Braunston (surprise visitors & winter cruising nearly here)



On Friday morning, Lesley (a work colleague from those pre-retirement days) got in touch as she and her husband, Mike, were in the area.  They came over for the morning and we had a good old natter and catch up.  They brought us a pumpkin which Karen will make into pumpkin and chilli soup over the weekend and display the carcase on the roof.  Fortuitous really as this is the first year we haven’t made pumpkin faces for the  roof at Halloween.

I have mentioned Mike and Lesley before as they are our lucky friends who have bought a plot of land in the middle of Cropredy, complete with canal side mooring.  Not only are they designing a new house they are also designing the layout for a new narrowboat they are going to have built.  They were pleased to see that our boat was of the same layout that they think they want so picked up lots of useful measurements and information.

After Mike and Lesley left we had the boring job of trekking to Redditch to put more stuff into storage and also retrieve a few items we will need whilst winter cruising.

Buddy, as usual, not sure what to make of our bricks and mortar house which now seems to be in a big box

After Redditch we drove to Kiln Farm marina near Rugby to visit a seamstress.  We need to get our dinette seating covered so we can then decide on the colours for the curtains in the saloon – our last major inside job.  We managed to choose the material but Sarah can’t get them ready for a few weeks as she is going away for a while.

On Saturday we were land lubbers for the day again and helped our daughter, Catherine, move from Nottingham to Loughborough.  When we moved Catherine into Nottingham it only took one car journey.  She has now amassed more stuff so we ended up having to make two trips – at least Buddy got a train ride as he and Karen made the journey from Nottingham to Loughborough by train.

Full to the gunwales!

She is now living very near the old railway line where engines are in steam most weekends.  It always makes my spine tingle when I hear a steam locomotive passing and we were fortunate that one went off on a journey whilst we were unloading the car.

Catherine and Karen outside Cat’s new home

Poor old Buddy has had a couple of boring days so we must make sure he gets plenty of walks on Sunday.  We will probably move on on Sunday and find somewhere quiet like Flecknoe where we can be on our own for a few days.  We are surprised how long we have stayed in Braunston as being in a long line of boats is not really our thing.

Moored in a line at Braunston although some boats have already left this morning

Now that half term is over the canals will be less busy.  This is also the time of year when the main maintenance work is carried out and sections of canals are closed for a few months at a time.  This also reduces the traffic but does make it interesting picking and working out winter cruising routes around the stoppages.

Buddy telling me that he really wants to go on a longer walk and not towards the car again


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