In the morning, I was wishing I had taken a photo of our Ortomarine friends, Matt and Toy and their boat. I had no pictures of Braunston either. I remembered to tell them the name of a town we had failed to think of last night, using the Ortomarine community page. I thought I would pop along after breakfast before setting off, say good bye and get a picture of them and their boat. As we ate, in our usual places, Paintbrush came past with both Toy and Matt smiling waving and holding their cameras. Early birds! The positioning of our dinette tables is the same but where we eat on them is different. Since we were sitting on the same side, it was easy for us all to see each other. Thanks to Matt for his photos.

I found it interesting to see the view in their boat from Matt’s driving position. It looked very like ours. Next time we meet I would like to see inside each others and compare the modifications we have made. Everyone has their own preferences and priorities.

I had missed another photo opportunity and thought I could run down and catch up, but Shane said they were turning soon and not going our way so I would be unlikely to catch them. I could have taken a picture of their boat when it was moored, or their picture in the restaurant. When we set off, we saw them pulling out and heading for the junction. They had stopped for water and so I would have had a chance to catch up after all. If I get another chance I certainly need to seize it.

Part of our discussion the day before between Shane and me, then further with Toy and Matt, was about leaving the experienced person to do the tricky things and entrenching that role so Shane had me driving from the start to day when the manoeuvre was to reverse to the marina, turn the boat round and then go to the junction and turn there. In fact both were very easy turns with a wide canal opposite the marina and a gentle curve and entry for double width boats, not a hard test of skill after all.

The plan was to go back to the very nice spot we had been in before. But when we reached there there was a boat already in the spot. No surprise there! In any case it was no longer the idyllic sunny day we had just had.

It had been spitting slightly and more rain forecast so we did not plan to go far, but bird spotting was not so likely either. I got excited by the brief glimpse of a water vole making a rush into the rushes. Shane didn’t get a chance to see it but he thought there was a good view of a swan’s nest coming up. The willows in their new Spring leaves looked impressive. On closer inspection, the swan had no nest and was just hanging about at the edge of the canal, flapping and preening.

This stretch has had lots of lambs at different stages and different colours.They look cute, but are hard to get a picture of. They don’t stand still. I had several attempts the days before. This one was in a particularly waterlogged field. It looked to young to be trying to drink the water and the reeds don’t look tasty either. This is its natural colour though, it hasn been in the mud. It didn’t seem to be enjoying the rain, which was setting in properly now.

We moored and watched boats in the rain for the rest of the afternoon. My sister had asked me if I would like to join a group writing a poem every day in April with a new prompt every day. I now had 5 prompts and had not contributed any poems to the shared site. It was a good time to get that done. I got two finished, accidentally with a similar women in the 15th and 16th century theme. They are completely unrelated with very different prompts, and I wonder if knitting Tudor socks is taking over my brain. I have ideas for the one “weather plays a part”. I feel a boating theme coming to the fore. Though this day the weather has allowed me time to write. Some poems need a few attempts. I want the next poetry prompt, not to be prompt so I get time to catch up!