Still piling on the coal ...

We had more weather today. Quite a lot of it. Mostly sunshine, sleet and rain, with possibly a bit of snow thrown in. It was more cold than warm - a lot more cold than warm - but it was nice when the sun shone. Our stove hasn't been out for days; we've already used up the bag of coal we bought as an "emergency spare". Fortunately Union Canal Carriers sells Supertherm so we have another full bag in the well deck.

When I opened the curtains this morning I was surprised to see this duck on the "wrong" side.

On our way to the post office (our forwarded post had come) we invited Lisa and Dave (What a Lark) for coffee on our return. It was good to have a long chat with them.

Then we had to move off our 48hr mooring, so we watered up outside the Stop House, then paused briefly at the Elsan point before tying up outside the Boathouse.

At the water point this lovely old clinker-built boat came past, turned in the marina entrance and went back the way it had come.

By the Boathouse we waved as No Problem went by heading north.

We had seen posters advertising a boat gathering at Braunston organised by the IWA Northampton Branch and decided we'd stay for it. I contacted the relevant people, got ourselves booked in and volunteered our services. Having done that we used Braunston Turn to cause Jubilee to face the opposite direction by means of forward and reverse gears, then cruised to a reserved mooring near the marina entrance. We spoke to Jill (Gill?) and Ian (Iain?) on Drifter in front of us, and put up our BCF banner and some bunting.

On Friday we shall be helping with marquee/tents erection and possibly helping behind the bar over the weekend.

We walked up a couple of locks to find Herbie with Milly M tied alongside and Melaleuca in front, so we called in to say hello to Kath and Neil, Simon and Anne and Maffi (again). They were just about to eat, so we walked back to the Boathouse where we enjoyed a carvery.

The evening sunshine lit up a couple of scenes for my camera.

As we walked past the church a couple of locals pointed out the peregrine falcons half way up the steeple, one enjoying a meal of freshly caught bird.

The light was fading - this was the best I could do:

So we're going to be in Braunston for another few days. There are worse places to be.