Category Archives: Food

HOORAY!!!! 6th September

Oundle Boat Club

An early start to meet my lift into Peterborough. Ken from NB Cleddau had very kindly offered to give me a lift to the station this morning saving me sitting defending my model box on the bus as well as trains and the tube today. We arrived in plenty of time, I bought my ticket and then had to wait until 8:30 before the barriers would let me through. I was catching the slower Thameslink train to St Pancras, if I’d waited another ten minutes I could have got to London earlier but it would have cost another £90! I was happy enough sat watching Brampton and St Neots go by, only one boat moored on the GOBA mooring where Tilly got stuck behind the double fence weeks ago.

A quick transfer onto the tube and I was soon walking up to Abi’s house in Golders Green. Today the meeting would just be Abi and myself working through the show scene by scene, scene change by scene change. A few notes were taken for small amendments, but generally all was good. When it came to the troublesome scene I had taken three options with me just in case. I set up the latest which thankfully got the thumbs up! Just some minor adjustments to make it even better. Hooray!

We were joined by Gemma the production manager for the last hour to chat through anything that might be problematical, then tucked into a bowl of soup whilst chatting props. A very productive three hours.

**The water tower at St Pancras Cruising Club at the end of the road**

Meanwhile my phone kept making noises. News was coming through from Oundle. This morning NB Barbarella who have been moored on the lock landing at Whiston Lock were woken by engineers working on the broken lock. At around 10am I got a message from Mick saying that the lock was open again. Hooray!!

I passed the good news onto Cleddau. But so far no news of Islip Lock.

At 12:30 my phone pinged again. The engineers who’d mended Whiston had just completed works at Islip Lock which was now also open. Hooray!!! Our way ahead is now clear, I just need to get things in the post and then we can push off.

**The model managed to have a seat to itself on the way back too**

Ken met me at the station again and brought me back to Oleanna who had moved. During the afternoon NB Shadow had decided that they would head off and obviously needed their hook up lead they’d lent us back. There was still credit where they had been moored so Mick moved us up to plug in there instead, our old space soon taken over by NB Charlotte May.

Mick had spent the day washing what ever he could find. The chimney was swept, the boat hoovered through, water tank filled, a busy day. Tilly spent much of the afternoon being adamant that NB Charlotte May was actually Oleanna, she had been inside when Mick had moved the outside but sometimes scent is more persuasive to her than looks. Good job she didn’t go for a walk through of their boat as they have two woofers in residence.

At 7:30 this evening Mick retreated to sit outside under the clubhouse canopy whilst I took over the dinette table. It was time to do my Final model presentation to Producers, the Writer, Production Manager and Technical Manager. To get a reasonable view of the model it was set up on a couple of shoe boxes and moved to about 14 inches away from the laptop, I had to perch on a radiator as I showed everyone through the model. Another good meeting, half a days work to do tomorrow and then we can be off! HOORAY!!!!

0 locks, 55ft reversed, 2 trains, 2 tubes, 1 shower, 5 thumbs up, 2 mended locks, 1 full tank of water, 1 chimney swept, 1 confused cat, 4 faces almost in my model box, 1 very BIG thank you to Ken for the lifts today.

Packed And Ready. 5th September

Oundle Cruising Club

2am, thunder and lightening woke us all. The windows needed closing as the rain hammered down on Oleanna. As we tried to get back to sleep I wondered if our next problem would be too much water!

**Drawing board back in it’s slot with stools**

Monday mornings is when people are about again at the cruising club. Mick went to chat with Fred and get another £3 worth of electric, our hope is that we won’t still be here next Saturday.

What a lovely mooring this is. Now that all the masses of woofers have gone elsewhere Tilly comes and goes to the shed as she likes, the friendly cover towards the marina entrance from the river has also kept her busy today. It’s quiet, no passing foot fall. The benches are nice to sit out at for lunch, very pleasant.

