Sunsets and feeding birds.

Last nights sunset proved me with yet another photograph opportunity, as the temperature began to drop off like a stone. The temperature got down to -4.6c over night, so another heavy frost and the canal remained frozen. On waking up, I got the back cabin stove going by racking out the ash I had used to keep it in over night. With the bottom door of the fire left open, it soon kicked into life and we had a roaring fire. I also put some logs on the stove in the saloon to get that going as well, so it was cosy for when we got up, whilst up I made us both a cuppa, and we sat in bed watching TV for an hour, before it was time to get up to take Paddy out for his walk.

Back from our walk and breakfast done, I sat in the engine room and took some photographs of the birds using the bird feeders. Sadly I was not quick enough to photograph the Green Woodpecker which came calling. But did get the usual feeder birds.

Long Tailed Tit.

Robin

Great Tit

Blue Tit

All were eager for some easy to grab food. My morning was rather quiet, with me doing the usual tidying and cleaning, so I was looking forward to a more entertaining afternoon.

Chat soon x

Sunday

Before I get on with today's posting, yesterday ended up being a very quiet day after all. The only excitement was Mark on Callisto coming past us during the early part of the afternoon, on his way into Market Harborough, to supply boaters with diesel and coal. On the one hand I really miss selling coal, because I loved the job and the customers, but on the other hand what with the prices increases, low water levels etc, I think we made the right decision to stop selling coal during the summer. Of course we are still selling all our other items which can be found on our products blog. I am always of the opinion, that as one door closes another one opens and we already have new ideas for the coming selling season. As the afternoon wore into the evening, we seemed to be stuck in our chairs watching TV films, which included "Jurassic Park. The Lost World". The final watch of the day was "The Million Pound Drop", before we headed off to bed.

We woke this morning to another very hard frost, the temperature had dropped to -4c over night.

The boat was surrounded by ice, because the canal was frozen. We sat in bed drinking our first brew of the day, I also stoked the back cabin stove up a little, to take the chill off of the cabin, it must have been chilly because Marmite crept into bed with us, she only ever does that if it is cold. After watching a couple of episodes of "Takeshi's Castle" it was time to get up, because Paddy was on the wander, which meant he wanted to go out. Now I am not one of those people who just opens the cabin door and chucks the dog out to do what it has to do, I believe a dog should be supervised at all times when off the boat, so make sure he goes out on the lead so I can pick up after him.

Up, dressed and bed put away, I went off along the towpath with Paddy whilst Keith got on with cooking our Sunday breakfast of Poached Eggs on Toast with grilled Bacon, Keith also had some Black Pudding, which I personally cannot stand, ewwwww all that dried blood. Breakfast was very good as always. I then bought a bag of wood in out of the hold for the saloon fire and emptied the ash pan.

With it being so chilly outside it was a good day to stay in and clean out a few boxes and get a couple of requests on the local radio station HFM. I asked for Olly Murs "Dance with me tonight" and Keith asked for The Shadows "Apache". After some lunch, we settled down to watch the Sunday afternoon movies on TV, whilst they were showing, I kept the fires burning and got bubble and squeak ready for tonight's dinner. This is now cooking with the Sausages in the back cabin stove. All in all it has been a very quiet day, just how Sundays should be. The sun has now begun to set giving us a beautiful sunset.

I am now off to check on dinner and to enjoy a relaxing evening with my better half.

Chat soon xx

Intelligent Border Collie Puppy

I

A man came home.

This is oh so true, thanks Sarah for posting this on your facebook.

A man came home from work and found his 3 children outside in their pyjamas, playing in the mud. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and no sign of the dog. Walking in the door, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, In the front room the TV was on loudly with the cartoon channel, the... family room was strewn ...with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the bench, the fridge door was wide open, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table and there was sand everywhere. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried something had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pyjamas reading a magazine. She looked up at him, smiled and asked how his day went. He looked at her and asked "what the hell happened?" She smiled and answered "You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world do I do all day?" "Yeah.." he replied. She answered "Well.. Today I didn't do it" :) :)

Cold start.

The temperature began to drop off sharply last night, giving us a pretty sunset, this photograph does not do it justice.

Having enjoyed a fantastic nights sleep, we were awake at 7am listening to the birds waking up. I think most of them were on the bird feeders enjoying the opportunity to get some food without having to work to hard to find it. The temperature got down to -4.1c overnight, so we woke to a very heavy frost and a think layer of ice on the canal.

After a cup of tea in bed and the TV on for the Challenge Channel, it was time to get up and take Paddy out for his walk, which I was looking forward to because I love walking in a heavy frost.

