A brillant weekend had by all.

Hi Folks.

I have had a wicked weekend at The Village at War, at Stoke Bruerne. There were some truly amazing things to see and experience.
On Saturday the weather was wonderful. The sun came out on an off all day, which bought lots of people out. They like us were not disappointed with the atmosphere and the things going on around us. On the main event field, they did re-enactments and had stalls which had vintage clothing, army clothing and all things to do with the 1940's. It was really incredible to see just how well some of the things had survived.
Keith and I both dressed up for the event. I wore both my dungarees and my 1940's dress, head scarf and apron. Some of the people who dressed for the occasion, had thought of every detail. This couple really impressed me, with their American Army uniforms. Not only did we get all things military, civilians were dressed to the nines as well and all of them adding to the atmosphere. PC Plod paid us a visit and very welcome he was too.
We had lots of visitors yesterday, including Pip and Roger off of nb. Windsong, who are moored at Blisworth Marina at the moment. Today the weather was not wonderful, infect it was pouring with rain for most of the day. It was a day to do the indoor things, but as we are tough boaters, we ventured down on to the events field again, and pottered around the stalls, chatting to folk as we ventured into the tents. Afterwards we went into the Museum as entry was free to ticket holders and on the top floor they had a small quilt exhibition. Low and behold we saw this small quilt by Hilda Goddard. If you look at the middle row, on the left hand side you will see our water cans. Famous again it seems.
Back down on the events field they had a Spitfire and for £35 you could sit in the areoplane and have the engine running. I personally think £35 is a little steep, but I suppose you are sitting in a piece of history.
It has been the most fantastic weekend, we would not have missed it for the world, even with the dodgy weather.

Coal Deliveries and Squirrels.

Good afternoon friends.

We have left Market Harborough for the time being and are on our way to Stoke Bruerne for the 'Village at War Weekend'. Whilst on the move we had to drop coal off to customers along the way.
I like everyone has days when I do not exactly feeling at my best and yet when I see the wildlife surrounding me, it really does put a smile on my face.
This little Squirrel clearly thought it was blending in with the fence... I have news for it, it was not ha ha ha. I saw a few Squirrels today, one was sitting in a Hawthorn bush eating berries, with not a care in the world. Another animal who was not bothered by us this morning was the Rabbit. I saw a few of them as we were on the move and non of them ran a mile.
We are now moored up at Foxton and I am going to head off up to the Museum after lunch to take them our used stamps and tin foil. These get recycled and it helps to raise money for the Museum. May post later if the mood takes me.

Brasso and Vaseline.

Hi Friends.

This morning seemed so dark when I woke up at 6.30am. I think I would have slept on, but someone was running past the boat which what seemed like hobnailed boots on and a dog in tow. Having had my sleep disturbed there was nothing for it, but to get up and make a cup of tea. This was of course a wake up call for Marmite who decided that Paddy should wake up as well and play with her. There was the pair of them racing up and down the boat chasing each other. I am sure that daft cat thinks she is a dog. Keith was still beneath the duvet not feeling his best this morning. He had a sore throat and a cold some 6 weeks ago, and although the sore throat went as did the cold, he has been left with a dodgy throat, which is causing him pain when he swallows. Having enjoyed my cuppa, I got up and dressed and took the mutt out for his walk along the towpath. There is nothing very exciting to look at along the Market Harborough towpath, just houses, gardens and more houses and gardens. Although you may on the odd occasion see a squirrel, fox or rabbit pottering around the gardens. There was no such luck this morning. So no sooner Pad had done was was needed, he hot footed it back to the boat for his breakfast, which consists of two small dog buscuits. Marmite however gets her meat and biscuits for breakfast.

Keith once up rang the doctors to see if he could get an appointment, and was walking down the town for a 9.30am appointment with a practice nurse. I stayed on board because I had a coal delivery to make to one of the moored boats. Whilst I waited for the guy to come and select his coal, I got on with polishing the Brass. This time of the year is dreadful for keeping the Brass clean and shiny, because of the moisture in the air and more wet weather, so after polishing the Brass to within and inch of its life, I give it a coating of Vaseline to protect it, this will mean I do not have to clean it so often, because any water will just run off of, instead of staining it, making my life so much easier.