**Jar of bay leaves coming in handy again**

I got on with the final things before my meeting tomorrow. Colemans’s in town could scan my plans so after finding out who would be running the country and having lunch I walked in. It was a surprisingly well stocked stationers, due to the close proximity to Oundle School which seems to surround that part of town.

I had a little wander about before heading back to the boat.

By the end of the day, my model was packed up ready for tomorrow. Drawings scanned and copied. A new storyboard and photos of model pieces in the dropbox folder. Time to enjoy a Monday night roast. Well that was the plan until I got the chicken out of the fridge and it smelt decidedly odd! Mick was sent into town to Tescos for a fresher bird.

0 locks, 0 miles, 73 lightening flashes, £3 more, 24 copies, 12 scans, 1 dropbox filled, 1 model packed and ready to go, 1 chicken in the bin, 1 chicken in our tummies.

An Early Christmas? 4th September

Oundle Cruising Club

The club didn’t stay open that late last night, the only customers were those stranded by the lock closures, so one family from NB Shadow, us and the volunteers who were running it. At some point during the day the volunteers left on their boat with all their woofers, they must moor elsewhere. This meant Tilly had the place almost to herself, taking up watching duty under the shed behind the clubhouse.

The final push for me with finishing touches to the panto model today. The new improved Panto Piccadilly Circus was painted and broken down to make it look a little bit old and worn. Then an hour taking photos of every scene to do a storyboard. A few little jobs to do tomorrow, then fingers crossed that it all gets the thumbs up from the Director and I can have a few weeks that aren’t dominated by panto before I start painting it all full size.

**How many lengths of the boat have we got?**

We had lunch sat out on the nearest bench and then Mick spent sometime with Christmas lights. Checking to see if they worked and how many we have. Ken and Sue have kindly lent us their lights that they used on NB Cleddau for the Bedford River Festival. A couple of lengths, one of which is 100 meters long, but sadly Mick couldn’t get them to work. It looks like we’ll have to buy some more.

Why check the fairy lights in September? Why so many? Well you’ll have to wait a little bit longer before I tell you.

This evening we treated ourselves to an Indian Takeaway. It had been planned for last night, but we’d sat out boozing with Ken and Sue until it was too late for Mick to collect one by bike, lack of lights. We got our food from Curry Passion which is close to Waitrose and a ten minute bike ride away. The Lamb Rogan Josh came out on top, followed by the Aloo Paneer, the rear brought up by Chicken Tikka Masala which was mediocre. By no means the worst Indian we’ve had, but not in the top ranking. On the plus side we do have enough rice left over for stir fried rice in the next couple of days.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 model finished, 1 box to tart up, 1 storyboard to collate, 800 bulbs, 400ish not working, 1 very interesting shed, 1 woofer left, 1 bike delivery, 1 button to press.

Jobs. 2nd September

Peartree Farm FOTRN mooring

Job 1. Encourage the cat to use shore based facilities. Failed!

Job 2. Eat breakfast. Yum.

Job 3. Do a colour call for panto paints. Tick

This takes quite a bit of time, working out which colours are needed, then reducing them to an affordable quantity. I’ll also need to check what there already is at the theatre.

Looking through my old Flints Hire and Supply catalogue I came across an entry for Owatrol. Life changing experience apparently. I tend to use a bit of it in with paint when touching up Oleanna, but never used it on a theatre set. I’m not sure I’m going to get time to repaint the gunnels before going of to panto. Then there’s the grab rail too!

Job 4. Try to spruce up the model box. Partly achieved.

A length of wood was glued to the inside of the proscenium arch, but I’m not sure the glue is suitable for sticking wood to foam cor. We’ll see tomorrow when the tape is removed.

**The extra weight of bay leaves assisting**

Job 5. Tack glue the floor into the model box. Tick.

Small blobs of glue used to hold the floor in position, stop the edges from curling up, so that it looks good. But so that it is also easily removable for when I come to paint the floor. Encouraging the glue to stick required clearing some of the galley work top and using Hemsley and Hemsley along with the River Cottage GF recipe book and the largest jar of bay leaves in the world to weight it down. Thank you Frank.

