Welford to Laughton Hills

Hi Friends.

Last night we had a wonderful time with our friends Al and Del on NB Derwent 6 (CLICK). We met them at the Wharf Inn for an evening of chit chat, plus a couple of pints and some chips. Thank you Al and Del for the chips, they were very yummy. I know your thinking chips yummy?

We very rarely eat chips, so it was actually a real treat to have some last night, with salt and vinegar on mmmm. It was absolutely wonderful catching up with Al and Del, we had such a lot to talk about, but as usual withy most boating conversations, we talked about toilets. I have never under stood why all boaters end up chatting about loo's. The evening ended at 11 pm, we were the only people left in the pub, so thought we should leave Darren and Alex to close-up, also Al and Del had to be up early to start blacking their boat.

It was another very foggy start to our day, and yet it was very, very warm inside the boat. I should have let the back cabin stove go out last night, because we were both sweating buckets this morning. I was in need of a drink, so got up and made us both a Coffee. As the clock ticked closer to 8 am, I could no longer lay in bed, so got up and dressed. After cereal for breakfast, Paddy got his walk. I made up both fires for the day, before we left out mooring to head for Bridge 51. We descended Welford lock and headed for the junction, where a hire boat pulled out ahead of us. The guy must have realised he was going to be a lot slower than us, because he pulled over and let us pass him on the starboard side, giving us the deep water, which was probably not by design but pure luck. I thanked him and we went on our way towards Husbands Bosworth Tunnel. We only did a short hop this morning, but it was still lovely to move. Neither of us like staying anywhere to long.

We are now moored below Laughton Hills and we would have a lovely view of them if it wasn't for the fog! I am hoping it will lift later and the Orange thing may appear in the sky. I could really do with getting the Blacking tin out, because the bow is rather bare after ploughing ice through the Winter. The lack of blacking really shows now that the bow is right out of the water. The boat is going into dry dock at the beginning of May for a properly blacking, but I would like to get some blacking on to protect the metal until then and now is a good time to do it, because the hold is almost empty of coal, so the bow is sitting nice and high.

We have just had Cheese on toast for lunch, Marmite is asleep in the back cabin and Paddy is going daft because a gas gun keeps going off in a field near by. Paddy hates loud bangs.

I have put the bird feeders out and immediately a Blue Tit came to investigate, they love free food as do most birds.

I will finish today on a heart warming tale. A regular customer has been feeding a stray cat over the Winter, and over the past few days the cat has spent more and more time on their boat. The other night she decided to stay on the boat, but kept meowing, which was worrying our customers, who thought she might have been poorly. They went off to bed and left the cat curled up on a blanket, only to be woken up in the early hours of the morning by the cat. She had given birth to one very small Ginger kitten. awwwwwwwwww so cute. Obviously this cat knew where she was well off and welcome. The couple now plan on keeping the kitten and the mother if she wants to stay.

Chat soon xx