Storm Brewing

As we finished our BBQ we became aware of a stillness in the air previously missing, the light had changed and a quiet spooky feeling of thunder approaching, we hastily put the sides back into the hood and dropped the t v aerial, just in time too, the first drops were on us and boy were they nice, we resisted the temptation of running around in the rain like kids, and did the boring adult thing of taking cover, its been a long time since we have listened to rain drumming on the boats roof, we were sure we could hear a hiss, as the rain cooled off our baking metal boat, it didn't last long, but it was a little fresher afterwards.

Talking to a couple earlier, they had been moored here in July 2007, the river had flooded pushing both them and their boat into the adjacent field, we looked at the water with a new sense of respect and wondered again about just how much rain we were getting.

There are far more cruiser type boats on the Thames than on the canals, there seems to be a competition amongst them to see who can dangle the most and/or biggest fenders on their craft, one we saw looked like a floating space hopper shop,we had trouble telling bow from stern.

The storm approaches, I tried to get a picture of the lightning, the results were like a script for Norman Wisdom to work with

Good try but not a winning entry, we can still see the side !

Oh, come on your're not really trying, we saw a boat with 22 fenders a few weeks ago

Swinford toll bridge at 5 p a car you would hardly think it worth collecting, but the toll house and trade sold for 1.5 million recently we are told, a lot of five pence coins to count 

Earlier in the week light rain was forecast for today and heavy rain with risk of flooding tomorrow - the Met office changed it's mind and at the moment we are expecting the hot, humid weather to continue - certainly the barometer is stuck on 'very dry'. We feel very lucky that we don't have to spend our days in hot cars or stuffy offices and when the inside of the boat is still 28 C at midnight and it's difficult to sleep we remind ourselves that in the winter we talk constantly of 'when it's hot in the summer and the days are longer......'

Bye for now,

Baz and Ali.