April showers

I should have mentioned yesterday that, when walking round Grafton Regis, there was a great cracking sound and a very tall conifer fell into the farmer's field. Luckily it fell that way and not across the A508, a very busy road. So busy in fact that we gave up trying to cross it to have a look at the site of The 17thC. Hermitage where Elizabeth Woodville secretly married Edward IV in 1464. 

Instead, we walked past The White Hart where a sign proclaimed that the chef had been shouting through a colander and thought that he had strained his voice. 

Anyway, on to today, Friday 1st April. A glorious start to the day with bright sunshine but also quite a heavy frost. Luckily for us the fire stayed in all night (as it always does) and we woke to a warm, cosy boat. 

About a mile along the canal we stopped at Baxter Boatyard, Yardley Gobion, to top up with fuel and gas. Our gas bottle ran out last night right in the middle of cooking supper. We always have a spare to hand but it did mean that supper was a little later than planned. Fuel and gas have always been a major expense but this year a little more so. After that, onwards in bright sunshine past Thrupp Wharf - for those who know the canals, not that Thrupp, the other one - and then on through Cosgrove. The canal then loops round the top of Milton Keynes and is a mixture of backs of house, old factory units, new estates and loads of moored boats. As we looped Northward we were heading straight into the wind which had been at our backs all morning. Purely by coincidence, the captain repaired below to start preparing supper. This was to be a chicken casserole cooked in our Eco Pot. The idea is that you brown off the chicken, pop it in the pot with celery, onion, peppers, red wine and carrots, boil it up for 15 minutes, slam on the lid and leave it to cook all afternoon in the thermal cooker. It's a bit like a slow cooker but without the constant need for gas or electricity - just what we need on the boat on a fast becoming cold day. Oh yes, and by now there were the April showers! Luckily the canal then ran East West until we arrived at our overnight mooring at Great Linford. 

Time for a breezy afternoon walk to the local Tesco shop (other stores are not available any closer) for milk and bread and then back to the boat for supper, rounding off the evening with 'Have I got News for You.' 

View from our mooring

looking over Linford Park

View along the canal