Choose

In to Welford.

Travelled 6.3 miles, worked 1 lock in a time of 2 hour 20 minutes.

It was a very leisurely start to the day with a bit of a lie in and the usual morning cup of tea in bed. It was gone 9.30am before we were ready for the off and before we left our mooring of the past couple of days, we had a chat with Jan and Tom on NB Waiouru who were also on their way heading to Foxton. It was a treat to spend the day with them yesterday and I am sure we will see them again before long.

Keith was very creaky this morning, because his back locked up yesterday whilst standing at the work bench and now he is walking like an old man with grumps and groans along the way. Everything he did this morning was done with an expression of pain on his face.

10am we left the mooring waving to Jan and Tom as we left. It was onward to Husbands Bosworth Tunnel. I put a wash on whlst on the move.

Out the other end and the wash was done and hung in the engine room to dry.

11.25am we were at the junction with Welford. Up the Welford Arm I worked the lock and then we pulled in above the lock and I walked further down the arm to see if there were any moorings.

Mooring found we are now moored up, lunch has been eaten and so now the afternoon is my own. On Monday we have a coal delivery coming, so we are ready for that to happen.

Boat Painting Day 4.

With the majority of paint work done on the port side, it was touching up on the white coach line and painting the white hoops on the mop.

Whilst I did all that Keith touched up the white on the water cans. 

As the morning wore on and the sun got hotter, Keith noticed a Hare wandering up the towpath and so went off to follow it. He tracked it to the field on the opposite bank and so I took my camera and tripod and went off to photograph the Hare.

There seemed to be two pairs of Hares and they were having a good game of chase. This is the most I have seen together this year and they seemed quite happy for me to be there. Normally they run off into the undergrowth.

When I got back to the boat, we had been joined by Jan and Tom on NB Waiouru. We spent a good hour chatting on the towpath, putting the world to right and having a good old laugh. 

After a late lunch, we then all sat out on the towpath, soaking up the sun and finished off our nattering. I reckon we covered all subjects and yes this did include boat toilets. It was great to chat to like minded people and to hear all about there adventures. After the boat building disaster from hell, which they had been through, it is amazing they have come out of it very sane, for many it would have been the last straw and now Waiouru is a credit to them and their determination to get the boat finished. She is a lovely boat and their pride and joy.

Before we knew it, it was almost 7pm and so a late dinner was cooked. It has been a fabulous day with wonderful company.

Boat painting Day 3.

A dull start to the day again, but a good time to get on with second coating the galley roof, so that was the first job of the day after having walked Paddy.

Roof all done.

Next job was to rub down and paint the gunwale. I am not one for using masking tap, I prefer to do it by eye and a steady hand. I then got on with touching up the blue on the cabin sides, after I had finished with the paint, Keith got on with painting the water cans.

With the roof dry the solar panel went back to its home with its nice new brackets. Keith constructed it yesterday so that we can capture either the early morning or late evening sun, depending on where we are moored.

With all the painting jobs done for the day, it was time to sit and enjoy the afternoon sunshine. It did begin to get to hot, so I went off with my camera to take photographs of Butterflies. You can see those photographs on my Canalside Flora and Fauna BLOG.

Painting Day Two.

With the promise of another hot and sunny day, I was going to second coat the back cabin and engine room roof.

It was actually a rather grey start with low cloud and a chill in the air, but ideal for painting.

Whilst I got on with painting the roof, Keith set about mending our Kebb which got broken last year on the Marple flight.

He cut the damaged end off and reshaped it to fit the kebb, I then rubbed down the pole with Teak oil to give it some protection against the weather.

Whilst the roof dried I painted the new fireman’s hose with 2 coats of white emulsion. So from a dirty brown colour, it is now nice and white.

Keith then got on with painting the red on our water cans. Red bleaches easily and so it was looking a little tired.

I then turned my attention to the galley doors and gave them their second coat of varnish.

After some lunch, it was beginning to warm up, so I got on with rubbing down the galley roof and then gave it, its first coat of paint. The sun then came out drying the paint really quickly. Tomorrow it will get its second coat. It was nice to get so much done today and tomorrow it will be another day of painting.

Up on the roof.

Oh joy of joys we have sunshine and not just one day of it, but a whole week yippee.

This means it is good painting weather as far as I am concerned, and so this the roof which has not been painted for two years will get a couple of new coats of paint. I had rubbed it down during last evening, so it would be ready for some paint.

