Market Day.. then back to the sunshine at Ashton Lock

Moored Ashton Lock, River Nene

An extremely laid back day today.. some bookwork early on before going over to Oundle Town with Vic and the girls to the market.  It was a sort of training morning for the now 11 month old Meg.  She has never been to a busy town before and she was very quiet as we weaved between the market stalls.

One item did take her by surprise and she was intrigued by it.. a small rocking horse made of a fury fabric!

Coffee out at one of the street cafes, and they had a welcomed bowl of water for the girls too, then it was back to No Problem for a salad lunch in the sunshine beside the boat.

Nothing to do except enjoy sitting out reading before preparing the evening bbq..

Not all for us by the way.. Chas and Ann of Moore2Life, our summer travelling companions, are sharing our bbq as they don’t have one right now.. ha you can see my one is well bent and battered!  But it works!

I know I know, I said last night that I would probably get some steak.. well I weighed myself this morning and I have put on a couple of pounds.. , so it was chicken tonight with salad.. gotta get those two pounds off before I will allow myself a steak!

Over the meadows and round to Ashton tonight with the girls, and here is the resident peacock on the wall…

His lady friend was calling from across the village, and until she comes into the church yard he is not going to bother to display that lovely tail of his me thinks!

Stuart Sampson of NABO has urgently asked boaters to answer a couple of questions..

Hello all

I am due to contribute to the BWAF Licensing group on Monday and I ask you and as many other boaters as possible to visit:-

http://www.nabo.org.uk/fee2.html  -  and answer just two questions.

I will say little more at this stage apart from emphasising the urgency and importance. I do not want to sway your opinions in any way but you are welcome to email me direct with any further comments.

I apologise if you have been asked these questions by others or that you feel you have already answered them in our last fee survey. However circumstances or views may have changed and these questions are differently phrased (not by me I hasten to add).

Please follow the link and respond, it might affect you all, and pass the link on to other boaters.

All the best to you


Stuart Sampson
NABO Chairman
0113 2842048

There are just two questions with ‘yes’ ‘no’ type answers….. won’t take a sec to do..

I think I might take a picnic out tomorrow and wander across the countryside for a few hours if I can tear myself away from doing nothing in this glorious weather!

Reflective moods on the river at Ashton Lock

Moored Ashton Lock, River Nene

It’s a nice mooring here beside Ashton Lock…

Here the last of the day’s sun peeking through.. But this morning I went off to Kettering on the bus from Oundle.  Annie of NB Moore2Life had to go ‘dan saff’ today, and I thought I would see her off at the station and have a look around a place I have never been to.

I got back about 2 ish after having got some sausages from the excellent butchers in Oundle after I got off the bus.. bbq tonight for sure. 

I got two each of all the sausages they did, and they were yummy.. all different flavours.  The poor old bbq has had it really, it got knocked sometime ago and it’s all bent up, but just about usable until I can get close enough to Wilcos where I can get another one.

Walked the girls this evening over to Ashton.  Walking alongside the millstream gave me an opportunity for a couple of real reflection pictures, and are just typical of this river..

It’s hard to see where the water starts it’s reflection, and here a couple of ducks chilling out..

Quite a surprise while walking one of the footpaths in Ashton, some wild mushrooms.. big ones too.  They are going to taste scrumptious tomorrow when bbq’d.. ummm I might spoil us and nip into Oundle to get a bit of steak to go with them!

Well, well, well.. What a wonderful weekend at Wadenhoe

Today Wadenhoe to Aston, River Nene, 6 miles 4 locks
Weekend Moored Wadenhoe

All the ‘W’s then!  I should add to that ‘Weather’ too, because that is what really made our stay there so special..

We weren’t the only ones totally laid back.. this dog was really enjoying himself, this is the view across the river from our mooring of the weekend.  Out came the bbq, table and chairs and on went the short sleeved shirts and suntan cream..

The local pub had a beer festival on too, there were loads of barrels set up in one of the bars, and at just £2 a pint I couldn’t resist!…

There were the same amount of barrels on the right hand wall too.. but I couldn’t take a pic of them all.  The cider in the foreground is actually scrumpy!

So I had a great birthday, and thankyou all for your good wishes too.  Mark and Sharlene, thankyou for that lovely card, I really enjoyed it.. One family card that I got made me smile…

Grandma you’ve got ages yet
Until you’re over the hill
A funky movin’ glam ‘n’ groovin’
grandma who’s just brill!

