flurries of snow in the air.
My alarm went off at 7am. We had to be up early to take Mog and Dog to the vets for their second vaccinations. But before that, I had a customer to supply with coal and toilet blue. Delivery and a good old chinwag done, we put Mog in her box and Dog on his lead and set off into town for the vets appointment. We got there early and were fortunate to be sent in no sooner we had sat down. Marmite and Paddy were very well behaved whilst having their needles, so we were only in there five minutes, but we still had to pay out over £50 for the treatment, which I find silly money. I will be shopping around for next years vaccinations.
We left Market Harborough at 10.35 am heading for the Foxton flight of locks. It was very chilly indeed, so we were both well wrapped up against the cold.
It is fast approaching the season to be amourous and I have noticed that the Swan's on our stretch have been getting very territorial. So as we cruised through Foxton Village a Cob was seeing off another Cob, who had wandered on to his patch. Thankfully it did not end up with them fighting, the Cob who was in the wrong place, was soon off to find another place to set up his territory. Or maybe he will come back to try his luck another day.
I managed to do the Foxton Village Swing Bridge with a little help from one of the May Gurney workmen, who are working once more on the Swing Bridge. I got chatting to the workman who agreed with me that the bridge was still no better, even though he had swept the runners. I do wonder if it will ever be any good. It took us just 45 minutes to get up the flight of 10 locks and I was now rather warm. There were no gongoozlers, just one man and his Whippet. I suppose the weather had clearly put people off of coming out. As we left the flight, Keith and i tucked into the Sausage Rolls I had cooking in the back cabin stove. They certainly warmed my core up, which was beginning to cool rapidly.

As we cruised near the home of Piggy French at Lubenham Bridge, I noticed a large branch sticking out of the water. It was infact not just a branch but the whole rotten tree, which was right across the canal, so we had to try and move it out of our way. We know that the patrol officer has it down for chopping up, but this was when it was still attached to the bank. Now it has tried to escape capture and is roaming helpless in the water.The tree seemed to have a fatal attraction towards the boat, which was a little worrying, because I could see it attacking our sheeting and showing no mercy. Thankfully the branch being rotten broke off and released our boat from its grip and we were on our way once more.

We arrived at Welford Junction at 3.55pm and are now moored up for the night. I will not be venturing outside anymore tonight, because it is freezing out.

Despite the cold it was a very pleasant cruise.