Sweeping out the blossom

Thursday 8^th June; Welford to Crick

We were up quite early, as I needed to pop up to the shop for the paper and some milk.  It was dustbin day, and there was a lot of traffic backed up on the main street behind the lorry.  A large noisy tractor was just outside the narrow entrance to the post office stores, trailing a large something-or-other, tall, long, metallic and complicated-looking.  Meg was NOT happy and I was so keen to get her past the noise on the narrow pavement I completely missed the shop and ended up walking another couple of hundred yards.  At least when I returned the binmen had moved on and the tractor had got past.  I couldn't have left her outside with those huge vehicles so close anyway.  Meg hadn’t noticed Postman Pat and a giant Jess on the way up and was very taken aback when she saw them on the way back.

The pocket park has grown a bit since we were last here and was lovely.

 

Back at the arm, Emperor Ming was making ready to move so I took the opportunity to take a photo of Bonjour before we left.

Isn't it time we were going Mum?

We gave Emperor Ming a few moments and followed them down to the lock.  The identity of the large group of boaters in the pub last night was solved – there were at least 3 Napton hire boats moored, a couple must have been at least 65’.  We congratulated ourselves on getting to the locks before them, but still had to wait -  Emperor Ming was still on the landing waiting for another boat to finish locking down.  And someone soon arrived behind us.  They all seemed to be going to Foxton, so we suggested they be prepared to wait!  At last the east of England has the sun and we had a delightful cruise back towards Crick.  One boater was taking advantage of the quiet canal and warm weather to do some painting.

Not broken down after all

The wind was still cold but behind us now.  We felt sorry for the drivers belting along the busy A14 (Thanks Adam for pointing out it's not the A5!)

We wanted to stop for lunch at bridge 31, so we could walk up into the Laughton Hills.  The mooring is on a bend but has Armco piling.  Normally the bend wouldn’t present a problem, but the offside vegetation now reaches out so far we couldn’t see round to pass the two (unattended) boats that were moored already. We crept round and tried again by another bridge with footpaths to follow – but they were so overgrown we opted not to bother.  We moved off again straight after lunch,  in glorious warm sunshine.  We identified reed buntings, yellowhammers and what may have been a spotted flycatcher.  I spotted this amazingly fluffy willow tree with wild roses growing through it as we went the other way, and took the opportunity to get a photo.

Never seen willow fluff like it!

Rather pretty, unlike the first of the newly-shorn sheep we saw as we neared Crick.  I hope they don’t get sunburnt!

Summer haircut

Our favoured mooring at Crack’s Hill was occupied, so we went on to moor between the first two entrances to the marina at about 4pm, far enough away from the road bridge to be quiet.  There were no hawthorn trees in bloom nearby, so I took the opportunity to sweep through the boat – as well as the normal bits of towpath and dog fur, there was now a large amount of little dry petals.  The blossom seems to have been especially prolific this year.  I tried clearing a drift of petals off the roof the other day, but they are so light that the wind blows them away as you sweep and they just land somewhere else on the roof.  When it had cooled down a bit I went for a short jog round the Jubilee Wood, which was beautiful, and explored the footpath which comes out at the roundabout where the bypass dives away from the village.  Meanwhile Dave did the far more sensible thing of taking Meg round the wood.  It was really too hot do to anything else.

11 miles, 1 lock