Job 6. Other small painting jobs. Tick.

Job 7. Sort out when to show the model to everyone else and be included in a budget meeting. Half Tick.

Job 8. Everything else. That can wait for tomorrow.

Boats have come today. Boats have left.

The grass has been cut, edges stimmed.

Fires lit, conversations had.

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 arrivals, 1 departure, 1 more woofer, 2 jobs left to do, 1 model so nearly there, 3 days since I last stepped of the boat!

Clinging On In The Wind. 30th August

Oundle Marina to Pear Tree arm FOTRN mooring

Just before 9am a Sainsburys van arrived with a big order for us, a good stock up especially when we had a voucher for triple nectar points to use. Everything was brought in through the side hatch and then stowed away. Good job Mick had gone through the stash of cat food the other day and donated brands and flavours Tilly turns her nose up at to the RSPCA in March. The space is now filled with porridge oats, oat milk and wine.

Time to return the van. I caught a lift into Oundle to have a bit of a look around and see if the Co-op had a few things that Sainsburys didn’t. I don’t know what I’d been expecting but it wasn’t such a large fine town. Georgian buildings with bold chimney stacks limestone everywhere. Plenty of independent shops. A prescription was collected, cat food and ketchup purchased then I headed back to Oleanna.

Ken and Sue had their hoses out so it made sense to fill our tank up too. Mick was given a lift to the bus station in Peterborough by Enterprise, they weren’t keen on bringing him all the way to Oundle. Then we made ready to push off.

Word on the towpath was that the levels above Islip Lock had dropped 18″ overnight. Someone had left the top paddles up on the broken lock. Engineers had been to site and removed the gear box and taken it away for investigation in the mean time a replacement was being sought. EA notices came out confirming what we’d heard, the next update may be midday tomorrow via one of the engineers.

Despite the unknown length of stoppage we decided to push onwards and cover a few locks and miles, but most importantly moor up somewhere Tilly could go out. We pushed back and pulled onto the service mooring just as it was starting to rain!

The diesel tank was filled, £1.45 a litre. We thanked Mark and Jacqui who had been very welcoming and helpful. This is their last week in charge as they are retiring after many many years running Oundle Marina. Then it was time to say goodbye to Ken and Sue, although if Islip Lock reopens soon we’ll be seeing them shortly, or if it is doomed to be a long closure we’ll be returning in a few days as I’ll be needing to get to London for meetings.

Across the pool, right out of the narrow entrance. Soon at Upper Barnwell Lock. Todays locks would all have powered guillotine gates, each of them sat open waiting for an uphill boat to arrive. Lunch was eaten on the go to be able to maximise shore leave for Tilly. It was windy!

We passed one boat NB Orinoco whom we’d shared a lock with on our way downstream. There was space at Wadenhoe. We considered mooring there and going for a pub meal, but instead I prepared a joint of pork, after all we’d just spent quite a bit of money on food.

As we rounded the big curve of the river, in one direction we could see Wadenhoe Church high on the hill, the other direction a triangle of tall trees, Pear Tree Farm mooring. We were quite surprised to find no other boats moored up, it meant we could pick the sunniest spot for our solar panels we pulled into Harpers Brook.

It took quite a bit to moor up as the wind was pushing Oleanna away from the bank constantly. First we tied to trees, then hammered spikes in and pulled Oleanna as close to the bank as possible at one end and then the other. Then Tilly could be let out.

Straight up one of the many trees. This mooring had many things to climb, but very little friendly cover, so Tilly came and went numerous times topping up on Dreamies.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent working, roasting the pork joint and trying to arrange rendez vous whilst we still don’t know how long we’ll be held up by Islip Lock. At around 7pm we were joined by another narrowboat who also pulled up on the sunny side of the triangle.

