Before picking up Ruby on Sunday we celebrated Hilary's sister in laws sixtieth birthday at a party in Harlow

 Now we have Ruby we are having early starts so much so that Cassie is getting her walks earlier.
So much so that the mist has not cleared and the cobwebs still have the dew on them.

 Yesterday we picked up our fifth crew member from Helen Withey in Diss.
Ray, Sacha, and ourselves stopped off for some thing to eat in an American Diner before we returned home.
Ruby travelled fairly well in the car but that didn't prepare us for the sleepless night that laid ahead for us.

This evening we celebrated Maisie's fifth birthday after she had been to school.
Ray and Sacha joined us to celebrate.

Cassie looking fed up as we start the winter work on the boat.

 

As the sun sets on our summer trip 2015 we are now moored in Mercia Marina getting the boat ready for winter.

Whilst we were in Burton on Trent Hilary took the chance to visit her step mum and dad.

We are currently moored at Burton on Trent where we are going to stay for a couple of days.
We have just two more hours journey time before our summer trip is officially over.

 After a five hour cruise to Fradley Junction it was great to have a couple of pints in the pub with a roaring fire to warm us up.

 Today we tackled the locks at Atherstone sharing the cruising between us.
There were a lot of boats coming up the lock so speeded up our journey to Fazley Junction tonight.

 As we approached Charity Dock at Bedworth it is always interesting see the theme in Garden.
This time it was Halloween.

 The interviews are over and here is the latest pictures of our fifth crew member Ruby.

We travelled to Rugby yesterday and stayed today so that we could travel back to Northampton to attend a birthday party for Pat.
The party was organised by Pat's brother Colin to celebrate her 65th.

 We have made our way to the other side of Braunston today after having a busy journey through the tunnel.
But the number of boats travelling the other way certainly  helped with going down the locks.

 We returned to the boat on Tuesday and Hilary took the car to Mercia on Wednesday ready for winter.
Thursday Pat, Louis and Colin helped us to get the boat to Buckby Top Lock.

When we were back over the weekend we managed to catch up with the family

 On Monday we said our goodbyes to Auntie Joyce.

 whilst we have been moored at Stowe Hill Nick on the moorings opposite took some great pictures of Cassie.

 We moved on to Stowe Hill today to catch up with Pat, Louis and Pat's brother Colin also Jackie and Dave from Newmarket.
The group had not seen each other for many years and as it was Hilary's birthday it was lunch at the pub.