Hi Friends.

We had a lovely cold start to the day with a heavy overnight ground frost, but this did give us a wonderful day of sunshine. We had a good run up through Braunston locks at 8.20am, stopping briefly halfway up to say cheerio to Ray and Jackie on Roehaise, who are returning to the land. We met a couple of boats in Braunston Tunnel.

We turned on to the Leicester Line at Norton Junction and made our way to Watford locks which were very quiet, so we came straight up them as soon as we arrived. The locks were so quiet that Terry the full-time lockie was painting the gates and the volunteer lockie was working the flight on his own.

Just as we left the Watford Flight, we picked up a hitch hiker on the temperature gauge. The Wasp was quite happy to stay there and did so for sometime.

We saw our first Canada Geese Babies today.

We also saw our first Moorhen babies as well. It seems everything is in breeding mode at the moment. All's we need to see now are Cygnets.

As we were passing a field of cows near Bridge 25, I was taking photo's of the calf in the field and a cow leaning into the water to get a drink, it then decided to take a swim in the canal, so we stopped and I walked up to the farm to find someone to let them know. The farmer was not there but the neighbour was going to contact him. It was a little worrying as this cow is in calf and she could potentially lose her calf if she gets distressed.Not long after that bit of excitement we moored at Mountain Barn Bridge to enjoy the rest of the sunny afternoon, whilst it is here.

The most distressing thing I saw today, was a ewe dead near the canal, which we see sometimes, but this ewe had been ripped apart by something and it was carrying a lamb. If it had been Africa I would have said a lion had been at it, but of course this is England, so I can only think either Foxes or Crows have been at the carcass. It was sad to see that the ewe had been carrying a lamb which never got to gamble across the field and play with its friends. Because we were no where near the farm, I could not report it to anyone.

What a day we have had, it has been a day of firsts and lots of lovely sunshine.