3 locks, 4.59 miles, 89.3 litres, 1 full water tank, 1 farewell wave, 1 triangle, 1.5 miles of low water, 1 gear box, quite a few boaters with fingers crossed, 1 approval, 800 lights, 1 front cloth, 1 big joint of pork, 2 windy for a stamp of approval.

https://goo.gl/maps/phVg3eigL1NzPcPu8

Remembering Lillian. 29th August

Oundle Marina

With more than half an egg left from making a Nan bread last night and it being a Bank Holiday I treated myself to some scrambled eggs this morning, adding another egg, a large handful of spinach and a good grating of parmesan. Very tasty indeed.

Time to actually step off Oleanna and have a little wander about the marina. A team of chaps were busy polishing a Merc, I wondered how much it would be for them to give Oleanna a good wash and polish. If only someone would create a cruise through boat wash. At least we’re dong our bit for water conservation in a drought.

**Someone put their feet up and left them behind!**

This isn’t the first time we’ve been to Oundle Marina. Back in 2014 this is where NB Lillyanne came for her out of water survey. Merve and Elaine her previous owners had cruised her here, I think this was only the second or third time they’d been anywhere on her. They’d thoroughly enjoyed their time and we were relieved that they’d already moved onto a widebeam and really didn’t need a second boat.

We chatted with the surveyor, he’d done an in water survey as we’d been a little concerned at damp marks inside, but the report hadn’t put us off so we’d been willing to spend the extra money to get her out of the water and check her hull. All was good, she got the thumbs up.

That day we watched Lillian being lowered back into the water, then Merve reversed her out of the bay, winded and start to head upstream. We climbed in the car, drove to Upper Barnwell Lock and made the phone call to ABNB to confirm the sale. As we hung up Lillian in her yellow glory arrived and we were able to confirm the deal face to face with Merve and Elaine.

I think we then drove over to Crick so that we could sign the paperwork there and then, saving two lots of postage. On our way we managed, with the help of Lizzie to secure a mooring at Crick for a few months whilst we finished sorting out the house to let and prepare ourselves for a year afloat!

Enough of the nostalgia. I returned to Oleanna and continued with my work. A fresh pair of eyes on the front cloth had been needed, a touch more dark and then maybe a thin wash of green.

By the end of the day I’d made another version of the troublesome scene, half painted it and am left with just a few notes to complete. Mick arrived back from his trip to Scarborough, all is ready and waiting for our next lodger to move in.

News on the towpath drums is that the problem at Islip Lock is due to the gear box. They will see if they have a spare tomorrow , if so then it shouldn’t be too long before the lock is back in operation. Fingers and Paws crossed.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 short walk, 6 men to polish a car, 1 very bored cat, 1 shopping order complete, 1 model nearly there.

Another Day Another Stoppage. 28th August

Oundle Marina

Ken very kindly gave Mick a lift back to Peterborough today so that he could pick up a hire car, well van. Today would be a trip to Scarborough for a change over of lodgers and an opportunity to add to the compost wheelie bins at the house, three full buckets to deposit. Mick had hunted round for a good deal on a car, it being Bank Holiday weekend meant it wouldn’t be cheap, but luckily he found that the Peterborough branch of Enterprise would be open today, saving us another days hire which we wouldn’t need.

I signed into the Geraghty zoom, changed to Sundays hoping that more people would be able to join, Saturday morning activities popular for both young and old. Subjects covered were good places to go on holiday, awol cats, and watering trees.

Mick soon returned, boat chores, water, yellow water all done. The van was loaded up and after breakfast he was on his way up to Scarborough, leaving Tilly and me to hold the fort.

Being on Oleanna on my own (apart from my feline assistant) meant I could take over pretty much all of the boat. Drawing board set out on the sofa, model box on the table where Mick usually is allowed a few inches, boxes of model bits and paints here there and everywhere. I hoped today would be a productive day.

Boats came and went all day. A cruiser was put in the water. Others arrived to fill with diesel, all the time I kept my head down working, all the time Tilly closed her eyes, a shame the mooring here isn’t cat friendly.

