A huge family

If it hadn’t been for lockdown and having to stay at our winter mooring we wouldn’t have been able to watch the swans in the marina. They have built their nest, done their courtship dances and the female has sat for many weeks on the nest. Plus, we’ve been entertained by the male swan chasing the Canada geese. Now the NINE, yes 9, cygnets have hatched and today have gone for their first proper swim. They are so cute and we’ve sat most of today gazing at them.

 

The red thing in the swans photo just happens to be one of the boys toys, that ‘accidentally’ got thrown overboard & floated off and got stuck in the reeds. One of our neighbours managed to rescue the toy and return it to us.

 

Sadly this family of 6 coot chicks is now down to 4 and they seem to growing fast.

 

We had our longest stint of boarding boat school last week. We have walked to school everyday and were actually quite late some days!!

The tooth fairy has been rushed off her feet as Magnus lost one of his front teeth.

One morning we caught tadpoles in the canal and brought them back to the boat in a jam jar to get a really close look at them with a magnifying glass.

 

We them let them go by the rudder, where they swam around all day. However, they were nowhere to be seen the next morning.

We pulled up & bashed a good bit of young Himalayan balsam. The patch is quite impressive and we’re hoping some nettles, ferns & grass will grow this season.

 

As well as the school work from their individual time tables we’ve done lots boat chores, crafts & cooking too. The kids did just about all their own cutting out and sticking.

Nikita’s Canada goose collage. 

 

Magnus’ butterfly collage.

Lance’s mute swan collage.

Lance helping to fill the water tank.

My galley slaves.

 

 

Last Thursday we put up our bunting and pompoms ready to commemorate VE day and in the evening before the children went to bed we did the 20.00 clap/hoot for the key workers.

I have completed a shawl I started last year. I spun the black sparkly fibre (a gift from my friend Yvonne) and plied it with some purple. I didn’t have room on the bed to block it all in one go, so did it in two halves. 

 

Blocking really does reveal the lace pattern.

We are hoping the phasing in of normal life goes smoothly, so we don’t have to revert to a strict lock down again.