Back to Leighton Buzzard

We are now back in Leighton Buzzard after spending a week at Napton Marina while Colecraft re-did the interior woodwork on our doors and hatches, plus upgrade them to double glazing. The boat is now just the way we want it, with no gaps around the hatches or door. We just need to paint the door exteriors over the next few days while it’s sunny and warm.

Napton Marina

On our way to Napton we spent a couple of days in Braunston and attended the village fete and tried out two pubs in the village. We walked over Braunston Tunnel, a fairly steep hill, so we can see why they had to dig a tunnel and not a flight of locks.

We managed to pass through Braunston on our way back south before their Historic Boat Gathering, there is restricted navigation via the marina during the boat parade. 'Adamant' a steam boat passed us on it’s way to the event, I could hear him tooting his whistle around some blind bends ages before it passed us. A little steam inspection launch went by too. 

Lane over Braunston Tunnel

Over the tunnel

 

over the tunnel

 

 

Tunnel airshafts

While we were at the marina we decided to have a Tesco delivery and stock up before venturing south through very rural Northamptonshire.

On our travels back south we managed to have a BBQ and I did lots of knitting & spinning.

Ada and Dale visited on Father’s Day while we were at Stoke Bruerne and we had a nice meal at The Boat pub and spent the evening playing Northamptonshire skittles.

I tried a new elderflower cordial recipe which had a large amount of citric acid and to our disappointment it was quite unpalatable with little elderflower flavour. We made a second batch and omitted the citric acid and it’s just beautiful. We didn’t waste the first batch, John just added some yeast and it’s fermenting away beautifully along with two demijohns of elderflower wine.

RCMP officer looking afte the wine

July could be a busy month attending all the knitting & spinning meetings in Bedfordshire before we head off to explore lots more canals. We are just waiting patiently for things to go through with our house sale, so we can just sail away into the sunset. 

Dragonfly

Dragonfly