Paddy was off like a rocket along the towpath, a lot of this reaction was to do with the gas guns going off some where in the distance. Gas guns for anyone who does not know what I am talking about, they are used by farmers to protect their crops from birds and animals eating their crop. They are extremely loud and can be a real nuisance.

They are not supposed to fire anymore than four times in an hour and they should not go off before sunrise or after sunset according to the NFU. Some not only scare the birds they also scare pets. Paddy hates them, I am sure something like this in his early days scared him so much he really hates them now.

Having enjoyed a lovely morning stroll watching the sun coming up, we headed back to the boat where Keith was making me toast and a coffee. I fed Paddy and Marmite, before sitting down to enjoy my breakfast, I then got on with the job of sorting out the saloon fire. The back stove I had done, whilst we enjoyed our cup of tea in bed, in order to warm the cabin up a little.

I have no idea what I am doing for the rest of the day, but it will include resting my wrist, which seems to be improving.

Chat later xx

Market Harborough to Gallows Hill.

Market Harborough to Gallows Hill, 5 miles travelled in 2 hours.

What am I like, I was in bed at 9pm last night, yes that's right 9pm.

Because we had no TV we put "The First Wives Club" (1996) on, starring Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton. After just half an hour Keith was snoring, so I was left to watch it all by myself. The plus side to this was I got to tuck in to Tuc biscuits all by myself. I could happily have eaten the whole packet, but I was very good and only had a few. The DVD finished at 9pm and with Keith still sleepy, I suggested we just as well go to bed.

There I was having a lovely dream about recycling and Foxes, when I was woken up at 5.30am by a screaming sound, which was unmistakable, it was a Fox screaming blue murder somewhere close to the boat. The screaming barking went on for a couple of minutes, it sounded like this Fox was very distraught over something, I then heard another Fox barking in the distance and the Fox near the boat got quieter and quieter. I then wondered if it had fallen in the canal, but never saw anything when I took Paddy for his walk, so I am now thinking it was a Vixen calling to a male, after all it is the breeding season, so there could be the patter of tiny feet soon. It was very close and I do know that Foxes use the gardens on the offside of the canal, so maybe it was coming from there. With both Keith and I very much awake, I got up and made us both a cup of tea, before we settled back down to see if we could both drop off, it was then at 6.20am a Tawnay Owl began hooting near the boat. Something was telling me we were not meant to go back to sleep. There was nothing for it, but to get up and make us some toasted bread muffins, because I was hungry. People were walking past the boat early as well with heavy footsteps, anyone would think they had hobnailed boots on.

With no chance of any further sleep, we were up and I was off the boat walking Paddy down the towpath with the sun coming up.  We had been touched by Jack frost over night, so there was a lovely white film over everything and not a breath of wind. When I got back to the boat, Keith was already to take the toilet cassette to the sanitary station, so whilst he did that I got the hosepipe out and began to fill the water tank. The taps on the towpath at Market Harborough are very slow, but on a morning like this morning, it was just wonderful to stand and listen to the birds. As the tank was filling a man on a bike came hurtling towards me and I thought he was just going to run over my hosepipe like so many cyclists do, but no he slowed down, got off of his bike and carried over my hosepipe saying "Good Morning" as he did so, so I thanked him and said "Good Morning " back. If only they were all like him. I say treat people as you wish to be treated yourself and he clearly likes to be treated right.

9.25am we were ready for the off with the sun shining and smoke bellowing from the chimney on the back cabin. We said "cheerio" to Jenny and Jim on NB Jolly Roger, who were off out themselves and we were on our way. We had a very pleasant cruise in the sunshine and got to see some of the wildlife.

(Waiting for Breakfast)

(Can you see me)

We carried on past the moorings where we were wanted to moor, and onto the next winding hole which was the other side of Gallow’s Hill Bridge passing the glue factory, which was cooking up bones if the smell was anything to go by, we winded and returned to the Gallow's Hill moorings so that if the weather should turn extremely cold and the canal freezes, we are pointing in the right direction to get back to Harborough.

All moored up Phil one of the British Waterway's maintenance checkers came past on his bike, so we had a chat to him and let him know about a tree down we had seen the other day, which has not be dealt with yet. Phil went on his way and I got on with preparing some lunch on the back cabin stove. The TV aerial is up and we have a fantastic signal, so we can watch TV later and for the next few days, because will stay here until Wednesday morning, when we need to go back to Market Harborough, so Keith can go back to the dentist in the afternoon. I have put my bird feeders out and the Blue Tits are already tucking into the nuts.

Welcome to the 21st Century.