Job 1. Encourage the cat to use shore based facilities. Failed!
Not the full works, but good enough
Job 2. Eat breakfast. Yum.
Job 3. Do a colour call for panto paints. Tick
Colour charts out
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!
Useful stuff
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.
Not sure I can wait for tomorrow!
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!
Oh hang on, a blowy windy sausage day with no friendly cover! Well that’s pants!!
Good trees though
Last night when I came in for my dingding we had the triangle to ourselves. But this morning there were swans. I soon saw them off by running up a nearby tree, then another until they got the message. Now we had it all to ourselv…… Hang on where did that boat come from?!
I tried my very best at being outside, but it really was very blowy. So I had to keep coming and going, She said I hadn’t stepped off the boat so did I really deserve any Dreamies. I always deserve Dreamies!
She kept an eye on notices. Not much news on the broken lock. She said ‘Well I’d best get on with work. We may need to spend whole days moving the outside once the lock is mended’. We’ve got places to be and appointments to keep, one of them Royal, so I decided I’d best help her out.
Yep that’s all lined up right
First the box came out. I’m not allowed in there, but all looked quite good from my side. She said things ‘still need doing’ and wrote a list.
‘Hello!’ Someone had appeared in the outside! In fact two boats had come to help tie up the blustery outside. Would four boats be enough to keep it under control? The She’s chatted. She had news, ‘The broken part has now arrived in Leeds where a new part has to be manufactured. Absolutely no clue as to the timescale but it’s clearly not an imminent fix. Grrrr!’ There was more Grrring from two Toms too. She just nodded, turned round and said ‘we need to make a back-up plan.’
That one’s done, apart from the floor!
Over their mid day dingding they counted miles, lock, cruising time. Three long days one way, two if we really had to. Backwards was two long days, or there was back to Oundle outside, half a day. Friday would be D’day, this is a very different sort of day to a sausage day, just thought I should point that out in case you got confused.
The next time I ventured out there was another boat, FIVE now clinging on to trees trying to keep the outside under control. Peartree Triangle where boats appear!
Sending out the Bat signal for help
She got the drawing board out. Time to check through the drawings and make amendments. I did the checking for her whilst sitting in a nice sunny spot.
On days like this Tom and I have very few places we can sit. A cat’s life time mission is to sit in any box they come across, but here on Oleanna there are boxes that are poisonous, that have to be walked round carefully. Tom ended up going outside to make fire with the other Toms, they all stood around the fire talking Tom things, some of them were still Grrring!
Tom’s vying for top Tom fire lighter
Another boat arrived, but they decided to keep on going despite the Toms saying there was nowhere for them to moor further on. Maybe they thought five boats was enough to keep the outside under control. It wasn’t. She still checked for news. There was more news.
Another lock ahead with another mechanical failure!Grrrr!!!
Perez needs help with that fly on his cheek
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 boat to 5, 1 woofer, 2 Grring Toms, 1 sausage day with wind, 1 D-day, 10 boaters with their fingers crossed, 8 paws crossed, 4 legs crossed, 1 pump out past being needed!1 more broken lock!
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.
Is the front cloth finished?
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.
Goodbye Cleddau
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.
Clinging on in the wind
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.
Trees!!
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.
Sunset
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.
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.
Yummy
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.
Lillian’s prop
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.
Hello Yellow
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!
You can just see a bit of Oleanna
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.
Version Fifty Five Frillion!
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.
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.
Front cloth
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.
A bit more colour
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!
A view of London town
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.
Hello Alan
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!
Getting there
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.
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.
Goodbye 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.
Shopping mooring for 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.
BOAT!
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?
At last passing on the right
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.
Hello Ken!
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.
Pontoon sharing
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.
A bored bundle of 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.
The big glasses of Pimms
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.
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.
Surrounded by capsizing canoes
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!
Getting festive today
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.
Quesadillas
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.
Pudding Lane FOTRN mooring to Nene Valley Railway Bridge EA mooring
Last night I’d noticed I’d acquired a few insect bites. this morning I counted them 68. By the end of the day the count was up to 87! Mick has some too, he’s not counted his. Blimey what has been having a good munch on us? One thought is that we’d disturbed a lot of insects whilst out in the field looking for Tilly the other night. It’s a good job we’d stocked up on bite cream.
Views
Todays plan was to cruise, work our way through several locks to reach Fotheringhay, then have a few days off. This end of the River Nene does good views, no flood banks to get in the way and not too many trees hogging the banks.
