OK I'm here

Once you let the blog lapse (even though there were, initially, genuine reasons)  I find it's very difficult to pick it up again. Do I try and cover the gap or just leave the time lapse in limbo and twitter on about things that tickle/d my fancy. I just started catching up on the blogs that I follow tonight and see that NB Indigo Dream have 'fostered' two more greyhounds bringing them to four - amateurs really seeing that Greygal now has 9. Whilst most some of us feel that they are perhaps a little... shall we say eccentric, I have just read that it now costs £218,000 to raise a child to the age of 21. Now that's a lot of greyhound caring money - even with Sue and Richards' vets bills !!! Which takes the most energy though - debatable I should think.

By now you will have realised that I've decided on the twittering option.

 We arrived in Milton Keynes today due to a crisis in the poo tank department, but have had very pleasant stays in Yardley Gobion and Cosgrove since leaving Stoke Bruerne. We have also acquired a car due to my need to make more frequent trips to my mum's on the East Coast - the car has presented us with the usual costs and hassles, but more of that later. Here's some pics of our minuscule journeys.

 One of the sculptures in Stoke Bruerne's woodland walk

 This sky threatened me the whole way round a three hour walk, but not one spot of rain landed 

 The boys were happy to find the cattle troughs had defrosted

 We walked many a happy mile along the gentle River Tove

 Encountering many a strange vessel - you do on the wide canals

 Meet Jeb, Muttley's new friend, who belongs to Fran and Stuart on NB The Boat (more of these later too)

 some beautiful sunsets

 and two of our many visitors to our portable cafe - I think my favourites have been the Long Tailed Tits

 These next  few are around the village of Cosgrove

 before rejoining the towpath and the crazily ornate Soloman's Bridge

I clocked a lady in a skirt wandering down the towpath carrying a stepladder!

Yep, she was re-painting the signpost; I'd never thought about how that was done