Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
were grey but dry, and finally the sun started shining on Wednesday morning. Karen has been working from the boat this
week (her last) but has joined me and Buddy for an hour or so’s walk each day
to get out of the ‘office’. I know the
weather must have been dull as when I downloaded my pictures today I realised I
had taken none since Saturday.
On Wednesday morning, I
was just bemoaning the fact that 15 different species of butterflies have been
seen around the UK already this year compared to my paltry four (!), when a
male orange tip flew by the boat. Now,
when we see orange tips we know spring really is here. During Wednesday I saw three more orange
tips, countless male brimstones, a couple of female brimstones (again the first
this year), a pair of peacocks and a small tortoiseshell. To round it off in the afternoon I saw two
more new species for the year – a small white and a speckled wood.
All the butterflies were
skittish and none would rest long enough for me to take a picture but here’s an
orange tip that we saw exactly two years ago here at Napton/Calcutt reservoir :
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| The female doesn't have the distinctive orange tips to its forewings |
As it looked like being a
gorgeous day on Wednesday, I set off for the water point at 8 in the
morning. Going early meant we could moor
up there, have our showers and do loads of non-clothes washing like bedclothes
and Buddy’s travel bed. Of course, if
anyone else turned up for water I would let them in but as it happened only one
boat turned up and it only took them 10 minutes to fill up as the water
pressure is high at Calcutt and they had filled up two days previously.
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Reversing back to the
water point – we had set off from around the corner in the far distance and I
managed not to hit any of the moored boats 😉
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It already felt like a
summer morning at that time of day and Buddy soon crashed out on the towpath:
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When we moored by the reservoir
last Friday we had to squeeze in behind Chris on his boat and Paul with his two
boats. When we were taking on water
Chris came by on his boat; he was on his way to Stockton to catch a bus into
Leamington for the day. As I was just
waiting for the water and washing I saw him through a couple of the locks at
Calcutt. He told me that when he comes
back he would carry on and moor at Napton so it meant I could take his spot without feeling guilty.
The spot he was in is the
prime position for a 50-60’ boat as there are two stout trees that you can tie
to rather than using mooring pins.
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For some reason Buddy
spent a lot of the afternoon sleeping alongside where we had been moored
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After lunch I took the car
to Braunston to buy some longer centre lines.
Our current ones are 10m long, but we really need about 12m to feel safe
when in locks. When we got to France we
are going to have to buy even longer ropes for the front and back – around
20-25m because of the extra deep locks on the continent, We need to find out a few things necessary
for moving to France, like rope lengths, from Mike and Aileen as their boat is
the same length as ours and they already have two year’s worth of experience
over there.
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This is a speckled wood
from last year – the one I saw today wouldn’t land
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On the way to Braunston I
drove through Flecknoe, one of the villages we would both love to retire to
when the time comes to move back to bricks and mortar (I would say ‘if’ rather
than ‘when’ but Karen reads the blog 😉). The
reason for driving through the village was to check on the moorings available
on the canal near there. I plan on
moving down there on Thursday and Mike & Lesley and Chris & Sue should
be making their way there too on their boats - we are all meeting up on
Saturday.
We have spent a few weeks
moored around Flecknoe over the last couple of winters and it was always packed
with fellow ccers. I was expecting it to
be busy now but only saw one boat moored up there – I suspect it’ll get packed
by the weekend as people are beginning to set out on their summer travels and
it’s a nice rural spot to moor.
The chap in front of me at
the rope shop was asking for 4m ropes for his centre lines. The lady ropemaker, quite rightly, was asking
if that was really the length he wanted.
I suggested that maybe he had a very small boat to which he replied that
it was 57’ (the same as ours). The lady
told him that he should have much longer, at least 10m, centre lines for that
length of boat and I explained that I was just changing ours from 10m to 12m so
he decided to go back to his marina and measure up again.
As I was driving back to
the boat it seemed that there were male brimstones everywhere, I must have seen
three dozen during the day. The male is
the distinctive bright yellow whereas the female is a pale lemon colour.
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Male brimstone taken at
Stockton two years ago
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Female brimstone taken
near Stratford three years ago
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After I got back I took
Buddy out for a walk and to find some willow.
It’s that time of year when Karen makes her willow frame for when she
pots up her sweet peas which are currently doing very nicely in the
cratch/greenhouse:
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| Dwarf sunflowers on the left, sweet peas to the right, chillies at the back but they haven't started showing yet |
In the evening we met up
with Gill and her new man, Martin, to say goodbye. We first met Gill on the River Avon last year
and have kept in touch and had the odd drink or two since then. As she is a local girl she has been very
helpful in recommending things like dog sitters, opticians etc. We were sensible and only had had a few drinks,
but it was sad to be saying goodbye ☹
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