At Wold Newton Lock the guillotine gate was down, the lock full, the river above really quite full, the level over the top of the gates. We reset the lock in our favour and brought Oleanna in, keeping her away from the cascade of water coming over the gates.
The mill (with extension)
This lock has to be one of the prettiest locks on the river, with it’s mill (not so original extension), church, house and various buildings all close by and lawns. A couple sat having morning coffee overlooking the weir cut, very lucky people.
Such a pretty lock
Round a big bend, dark clouds focused the sunlight over a field of cows who’d just had a visit from the Farmer. We pootled on, the A1 sticking close by. The Nene Valley Railway Bridge came into sight, followed by the pontoon, it was empty. A thought came through both our heads, maybe we should pull in and carry on tomorrow. I could have a full days work here instead of by the castle.
Moo!
We pulled in, making sure we overhung the far end of the pontoon, hopefully leaving enough space for another narrowboat. With it still being school holidays the railway was open today. A quick check of the time table suggested the first train of the day would soon be on it’s way towards Peterborough. The bell rang, followed a while later by the toot of a diesel engine, just enough time to get out onto the pontoon for a photo.
Today’s engine not as showy as when we moored here last time
I settled down to work and Mick headed off to look at trains. He’d deliberated on getting a rover ticket, he’d be able to do the round trip twice. If it had been a steam engine today then he’d most probably have done it, but with the drought only diesels are running at the moment, a Class 14 today. Instead he looked round the station, the engine shed, watched the train come back, head out, return and go back to Peterborough again.
Version ….4?
I reworked the troublesome scene and painted some funnels, added a few twinkly lights. There may be a better version yet to come, but if I run out of time this solution will be fine.
Tilly being captive here (the pontoon not the right sort) I gave her her spot on flee treatment a couple of days early, just in case the critters that have bitten us had come from her, we doubt it as she’s the only one not scratching!
1 lock, not 4, 3.02 miles, 1 full river, 1 change of plan, 3 services today, 4th version made, 1 reject funnel, 2 boaters promising to get up early tomorrow, 87 bites and counting.
A work day for me, even though we’d not moved anywhere this morning I still didn’t get set up until gone 10am. Last night’s hunt round for Tilly made us a touch nervous about leaving the doors open, but with it being so muggy we risked it. Thankfully she spent all morning asleep on our bed, didn’t even come through for her morning dingding.
Bye bye see you somewhere sometime
Across the way two boats moved off from the lock island mooring, reversing out of the weir cut and then going down the lock. A while later there were conversations, NB Still-Waters was coming up the lock, another narrowboat that had moored here last night chatted with them. Presumably he headed off ahead to get the next lock ready for them. We waved as NB Still -Waters pulled away, maybe we’ll catch them up, but more likely they’ll stay ahead of us up to Northampton.
Todays mission was to get my panto floor painted. I’d come up with what I thought was a reasonably simple cobbled floor that faded out, shouldn’t take too much painting! Well it took the morning and into the afternoon. Maybe I should have done bigger cobbles!
Bye bye, see you sometime somewhere
Part way through the day a loud ‘AHOY OLEANNA!’ came from the lock. It was Jaquie from NB Mosi-Y-Tunya. We’d last passed their boat moored up at the Fish and Duck, they’d headed off to the Commonwealth Games. Another boat who will no doubt speed on ahead of us.
Plenty to keep me busy here.
Tilly stirred from bed at lunchtime and ventured outside. Frequent visits inside were made, only a few Dreamies required today. Mick kept an eye on her, she didn’t venture far at all, hardly into the sideways trees closest to the boat, staying close to home and by 5:30 she was inside snoozing. We wondered if yesterday she’d used up this outside. But it felt more like she was nervous of wandering further afield, maybe yesterday she’d got lost for a while, it certainly made for a much quieter day.
An almost crack through the crack of a porthole
During the afternoon a group of lads arrived at the lock, a down stream boat had left the lock empty but had closed the guillotine gate. The lads managed to lift a paddle and fill the lock, there was plenty of swimming going on. I think we ended up with around ten teenagers sunning themselves and having the occasional dip.
Finished floor
An engine noise was heard from below the lock. We wondered what would happen with the swimmers. It turned out nothing much, no boat showed itself. The swimmers left to be replaced by dressed youngsters with bottles of beer. Another engine was heard from below the lock. A chap walked up to operate the guillotine gate, saying another boater had had difficulty in opening the control panel door. This chap tried as the youngsters moved away.
