Braunston Stay. Monday.

We were back to the colder weather having had a lovely weekend, even though there had been ice on the canal, the days were lovely. Today no ice on the canal, but a stiff wind bought with it a cold blast and grey skies.

Last night we watched Country File, with Matt Baker on the Grand Union Canal. He spent time with Alan Andrews who owns NB Kitty and does a lot of work at Blisworth with the park. Matt Baker was also seen helping to pressure wash the lock gates at Stoke Bruerne with the Canal and River Trust workmen Geoff and Alex who we know very well. A great program and it looked like Matt really enjoyed his time on the GU and inside Blisworth Tunnel.

We had several boats moored along the canal near us, but as the morning wore on they all disappeared as did the Canal and River Trust work boat, which headed back to Norton Junction, so we found ourselves all alone by 11 am.

The fires were stoked up and I made a cottage pie base which went in the oven to simmer away slowly during the day. I then put my boiling pot on the stove to boil up our flannels and did a bit of hand washing. We were playing a waiting game, waiting for the repair man to come and look at our fridge/freezer.

After lunch the repair man came to collect our fridge/freezer. When we had Hadar built we made sure every appliance on the boat could come out, because as we all know things break down and so the fridge/freezer was taken out of the galley, through the saloon and out through the hold easy peasy. We know that many a boat has been built over the years with appliances which cannot be taken out of the boat unless the cupboards are pulled apart or worse still the roof taken off. It is so important to make sure any appliance can be taken off the boat, not just for repairs, but should you want to change it for something more up to date, you need to be able to get it off the boat, this also applies to furniture. So the fridge/freezer is off being repaired and we are told it will be back with us in a couple of days, of course this will mean our wallet will be a little lighter, but we will be glad to have it back. I have been managing with putting the fridge food in the hold which has been cold due to the weather, but once the weather warms up, the hold will become an oven only good enough to dry the washing and not good for food.

A couple of boats came past us, and I could hear the occupants staying “Oh look Hadar”, we follow their blog”, so I leant out of the engine room door and said “Hello” and thanked them for reading our blog. Jo and John on NB Acen also came past on their way to Bristol, they are in Brauston for a couple of day, so we may try and catch up with them.

On a sad note, it was announced on the news that Baroness Margaret Thatcher had died. My thoughts go out to her family, who will be going through such a difficult time.