We didn’t have too bad a night, Derek decided to leave the side hatch open, we have a voile curtain up, to keep the inside of the boat cool, it worked and we slept ok despite the heat. The Dogs up as usual 6:30 Derek up and walking the dogs and assessing the weather, its gonna be hot again. Sorted the washing basket ready for home, had our breakfast and went to shop for a paper and milk. Life of Brian (broadbeam) was at the water point, he’s been hopping about around here like us for a few weeks. This is his stomping ground as you cant go far in a broad beam. Waiting near the water point to move on to it was another broad beam, he had a stunning cat called ‘Bob’, a Siamese tabby cross, he’s beautiful, blue eyed, a pale cream colour with stripey brown bits, and quite sleek, more Siamese than tabby I think. The man who was called Nigel(someone called his that when they went past) has had him for 2 years, originally looking after him for his daughter, but since he came on the boat, Bob decided to stay. I decided to do a bit of painting on the picture plaques, I do it in stages, painting from back to front. That is doing the sky ,mountains and trees first, then adding the other details in the same way. The trees came to life a bit more , the back of the boat was in shade so it was a bit better to work in, left it to dry and we had lunch sat outside next to water point. A NB came he wanted to empty his porta potty and get some water, he asked us if we knew where to empty it, we weren’t sure so suggested he ask the bridge keeper. He left his dog fastened on his back deck with an umbrella over him for a bit of shade. When he came back he said the keeper was a bit abrupt with him. The keeper had readied the bridge for the man to come through, so he said that he hadn’t given him the proper signal. He had pointed to the towpath but the keeper was in a grumpy mood, he wasn’t the one who had been on all week and we don’t think he wanted to be there. He had found where to empty the loo, out back of the cafe/shop/bar, he filled lots of bottles with water, gave the old dog a shower and rub down and signalled to the grumpy keeper he wanted to leave, he ignored him for a while, he was on the phone, after making him wait he readied the bridge for opening and away he sailed. I decided to do a bit more painting as the mood had grabbed me. It was getting very hot by now, I had the brolly fixed over the back opening but the sweat was dripping into my paint, I did up to where I wanted to and could hear a commotion over the other side of the canal, on the towpath. A cow had escaped onto the path, Derek saw it all, the cows had been making a lot of noise earlier and we think some where being taken to the place that cows go to, Im afraid. This one obviously had other ideas and made a break for it. A lady who has a boat on the permanent moorings jumped in front of the cow, arms outstretched, it stopped and went down the banking back into its field. I think a bravery award required there. A large sailing boat went bye and all the NB and cruiser owners stopped to watch it sail majestically up the canal. We had our tea, a curry would you believe, it went down well with ice cold beer and shandy.
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