Huddelsford to Eastbourne

It is now 6.30 am and I'm back in Eastbourne. I received the call from my sister Susannah on Sunday to say that both my Stepmum and Dad were extremely ill and I should come to visit them sooner rather then later. We had left Huddelsford and the boat Gathering Saturday afternoon and started the mad dash to Milton Keynes. What I hadn't mentioned was that my Sister in Law's mother had passed away earlier in the week and both Angela and Alan asked if we would attend the funeral. They live in Cunbria and the funeral was to be in Carlise.As our car was already at our sons in Milton Keynes we had decided that if we put in some long days, we could be in Stoke Bruerne by Wednesday, drive up to Keswick on Thursday, ready for the funeral on Friday. That all changed when I got the call from Susannah.
So. We had made it as far as Nuneaton on Sunday when I heard the news. As we couldn't take Jade with us to Eastbourne, as luck would have it, Christine and Kev were due at Kev's parents place for a late lunch in......Nuneaton.  So after arranging to meet them at bridge 17 on the Coventry, we passed Jade to them and then headed off to Trinity Marina up the Ashby where we had arranged to leave the boat. From there we got a taxi to Nuneaton Station, caught the 12.05pm train to Milton Keynes, got another taxi to our sons house, had a quick cup of tea and cuddle from our two grandchildren and then drove down to Eastbourne, arriving at Sunnyside nursing home by 4.30pm. After seeing both my Dad and Norma I realised why Susannah had been so worried. Its only a matter of time now and I strongly believe that whichever one goes first the second will follow shortly after. I have no idea when we will return to the boat so until then and when I resume my blog, I'll leave you with some pictures of Huddelsford.


President arrives





An excellent turnout of boats.





A marquee full of parrots. Very colourful and noisy!





Vintage cars



Could be one of the cars trom the TV program Heartbeat.



Canal artist