Braunston (back to the puddle banks)

Silver Washed Fritillary – when Sophie and Yanos were here last week we saw a lot of these in Oversley Woods

Sophie and Yanos left us on Friday morning after their mini holiday with us and when they got home Sophie sent me some pictures she had taken during the week.  She was particularly pleased with a couple:

Me with a pile of my beloved stanking planks

Me giving Yanos a masterclass in bridge styles.  This is a turnover bridge that enabled towing horses to cross the canal, when the towpath changed sides, without having to be unhitched from the boat.

Next weekend we are having our annual family camping trip to Malham in the Yorkshire Dales – this year there will be 29 of us plus two dogs.  So on Saturday Karen and I went down to her mum’s to pick up some of the camping gear we have stored there, the rest being at my parents’ house in Yorkshire.

The flat leaf parsley that Karen has grown from seed this year has grown really well so we have been using it to make salsa together with our tomatoes that are now finally ripening.

Bunch of flat leaf parsley Karen added to our salsa with our barbecue on Saturday evening

Getting ready for the barbecue – one of the skewers has halloumi cubes – so much better grilled than fried in a pan

Sunday was moving day so we packed up the boat and drove the car to Braunston, our home for the next two weeks.  We had a pleasant four mile walk back to get the boat and saw a great many butterflies along the towpath.  I have said before that waterways aren’t really the place to see butterflies but this year seems to be a bumper year and there are plenty of the common species flying along the towpaths.

As usual it was good to have a cruise, albeit relatively short and with no locks.

Strange place to moor a boat right on a corner when there is plenty of space before it on the straight

We went into Braunston to fill up with water and then had a tricky manoeuvre to turn round at this junction in order to head back towards Leamington.  Timothy West  and Prunella Scales were heading to the junction on their boat at the same time but from the north and so they had to wait for us to complete our turn.

We went under the left hand bridge (which goes up to Coventry) and reversed back the other side of the bridges so we could come back through the right hand bridge

Braunston is 30 minutes from Karen’s work so we have decided that this will be the limit of our travels to the east until we get the new boat.  We found a spot on the puddle banks which is yet another of our favourite mooring places.

Moored on the puddle banks – home for the next two weeks

One reason we like it here is bacause the banks are shallow so you have to use gangplanks; many people don't like that idea so avoid this stretch making it quieter for us.