Thanks Jessica!! Yep, that’s me alright!!

We left Wadenhoe today after filling up with water and collecting a Tesco home deliver order.. getting water was very difficult as there is a boat which is moored permanently at the water point.  I met the guy in the pub a couple of days ago and asked him why he is moored there right on the water point.  “That is where the landowner has told me to moor my boat.. don’t worry, just come upside me and reach across”

Much easier said than done as No Problem was about 12ft longer, I had to moor stern to stern you see because there was a tupperware tart cart gp cruiser moored behind him.  Getting the hose out and across was hazardous… anyway managed it but only just.. goodbye Wadenhoe for now and THAT boat..

Meg enjoying the views on the way to Lilford Lock..

She does love to travel on the edge of the stern deck.. she will fall off one day you know!.. Lilford Lock then.. oh and here is what you have to watch out for and what do do.  I don’t think I have shown you this before…

Lots of warnings about everything, plus some very up to date information underneath.. this is the operations box etc…

All push button.. very easy.  For me on the tiller, just need to put the rope round the bollard to stop No Problem going forward when the water disappears underneath the gilly.  Perfectly easy now the water has gone back down to summer levels..  Now in the Lilford Estate area, a lovely bridge just after the lock..

Lilford House itself.. A jacobean mansion built around 1635 of Ketton stone..

Look at all those chimneys!! The on the other bank is the small hamlet of Pilton..

Wasn’t long ‘till we were at Oundle.. difficult to get into the marina, and I missed first time and got No Problem stuck broadside across the Nene.  Poled off and had another crack at it, this time getting it smack on.. we put diesel on although probably didn’t really need it and got some bits and bobs from the chandlers there. 

Poled… I think I got the right spelling.. the online dictionary says…

Noun
1. a long slender rounded piece of wood, metal, or other material
2. up the pole Brit, Austral & NZ informal
a. slightly mad
b. in a predicament [Latin palus a stake]

For sure 2b would be exactly right!!

Getting away from the marina was difficult too with the wind determined to hold me into the quay, but with some brutal persuasion managed to reverse No Problem into the ‘pool’ of the marina, spin round and exit through the very tight gap back out onto the Nene..

From there a fairly short hop to our mooring this evening, a beautiful day’s cruise.. just exceptional this river is.. red kite, deer, goslings, ducklings, nesting swans, grebe, snipe, muntjac… the pick of the day..

It was nice to be greeted by Julia of NB Bumble ‘B’ when we put the pins in here at Aston.. an avid reader of the blog she tells me.. a guided tour of No Problem followed and she agreed with me that the throws over the chairs make all the difference!.. Nice to meet you Julia, and glad you agree!

This evening after dinner a wander for the girls Lucy and Meg over to the village of Aston.. Outside the church door was this rather different errrrrrrrr …… art form?

Well it caught my eye!

Wadenhoe

Moored Wadenhoe, River Nene

A lovely day today, I went walking, of course, to a lovely village fairly close to Wadenhoe called Aldwinckle, and well worth the walk, pics to follow of that.

This evening I have been updating the picture albums.. April for sure is packed with pics, some 122 of them in fact!

There are pictures of snow, pictures of shirt sleeves and pictures of flood waters.. all in one month.. amazing stuff.

Already there are some 17 pics in the May album and it’s only 3 days old.   There is just so much to take a pic of, I am in my element here on the Nene, ‘tis the most beautiful river showing me the most beautiful places…

This is Wadenhoe

‘Tis my birthday tomorrow and Annie, my close friend, is going to prepare a meal for us all on Moore2Life.. The grandchildren have sent cakes for me too!  But I gotta wait another year though, for my bus pass!

Vic is very constructive at Wadenhoe

Moored Wadenhoe, River Nene

The scouts are camping in the field above us by the church, but they are not allowed down here by the River because “It’s a bit boggy”.. The Nene Way passes about 50 yards away up the bank..so we have the area all to ourselves and are loving it!  So are Lucy and Meg, who have spent most of the day playing outside between snoozing in the warm sunshine.

Vic has been busy though.  This morning he started on making the top bunk wider…

He has curved the bunk to fit the line of the wardrobe so when coming into No Problem with the bunks up we won’t knock ourselves on an ‘edge’.. it does the job just fine. Here is the finished construction..

