Apr 11, 2021 - Fickle weather

Looking up through the roof of the boat at the lovely new green shoots coming out on the tree. The fishermen were out in force today competing with the odd weather we are experiencing. One minute the sun is shining and the next it's snowing! and it's snowing again at the moment! The pubs are all getting ready to re open tomorrow as the lockdown slowly winds down and shops, etc are all allowed to start trading again. However,, they can only serve customers outside, so goodness knows what will happen with this stupid weather. I'm getting...

Apr 6, 2021 - A white Christmas!!!

We have some lovely varieties of daffodil just outside the boat. Brighten up the day. We've had a couple of lovely sunny, even warm days ( over 20 deg) over the weekend, sitting out the back sunning ourselves for the afternoon on Sunday. The blossom and Magnolias are also blooming and making the gardens and hedgerows look lovely. Then yesterday and today we have had Arctic wind and snow flurries on and off!!! So apparently to declare a White Christmas one snow flake has to fall and sit on the ground for more than 30 seconds - so I declare...

Apr 1, 2021 - Happy Easter

A few nice days for walking - the blossom is starting to come out along with all the spring flowers. The grey wagtails were very busy hopping around the lock. This is the view from our windows looking across to the swan nest. Hopefully we will still be here when the eggs hatch. This is the first lot of babies to appear this season. Hope you all have a happy and safe Easter weekend....

Mar 21, 2021 - What a farce!!!

The mystery object is a Horse Fly catcher. Today is Census day in England Northern Ireland and Wales (Scotland decided not to participate!) It's the biggest schmozzle you've ever come across. They decided to go online for the first time - so, of course, the lines went down several hundred times!! To be able to fill it in online you first have to ring the hotline to get your own secure code. Tony spent nearly an hour on the phone on Friday, firstly waiting to be answered and then 3 or 4 times for the lady to go off and speak to someone else...

Mar 19, 2021 - Mystery object

This swan was very friendly and waddled up to me as we were talking to someone at the lock the other day. It must have thought I had something for it to eat. They have become used to seeing me at the kitchen sink and come knocking on the boat at the window waiting for me to throw out some bread. Any suggestions as to what this object is??? My guess was a shower for horses, seeing as we were walking on a track that went through an equestrian farm. However I was wrong!!!!!! It's to hold these things- now can you guess what they are? We were...

Mar 12, 2021 - The right tools for the right job!!

The water pump for the generator needed a new impeller, so it was taken apart only to find that the woodruff key had worn and was slopping around. Trying to find a new key has been a nightmare - we walked around Newbury the other day going to all sorts of places that Tony thought would sell them (he'd rung one place and they said they had them but when we got there they didn't have the correct size!) So the next best thing, of course, is to make one out of a 10mm open ended spanner!!! Tony spent a couple of hours on Wednesday afternoon...

Mar 5, 2021 - Typical Spring

After 3 days of lovely sunshine we have had 2 days of rain and 2 misty days. It's mating time and the ducks are going crazy chasing each other all over the canal, it's quite noisy at times. These lovely wild primroses were growing in the hedgerows along the road we took the other day. We walked up to the Newt Ponds to see if we could spot any newts. Still a bit early I suspect, so we'll wait another couple of weeks and hope they're on the move then. We learnt something else from the railways when we went shopping this week - we pay...

Feb 28, 2021 - Beautiful sunshine

The last 3 days have been magnificent - beautiful sunshiny days, just a bit cool if there's a breeze. We've been able to sit out the back again and enjoy fresh air and soak up the vitamin D. WE had our first Covid Vaccinations on Friday - all went very smoothly, they have a very good system running. It's set up underneath the grandstand at the Newbury Racecourse, so in one side and out the other side. Didn't feel the needle at all and we just had a sore spot where the needle went in, which has now subsided. We now have to wait around until...

Feb 22, 2021 - Milder weather

We walked along the path through the Avebury Estate yesterday. The sheep have had a great feast in this turnip field. The days are not so cold at the moment but the tow path is still very sloppy and hard to manouver. We have had a fair bit of rain so the river is up and breaking it's banks. This lovely mass of snowdrops is like a blanket under the trees.

Feb 20, 2021 - The Vaccination Saga

There are some lovely spring flowers appearing along our walking tracks now. The weather is slowly improving although we have had quite a lot of rain over the last few days. Our "refo pack" from Australia has arrived and we are enjoying some treats (tim tams and things we can't get here) After some messing around we have now got appointments to have our 1st Covid-19 vaccination jabs next Friday. It's been a bit of a saga but we appear to have it organised. I'll try to explain the system here without getting too confusing!!!! (probably...

Feb 11, 2021 - Baby it's cold outside!!!

On Monday it was very misty and the cobwebs were very visible. The towpath was also very,very sloppy, it was hard work getting to the next bridge. We've had a few days of light flurries of snow and overnight frost. The overnight temperatures have been well below 0. The canal was covered in a film of light ice this morning. This poor lady lorry driver had to negotiate the parked cars as she turned the corner - the van behind her was so close she had no room to reverse. Tony guided her through the parked cars which made it a bit easier for...

Feb 5, 2021 - Will we make it????

It rained on and off all morning, then suddenly the sun appeared and there was lovely blue sky, so we decided to leg it. Would we make it back without getting drowned? The answer is yes we did, and although it threatened a couple of times it clouded over and then blew over. So we had a lovely walk mostly in sunshine. We didn't have many other walkers to contend with which made it even more enjoyable.