Late afternoon Sue from NB Cleddau popped her head up to the mesh in our hatch and asked if I’d like a cuppa. A break would have been nice, but I was doing my best to make use of the extra space and a day sitting still, that list of notes slowly getting worked through. She did however bring the news that Islip Lock was closed due to a mechanical failure and would be closed until further notice. Islip is closer to us than Irthlingborough Lock which was closed until a couple of days ago. We’ll keep an eye on notices and hope it opens quickly, we’ve places to be!

I worked on into the evening, stopping for a Co-op chicken tikka masala with a homemade gf nan bread. Then I continued for a while longer, my front cloth my main aim of the day and still in need of more work.

In Scarborough, Mick met one of our lodgers, cut the grass (it actually needed cutting!), made up a bed for the night and did some laundry. All the familiar feline neighbours were still about suggesting the human neighbours haven’t moved house yet.

Just as I was packing up for the night emails started to come in from the Director, she has a young family so tends to do work after their bedtime. This did mean I didn’t get to turn the TV on and have a cuddle with Tilly until after 10pm!

0 locks, 1 broken, 0 miles, 1 van, 3 buckets, 3 feline neighbours, 0.75 front cloth done, 10.5 hours work, 1 very bored cat.

Have The Rules Changed? 27th August

Fotheringhay Castle to Oundle Marina

Another earlyish morning with the hope of avoiding people out to enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend, not that we have a problem with them, it’s just easier to avoid them if they’re not already in the water and still at home.

**The wide beam not the first to leave their mark on the bridge**

We got to see how much paint the wide beam had left on the bridge yesterday, just another gouge in the 1722 structure. Last chance for a photo of the church before we turned our back on Fotheringhay.

We’d noted a narrowboat moored up facing the opposite direction to us, could this mean the next lock would be set in our favour? Yes! I was grateful as it was our next manual wheel operated lock and all I’d have to do was lower the guillotine gate once. Having enough hands to lock the wheel once finished is something I’ll need to master as there’s a lock some way ahead that is very hard to do by one person.

Tansor and Cotterstock both look like places to have a good wander around, even if they are only small. On the list for next time, suspect we’ll need to catch a bus or have a lengthy walk from Oundle.

Now the river works it’s way southwards around the east side of Oundle, under several bridges to Ashton Lock. Ahead we could see the buoys that mark shallow water below the lock, a right hand bend immediately below it. The bow of a boat appeared, Mick slammed on the breaks and then reversed back to give them room to manoeuvre. Would we be passing them on the wrong side, did it really matter just so long as neither boat got stuck in the mud.

It took a while and eventually the bow came round followed by the stern. The main thing for us was that the lock, another manual one was sat waiting for us, only one movement required again! As we left the lock another boat appeared heading down stream, they were also very pleased that the lock was in their favour.

**I think someone should look where they are going!**

Two canoes, neither knowing which side to pass us on were avoided. Then a rib with two chaps fishing from it coming under a bridge. Had they clocked us? They were moving, both with lines in the river. One chap seemed to be steering, occasionally as they moved along at speed. Another boat passed on the wrong side. Have the rules changed? Has nobody informed us that the rules have changed?

Then a cruiser came round the next bend. They were facing towards us, straight at us! Their course was corrected slightly, then their bow faced us again, which way would they go, we only had a small distance further to starboard that we could move. In the end, in the nick of time they moved over and we finally passed someone on the right.

**Essential lock equipment for the Nene**

Lower Barnwell Lock was empty, a lady just walking over the bridge to the control panel. The guillotine gate started to lower. I bipped the horn. I beeped the horn. We were just about there! I BEEEEPED the horn! At last she spotted us and raised the gate again, very apologetic she was.

The narrow entrance to the marina, only just noticeable. Plenty of room on the Cruising Club moorings, but today we breathed in and turned into the marina, wide open water. We’d been told to head to the services, these weren’t at first obvious, but there was a bit of a give away, NB Cleddau with Ken and Sue chatting to the lady. Cleddau had almost got to Irthlingborough Lock when they heard it was broken about ten days ago. They’d returned down stream to the marina to await the lock reopening.