He has put a slight lip around the edge as we will need to put in an extra piece of foam to fill the gap for now.  I could go for a larger piece of foam to fit the whole thing I suppose but it seems such a waste… I want to see if an added bit will work first.  We have also put the ladder at the end close to the wardrobe instead of in the middle where it used to be.  This will give more space for sleeping as the ‘handles’ of the ladder bend inwards if you see what I mean.

Hope you like that Kiera and Jessica!

The two older grandchildren tend to sleep on the top bunk!

This afternoon I wandered into Wadenhoe village.  One of the nicest villages on the River Nene.  Most of the buildings are of stone, and the local pub has a stone floor.  The old post office still has a post box outside..

Closed now, this Post Office was the first village post office to have an electronic telegraph.  This was because in Disraeli’s government the Chancellor of the Exchequer lived in the huge Wadenhoe House.

Here is the Mill House…

During the summer months there is hardly any water coming through the water mill, today it was piling through, although the Nene has gone down by some 12 inches since yesterday afternoon when we arrived here..

We have only seen a couple of boats passing today, it will be interesting to see how much traffic there is on the Nene over the Bank Holiday weekend..

Hope you all have a good one by the way!

Bumpy ride through Titchmarsh Lock

Thrapston Sailing Club to Wadenhoe, River Nene, 3.75 miles 1 lock

A walk this morning around the Nature Reserve and Thrapston Lake took a couple of hours, before visiting the Post Office again to see if the post had arrived.. “Yep it is here” and out from the back came a huge box!!  I certainly wasn’t expecting that and had only the ruck sack with me.. sheeeeeesh I needed wheels!!

‘Tis my birthday in a few days time, you see, and all the presents and cards were in the box together with a reversing camera for No Problem..   More of that later.  Anyway, a quick phone call to Vic and he met me up the track that leads from the moorings to the town.  I managed to carry the box half way back somehow, more mind over matter than sheer strength I think.. but was never so pleased to see my husband come round the bend than when he did!

The mooring fits 3 narrowboats…it was getting too busy for me.. now there are 7 narrowboats and another trying to get in all moored on top of one another.. enough of that, so we had a quick bite to eat and extracted ourselves along with Moore2Life to go downstream to Wadenhoe.

Off came the chimney and the satellite dish as well as the barrel and buckby can.  The footbridge downstream is low, and still the river was up a bit, but we were OK underneath it, rather pleased with ourselves on our decision to remove the chimney, for sure it would have hit it.

This is Titchmarsh Farm Bridge, easily underneath this one.  If it had been the same bridge as was there in 2005 there is no way we would have got under it.. here is what it was like before it fell into the Nene.. or a boater broke it more like!! ..

Titchmarsh Lock was wicked today, so much water going over the back gates, I knew it was going to be difficult to hold No Problem against all that water while the lock emptied..

No need to open the paddles to fill this one when the guillotine is down!.. and once it is full, still there is too much water..

Here the water pouring over the front guillotine gate.  It was desperately hard to hold the boat from going forward once the guilly was raised.. Phew I sure was pleased to be away from that one..

Hiding in the undergrowth I spotted a mandarin Duck and quickly snapped a shot of it.  When I looked at it later I see there is another duck in the same pic on the top left.  I think it is sitting on a nest.  Does anyone have any idea what it is?  Could it be a female mandarin?..

We have been extremely lucky to get one of the two prime moorings by the church at Wadenhoe, Chas and Ann of NB Moore2Life have the other mooring, but they are luckier than us, they have a gardener cutting the grass outside their boat!..

Mind you, I don’t know how long he will stay.. Moore2Life’s next door neighbours have a dog called Meg sitting outside of her boat.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she is thinking of doing a bit of rounding up…

Lucy, on the other hand, seems to have spotted something else more interesting in the other direction!

River levels rise at Titchmarsh

Moored Titchmarsh, River Nene

We are between two lowish footbridges at the moment, the one upstream from us we got under easily yesterday to moor up, but this evening we would not have got under it..

In fact just one boat passed this morning going upstream, but not for long, realising that he could not get under the bridge he reversed back downstream to moor up close to us against another narrowboat.  There is quite a community here now!

The bridge in front of us I think we will be able to get under, I had a look this evening while out for a walk. But we will wait just for the water levels to drop a bit before moving off. 

We are not in any hurry, and it has been raining constantly today.  In fact this morning I spent inside No Problem, venturing out this afternoon when the rain stopped for a while.  I popped into town to get mail that had been posted from ‘dan saff’, however, it has not arrived yet.  I will return tomorrow!

