29th Dec 13 - 7th March 14

It's been a long while since we last posted a blog entry, so this is bit of a marathon effort. The weeks have slipped by quietly, and we have mostly stayed snug in the boat while outside the rain poured down endlessly and the towpath gradually became a quagmire of mud. Of course we've had to make occasional forays outside, to organise wood for the fire, stock up with supplies, and go to the swimming pool regularly for a double whammy of exercise plus a long hot shower. (We do have a shower on the boat, but it's pretty tiny, and we're very thrifty with water, so washing is not a luxurious experience!)
We saw in the New Year  at Jill's house,

New Year's Eve

 and had a long walk back in pouring rain to collect the car the next day, as we hadn't realised the buses wouldn't be running - a good start to our resolution to get fitter in 2014.

Lots of lovely fires ....

 Roger continued the good work by spending hours logging up a eucalyptus tree from Di's garden, which will keep us cosy for a fair few weeks.
The year got off to a rather expensive start when the fridge stopped working! The cheapest 12volt one we could find was in Birmingham so off we went to collect it. With some difficulty we extracted it from the car and trundled along the muddy towpath!
That was £450 easily spent and shortly after we followed up with £250 on three new batteries! Ouch!!!
We've had quite a few visitors dropping in : Anne down from Scotland, Alison and Jane (midwife friends), 

Jill and Alison

Roger and Karen (and Jean)

Karen and Roger, Sue and Dave, Barbara - and Joseph and Samuel came for a sleepover during half-term.  This involves them sharing our bed while we sleep on the spare bed converted from the dining table, with the result that no-one gets much sleep! We've also made trips to see other friends: Biddy during a flying visit from Colorado to visit her Mum, and  lunch in Wellingborough with Jen and Chris

Roger had a break doing family tree research in Bolton, and then it was Jean's turn, first at David's to take James out for a 3rd birthday treat,

James at the Build-a Bear shop

Louis attacking Grandma's Kindle

 then briefly to France for a belated celebration of Louis' 2nd birthday.

Towards the end of February we discovered a fuel leak in the engine ( no wonder we've been getting through so much diesel....) 

Kate Boats

so took the boat down to Kate Boats in Warwick for repair.  By this time we were feeling thoroughly  bored with being moored in the same spot, and decided to move on in search of a fresh stretch of muddy towpath.  So on 26th Feb, on a beautiful sunny day - hooray! - we conquered Hatton Flight yet again. How many times have we slogged up or down those 21 locks?  By 1st March we had set off down the South Stratford Canal, successfully negotiating Lock 27, which has a dodgy bottom gate, and is now closed for a few weeks for repair.

The Stratford is a lovely rural canal, with interesting barrel-roofed lock houses,

"Mud on towpath" - they're not kidding

Canalside honesty box

and split bridges with a gap down the middle to allow the horses' towropes to pass through, in the days of horse-drawn boats

Spring is in the air, and free-range eggs are frequently on offer, with an 'Honesty Box' for your money. We also bought some delicious home-cured bacon and duck eggs from Finwood Hill Farm at Lowsonford

 We've got as far as Preston Bagot by this point, still several miles from the infamous lock at Wilmcote where Constance, Roger's first boat, became solidly wedged, and was only extricated with extreme difficulty and a lot of help.  The sides of the boat had to be winched in, and protrusions on the hull ground down to fractionally reduce the width, and finally British Waterways forced the boat through with a tow-rope attached to a 4-wheel drive van. We have our fingers and toes all crossed in hope that Vincent Joseph will slip through that lock with no such problems!