Where did the sun go?

Not 4 days ago we had a lovely sunny day and now as forecast, it is once again cold and wet.  Twice over the past week we have, or I should say Andrew has, let the fire die out. Today it has been lit once again.

Over the past few days we have made our way further south and although sometimes cold, sometimes cool and mostly sunny we managed to dodge the rain. 

Early morning

Under the bridge and around the corner

Out of the lock

Kings Sutton viewed from Kings Sutton lock

Thursdays squalls which bypassed us

But not today, today we got caught in a quick hail squall.  I was so surprised I forgot to close the top paddle and went to open the bottom paddles.  It took Andrew a short while to realise that the boat did not seem to be going down in the lock as quickly as it should! So quick paddle down and we were on our way once again. Somewhat cooler and wetter.

We have made it on to the Upper Thames today. For some reason we both thought that it would be another day. Our original plan was to spend the day in Thrupp, where we were lucky to get the last visitor mooring spot at 4pm.  We wondered back this morning to the lift bridge as we had seen a boaters library there when lifting the bridge yesterday.  A boaters library is basically a free book swap, or even borrow. You put your read books in the library and take some other books out. At some point along the trip once we have finished the books we borrowed here, they will be swapped with some 'new' books at the next place we find. It is a great idea and there can be some great books to borrow.

Anyway while wondering back to the library it was pretty chilly, in fact downright cold.  On our walk we met 2 other boaty forum members, Maffi and Bones, which was great and hopefully will catch up with them again on our way back after Lechlade.  We popped in to Annie's Tearoom for some warmth, coffee and a bacon sandwich.  I took my time while my hands warmed up :) We decided that with the cold rainy looking weather we would rather continue towards Lechlade and have our cleaning day later. Especially as cleaning day will require us to take some of the 'loose' furniture out of the boat and decorate the towpath for a while.  We also want to give the boat another outside clean. As such the weather was once again not going to fit in with our plans. There had better be a good day sometime in the next week as we would like a nice clean boat for our visitors arriving on Saturday, yup Jody and Gina. All very exciting, our first overnight visitors and their first time staying on a boat.

Andrew has also arranged a day's trout fishing for himself and Jody.  All Gina's idea to start with but there was no way that Andrew was going to turn down that opportunity.  Even if it meant a 5 to 6 week round trip for us. But hey, we have no place to be and lots of time to do it in and I must say the trees are greener in this southern part of the country. 

And a few pics of the fauna to be seen

Goats. Not sure what breed but cute kid :)

Roe deer

Muntjac deer

Not happy about being disturbed

Waiting for us to leave

Well the fire is warming us up nicely now.  TV signal is once again elusive, so Bond movie number 4 tonight is on the cards and now to go and prepare dinner.

Have fun everyone :)