We’re sorry for such a long unexplained absence, we’ve had a few problems. Back in December we had some uninvited guests, unless that is, you wanted to purchase Chinese furniture. We’d been hacked and taken over. Eric spent a lot of time and effort sorting it all out, cleaning up, making it safe and significantly reducing the possibility of it happening again. Now whether as a result of all the work Eric did, or pure coincidence of timing, wordpress has also been doing some work, and consequently I have been unable to save any of the posts I have written, which has meant nothing’s been published for several months. Its been a frustrating and miserable time. I love writing and I’m always touched when people tell me they enjoy reading about our adventures.
On the plus side of things, at least we lost the blog over winter when our coddiwompling was seriously curtailed. Apart from winter being the best time to see kingfishers, in reality you have missed very little.
We had planned to take 2 months in a marina so that Eric could do some DIY on Firecrest. We chose to use Crick Marina because of its closeness to the A14, the most direct route back to the bricks and mortar. The work took a little longer than expected thanks to us both succumbing to the flu for 3 weeks in January. I won’t go into detail, but Firecrest wasn’t built with maintenance in mind and it’s been a hard slog reaching fuel lines and water ingress points in cramped inaccessible places. And our visitors will be relieved to hear that the back steps now have equal height rises so they dont their dignity is maintained as they tumble into the boat. As will always be the case there is still plenty more to be done but we were all going stir crazy not cruising.
We moved Firecrest out of Crick Marina at the end of February, sat out Storm Gareth at Yelvetoft Wharf and finally on March 22nd I travelled back to the boat by train and promised Heather I wouldn’t be imposing on her Suffolk hospitality until…. until the next time.
We have now set off on our cruising adventure for this year and hopefully over the next week I shall get back into the swing of sharing some of the joys we experience on a more regular basis.
At least as we made our way through Husband Bosworths tunnel it was dry.
And although it wasn’t sunny, the canal cut through an avenue of beech trees. 
And out into some open hilly Leicestershire countryside. 
To help warm me up I got out and walked.
Until we got to our overnight mooring at the top of Foxton Locks. This has to be one of my top ten views from the canals, sadly the camera doesn’t do it justice.
we woke to the most glorious of days, so decided to make the most of what autumn was left. Today was a true Codiwomple To travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. We would take a detour just for the pleasure of cruising and venture down the short Welford Arm.
First though, it was with great amusement (and smugness) that we cruised underneath the A14
As anyone from Suffolk knows there are only 2 escape routes, the A12 and the A14, both long tedious roads that are too small for the volume of traffic using them. We had crawled the A14 many a time on our way up to Braidbar and frequently stopped off at Welford to refresh our sanity. Seeing the A14 from the canal is much much prettier. 
Mind you we did have a moment when we thought the canal would grind to a halt, we had “leaves on the line” 
More in the lock than on the trees,
Although what were left on the branches were pure gold.
Welford itself has a small marina basin at the end of the line, we were able to moor up and head for sustenance, this time enjoying a huge bowl of homemade soup, in Totty’s tearoom. It’s a tiny place and the as the owner/cook/waitress chatted to us, she got Eric summed up in one, and offered him a second bowl on the house. Silly man, he was too full for the best coffee and walnut cake I’ve had for a long time, not that it stopped him having a piece. The light was going as we got back to Firecrest so we didn’t walk around the village this time. But this little detour was worth it. We will be back again to visit Welford and to explore properly.
We spent a few days in the village, it has a Deli butcher who is enthusiastic about local produce. So we indulged in some good food. 
And I took advantage of the local footpaths to burn off some of that indulgence. 
I set out walking in the sunshine,
but got drenched on my way back. Although that Oak tree made a good shelter.
Crick is fortunate to have a lot of footpaths crying out to be walked, so setting out from our mooring we happily scaled the local Everest, Crack’s Hill. 
Ok it’s only a mere 25 m above the tow path, but it is the highest point locally and gives stunning views. That’s the DRIFT distribution centre you can see in the distance. 7.8 million sq feet of logistics. Amongst other things, it’s where several supermarkets gather their goodies before sending them onwards to fill the shelves. That’s progress for you. Many millennia ago, Crack’s Hill arrived when the ice age deposited debris as the glacier melted, which is how this landscape became what it is. There have been Neolithic bronze and iron age settlements discoverd here and the Romans also took advantage of this hill as it overlooked their Wattling Street route march. The names Crack and Crick are derived from the Celtic word Cruk which means hill. Crick village got a mention in the doomsday book.
