It's curtains!

I came up to Briar Rose this morning, as I have a boat test to do up this way tomorrow.  It turned out to be the slowest and most difficult journey since we've been coming up here, thanks to torrential rain for most of the route.  I hope it's been doing the same on the reservoirs which feed canals like the Oxford, which are exceptionally low at the moment.

After lunch on the boat, the first job was to take the old oil from our first oil change to the recycling centre in Rugby.  It's less than ten minutes drive from the marina.

Then I set about hanging our new curtains.  The old ones were a bit better since we washed them all, but they were still falling apart.  The new ones were made for us by Southsea Nets who know all about narrowboat curtains because the company is owned by the daughter of Sue from No Problem.

Before

After

They look fantastic.  We'd been a bit concerned they'd be too bold, but they look great.  They've got blackout linings which will keep the light out on bright mornings.  We've also got some cushions and porthole bungs, although they're not quite as tight a fit as the old ones.

This evening, the rain has cleared and there's been a beautiful sunset.

While I was taking some photos of the sunset out the side hatch, I was surprised by a huge fish splashings its tail out the water.  I enticed it back a little later with some bread.