We pulled in on the same pontoon, settled in, a very friendly welcome from all. A quick health and safety check revealed a fence with Tilly sized gaps under it right alongside an intermittently busy road. Sadly this means that for the next couple of days I’ll have to cope with a bored cat.

Mick had a lift from Ken and Sue into town to do a small food shop whilst I got my model box out. It was time to work my way through the show and make notes. As expected I ended up with two sides of A4! Several scenes just need a touch of a tweak, others need a bit more, but Christmas at the Tower of London looks great, even though I say so myself. The biggest job still to do is the front cloth which due to it’s nature will happen over several days.

At 6pm my model was packed away, time for Pimms on the terrace with Ken and Sue. Very civilised. The setting sun put a limit on the time we were prepared to sit out, Ken’s timer for his tray bake encouraged people into their boats to eat. Mick had found some sad gits sausages at the Co-op so we had sausage and mash.

4 locks, 7.39 miles, 4 boats heading down stream, 1 trolling rib, 8 Kingfishers, 1 marina mooring, 7 trips, 1 load of washing, 1 bored cat, 2 x A4, 1 butterfly net, 1 pair snow shoes, 4 large Pimms, 6 bog standard sausages, 1 supermarket order started.

Getting Festive. 25th August

Wansford Station EA mooring

A wet itchy morning. Yesterday we knew that today would be wet. Yesterday we’d decided to set off early today to catch up to where we should be. Yesterday we realised we needed to fill with water. Yesterday we didn’t set an alarm clock. This morning we slept in, our brains forgetting the early start. Our brains registering the rain falling on the roof. Our brains doing nothing about anything.

As we had our morning cuppa with breakfast we decided that maybe we should stay put instead of getting soaked for four hours boating. Topping up on water could wait, Tilly was likely to be the only one to complain.

I worked all day. The trains rumbled across the bridge six times, the same class 14 engine pulling the carriages as yesterday. They also did a bit of shunting around of guards vans and another engine headed off on it’s own.

The narrowboat that pulled in behind us yesterday pulled away once the rain had stopped at around 2pm. Later on in the day it was replaced by a cruiser with three chaps on board who’d been to Peterborough for the beer festival. They hadn’t stayed as their boat is very shallow and was in danger of being over the top of submerged edging, which if the level dropped wouldn’t be good!

Mick spent much of the day plugged in to his head phones listening to the days cricket. The kitchen got a good clean and sort out whilst I painted Christmas at the Tower of London.

This evening I’ve had a good catch up chat with David, he’s in a better place both mentally and physically than he’s been of late. More doors have opened for him so he can now access more support.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 very wet morning, 0 shore leave for Tilly or me, 1 empty box of white card model bits, 1 full box of painted model bits, 2 much brown though! 1 tidy clean kitchen, 1 empty yellow water tank, 1 alarm clock set for the morning.

Don’t Get Caught On The….. Oh! 21st August

Peterborough Embankment to Ferry Meadows

Last night the bottom step along the moorings had just about become dry, this morning it was back under water. The boat behind us pushed off doing his best not to get wet feet or leave them behind as he stepped onto his boat, quite a gap to keep your feet dry.

As we pootled up to the water point another boat was heading down stream, NB Still-Waters. They had been heading up stream and got quite a distance when the news broke that Irthlingborough Lock was out of action, so with not many shops up stream they decided to head back to Peterborough whilst the lock is mended. We’re hoping to have enough supplies on board to just gradually make our way upstream and not have to hang around for too long anywhere. NB Cleddau are also awaiting the lock to open.

Pat or is it Pam (?) kindly helped with ropes at the water point as she’d managed to dig her wellies out, mine are somewhere deep in a stern locker. Tanks emptied and filled, rubbish disposed of and we were on our way. Our paths are likely to cross again in the next week or so as we both head up stream back to C&RT waters.

