Earplugs at the ready

I took this photo before we left our mooring just up from Gayton Junction. Most of what is covering the surface of the water is a mix of petals off the hawthorne and some fluffy seedheads. I say some, but it's enormous amounts of it! I would think some light birds could have walked across that surface!

The trip down the Northampton Arm on Friday was pretty good - I had expected it to be noisy as there are roads very close. So I had my earplugs and earbuds with me up on the stern, in case I felt assailed by noise - as I had coming down the Buckby Flight a few days earlier.

This time however, even though the road was close, it didn't seem to intrude very much.

David is about to head off to start the next lock.

Nice countryside around here. I think that is a heat haze in the distance. Most of the locks in the flight have a little timber-bordered garden plot.

We instigated the practice on this flight, that once in the lock, I would close the gate behind me and then go forward and open a paddle, then get back on the boat. That works fine. What DOES NOT work is my opening both paddles - the result was that the boat had sunk too far down for me to jump on to the stern, so I had to climb down the ladder. And then I had to edge along the gunnel until I reached the stern. This mess is what I collected on my bum as I brushed against the lock wall ... End of two paddle experiment!

That is a big road we went under - might have been the M1, I think, from looking at the map.

An intelligent bird, the crow.

Getting out of the lock on to the River Nene proved to be a bit problematic as there was a log which got jammed between the boat and the open gate. Boat hook called in to play and after a bit of reverse thrust on the engine and pushing on the log with the boat hook, we were off again.

On the river now, and this is Cotton End bridge I think.

We had a couple of nights in Northampton Marina, and had Dave and Jan over from Titchmarsh for dinner

• BBC Good Food ginger chicken with veg, 
• a dhal recipe made with the lentils David bought a while back in Daventry, thinking they were split peas, 
• meatball madras with the left over contents of the pottle from the Braunston butcher and mince from there too
• rice
• naan bread also from David's Waitrose trip in Daventry

All was yummy, there was no dessert, and plenty of leftovers - in fact David has just finished having some of all the dishes for the third night in a row.

As we haven't been near a supermarket since David's Daventry trip over a week ago, the curries were all made with what was available on board, and a supermarket visit was called for on the Saturday. Because we were both tired after the trip down and an excellent catch-up with Dave and Jan, we slept in. So there was no time for Northampton sightseeing, but we did walk to B&Q and then back to Morrison's.  Quite a good supermarket, but they appeared to have almost run out of most salad veg, and I found the very last cucumber in the shop! And I noticed no staff were re-stocking the fruit and veg section.

We managed to fill 2 granny trolleys to the max, and David's backpack, and he still had to carry the 12 pack of toilet rolls under one arm ... The man has style, I tell you!

An early night, prior to which I refused to play 5 Crowns - David asked if I would when I said I was tired ... At that point, the game score was 2 games to me, 0 to David.

Today we came back up the Arm - it felt like it was slow going, up the locks as the water levels in the pounds were quite low, but we came out of the 17th lock 3.5 hours after we started off from the marina. 

I didn't notice these figures on the way down. I was onboard so am not sure if they are made of wicker or wire. Very cool though.

David was pretty tired after cycling/walking at least twice the distance of the lock flight, as he had gone ahead and set the next lock and then had to return to close up. I was opening the top gates and letting paddles down, but as the pounds were low, moving to the side to go back and close the gates would have risked getting grounded.

We had been going to go to Gayton Junction for water, but decided to call a halt just outside Gayton Marina.

We had been reluctant to moor here because the road is just through a long copse of trees. However I gather we are either below the road or it's below us, and down in the boat, the traffic is a hiss rather than a roar. And we cannot hear the trains from here.

We have had two games of 5 Crowns this afternoon, while David drank 3 G&Ts. Score now is 4 games to me, 0 to David. Just so you know I am fair, I did drink a couple of chardonnays to ensure the mind-altering effects were shared!

Bedtime - it's 9.10pm, and I am late!!!