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Back home after ten days
away
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After our weekend at
Napton-on-the-Hill moored by the Folly Inn we had to get ready for our festive
break. On Sunday 18th we
cruised back to Calcutt to leave CHB2 by the reservoir for ten days.
We had rented a house in
Hartley Wintney in Hampshire for a family holiday. We had been to see the family who owned it to
have a look around a couple of weeks previously and fell in love with the
place. It felt just like our house in
Kent so we knew the children would be happy there too.
We were just about to
start cooking dinner on the Sunday evening when we heard a boat cruising
past. It was heading for the locks and
it seemed a bit strange to be cruising in pitch black and then attempting
locks. Anyway I looked out and realised
it was Mark on his fuel boat pulling alongside us. I had asked him to drop off some of his coal
whilst we were away as the last batch we got from a boatyard wasn’t working
well with our stove. His plan had been
to moor overnight at the lock and barrow the coal down to us in the morning but
he’d forgotten we were moored on the offside.
Monday was a hectic day as
we had several trips across the reservoir to load the car and then drive to
Oxford to pick up Matt and Jo. We had to
get all Matt’s belongings in the car too as he was flying back to Oslo after
the holiday.
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Can hardly see Karen and
Jo in the back
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We had a brilliant time
away – with children in and out most days and stopping over. I like to cook on Xmas Day so soon got into
the swing of things once I found an apron.
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The only apron in the
house!
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We had 14 for lunch so had
a ham and a turkey. We had ordered the
meat from a local butcher and expected the turkey to be boned and rolled but
when we got it out of its box we realised they had forgotten to finish the job
off. I wanted it boned and rolled so it
could be cooked slowly in the barbecue leaving the ovens free for all the roast
trimmings. We took it back and the
butcher sorted it out very quickly but Karen and I had a misunderstanding. She had driven me down as it was raining but
we both thought we would meet at different places – I ended up soaked and
rather cold waiting in what she said was the wrong place. Anyway it all turned out well and everyone
enjoyed their lunch.
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Bit fuzzy but a selfie of
14 isn’t easy
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The days before and after
Xmas Day were mostly spent playing games and doing jigsaws with the different children who
visited us during the break. The house was well appointed so we had a raclette one evening followed by chocolate fondue - reminded us all of when we used to go skiing.
We came
home on Friday (New Year’s Eve eve) and it felt so good to be back once we were
settled in and got the stove going. We
had expected the cut to be frozen over as we had had four days of frosty
weather but it must have been a bit milder in the Midlands.
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Back on board after our
break
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Buddy was also pleased to
get back home as it meant he could drink proper canal water rather than boring
old tap water again!
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Rather precarious but he’s
never fallen in
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Here are a few selfies of our stay in Hartley Wintney with our children.
2 comments:
It wasn't any milder in Cropredy! At least until today.
:)
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