A sunny day ( at last!)

Rosie

Sprotborough Lock

Sprotborough visitor moorings

For a bank holiday weekend the marina is very quiet with just a few boats passing us up & down the canal. But the sun is shining & has been most of the day - will it last? Fingers crossed.

We have had a bit of a shuffle round in the marina this week, Poppy's berth was 5th boat along from the corner & in an effort to make manoeuvring easier the pontoon is quite short. The boat next along from us, Therapy, has gone off to pastures new this week - well, Burnley, so we have moved up a berth which has a longer pontoon ( I could just about clean a couple of windows now!) & should be a little easier getting Poppy in & out.

Since moving aboard we have gradually acquired an assortment of bits of wood in readiness for when the colder weather arrives but apart from an ordinary saw (which seemed like far too much work!) had no means of converting them into stove sized logs so I sent Mark off to Argos & for £29.99 he got an electric saw ( bit like a big electric carving knife) & its just the job, so all the wood is now sawn & stacked. Only slight downside was that it's a 2 handed job & my wrist that I sprained a couple of weeks ago didn't like the vibration so with lots of breaks it took longer than it should.

Last Monday we visited Conisborough Castle.

Impressive keep

View of castle from top of keep

I have often seen the castle when driving down the motorway but 1st time we'd visited & it was well worth it.

After leaving the castle we took the long way home & drove through some of Dearne Valley.
It looks like there is some good walking to be had so all being well we shall do just that tomorrow.

We also stopped off at Sprotborough & walked down to the lock. The visitor moorings looked nicely situated & we reckon it could be an ideal spot for a weekend stopover.

Note: The pics of Sprotborough are at top of page - for some reason every time I try to move them they just disappear !
I have just tried to finish off with a pic of Rosie the collie but again can't move it to where I want it so it's at the top.

Rosie lives a couple of boats up from us with Phil & Jeannie & she is just gorgeous. She sits & watches Poppy who isn't the least bit bothered by her, Rosie seems quite curious & has scampered after her a couple of times but at a word from Phil she comes back - I feel fairly sure that Rosie wouldn't harm Poppy & just wants to play. No doubt time will tell.........

Ship shape

Has it really been 10 days since my last post? Time just seems to fly.
I spend most of my days pottering about keeping Poppy ship shape ( where does all the dust come from? I sweep through every day & there are still little piles of dust lurking in the corners)

I usually walk into the town daily to get fresh food stuff as we don't have a freezer, (which I don't miss it at all) & to get some exercise. I have noticed my weight has crept up since moving aboard so I try to get at least an hours walk a day, not having much effect yet!
Also Bluewater has a communal room which is used mainly for social activities & has some well stocked bookshelves for the borrowing of so I'm not short of reading matter.

The cratch looks great & as you can see Poppy has been trying it out.

"can I be bothered to catch that fly?"

Ideal spot for a bit of a wash

Not really sure about this corner

I have taken it down at the moment as the paint needed a touch up & then is about time we got the name on which I had made by 'Stick on Signs' at least a couple of months ago. Would have put a link in here as I can highly recommend their product but they seem not to have a web site anymore.

The painting is done but I'm leaving it for a few days to make sure it is really dry before putting the cratch back up. I've been caught before by smudging paint when I thought it was dry but still sticky underneath.

I mentioned in my last post that we'd had a visit from BW's enforcement officer & in conversation with him about dealing with non payers he said they would be removing a boat with out of date licence the following day. Sure enough a very shabby looking nb was towed by BW from Stainforth & breasted up outside Bluewater with a notice on it saying it had been seized by BW.
We await developments with interest.......