To Irthlingborough

So where did I last leave you. Ah, Monday lunch. So much has happened since then. The weather as English readers will know has been geting hotter and hotter. So much so that we elected to start cruising at half past six or seven o'clock each day instead of our more usual nine o'clock. Monday night saw us at the Kings Head at Wadenhoe, moored up against a willow tree and generally chilling out.

That night we saw a barn owl carrying its unlucky prey as it flew over us quite close.

The trip from Fotheringhay had been hard work in the heat although the river looked its best below the blue skies. I still can't get over the exceptional clarity of the Nene water. The plant growth is as abundant below the water as it is along side it. We seem to be gliding over a field of waving grasses and lettuces! Fish are everywhere.

Then next day on to Irthlingborough accompanied by Andy and Sally on their boat The Puzzler, so called because until recent retirement they ran a business making and selling jigsaw puzzles. They had fitted out their own boat, and most interestingly to me, Sally had done her own signwriting which I thought was pretty good. I'll return to that subject some day soon when I'm writing from home.

At Irthlingborough we were visited by a grass snake, right next to the boat. The picture also shows the incredible density of the blanket weed we have been getting here and there.

Visits to the weed hatch are becoming more frequent.

That day was Peter's last day of employment with Cambridge University so we went out for a celebratory Indian meal. Now he is unemployed for ten days before starting his new job, also in Cambridge but this time with a company rather than in academia.