We pootled our way along in the sunshine, past boats we had met so many weeks ago, past the towpath that is hanging on for dear life before it falls into the river. We passed the entrance to the mooring where Tilly couldn’t get back to the boat one weekend due to so many people wanting to be by the water. I wonder how busy it go there during the really hot weather!

As we approached Orton Lock we could see that there was a cruiser in the lock ready to come down. In the shadows we could also see a narrowboat, but what was the chap doing right on the bow? Mick dropped me off and I walked up ready to work the lock.

Was there some sort of problem? A chap was walking over to the far side with a windlass in hand. Had the vee gates not closed properly? Were the sluices/slackers/paddles down properly? I asked the lady by the control panel, she pointed to the bow of the narrowboat, their bow hooked over the top of the guillotine gate. The chap who had been sat there was doing his best to push the boat backwards, but 15 tonnes or so of narrowboat can be stubborn to move!

The paddle on the far side was lifted until the narrowboat floated off the gate again. Then there seemed to be a lot of ropes used to help keep the boat away from the gate. Someone had obviously taken their eye off the ball and let the boat drift over the top of the gate, but thankfully it had been spotted quickly enough to rectify the situation.

They all headed out of the lock and sped off hoping to find space at The Boathouse. Mick brought Oleanna into the lock. I made sure she was well clear before closing the guillotine behind.

Our first uphill lock on the River Nene. I lifted the near side paddle, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything, later inspection revealed there was nothing attached to it! The off side paddle was raised and Oleanna rose up. Normally on leaving a River Nene lock you should lift the bottom guillotine gate, emptying the lock. But recently due to the low water levels you are required to leave the bottom gate closed. I really hope they don’t rescind the notice until we’re of the Nene as it takes forever to empty an empty lock.

Not quite a mile on we turned left off the main river and headed in to Ferry Meadows where a large lake sits in a popular park. Here there are two pontoons, plenty of space, we joined NB Per Angusta, shortly followed by a cruiser.

Normally we are reluctant to let Tilly out on pontoons. Those that sit parallel to the bank with a gap have to possibility of pounce calculations not being correct and Tilly ending up brushing up on her swimming skills, so these are avoided. But here the pontoon was wide, just some duck weed to be wary of.

Mick got the boat hook out and moved the weed around, ‘See it’s not grass!’. Don’t be daft I know it’s not grass, grass is yellow! I’m more concerned about this holey outside! My paws aren’t big enough!

Eventually Tilly plucked up the courage to try walking across the pontoon. Land her aim, blimey it took forever! Each paw being carefully positioned. If a dog came for her would she be able to run away? We positioned our plank to give her something solid to walk on. However much of the rest of the day she spent snoozing inside her escape pod.

Back to work for me. New sketch drawings for the troublesome scene were drawn up and emailed off for pricing. The scenery still needs some work, but getting a costing is also important. Then I started to work on a cloth. My pencil drawing needed some adjusting and additions, mostly jars of exotic animal poo! A dinosaur skull and a pith helmet. Then it was inked in and the first washes added.

Mick had a walk to look at the trains at the Nene Valley Railway, no steam engine today, too greater risk of fire so a diesel hauled the carriages. The park was very busy, boat trips, plenty of picnics and bbqs. More boats arrived and turned round as there was no space, if they’d delayed their arrival till mid afternoon those who’d come for the day pushed off.

A roast chicken was enjoyed this evening, the remainders will keep us going for quite a few days. Tomorrow we hope to find a much better outside for Tilly.

1 lock, 3.3 miles, 2 winds, 1 full water tank, 1 empty yellow water tank, 1 helping hand, 1 caught bow, 1 space on the outside, 6 hours of shore leave, 1 hour taken, 1 cloth started, 2kg of chicken, 16 roast potatoes.

https://goo.gl/maps/uNwuiE4FjhQz7Svj8

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna