Visit from Down Under

Hello Again

The last time I wrote we were expecting our family from Down Under, Yes my cousin Graham and his wife Jenny were coming to us for a trip on the river and to see our boat that they had never seen only on our website, they didn’t come from Australia just to see us they have lots of visiting to do, but as he didn’t get to visit two years ago when he was here he made us a priority visit, which was lovely as it was quite a few years since I had seen them both, and how well they both looked, We had just got back from King’s Lynn on Thursday 13^th May and unpacked

 did the washing when I got a call from Graham saying that he was coming to visit us on Friday, now although we were expecting Them, we weren’t expecting them quite so soon, but it was really good as we were still in Evesham Marina which meant that they could come to the marina, leave their car safely parked in the marina, and only needed to bring from the car what they needed for the short trip that we would be making over the weekend.

Friday we got tidied up and ready for our visit and so at about six o’clock Graham and Jenny arrived and it was lovely to see them both again after so long, and Richard had never even met them before, but he is fine with anyone so they got on great. We had fish and chips on Friday night and settled them down for a well earned rest, they had driven from Manchester that day and so they were shattered so we had quite an early night for the visitors from Oz, well Jenny went to bed Graham can talk for Australia and stayed chatting until midnight. Saturday we sailed to Stratford which was about an eight hour journey but the weather was fantastic for them, “especially as we had been having such bad weather only a couple of days before”.

We spent the night on the boat chatting and catching up, eating the wonderful curry that Jenny had prepared along the way, with a little help from me of course! Sunday we had a mooch around Stratford, there was plenty going on around the place and the weather was perfect, in the evening we went to the oldest pub in Stratford, for a Sunday roast, and for the price it was really super, all homemade and plenty of it, Monday we sailed back to Evesham to get Graham and Jenny back to the marina, and on their way to their next destination, which was off to Joey and Jayne’s.

It was great to see you both and hope you enjoyed your trip with us; I know we enjoyed having you both, so farewell to them both until their next visit, and enjoy your two week trip around the med x. The next day, Tuesday we left Evesham marina and sailed down to Pershore, which is just as lovely as we remembered it from our first trip here when we first had the boat almost two years ago, the weather is absolutely boiling hot but we have got a lovely mooring under the trees on the park here in Pershore. Wednesday we started to do a bit more work, as Richard had done all the touching up in the painting department, I was going to do the varnishing, so after Richard had rubbed my Cratch down and prepared it, I put a couple of coats of varnish on it, although it still looked really good after two years, it seemed a bit dry and needed a couple of coats, so now it looks even grander than it did before.!! The next day I varnished the seat on the back deck so now we look really good, well we think so.

 We are moored right opposite to a swans nest, which with the binocliars!! We could watch the eggs hatching although they were hidden from my Camera, it was Pat on nb. Guppy who is moored in front of us, that told us they were hatching, we counted five on Thursday night, and then on Friday morning Mum and Dad swan bought out the 6 Signets to show the world and they were just so cute and cuddly (see the pictures in the wildlife section) although they were keeping them close to the nest.

Saturday night Richard and I had booked a meal in Whistlers, which is a lovely restaurant in Pershore with a balcony, where you can sit and watch the world go by, and also it overlooks Toyah (It’s a Mithtery) Wilcox’s house which also made good viewing as she was seen leaving the house in the early evening another claim to fame!!.

Sunday morning another gloriously sunny day and we awoke to the dragon boat contestants that were taking part in the all day long event that has been going on today here in per shore and here we are right in the middle of it , with ring side seats, so to speak. Horror of horrors, poor Mum and Dad swan have lost four of their babies, how sad.... we woke this morning to find only two baby swans with mum and dad, we thought at first that as the river was so busy that some of the babies had chosen not to come out with mum and dad, but after checking all day, it turned out that she had lost the other four during the night, and they just accept it and get on, it was so sad for us and for Pat on nb Guppy. Monday morning 24^th May and we are setting off for

our next destination, we said our goodbyes to all of the other boaters we had chatted with over the weekend and set off for Tewkesbury, it was boiling hot again, in fact quite unbearable for me, so after a couple of hours we thought we would moor up, I didn’t like the mooring at Eckington, as it was right in the sun with no trees for a bit of protection , so we went on with Richard moaning at me as it was now even hotter, we carried on and unfortunately had to travel the whole way to Tewkesbury as the River Avon is no good for moorings, there was a nice pub on the way, but it had let its moorings go to rack and ruin and we were unable to pull in there,  " there was a gorgeous mooring out the back of Toyah's house that backs on to the river, and it has a waterpoint, so if she was my mate we could have moored there!! so if you are reading this Toyah be my mate" !! so we carried on  to our destination, and arrived at about 3.30pm both feeling a little fractious with the heat, but we soon get over it, and got our bikes down and had a lovely cycle through Tewkesbury, which was lovely as we were creating our own breeze, today 25^th May we

 are setting off for Gloucester, just 

 washed the bedding and taken it to the launderette to dry, This Marina’s site,  is really lovely, we stayed here last time we were in this area two years ago, almost.

So until the next time

Lots of love

Chrissie Richard and Rio x x

ps. to Everyone that has had a birthday this month happy birthday I am not certain but I think it is Carys and I know Mia had a birthday, Lisa had her birthday on the 7th and Tracy has a birthday on the 30th of May, so lots of love from us x x