No problem for the EA
The cabinet wouldn’t open, no matter what the chap did it simply wouldn’t open. He headed off to see what he might be able to use to open the door, still no luck. In the end they decided to call the EA for assistance and wait below the lock. Two chaps arrived an hour later. It seems that the cabinet is particular about the key you use as it opened straight away for the EA. The chap tried his other key and bingo it worked.
Waking early sometimes gives you the opportunity to enjoy what normally only the ducks and geese get to see. Today mist rose from the lake, not a breath of wind, lovely. I headed back to bed for another hours kip.
NB Per Angusta pushed off a few minutes before us, the gap between the two boats might mean we’d get to share locks, or would be just too long for them to head up the next lock on their own. Leaving the lake we could see them hunting round for the exit, we knew we’d catch them up.
A very smart bridge
Back out onto the river again, curling round the park to it’s north side, back under Milton Ferry Bridge white and grand in the sunshine.
NB Per Angusta were just pulling into Alwalton Lock as we rounded the last bend, we slipped in alongside them. I had the control panel side, time to press buttons for ages closing the guillotine gate, these seem to take twice as long as the gates on the River Great Ouse.
Alwalton Lock
Up we rose sharing a lock, NB Per Angusta were heading onwards to moor at Wansford by the station, where as we would leave the lock and then reverse back onto the Pudding Lane FOTRN mooring, the EA mooring on the lock island already occupied.
Reversing back to moor
Tilly was given 7.5 hours of shore leave, just remember that number, I settled down to do more model panting and Mick hunted round for some tools. It was time to make a frame for the hatch to discourage feline use in both directions.
I hoped I gave clear instructions to my Telecoms trained boyfriend, measurements were taken, sawing heard from the bow. A file was dug out from the tool box to aid getting the cuts straight, maybe I should have paid the extra at the DIY shop to have the timber cut to length!
Pencil behind the ear measurements
No hammer could be found, the mallet would have to suffice to knock nails in. My model making PVA was taken outside and just before lunchtime we had a frame of the right dimensions. A quick check to see it fitted. Ah the inner doors have protruding hinges which we’d not taken into consideration, three corners of the frame fitted past them but the forth, no chance.
Timber cut
I had a lengthy phone meeting with Jo the props maker for panto, conversations regarding snakes, gorillas and just how big some boiled egg ice cream should actually be, 2ft or just 18″. Always nice to talk to Jo.
By the end of our conversation Mick had moved one of the sides of the frame in a little and it fitted round the hinges. Next came the mesh which needed trimming to size and then stapling onto the frame, all done pretty neatly. Don’t worry Frank, Mick is not a patch on you! Now we know that the side hatch is only one way, we may add some netting too to keep the mosquitos out.
The afternoon progressed with me just about finishing painting the cloth I’d started yesterday, so glad I’m not having to paint this one, we’ll be getting it printed onto fabric. There may still be bits to add, but I need to put it in the model box first.
Tilly had been back several times during the day for ‘Thank you for coming home’ Dreamies. But we’d not seen her for sometime. The 7.5 hours were up. A walk around shouting had no luck. We had some food then tried again.
Behind our mooring is a field that has been harvested, stubbly straw left standing. On the far side some 300m away the A1 zooms on past. A few crows could be seen. Was that two crows over the far side? Hard to tell in the now dimming light without a camera zoom to assist. Then the two crows moved in unison, four legs and the shape of a cat. I shouted, not able to make out a white tipped tail, it was certainly a cat. I cupped my hands around my mouth to help project my calls. No reaction, just a slow walk towards the sideways trees closer to the A1!
See ya!
A camera was needed, followed by a walk across the field to where I thought I’d seen her. The noise from the road far too loud to hear anything, so she’d not have been able to hear my calls and I certainly couldn’t hear any replies from her. I could see Mick on the far side of the field 300m away. Had she returned? No.
With phones and the big torch we walked in opposite directions around the field, calling and calling and listening for Tilly. We walked past each other and continued calling and listening. A full circuit, twice! Nothing.
Tilly’s litter tray was put on a locker lid and we tried to get on with things inside. A form needed filling in, emails replying to, but still no cat!
3.5 hours after her shore leave elapsed I heard a faint noise outside, was that her bell? Another. Was it? A face appeared at the one way door, glazed panels keeping the breeze out. Thank ******************* for that.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!!!
Just over there!
1 lock, 3.17 miles, 1 left, 1 reverse, 1 cat mesh made, 1hr 40 minutes talking props, 3 lots of dreamies, 1 AWOL cat, 2 concerned boaters, 1 mile walk round a field, 11 hours! 1 not so bothered cat who thankfully came home, eventually!
