More narrowboat visiting…..

We found out yesterday that nbs Matilda Rose and No Problem were moored not more than 5 miles away from us, at Great Doddington on the Nene, so a few text messages and phone calls, and we had invited ourselves for coffee this morning.  Knowing roughly where they were moored, we set out to find the lock nearest them to park.  After not finding the particular footpath that Graham had told us to follow along the left bank of the river – we realised that we were at the wrong lock!!!  Bit of a misunderstanding between me and Graham, or perhaps between me and Rog, and we were one lock downstream of where we should be!  Oh well, never mind, at least we found out before we had hiked it along the river bank!  Jumping back in the car, we headed back the way we had come, to find Graham waiting for us at the correct lock to lead us back to the boats – he obviously didn’t trust us to find our own way!!  Well, I can’t say I blame him.  We had a lovely morning catching up and introducing Ozzy to the hoomans, as well as to Baxter, Muttley, Meg and Penny.  Sue is the real reason we have Ozzy.  On our way back from Stone last year after losing Cassie, when we hadn’t the heart to go on with our cruise, we bumped into Sue and Vic on No Problem. Sue and Vic, having not long lost their dear Lucy and having ‘got straight back on the horse’ with puppy Penny, practically threw a wriggly Penny across the gap between the boats and into my arms!  It made me realise that we could have another puppy straight away, and that having another wouldn’t devalue in any way how much we had loved Cassie.  And the rest, as they say, is history!!!

Ozzy had a lovely time with 4 other dogs to play with, especially with Penny, who is only a couple of months older than him.  She ran him ragged, and he has been flat out asleep all afternoon.

We left them at about 1.30 to enjoy their Sunday lunch, superbly cooked by Vic, and hope to see them again in a couple of weeks, when they can drag themselves away from the Nene and up the Northampton flight to re-join us ditch-crawlers.

Nb No Problem

Nb Matilda Rose

Collies Meg (foreground) and Penny

L to R  Baxter, Ozzy, Muttley and Meg (and Jill’s legs!)

Jill, taking a forbidden photo of me, taking one of her, with Sue looking on!

PS.  Windsong is booked to come out of the water for blacking next Wednesday – keep everything crossed, folks, that the crane remains in working order until after she goes back in!