Sunday at Wilden Pool.

So there we were all moored up, lunch eaten and coffee drunk, so I thought it would be oh so lovely to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. I got out the chairs, made us a cold drink and we sat outside. Keith did his crosswords and I got on with knitting cotton dishcloths. I soon began to realise there were a lot of cyclists whizzing past us, many kicking up a dust which would have made any chesty person cough. I got it into my head to actually count the number of cyclists going to and fro just to see how many were passing us. In the end after some 5 hours I counted 126, yes you read that right One Hundred and Twenty Six cyclists came past us arghhhhhh. I am seriously thinking that when the government allowed the towpaths to become part of the national cycle route they really did not think it through, at this rate we will have no towpaths in a few years they will have been eroded away by the deluge of cyclists.

Despite the cyclists I enjoyed knitting my dishcloths again, I need them as my stock is a little low and with Foxton Festival coming up in September, I am hoping to sell a few packs. So there was I just finishing off my second dishcloth, I lent over to get my scissors and my chair tipped up with me in it, so I put my hand out to stop myself hitting the boat. I did not hit the boat, but my hand went into a stinger nettle patch ouch, ouch. It bought back childhood memories. Keith immediately got to his feet to help me back up and in doing so I dropped one of my knitting needles, unfortunately it fell into the water and is now somewhere beneath the boat grrrrr. With Keith's help I was upright again and a hand which was tingling due to being stung by nettles.

Back to the childhood memory. Many moons ago, I must have been about 11 or 12 yrs old, my best friend Hilary and I were out playing in the countryside as we always did, because in those days you could go and play out without your parents having to worry. So we were playing down near the local river, we loved to play horses and this particular day we were messing around on a huge fallen tree trunk, when I fell off into a huge and I mean huge patch of stinger nettles. I was stung from head to foot, so you can imagine the pain. Hilary got me home and I remember my mum standing me in the bath and pouring vinegar all over me. Vinegar you thinking. Yep vinegar helps to take the sting out of stinger nettle rashes. I do not remember if it actually helped with the pain, but I did smell like a chip shop for hours and the next day I looked like I had the Measles. That taught me a lesson I can tell you. Today I only stung my hand, so no vinegar was required. Can you imagine the boat would have smelt like a chip shop for weeks ha ha ha.

After dinner, which was Ravioli topped with Cheese, I opened a couple of cans of Old Speckled Hen, which went down very nicely after such a warm day, it also helped to clear the dust from my throat, that the cyclists had kicked up. To end the day we watched the movie "Stargate" on the TV in the back cabin, whilst lounging on the bed with my drink in hand, a perfect way to end a Sunday.