Some Forecast....

The dawn didn't relate to last nights starry sky as come daybreak and the rain came down. It cleared by mid day but with no urgent chores to do it was stay aboard for the day.

The news paper head lines have been Doom for the long range weather forecasts with predictions of a 100 yr cold blast arriving as early as November. Well were  all for a white Xmas but a couple of months of white would be sad..

The predictions of a long lasting  Arctic blast will probably not eventuate, anyway any snow will be a change from 35 C days at Xmas back in NZ...

Driving in these conditions will be challenging in a 2wheel drive...

 

 

A day like this and you'd be playing Pocket Billiards all day long....

No doubt tomorrow will bring new predictions...

Nine Till Four......

Wev'e had a bit of a plan of late and now it's all coming together.
We'll be mooring up at Aynho on power from 1st Nov, until end of Feb, still living on the boat. We were originally going to stay on the canal proper just moving as needed but after talking to far wiser people than us being on shore power seems the best option.

So that means we'll have a lot of spare time and the plan has been to find some work to relieve the boredom.
I already had some part time work in Oxford so Leonie got her CV out and about two days ago and now she is employed starting next Monday...nine till four...
Yeh Haa more money for Beer.....

Today has been a good weather day, no rain ,no cold...



And when the sun departed today.....






 The fire was set and inside the warmth soon spread through the boat.....


The sky is clear.....

With plenty of stars promising a fine day tomorrow....


The mist....

 

 

Started to roll in followed by a red glow......


I retraced our route, by bus,  and went to pick up the race tuned Focus. It'll be handy getting us to work...

My brief from the Missus was to remember that apple tree we saw a few days ago and stop the car and get some apples.
This I did with no off road parking on the 70mph stretch, cars missing my arse by inches. Then the tree had been picked of reachable fruit, no smart ass comments, so grabbing the branches pulling them down whilst standing in knee high stinging nettle was the answer. I managed to get a few...


So....

This is the reward... Apple Crumble... with ice cream of course.....

Tomorrow till Monday practice setting the alarm clock.... for Leonie.........

 

What A Difference.....

A Day Makes, yesterday cold and wet but today even though rain was forecast was sunny and mild.
The strong winds had stopped leaving many small tree branches across the ground.

We headed off only intending to travel 3 - 4 miles but made the most of the day and but for 1 mile almost reached our planned destination...

With the sun shining through the tree tops.....

 

It made for  an enjoyable cruise along....

The recent rain has....

 

 Made the paddocks and tow path  very lush again...


We all know about hunting and killing and eradicating the farmers pest... Well now...

 

The "Wabbit" is fighting back....  He missed this time....

On the return from Paris we dropped Dale off  in the  Sommerset county.
While there  we visited the Stourhead Estate....

Owned until 1946 by the Hoare family, Banking, it was then gifted to the National Trust..

Had a look through the family home then took a stroll through....

 

The nice landscaped grounds...  Featuring a man made lake...
Started out fine but by this time the rain was steady....

Imagine on a Monday morning the "Boss" takes you and your wheel barrow and shovel and your "cut lunch" to a spot with an X on the ground and says'''

"start here and dig out a lake. I'll be back in 7 Yrs.....

And when you've dug the lake.....

Just build a nice  little bridge over there.....

The grounds have many Greek Sculptures placed  throughout.....

This Fella....

Hercules stands in the Pantheon.... Reckon by the look of his body he probably had the same for  breakfast as me....

There's several "Grotos" around the lake, this ....

Dude waived... mistook me for Hercules I suppose....

 

Inside this grotto there was.....




A bit going on with the floor design....


Looking across the lake in the misty silence the....

 

Appollo Temple looks over the hundreds of  Rhododendroms.....

And back to the present. Last night the rain fell steadily and this morning it still was so....

 

For the first time in a long while it was on with the wet gear...

Mind you its great.....

 

 Weather for Ducks.....

All moored up with the fire going....  comfy as....

 

Narrow Boat FireflyNZ......