Sunday, July 02, 2006

Pestered by exotic birds!

You'd think on overnight stops in the countryside you might get woken up by cockerels, but with me its peacocks! There are a couple at our favourite stop at Blackjacks lock on the Grand Union, and some more near Seabrooks locks where we moored for the night. Then went I went up to Nottingham for the boat maintenance course recently I camped overnight, and lo and behold, more of the b*&%#y things. Then, last week we camped at a farm near Newport Pagnell, and sure enough at five in the morning - more peacocks! I'm beginning to think they're following me.

More interestingly at this last place, they also had ostriches. Now they have a noise of their own. The male blows out his neck, rather like a bullfrog, and emits a wierd booming roar. When I approached him (there was a fence between us) he did an amazing dance, weaving his neck back and forth behind his outstretched wings. Not only that his legs and bill turned a blood red. I kept my distance!

Today we're off for a short trip on the boat to take advantage of the fine weather, then at the weekend I'm going to do the other half of the boat maintenance courses. This time the electrics. Lats week I tried to map out the wiring on the boat, but "under the bonnet " its phenomenally complex. All I can hope for I think is to understand what each gubbins does, and how to diagnose which bit is failing if there's a fault.

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