Cosy toes and a wet dog

Tuesday 27^th August; Hazelhurst Junction to Endon (bridge 28)

We had no particular plans for the morning, as we were not planning to go far today. 

Thank goodness the geese on the field opposite didn’t wake us up at daybreak

It was cool and grey, with a bit of a breeze, and although a few boats went by it was a pleasant spot to get on with some jobs.  First job – Dave gave Jess a thorough brushing, as the second (mostly mine) was to clean through the boat and there was quite enough dog fur already to be dealing with.  Dave then got busy dealing with the rust on the heavy metal gangplank.

Zizzing

He took it over to the handy bench where he painted on the rust remover.  While he washed the boat roof, I reorganised one of the galley cupboards to make better use of the movement-sensitive light we bought for it.  Somehow all that took up the whole of the morning.  After lunch we wanted to move down to Endon, for two reasons – I need to go shopping tomorrow, but also we had to look out for NB Oleanna for a much anticipated meeting.  But that was later.

Hazlehurst or Hazelhurst?

With no-one coming up the Hazelhurst flight we slipped our moorings and pottered along towards the Park Lane services for water, recycling and rubbish disposal.

All quiet at Hazelhurst junction

When we came the other way last week, we noticed young fruit trees planted along behind the towpath and eventually spotted a notice proclaiming the trees a Linear Orchard.  I hope they are maintained properly, then it will make a lovely autumn walk with free healthy snacks provided – apple and pear at least (I saw a few fruit, so I'm sure of those) and what may have been plums and cherries too.

Orchard tree

There were no other boats at the services and after taking on water and disposing of rubbish and recycling we were soon on our way.  Would we see Oleanna?  There is a fair bit of mooring space along the way, they could be close by or right down past the Stoke Boat Club mooring arm.  But we hadn’t gone 50 yards from the services when there was an almighty splosh!  Where’s the dog???  Scrambling out of the reeds on the offside, that’s where, and it took a lot of manoeuvring to get close enough to get her safely back on board – because of course the engine had to be out of gear if she was nearby in the water.  No time to get a photo, there were sheep and goats in the field above her - which she knew - and we had to keep her attention on us.  Dave finally got the stern in close enough to grab her collar as she attempted to jump back on board.  We don’t know if she jumped off, thinking the water plants were on solid ground, or whether she had tried walking along the gunwale and slipped off when trying to get back – we were just thankful she went away from the boat and not too close to the propeller!

I was just towelling her off when we were hailed from the towpath, and there was Oleanna.  We managed to pull in behind them, introductions were made, Jess was safely shut inside and we all went onboard Oleanna for a lovely cuppa and a good old boaters’ chat.  Tilly gave us the once-over – I don’t think she was impressed – and Pip handed me my long-awaited pair of socks (she has been knitting socks - a 'sockathon' - in aid of the Dementia UK charity, and mine are pair no 32.  That's a lot of knitting!).  It was great to have a proper chat after one very brief meeting some years ago at Lapworth.

We thought we’d better moor to leave a decent distance between the boats as I’m sure Jess would have been rather too keen to make Tilly’s acquaintance.

Have those stinky dog people gone now?

It was much closer to bridge 28 where we pulled in, with rain threatening.  Later on there were several heavy showers.

Gorgeous cosy socks

2 and a bit miles, a surprised wet dog and a happy meeting