Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Reach for your sunglasses-not due to the sun......

..........but for fear that you should be dazzled by the brilliance of my halo and the sparkle from my oven.
Whilst searching amongst the 'stuff' in the cupboard under the sink the other day, I came across a present from Lesley (NB Caxton/Yarwood) - A box of "Oven Pride". She gave it to me a year or 3 ago.

Next Saturday sees the start of our 5th year on Matilda Rose and I thought I'd give her a treat so, stand back in amazement - I didn't know we had glass in the door!

Following my triumph with the oven, we broke some ice to service the boat and then reversed back up again, just in case we're going to get stuck for awhile. That done we made good use of the car we had today and drove into Northampton to do some shopping and then visited the littleys (the pre-school grandchildren).
 Andre - now walking so fast he blurred the photo
 Mylie upstaging grandad
Tylan - the newest addition
A very nice day and no-one threw up on me so that was a bonus

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

After a great deal of faffing around

The very nice doctor in Blisworth declared me fit to drive BUT on condition I gave a (Tony Hancock equivalent) armful of blood and allowed myself to be fitted with a 48hour blood pressure monitor. The reason for the latter being that my blood pressure was ridiculously high in the surgery. There was, however, a very good reason for that in addition to what Sue, NB Indigo Dream would call 'white coat syndrome' (you know it matters so you get stressed and up it goes)
I arrived at the surgery at 10.40 for an 11.00am appointment as I new I'd have to fill in their 'temporary resident' form. This I did and the receptionist duly entered the details into their computer. All went swimmingly until we arrived at the address of my 'temporary residence'. NB Matilda Rose c/o Grand Union Canal wasn't doing it, even after I managed to whistle up a post code (meanwhile the doctor is calling me through - it's 11.05). Various authorities were called up from admin and, even when I suggested we used my daughter's address as she is fairly local, 'the system' didn't seem to want to know. By this stage the doctor had called me 3 times before giving up and carrying on with her list. Eventually someone managed to get something (I've no idea what) to accept and I was allowed to go through and wait for the doctor. Arrived 10.40; left 12.30 - high blood pressure mmmm not surprising really.
The reason for officially 'getting my licence back' after the mini stroke was that we felt that the only way we can deal with Mum's health issues on the East Coast is to buy a car temporarily. I hhadn't bothered to do anything about it previously as I'd had no need to drive.

Fed up with bureaucracy, we decided to walk across the fields to the little village of Ashton. The footpaths were lovely and mud free until we reached this dressage and livery yard. The last 2 fields before reaching the road contained their horses which had reduced the footpath to a swamp deep enough to swallow Baxter and Muttley.
 They very kindly said we could go through their property and down their drive into the village - talk about room for a pony!
 All of these buildings belonged to the site plus, of course, a menage

 Ashton church

 The pretty 'Post Cottage'

You can just make out part of the old moat that used to surround the Manor House
 Last but not least The Old Crown; closed all day on a Monday but plans to walk across for lunch later in the week if they are dog friendly

Still out of focus, but getting better - they've eaten their way through 3 fat balls and a container of peanuts in less than 48 hours - they clearly know that the bad weather is coming and we too have to make a decision in view of the forecast: up the locks before Monday's closures or stay where we are near to the services at the bottom. It's definitely turning; the wind was Easterly and evil when I walked the dogs today


Saturday, 28 January 2012

Portaloo????

Go outdoors sell these plastic buckets with a hinged toilet seat below the lid:
The advertising blurb on the label says:
  • sturdy and lightweight plastic bucket with carry handle
  • snap on toilet seat
  • suitable for use with toilet bags and/or toilet chemicals
and on the other side of the label is a picture of three intrepid hikers in the hills/mountains

I wonder how they decided which of them got to carry it...can you see it peeking out of the top of a rucksack anywhere?

Thursday, 26 January 2012

Beefur birds and Beefur bowls

Way back before Xmas when we were travelling with Beefur boat; they used to put up bird feeders as soon as they moored for the day. This was something I'd wanted to do but, due to being constantly on the move, thought it would be pointless. Sue, however, said that it only took 30 minutes or so to attract customers so we moored up and gave it a whirl and hung up two feeders with peanuts and fat balls respectively.
I spent all morning watching the blue tits, great tits and a robin and did pretty much nothing else.
Then I discovered that the world indoor bowls was being televised every afternoon this week (G and I played A LOT of bowls before we moved onto MR), so that's set the scene for Mon - Weds this week; bird watching in the morning and bowls watching in the afternoon...lazy buggers.
 I know the picture is lousy, but they just won't stand still!

So, enough of all this laziness, today we needed to move down through 5 locks to service the boat - except the pound two locks down was empty! We've started to fill it in the pics below


 Plenty of water in the pound above - in fact it's overflowing the bank by the lock
 The paddles are opened on the bottom gate to refill the pound
By the time we reached the service point we were running out of daylight, so we completed the service and moored nearby just as it started to rain. No time to put up the bird feeders and the bowls has finished for the day - it's a hard life!

Friday, 20 January 2012

Back from scaryland to MR

From this.....
 My journey consisted of 1 lift, 5 mainline stations, 2 underground trains, and a taxi (the latter was a treat replacing a walk and a bus) and that was each way! I think it is about eighteen years since I've been on the underground - amazing how quickly you learn not to make the - for me - normal eye contact
 ..............to this
the view outside my window the first morning home. The surface of the ice had started to melt and the ducks looked like they were, 'walking on water' as the radiation fog formed behind them in the warmer air.
No contest

Monday, 16 January 2012

Night night sweet Lynx

luv Muttley and Baxter xxxx you very famous houndie in your forever sofa

Sunday, 15 January 2012

The best thing about going to your Mum's....

......Is about boiled eggs and soldiers out of your old Sooty egg cup.

Then there is the unlimited (hot) water

Not to mention having to not deal with sewage