I don’t know if this modern adornment will still be standing next millennia but the current community marked the start of the 21st century by erecting this beacon. I would have liked to have seen it lit.
There’s an active community in Crick that has raises money to create and maintain the local woodlands and public spaces. This year they have added a memorial commemorating 100 years of the end of WW1, I quite like that the area behind Tommy is rough ground.
However this time we emerged from the Crick tunnel and made straight for the Moorings pub for a pie and a pint. (Or in my case a rather tasty mediteranian fish stew)
We had plenty of time to explore this pretty area, while we took a few days to use of the Poste Restante mail service offered by the post office. 
The young farmers put on their annual bonfire and fireworks display for us. 
I harvested some crab apples from the millennium woods and made some jelly. 
And we met up with our new “best friend” the fuel man Mark on Calisto. Hopefully he’ll be keeping our tanks topped up over the few months. 
And finally here are our neighbours for the week.
Locks
stock
and tunnels. (This is Crick tunnel, nice and straight, if a bit drippy)
Even the Braunston tunnel didn’t cause us any problems. And we moored up in the woods on the Daventry side so I could walk down to Tescos for supplies.
Back out into the open again,
under the pretty bridge by the cottage, to turn onto the Leicester Line, enjoying the autumnal sunshine as we went. 
The next day we cruised at 3 miles an hour alongside the M1 going at at least 70mph, we passed the Watford Gap service station, (not worthy of a photo) a few miles before arriving at the Watford Flight. 
CRT is closing this flight for essential repair for 6 weeks before Christmas so we had to make our ascent before then. Unlike individual locks the Watford flight has 4 staircase locks, where each lock empties or fills from the adjacent lock, so if you dont open the paddles innthe right order you could end up flooded or stranded. Consequently there are volunteer lockies on duty to help you through. Its quite straight forward if you rememeber the rhyme
We both took our turn and enjoyed the day
We don’t particually like cruising through Braunston. It’s narrow and busy with bridges and bends. But it’s a lovely active village with good reasons to stop. So this time we moored on the north side, just before the Midland Chandlers water point, still on the North Oxford canal.
Last time we came this way our eyes were distracted by a burnt out shell of a boat, so we failed to appreciate what a lovely mooring spot this is. Although I think other canny boats have already marked the spot, it’s usually full up. Thankfully CRT have removed the dead boat which was a hazzard to us all.
After a few days, stocking up on Braunston Bangers at the butchers, and a few extra bits and bobs from Tradline, the rope emporium. We said our goodbyes to Braunston for this year. 
The sheep didn’t seem that bothered to see us go.
Edward’s Menagerie has grown in numbers and there are now over 200 furry friends who regularly make an appearance at yarn festivals and craft shows. I knew that I was in for treat.
Toft is situated in a purpose built barn studio and welcomes visitors with a hot drink. 
Everything at Toft is beautifully presented, including the coffee, and we indulged in a piece of spicy pumpkin cake as well. Then we were set to shop. Deciding what we could bear to leave behind or more to the point, how much we could afford to bring home. Jo is going to crochet some presents and I bought a gift for Heather. 
Heather has already made several of the Menagerie so Leanne the Chameleon will be an addition to her family. 
There’s a walking trail around the farm where we were able to see the alpaca.
Although Heather and I both think that this is a llama not an Alpaca.
There are towpath closures during November while they crane in the structure but canal traffic will be “managed”. There are also several miles of earthworks running alongside the canal after this, between Clifton and Hillmorton. We assume this is preparation for more housing. It’ll be interesting to see if the developers embrace or ignore the canal as an asset to this new community.
In the mean time you cant beat a little red brick bridge at this time of year. 
We had a lovely surprise when we got to Hillmorton locks, our good friend Jo was waiting for us to lend a hand. Locks are always more fun with company, even if it was only a little flight of three. And it gave us the chance to share a bowl of soup for lunch. Jo and I then found enough blackberries hanging on to add flavour to an apple crumble and the feasting continued all evening when Jo prepared a delicious dinner for us. 
Topped off by the most spectacular sunset.
Jo’s boat BluePearl is a year younger than Firecrest and it’s the first time we’ve really been able to spend much time on board. Jo knows the area quite well so we moored up and she took us for a cruise into Braunston and back. A nice experience to cruise on a different boat.