I went again to Thrapston later in the early evening to visit the fish and chip shop!!!

Yep, cod and chips for my tea tonight, yummy!  I have not had fish and chips since last year, promising myself a fish supper once I had lost 2 stone.

After eating all that I thought I better take the girls out for a late evening walk around the huge sailing lake here.  On the way back an enormous cluster of cowslips..

That is the sailing club lake on the left and on the right is the river and in the distance Islip Church.

Think I might go on a long hike tomorrow if we stay here, there are some nice walks, by the look of it, west of where we are through some woodlands..

Thrapston demands correct lines and oh what a dump..

Denford to Thrapston, River Nene, 2 miles 2 locks

Ha, back to our normal speed then!

Pulled the pins fairly early this morning to beat the rain that was forecast.. our mooring of the last couple of days has been on the bank behind where you can see that narrowboat.  This gave us the whole of the meadow to ourselves.. Meg and Lucy the K9s, were in their element there…

Normally we moor by the bank in the foreground, but you can see why I like this place so much, total peace and quiet..

On through Denford lock then…

Perfect weather.. well it was then, but no sooner we had got through the lock the rain came down.  I didn’t mind really, and Lucy and Meg got themselves under the folded down back canopy to escape the worst of it.  I was pleased about that!  They get under my feet on the cruiser stern deck of No Problem.. they compete for ‘sides’ of the boat to look out to see what is going on, then I can’t get off in a hurry with ropes etc!

It was a bit hairy today through the broken bridge just before Thrapston, right on the bend with the river running, but a bit of extra throttle helped,. and on through the packet bridge at Thrapston itself it seemed ages for the 67ft to pass through, all the time the river trying to take the boat sideways into the walls of the bridge… phew, no contact!!

It rained steadily but we put the pins in at the new Environment Agency mooring at the Sailing Club.. well not exactly putting the pins in, but having to breast up with Moore2Life as there was only one space available.

This evening the rain did not abate, but the girls had not had a walk all day so it was on with the waterproofs after tea and a good stretch over the countryside.. I enjoyed very much.

Having done the decorating what do you do with the paint pots?.. Here is an idea…

Pop them in the boot of the car, oh along with the overalls that you used, and drive to a Nature Reserve, like Titchmarsh Nature Reserve and lay them out artistically for everyone to admire!

I have informed the Environment Agency, and hopefully they will clear this little lot.  I really don’t have anything else to say about it!

Dunno about tomorrow, we might cruise a bit or we might stay a bit..

Very friendly Postmistress at Ringstead

Moored Denford, River Nene

It wasn’t far across the meadows to Ringstead, so Vic joined me and we strolled over there to the Post Office to collect some mail.  A really lovely Postmistress greeted me, she even remembered me calling back in 2006, and came outside to say hello to Lucy and Vic who she also remembered..

Most of the fields around here are of oil seed rape with bright yellow flowers, but today we walked through a couple of corn fields where we saw some wild flowers, and here a cluster of bluebells..

There was a red admiral butterfly on the flowers, but by the time I had got the phone into camera mode he flew off!  But I decided to take a pic anyway!

We popped into the handy supermarket for some milk before returning to No Problem for lunch.  I opened a new loaf of bread only to find it totally mouldy!  Grrrrrrr and it is nearly a mile and half back to Ringstead, so I made Vic a sandwich with the only two slices in the old packet and made myself a tuna salad..

Anyway…… On that plate is about 60 calories.. 2 slices of bread are 120 calories plus whatever goes in them, so I was better off having the salad, and it was yummy too!

Oh yes, and if anyone is passing, the pub here in Denford has closed for now.  There is a sign outside “Pub to Let”..

Spring in my step once again at Denford..

Moored Denford, River Nene

New Year's Resolution - To Lose 2 stone by 31/7

Jan 1st - 11st 7lbs /Jan 27th - 10st 10lb
Feb 17th - 10st 3lbs/Mar 9th - 9st 13lbs
Mar 30th - 9st 12lbs/Apr 13th - 9st 8lbs
Apr 20th - 9st 8lbs/Apr 27th - 9st 6lbs

** New Year's Resolution Achieved!! **
                 

Many thanks to you all for the encouragement you have given me, I sure do feel good tonight… now where is that fish and chip shop!!

Here is our mooring at Denford, one of my most favourite stopping places on the Nene..