After a walk and look around Stokesby, we cast off and cruised on up the River Bure with Debbie helping at the helm and me tidying up the boat and lowering the mast and canopy for Acle Bridge on our way to Horning and home. We found Jack mowing the lawns and Daniel with Angela using the washing machine for their laundry.
The Jolly to Horning Staithe for lunch before leaving in two cars to visit Mum in Stanton. Then home to receive a bevy of letters and telephone messages and to work on without much progress before bedtime
We slept well at our Stokesby mooring and awoke to find the boat batteries low which meant the central heating had given up. I rigged up the auxiliary battery supply to get it started again and this gave us the much-needed heat for a cold morning. I took the rubbish to the disposal point and also paid a visit to the village store to get the daily paper and have a look around the village. Not much had changed since last year but the fish merchant had reduced its opening hours to two mornings a week due to "staffing problems" which is a pity. Once set, we cast off and cruised on up the River Bure with Debbie helping at the helm and me tidying up the boat and lowering the mast and canopy for Acle Bridge.
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I took over as we came into Horning and then moored up in Ropes Hill Dyke. Jack was cutting our lawn as we arrived which is good of him, but I worry about him exerting the energy because of his failing health. I chatted to him for a while and then took the girls in the Jolly across the river to have lunch at a pub in Horning. We ran into a bit of trouble with some eel catchers for mooring in the staithe there but persisted and was able to in the end. It is strange that these old boys still ply this particular trade, but good to see such consistency in a changing world. Back to Heronshaw to find Daniel arrived with Angela. They had returned Diana's car and were also doing their washing in the utility room there. After we unloaded the boat, Diana drove on ahead with the girls to visit Mum in Stanton and I stayed behind for a couple of hours to put the Paxton Princess, The Jolly and Heronshaw to bed which was quite a task. I re-fitted the old canopy on the boat so as to protect the new one from getting fouled whilst the boat is not in use; put all of the ropes, fenders, burgees etc away and then stowed The Jolly in the boat-shed.
All this done, I left for Stanton and arrived just as the family were leaving! Mum was glad to see Debbie and Della and then me and so I stayed a while to chat and re-assure her. She has been having a pretty lonely time of it with Freda's family being immobile and pre-occupied with the shop and me being busy and not able to see her for a while. She had, however, seen Freda on the bank holiday as a neighbour had taken her over and brought her back. Off home to arrive to a bevy of letters and telephone messages - the product of any short period away from home and my regular punishment for any such offence! Worked on many of these matters this evening but hardly scratched the surface again.
The major of them was the Eaton Socon election where our 5th candidate, Tony Carmedy, was unable to take up his council seat and now former Independent, Ross McKay, has joined the Liberal Democrats and will now be standing so as to fill the vacant seat which was the best I could achieve, given the potential seriousness of the matter. Many phone calls to party colleagues catching up on the present political scene before retiring to bed with a rather grumpy Diana who felt that I had not been a very good holiday companion.