We have stayed on the Rushton and Diamonds moorings today due to the high winds.
But yesterday we saw this boat with a fantastic paint job at one of the locks.
Although the weather stayed dry we were battered by high winds.

 Today started very wet as we left Billings Aquadrome being very disappointed on the state of the moorings there.
The bottom picture shows the electrified lock gates on the Nene.

Today we have continued our journey down the Nene heading towards Billings Marina.
As we approach we see some of high value motor homes.
The evening was spent with Yvonne and Dave and we celebrated Cassie's birthday.

And we are off, after a short trip to Gayton we then faced the seventeen locks into Northampton.
We have stayed in Northampton Marina to start our trip down the Nene.

 New seats, battery monitor and all ceilings  re stained so I think we are ready for the summer trip.
Just waiting for Dave and Yvonne to join us and we will be on our way.

 

Today we paid Intrepid the last visit before we go off on our summer trip so this weekend I completed the aluminium seats for the back of the boat.

This week we have been working on Intrepid and started by replacing the seats on the back.

The other weekend the tenant moved out of my rented property leaving it in a state so we had two weeks decorating the house top to the bottom.

We have been back in Essex whilst we were back we celebrated Claire and Craig's birthday at the cottage.

This weekend Nick came to visit and we took a trip to Gayton Junction and back, finishing they day with an Indian meal in the evening.

Last Sunday we took advantage of the spring sunshine and took Maisie to Mersea where she enjoyed paddling and taking Cassie for a walk.

We have been back in Essex working on our friends garden, where we have built raised gardens , runner bean support, circular brick flower bed, edged gardens with bricks and then covering an area with decorative stones.

When we were in Essex it was arranged to have a family fish and chip dinner with our Aunt Joyce who now lives in Silverend.

We have just returned to the boat after a couple weeks in Essex where a friend of Claire and Darren organised a surprise engagement party.
We also spent a weekend with Dave and Sue in Gravesend where we took Cassie for walks, ate great food and had a few drinks.

 This weekend started with staying with Anna in the Wirral where we visited Crosby beach which has one hundred cast iron statues by Antony Gomley modelled on himself.
The weekend was completed by staying with Mic and Penny in a very windy and wet Wales.

Before returning we visited Chelmsford Crematorium to place the wreath near Mum and Dad's Plaque

We have just returned to the boat after spending Christmas with the family in Essex.

Since we have been back we caught up with Diane and Peter also we went to meet Linda and Peter from New York.
To meet Linda and Peter we caught the train from Milton Keynes stopping off on the way back to admire the winter wonderland set up in the MK Centre.

We have been back to Essex for a couple of weeks for Sacha's and Ray's birthdays and catching with people before the Christmas rush.

Jackie and John bought sparklers to use in Blisworth Tunnel but as the warning states no naked flames in the tunnel we thought it might be a bit dodgy.
So as tonight is the last night of our Milton Keynes trip we have used them today.

Winter moorings booked and we are just a couple of days from completing this years trips.
Hearing the forecast it looks that we are just in time as the weather takes a turn for the worse.

We have come up Stoke Bruerne locks today to save time we strapped the two boats together.
It was a good job we did as the last lock from the top took three people to open because of the amount of water in the top pound.

The last couple of days we have spent at Cosgrove, the forecast was poor for yesterday so we decided to stay put but it turned out to be a sunny day.