Coming or Going?

All being well, we will be at home as you read this, unsure of where we are, or perhaps who we are even. The arrows in our minds are running in lots of conflicting directions at the moment, but I think it's fair to say we have a plan!

There may not be as many postcards for a month or two, but if we can acclimatise to the good old heat of home, I've got a bit of a revamp planned for this and most of my other sites, so stay tuned, and thanks for sharing the ride with us, it's been a joy to receive all those comments and feedback!


© postcards from the road

Winter Green

In Wales, the trees are green even in winter.

Green and soft.

© postcards from the road

We'll miss the spring.

One of the great things about going home, is that we'll miss the depth of winter. One of the sad things about not coming back until mid year, is that we'll miss the spring. We'll just have to leave that for another time!

© postcards from the road

Barge

Even the barges think it's autumn.

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Winter Arrives

Time to pack the boat away till next year I think. Two days till the next round of airport xrays and body searches begins!

In three days time it will be summer.

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Silo

From our mooring on the Bourgogne even the grain silos looked lush against the autumn sky.

© postcards from the road

Autumn Arrives 7 of 7

Sure, I could have shown you the reds, the oranges, the cars and the kiddies frolicking in the leaves, but I ididn't!

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Autumn Arrives 6 of 7

We could just tell that soon it would be cold enough to go home for a time!

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Autumn Arrives 5 of 7

By the third day, the water was paved with leaves.

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Autumn Arrives 4 of 7

Then the trees started to fluoresce.

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Autumn Arrives 3 of 7

Two days after the frost, the water started to glow.

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Autumn Arrives 2 of 7

Then we had a frost. Well we had two days of waking to ice on the boat and within hours the trees seemed to understand what was expected of them.

© postcards from the road

Autumn Arrives 1 of 7

We were bemoaning the fact that it was nearly winter and we hadn't seen Autumn. We wanted a proper autumn, the sort that one sees in the picture books, all we had thus far was the odd dark foggy morning.

© postcards from the road

Surprise!

Yep, you can even buy the teeshirt and the dinner plate.

"If you eat all of your potatoes Sebastian, you'll see his date!"

What WERE they thinking?


© postcards from the road

Colours

The fog isn't just about trees disappearing into the horizon, colours become strangely muted. Vibrant yellows become pastels, the sky becomes... err... soft blue?

© postcards from the road

Reflections

Tired of reflections?

Oh well.

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Mist

Sometimes the feeling of moving through the reflections is almost surreal, it's truly living in a postcard, without having to buy a stamp.

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Ibis

The MV Ibis glides under a bridge before squeezing into a lock.

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Fisherman

It's cold, it's foggy, and the sun isn't quite over the horizon.

People do this for fun.

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Evening near the lock

If one arrives at a lock too late in the evening to go through, well one may as well moor for the night and make the most of the sunset one supposes.

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Ducks

As we potter along, the ducks are a source of constant amazement. Why they don't simply swim out of the way rather than going to all the effort of flying is something they aren't prepared to explain.

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Cows

How do they see where they need to go early in the morning?

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Cool

She didn't need a sign, she oozed cool anyway. An ancient iron steam tug wonders about this new poly-something stuff they build boats from these days.

© postcards from the road

Chinese

In the early morning stillness, when one squints, this lock on the Canal du Centre looks for all the world like a piece of ancient Chinese architecture.

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Waiting to go fishing.

Lying in wait. © postcards from the road

Reflections, not of water!

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In Montceau it was difficult to miss this wonderful building disguised as a cube of polished stainless steel. To be fair, not all of us thought it was as beautiful as the one with the camera thought it to be.

Village

Somewhere in France.

© postcards from the road

Auxerre

Downtown Auxerre. © postcards from the road

Sunset

Sunset on the Nivernaise above Auxerre.

Jetstreams and all.

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Sunrise downtown.

No one gets up early enough to catch the sunrise.

Ever.

Except the blokes in the Boulangerie.

© postcards from the road