Marina Life

We've been here in Pilling’s Lock Marina for a couple of weeks now.  

 

It’s the biggest marina we've ever moored in and there are LOTS of people living here. The car parks are full every night. This beautiful motorbike has been parked in the same spot since we arrived. It never seems to move and is starting to go rusty. Such a shame.

I love the rear pegs

We haven’t been on the boat the whole time though. Last week we went up to Newcastle to visit our little grand-daughter who is growing so fast. She’s starting to talk and is developing her own personality and it was very hard to come home and leave her behind. I'm now on stand-by to dash back early in January when the next baby is due.

This weekend we hired another car and went back to Manchester to visit the rest of our family. It was lovely seeing everyone again, just a shame that the meal we’d booked in the local pub was so dreadful. I think the chef must have had a hangover because not one of the 10 meals was right.

The weather has been amazing here this past week. It’s been bright and sunny almost every day but then extremely wet and windy every night. Last night the sky was really clear and full of stars but it was just too windy to get my telescope out. In typical fashion though, today is wet and windy.....just when we need to move for a pump-out. We can manage for a few more days but at this time of year I don't like letting the tank get above 3/4 full, just in case we get frozen in. The forecast is better for tomorrow so we'll leave it till then.

The other day we walked to the flood lock to check the state of the river after all the recent rain.

It’s almost in the red so we decided to stay in the marina for the time being.  I’d really like to get out for Christmas but we’ll have to see.

  

The flood sluice gate is still open

This is the weir that diverts the river past the canal section of the River Soar where the marina is

I hope Roger never needs to store anything under the bed as it’s full of bags of wool. I can’t resist buying more whenever we see a wool shop but being in the marina has given me plenty of “hooky” time.

Last week I made this jumper for my grand-daughter and I've now started on things for the new baby which seem incredibly small but thankfully make up really quickly and as they don’t take much wool I’m able to use up some of my stash. I’m making a New Year’s resolution to NOT buy any more until I’ve emptied at least one bag.  I can see lots of stripy things being made next year!