Last night the Rowanberrys came to supper to help us demolish a very large Cottage Pie I had made, along with two bottles of very decent Rioja which they bought with them, along with Lou's friend Kate, who was up from Brighton for the weekend.
A very convivial evening's nosh.
This morning I was up and about and just starting the huge pile of washing-up when I received firm instructions to desist at once as it was 'too noisy'....
How odd...........
(Actually, washing-up on a boat is a fairly noisy business: pumps whirring, plates clattering, me whistling cheerfully......But Jackie never normally minds. I can't think what can have been wrong, but dutifully did as I was told).
During the previous evening's meal, we had decided that Sunday would be a good day to build up the reserves of wood for next winter. I duly chugged off upstream aboard Rowanberry with Andreas, Lou and Kate at about 11.00. Andreas wanted to leave earlier, but for some ( perhaps the same) unaccountable reason, the girls were having none of it.
Jackie, by the way, elected to stay aboard Pippin and continue the rather ghastly job of removing all the limescale (over a quarter of an inch thick in places....) and associated gunge from the inside of our loo macerator. It had been left to marinade overnight in a very effective, cheap and widely available industrial cleaner. It's marvellous stuff: loosens caked on deposits, cleans steel, brass and copper, unblocks drains, and will even unstick a seized-up piston.
It's called "Diet Coke".
Apparently, some people actually drink the stuff! Given all of the above, I have to say I find this a trifle unwise.
Anyway, we chugged upstream and moored up at the 48's at Clayhithe. Here, we loaded some very large and heavy logs which had recently been felled.
(Incidentally, Andreas had contacted the Cam Conservators, who said they were very happy for us to take it away. This made us feel much better when various tow-path walkers gave us dirty looks as a reaction to our assumed criminality.....)
The rest of the morning was more of the same, and when we felt there was enough, we chugged back to the pub at Clayhithe for a well earned pint.
I had a whole Guiness!!!! All to myself!!!
Bliss.
Here it all is, on the bank before it disappeared into The Stealth Woodpile:
Lou and Kate with next winters fuelWhat a weekend that was!!
Wow, that's a fantastic load of wood! if only we had storage for similar quantities!
ReplyDeletelovely to see you at the weekend!