The gentleman wanting the coal, came calling with some money and I delivered his coal to his boat whilst he and his wife headed down into the town. Now that the weather is turning cooler, coal sales should pick up and we will be much busier. Keith was back from the doctor's and he had to go back at 11.30am to see a GP, because the nurse was concerned it had been going on for so long. So she wanted him to see a doctor, which he did and guess what?
He has to go back on Wednesday for a blood test and then see another doctor the following Friday. It never rains unless it pours does it?
It looks like we will be making a dash for The Village at War weekend at this rate.
With lunch sorted out, we then decided to move off to Foxton Village again, because tomorrow we are having a Tesco delivery to the boat. It is great because I can order large items and have them delivered instead of hauling them up the hill in Market Harborough in my rucksack. Tesco are very good at delivering groceries to boats, all's you need is a postcode. It has made our lives easier. So having moved in the rain, we are now at Foxton Village with a wonderful digital TV signal and a good mooring, so all is now good in my world lol.

A update on a couple of events we have been to in the past couple of days. The Quids for Kids event raised over £500 for two schools, which is fantastic and the Arts Fresco event had over 30,000 people attend, which is truly amazing.

Old Boats and Swans Beak.

Hi Friends.

Having had a somewhat restless night. At one point I just lay in bed and listened to the silence that was all around me. I must have drifted back off to sleep, because I then woke up and it was 8am and my better half was getting up to go to the bathroom. I put the kettle on and noticed a bow getting closer. Something told me I knew this boat and low and behold it was Elaine and David on NB Patience. I quickly got dressed and poked my head out of the engine room to say good morning to Elaine who was steering the boat. David was working the lock, so I gave him a cheery wave. They are on their way to the National Festival at Beale Park in August. Keith walked down to the lock to have a chat with David, whilst I did us some breakfast. We will see Elaine and David in October for the Village at War at Stoke Bruerne. Having had breakfast and walked Pad, Keith and I then enjoyed a lovely stroll around the lakes between Denham and South Harefield. The views across the lakes which originally was used for gravel extractions is now a haven for allsorts of wildlife. Whilst walking alonside the Denham Quarry lake, we saw Giant Grebe, Herons, Common Terns, Mallards, Coots, Moorhens and that is just a small proportion of what lives there. Keith spent some of his younger days on the lake where he learnt some of his early boating skills and they still have plenty of boating taking place there today. We could see a group of children waiting to go out on the lake. We walked behind Harefield Marina and back out on to the road, before walking back along the towpath to the boat. We decided to move Hadar to The Horse & Barge at South Harefield, which took a whole 35mins to do 1.5miles! We are going to spend the weekend here, as we are hoping to have some visitors over the weekend.

As I prepared some lunch, a feathered visitor came a calling. It was this beautiful Swan with a lump taken out of the end of its beak. He was a cheeky fellow, knocking on the boat to ask for some bread. Of course I obliged, feeding him some bread which was a little dry around the edges. Not that he cared, he was only to happy to take it out of my hand and not in an aggressive way either. He had his fill and went on his way. I have set up the Tv ariel and we have a fantastic signal. We even have digital, so I can watch the F1 GP this weekend, if we are not invaded by to many visitors. We also have Film 4 which is always a good watch, when there is nothing else on. There is a WiFi signal from the Marina, but it is secured so we cannot use it. Just as well our T-Mobile signal is a good one. So this will be home for the weekend.

A Facebook friend had a close call last night, when he saw out of the window of his boat another boat approaching from the opposite bank, this other boat was on fire. Thankfully he had his wits about him. He untied and reversed out of harms way. The sad thing is, the people that had bought this boat, had only had it a couple of weeks. There has been a few boat fires recently and one has to wonder if these are due to people being careless or are accidental?