Filling in the time gardening

16th & 17th March

We continue to have a pretty busy life, considering that we are not boating about as we would normally be by now. Yesterday, we got up early and, after I had adjusted the Ocado order, we took some recycling to the tip and walked on to the paper shop via the new route over the fields.

When we got back and after a cup of coffee, we moved Sanity down to the hire boat mooring ready to get a pump out and diesel later in the day.

It was a pleasantly sunny day, so we did some more scrub clearing around the yard until it was time for a tea break. After that, we took Sanity down to the winding hole and came back to the shop mooring for the pump out and fuel. We had timed this just nicely, as Kevin shut up shop when he had dealt with us.

This meant that we could stay on the shop mooring overnight, ready for the Ocado delivery in the morning. We had what would have been a quiet night were it not for the noise made by courting Canada Geese at odd hours all night.

This morning was yet another sunny day. After I’d been for the paper, we decided to take advantage of having the port side against the towpath to give it a wash. We had no sooner organised ourselves to do this, than the Ocado delivery arrived, half an hour early.

The drivers are getting to know us; this one began carrying the boxes up to the boat straight away. When he had gone, we checked over the order and then Sheila made a start on washing the boat whilst I moved things into the fridge and freezer.

Then I joined her in the boat washing exercise, leaving the groceries to be put away later. We managed to get all this done by coffee time, so decided to make a start on some more gardening before lunch. This activity took us through to about three o’ clock, including lunch and tea breaks.

We had now been joined by Barry Cooper and he rode down to the moorings with us on Sanity after we had filled her water tank. Barry’s back is giving him some trouble, so he asked us to give him a hand to take The Shouting End down to the water point after we had finished with Sanity. This filled in the rest of the afternoon just nicely.

I haven’t mentioned various brief consultations during the day about fine details of Sanity Again’s fit out. She is starting to look very complete inside; tonight, after a meal in the pub, we are going to take a look inside her in the dark, to consider the effect of the 20 watt equivalent LED lights as against the 10 watt ones.