Lockdown day 32 - Rediscover this day, April 24th, 2014 - a Google Street View

These photos are not, strictly speaking, mine. Nor do they actually belong to April 24th, 2014. They were taken by a Google Street View cameraman in September 2013, while Grace and I were moored at Stoke Bruerne with our friend Michelle. The View of Stoke Bruerne didn't appear on Street View for six months, at which point, on April 24th, I screen-shot these stills and added them to my photo collection.

We're moored almost at the tunnel entrance, where the Street View stops. If you start a virtual tour HERE you can turn around and walk back past us - the first boat moored right out of the woodland shade - and down as far as lock 18 by bridge 54. It's a lovely experience on a beautiful day.

Strangely, there are no more photos for that day - actually, for several days - though we've been to Stoke Bruerne often since then, and taken dozens more.

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It must be spring!

Tiny lambs and very pregnant sheep in the fields, ducklings in the marina (no less than fifteen of them with one mother, but I couldn't get a decent photo), blue skies and warm breezes - and spring cleaning! We'd love to be out on the cut in weather like this, but we're here for a reason, as I explained yesterday. I've been seeing on Twitter fabulous photos of various parts of the system under blue skies. Thanks to NB Talullah, NB Miner Bill and the CRT for these...

I started the job of cleaning the seats on the lockers in the welldeck this morning, and applying a new coat of Sadolin to the wooden edges of each (for waterproofing). The stuff takes ages to dry, though, so it'll be a two-day job at least. I dried the bilges in the engine compartment - I'd tightened the nuts on the stern gland yesterday, to reduce dripping. And I thought about cleaning the boat - well, I've got to start somewhere, haven't I? I'll clean the foredeck tomorrow, and see how enthusiastic I feel afterwards!

Meanwhile, Grace has been busy sewing, making curtains to hang at each end of the dinette to give better privacy for those who sleep there from time to time.

The CRT tweeted this morning that a number of stretches of towing path had been added to Google Street View. I knew that this was underway; I'd read last year that Google were lending CRT cameras for staff to use to take these photos, and I blogged back in September that we'd had one such cameraman walk past us while we were moored at Stoke Bruerne. A quick visit to Stoke Bruerne on Google Maps today, and a peek in Street View, and I found us!

We're moored almost at the tunnel entrance, where the photos stop. If you start a virtual tour HERE you can turn around and walk back past us, and down as far as lock 18 by bridge 54. It was a lovely day for taking the Google photos.

In the evening, Grace and I went along to our first meeting of the art class in the marina lounge. This is led by Hazel, a self-taught, very gifted sketcher and water colour painter. Grace was there to refresh and hone her skills, I was there to... well, I'd warned Hazel in advance that I would be taking my Painting by Numbers books, and Dot-to-Dots! Sadly, I've not done any serious artwork since school, and I'm badly out of practice, but it was good fun, and I suspect I might improve a bit over time. Maybe.