Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

What a difference a week makes. The rivers are up but the taps are dry!

We left Billing last Tuesday and it was sad to see that the Coots had lost their battle - the nest had come to bits and the eggs were lost. I know it's early enough to have more, but if you'd seen how hard they worked to try and save it..

 We moored on planks by Earls Barton Lock and hunkered down in the relentless rain (yeah, I know we need it) for a day followed by a very lively evening of rope and lock adjustment to try and keep the boats on an even keel in rising and falling river levels - we also had to call out RCR as our engine didn't want to start - they turned up really quickly and fixed it in no time. This is Hardwater Mill at Doddington Lock

 Altogether way too lively - we'd hoped to moor at Great Doddington but low banks and rising water levels made that an unsafe option, forcing us to moor opposite the noisy factory in Wellingborough. We shopped at Tescos but (as warned by Sue on NB No Problem) there was no water.

 We moved on towards Irthlingborough with some trepidation about the dreaded bridge but the water levels had dropped and it was completely benign. Joe safely through

and MR approaching. We moored at Irthlingborough by the football stadium - again all services boarded over, pumpout locked and no water to the tap. What are we getting for our licence fee? The town is a bit of a hike with 2 pubs serving cold beer, 5 indian take aways and 5 chinese. We are told Higham Ferrers is nice (other side of the river), but we moved on.

Leaving Lesley to crew the two boats I drove the car into Thrapston and had a lovely walk back along the old disused railway line to rejoin the boats at Woodford Lock

Except the boats were still several miles away and in a queue for locks - rather than stand for a n hour or so getting cold with the dogs, I ignored the wriggly river path and took the short cut to Denford Lock

Where I found a very warm welcome (for me and the dogs) a log fire and a pint of Wherry at The Cock Inn

A very pretty village

and the others decided that they would stop and join me for Sunday lunch

Daisy thought that breasting up next to a tug deck with logs on was really good fun

and did her best to repel boarders!

until we all went out to play

Lovely place, great pub, with excellent food and well kept choice of Ales. Brilliant dog walking. We want to stay awhile but our water tanks are getting very low - however we still don't have enough headroom to clear the footbridge below Islip Lock.

Stand still and get washed

Three nights in a marina with shore power and water is a very unusual occurrence - anything not bolted down and small enough to fit in has been washed (oops, sorry Daisy). Curtains, dog beds, towels (Graham didn't fit). It hasn't, however, been the most peaceful of places for us as Muttley ate something disgusting and had a poorly tummy. Not so easy to get the dogs off the boat in this situation as we are moored across the ends of short, floating (bouncy) pontoons which the dogs don't like jumping onto. Then out onto the main corridor pontoon and through the security gate, remembering to take your key card or you won't get back in. One more length of pontoon and then you reach terra firma. All of this with a desperate dog and you wearing not a lot! I'm not sure how many trips we made but it felt like it was going on all night.

I thought these were luxury pig stys but it seems that they are 'camping pods'. Amazing

 This place is vast - hundreds upon hundreds of pitches for tents and vans

 The view of the Marina from the far side

 You can just see NB Yarwood along the end pontoon on the left

 The visitor to our side hatch this morning made a nice change

We're on our way tomorrow when Lesley returns - with everything clean and our batteries fully charged

Off to the Theatre

to see our Grand daughter Chenelle in her theatre schools performance at the Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton - rotten photo but, of course, she was a superstar

That's our girl; 5 to the right of 'Maria'

By a strange co-incidence, when I was last at my mum's she asked me to get a box of photos down from the top of her wardrobe and a few took my fancy enough to take a photo of the photos, including this one of me at my (don't laugh) ballet school annual performance

Yes, that's me - the grasshopper on the left - or stage right if you prefer; you see I still have the jargon!

See how my knickers are showing (nothing changes!) out of the bottom of my costume - how I hated that costume, all I ever wanted was to be a daffodil. Lonely petunias and onion patches come to mind.