Up with the lark and before the heat of the day set in, I wanted to rub the roof down on the back cabin, but it was covered in an early morning dew, so before anything else I wipe the roof off with a cloth and allowed it to dry whilst I took Paddy for his morning walk. Where we are moored it is so quiet and no other boats, so Paddy was allowed to jump off the boat and run along the towpath without a lead. This he did with gay abandon, until he realised I was not in sight and so he did an about turn to find me. Paddy hates it when he cannot see either Keith or I. On getting back to the boat, the roof was almost dry, so I gathered together brushes and the paint, which we have been using for the past five years and we still have a quarter of a tin left, which is just as well because the company that made it does not exist anymore, so I lovingly look after the remainder of the paint so it lasts. As the last of the dew evaporated away, I got on with putting the first coat of varnish on the galley doors, so they had all day to dry, the tin said 16 to 24 hours drying time, which seems like a long time to me, but hey what do I know. At last I could get on to the roof and start painting from the engine room back towards the back cabin doors. I do so love it when it is first painted and no I am not one of those people who likes her paintwork perfect. I just like a tidy boat and for it to look nice. After all when you spend a lot of money on something and it is your home you want to keep it in good fettle. All the varnishing and the roof was done by 9.40am, just as the sun was coming over the hedge. I then turned my attention to the bow, which had been painted whilst we were in dry dock, but Keith had managed to knock chunks of the red paint off, so I rubbed it down and undercoated the bald patches ready for some gloss during the afternoon. The varnish was dry by lunchtime to the touch, but I will put another coat on tomorrow. All in all it was a good mornings work and it left me the afternoon to soak up the sunshine. Whilst I got on with the painting, Keith was also busy. He mad the brackets for the solar panel, so now we can tilt it up and down to point it in the direction of the sun and he made up a new fireman’s hose for the cratch board as our old one had perished.

After lunch Paddy and Marmite were allowed out on to the towpath, where they joined me in lounging in the sunshine. By 4pm I felt like I was cooked enough and as I did not want to burn, I called it day outside and went in to the cool saloon to catch up on correspondence. Tomorrow is going to be another painting day, as everything gets second coated.

Back at Laughton Hills.

The Red Campion as the sun was going down.

The sun setting whilst a spider spins its web.

Travelled 5.9 miles, worked 10 locks in a time of 4 hours 15 minutes.

It is so nice to wake up to the sun shining and a cracking start to the week.

We set off at 9.15am set of for Debdale Wharf to fill up with diesel.

I walked up to the swing bridge and got it ready for Keith to being the boat through. Ian and Lizzy on NB Quo Vardis we moored up waiting to go up the locks, so we gave them a wave as we passed by.

Diesel tank filled.

Moored outside the wharf was Mike and Marian on NB Duxllandyn, who very kindly take the time to read our blog. It was lovely to meet them and have a natter about all things boating. We really do appreciate it when people take the time to sit down and read our blogs. So Mike and Marian if your reading this Thank You and we hope to meet up with you again sometime.

having said “Cheerio” to Mike and Marian, we headed back to Foxton to wait our turn to go up the locks.

We waited outside Bridge 61 patiently for our turn, drank coffee and chatted to the visiting public. The sun was really lovely and I can see me topping up my tan over the next few days. 12.15pm and it was our turn to head up the locks.

There were plenty of visitors watching us climbing the flight with the help of Tony and Peter the volunteer lock keepers.

1pm we made it to the top and headed off for our mooring at Laughton Hills.

All moored up at 2pm and we will spend the next few days painting the boat, as the weather forecast is favourable for painting, I also want to do some varnishing as well. We will then be off to get our coal delivery at Welford.

Off to Foxton.

We spent a wonderful few days moored in the basin at Market Harborough and we got to catch up with a lot of friends. Yesterday Andy and Hilary off of NB Maisibert came and had coffee with us and we managed to sit out and enjoy the sunshine. last night we joined the local radio station Hfm at their Soul Night at the Conservative Club, wow it really did rock, my ears were still ringing when we got back to the boat. It was a wonderful evening though and a great crowd turned up. I won a bottle of Vodka as well which was a bonus, not that I have ever drunk Vodka, but there is always a first for everything.

 

No need to hurry up this morning, so we enjoyed a cup of tea in bed and a breakfast cooked by Keith. We then moved off our pontoon mooring and on to the sanitary station to fill up with water and get rid of yet more rubbish. The sun was shining and so I donned my shorts (that will scare the sun away) and t-shirt, after all we need to enjoy the sun whilst we have it, and of course I will do it responsibly.

Water tank full, we left Market Harborough at 10.35. Along the way we met a few of the hire boats heading back to Market Harborough for turn around tomorrow.

Oil seed rape is very prevalent in the fields at present, giving us fields of gold.

At the Foxton Village swing bridge a hire boat was already coming through, so the ladies operating the bridge allowed us to come through and closed the bridge behind us, which was very kind of them and it saved me the job.

The field alongside our mooring is very purple, and apparently it is Red Campion(Silene dioica) according to the book, a wild flower, but in great abundance in this field. Besides the aesthetic value of its flowers, the crushed seeds of Red Campion have also been used to cure snakebites. The nectar of the flowers is utilised by bumblebees and butterflies, and several species of moth feed on the foliage. I really makes a splendid sight.

We moored alongside the field of Campion on the 48 hour moorings.