A lovely gift

Late yesterday afternoon there was a knock on the outside of the boat and it was Nigel who had brought gifts for me - a bottle of chardonnay (how did he know?), and a lovely bouquet of flowers from him and Liz.

Thank you both so much - the flowers are just beautiful! The chardonnay is carefully stored in the locker - but not for long, I am sure! Both gifts are much appreciated!

Roses, gerberas, chrysanthemums (white and green), carnations, and cornflowers. Aren't they beautiful?

They sit on the table when we are stationary, and I place the vase in the sink when travelling so they do not tip over.

When I did yesterday's post, I included Lyndon's photos from his facebook page, but didn't put in any of my own. So here they are:

Only one bottle required a corkscrew and it took two goes to get it out - in 2 pieces ... To be fair, my corkscrew is an attachment on the pocket knife, so it's not the most effective appliance!

The piss off mints brought on an epidemic of peeing outside the boat - strange how these epidemics only attack chaps, innit then?

I needed to look away from the peeing - it was a la la la moment for the eyes, so I thought the cooling towers would be a distraction ... That's Derby Boat Club moorings on the offside - the boats are not very long so they don't intrude into the channel.

I did manage to stay up a bit longer after the team left and take this photo of dusk across the cut to the marina (big boats: narrowboats and a smattering of widebeams and larger yoghurt pots)

We'd had brunch at the Marina Cafe at noon, then cheese scones at the Lockies in the afternoon, chippies (crisps to those people of English extraction) and piss off chocolate mints onboard Waka Huia; so dinner was not required. However David decreed that dessert was obligatory, so he heated the leftover custard, shared out the leftover ginger cake and the leftover blueberries, and brought mine to me in bed. See Julia - the supplies are going down!

Yesterday was an extremely blobby day - David didn't get up until the afternoon, and I was out of bed, sitting at the dining table still in my dressing gown. However I did make pikelets for lunch, and I baked bread. David got up when I said I thought it was time we went across for a pumpout as we wanted to head away by 8am today.

I said I wouldn't take down the pram cover as it wasn't windy. Bad mistake!! Note to self: Never travel with the sides up on the pram cover - it totally restricts access to the middle ropes, as well as making traversing the gunwales very dodgy while moving as there are no secure handholds.

We reversed back to the pumpout jetty, and that did work well, apart from the scary bits when I had to get the pram cover sides off while in motion to be able to reach the ropes. Good thing there were no other boats moving at the same time!

Then it was forwards, heading back over to the towpath to fill with water, and then pulling forward to the place we'd been moored since Friday. It is the 48 hour moorings, but there was no contention for space so I didn't feel guilty about overstaying. If stacks of people had come along wanting to moor, I would have moved down the locks - honest, I would!

And the moonlit shot across the cut to the marina later last night - taken by me just before I went to bed - when it was DARK!!

Still life on the water - taken this morning before we left at 8am

This morning, it was down the lock with Kevin and Pam on nb Stamford, out on to the Trent, a right turn on to the Soar, three locks done and now we are moored at Zouch. There is an A road nearby but it is pretty quiet.

Heading down the Trent - a beautiful morning!

We walked across the fields to Sutton Donington this arvo to go to the convenience store - we were out of butter and milk was running low. David did sneak chocolate digestives in to the basket and I managed to secrete a Mars bar and a couple of choccy treats in as well ...

Marinated pork strips are in the oven, coleslaw is made, rice will go on soon. I'd like a chardonnay, but I won't have one - I do need more than one day off the alcohol ...