Wanderer Returns

It was great to go down to Devon with my Mum and sister Chrissie. We were visiting Gavin, Katie, Isobel and Katie's parents who kindly put us up or was it 'put up with us' for a couple of days. Katie and Gavin are expecting a baby in July and we are all very excited!
It's been sunny down south and the hedges are greener than up here on The Macc but hopefully we'll catch up soon.

Bella giving me a welcome home hug - it was lovely seeing Baz and Archie again too! 

While I've been away I noticed that I have become much more concious of water conservation - not leaving taps running while I wash my hands and not overfilling the kettle. I did enjoy having a bath though - we only have a shower now and can't have those every day - some days it's a strip wash.

It was strange after six months of 4 mph on Micky Jay to go on fast train and car journey's, it all felt so busy and people on the train looked so industrious with their laptops, made me feel lucky to have left the world of work now.

Baz reports it's all been fairly quiet on the canal this last few days - I was hoping for some cut gossip. We'll be moving on in the next day or so, perhaps we'll bump into some boating folk and catch up on their news.

One event I missed - this proud Mum has eleven ducklings!

If all the little ducklings survive and go on to have eleven more each.........well the mind boggles! Baz tells me he has been keeping an eye on the ducklings all week, trying not to worry about them too much because nature in reality can be 'red in tooth and claw'. He's noticed that even a boat running it's engine can cause confusion - Mum duck can't here the 'peep,peep' call of the little ones and dashes about trying to round them all up. Still judging by the amount of ducks we see the species is not about to die out. 

Bye for now

Ali and Baz