Meeting our grandson at last

Thursday 28 June

Having agreed to meet the family at noon at Campbell Park in Milton Keynes, we made an early start for once, and were on our way by 7.15. Eight o’clock saw us at the Tesco mooring in Wolverton, and by quarter to nine we were on our way again, reaching the services point at Giffard Park less than an hour later. We got to Campbell Park at eleven, an hour ahead of ourselves, but it had been good to show that we could do some decent boating when we felt like it.

What with all the hanging around we’ve done recently, it’s felt more like winter than summer boating so far. As we wended our way through the outskirts of MK, I saw a terrapin swimming along in the cut. It was quite large, somewhere between a saucer and a side plate in diameter; presumably one that had been released when it got too big for the vivarium, though I believe that there are breeding colonies in some places now.

While Sheila relieved me on the tiller, I took the opportunity to phone the EA at Peterborough as we went along. There was no problem about changing our booking for the Great Ouse crossing to the first of August. It seems the Nene is unlikely to reopen before the later part of next week at the earliest, so our prudence was commended by the helpful guy at the EA. If we can’t get past the problem at Ely Rail Bridge in time, the EA will give help and advice to people who decide to use the Hundred Foot River alternative.

After we got to MK, I found that the internet was back to normal. It seems that there had been a country wide problem with damage by vandalism to one of the main fibre backbones in Birmingham, thus severing the North of the UK from the South for many ISPs.

Graeme, Cathy and Daniel arrived at half eleven, and we had loads of time to get to know the newest member of the clan, take pictures and all the rest. They all look very healthy and happy, though Graeme and Cathy were complaining of lack of sleep already. I refrained from pointing out that they will have to wait until Daniel is a parent himself before feeling that that score is evened out! This grandparenting lark has unexpected rewards.

We made a trip into the centre of MK for some Daniel related shopping in the form of a baby gym (don’t ask) and a book of fairy stories and similar. Graeme and Cathy have agreed I can buy Daniel the complete boxed set of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series in due course, so that’s another little perk of having a third generation to the family.

They eventually went off at about four, and we quietly collapsed. I made a paella for dinner, and we had an early night.

Friday 29 June

After the exertions of yesterday, we had a bit of a lie in, and got away just before nine. Boating along was an amazing experience today. The air was moist, and just occasionally precipitating a bit, but not enough to be unpleasant. There was a lot of scent from the trees that line the canal through MK, mainly lime and honeysuckle.

We stopped at Fenny Compton briefly to buy a paper from the shop on the main street (up from the bridge and turn left), and then shared up the shallow lock with a boat that turned up just as we were setting off again. They stopped above the lock to water and we chugged on to Stoke Hammond.

Just above Stoke Hammond Lock, and before Bridge 106 that leads to the village, we found some nice looking piling to moor to for lunch, and decided to stop here overnight, since it’s quiet, and the weather was beginning to look threatening. If it still looks bad tomorrow, we may well stay an extra night. We’ve got three weeks in which to wander down to Aylesbury and back as a way of filling in the time before our new schedule needs us to be heading down the Nene, so we’re in no kind of rush.

I set out to print out a picture of Daniel to go on our picture shelf, but the printer, which has always done a good job of colour printing up till now, decided not to cooperate, inserting odd coloured bands across the photo. It looks as if buying refilled Cartridge World print cartridges was a false economy. I did various diagnostic tests, without improving the situation at all. I’ll just have to buy some proper HP carts at the next opportunity, and see if that fixes the problem. If not, we could be looking at having to acquire a new printer.

The evening turned out very nice, but there’s more rain forecast for later in the night. The only downside of the mooring was a set of Wyvern hire boats, recently set off from Leighton Buzzard, which came powering past. Good job we had put a spring on at the stern, or we’d have been chucked about on the mooring quite a bit. A peaceful night followed, punctuated by at least one, or I suspect two, yellowhammers which were singing every time either of us woke to hear it or them.