Lockdown Mooring 3

We’d only intended on staying here for one night and then planned on heading back to our ‘home’ mooring. But the washing drawer had more in it than we’d originally thought, plus it was time to do the bed linen and towels too

So Mick kept an eye on the washing machine, filling it emptying it, running the engine when needed, hanging items out on the whirligig and the airer inside. A right washer woman he was.

Tilly was originally given four hours of shore leave, which she seemed a touch reticent to make the most of. But after ignoring the open back door for a while she started to do the back door side hatch circuit, then eventually moved onto staying out for a while.

The woofer from the next boat wasn’t helping matters. Running up and down the towpath as if it owned it! I eventually ducked through the cow parsley and headed into the field below. So so green down here. She said I smelt of green when I got home. It’s a good smell, green.

Meanwhile I got my illustrations out. Most of the morning was spent finishing painting in the stripes on a cardigan. Who decided that character should have a stripy cardie!? Especially when it’s the main character who appears in just about all the illustrations! Getting on for ten colours, it took forever!

Then in the afternoon it was time to start on the backgrounds. I checked which seasons should be in each illustration and then started at spring. Tree foliage, sideways trees and grass were all painted in. After all the green I then treated myself to a touch of autumnal russet. Tomorrow I’ll move onto the sky and fencing, hopefully then all the base colours will be layed in and I can move onto the finer details.

For some reason drawing lines in our ships log is a job for me, some would call it a pink job (but I’m not keen on the colour!). Our log has been going since we moved onto Lillian full time nearly six years ago and the note book bought from Morrisons is still doing well. In the book we note where we are at the start of a days cruise, engine hours, when the toilet gets emptied. There is also a record of how much diesel, gas and coal we buy and the cost. Years ago I drew on the side of the pages to make drawing the lines very easy, hoping they would become a blue job (a much better colour, but not as good as red), but I still get handed the pen when the last page runs out!

Quotes have come in for clearing and cleaning the house in Scarborough. The tenants bond will cover some of this expense, but then she was a month and a half in arrears so the bond doesn’t really exist. In a text message she sent to our agents she suggested when she could she’d pay for the house to be cleared. A nice thought but one we know won’t happen.

0 locks, 0 miles, 5 loads washing, 1 almost empty water tank, 9 hours shore leave instead of 4, 15 illustrations nearly based in, 1 avenue, 1 cable tie hinge, 1 green cat, 2 quotes, 1 thumbs up.