We were made very welcome at the

Horninglow Boat Gathering

Burton upon Trent

Even Nick was persuaded to polish the tiller - please admire the shining brass!!

Some boaters had come prepared with bunting and spent Saturday morning erecting it.

Well aren't I special too?

Others displayed their special objects for the delight of the passing populace.

Nick liked the pig.

We hadn't brought any bunting - it was one of the items we had sacrificed at the beginning of the year in order to make as much storage space available as possible.

So we displayed our bees - some on top of the boat.

If you look carefully here you can see bees hanging from above the side doors and the flying bee doing its umpteenth circuit around the foredeck suspended from the aerial.

We also put Spike out to graze - which caused endless amusement. In the end we had to stick a notice to the side of the boat which read - My name is Spike. I am a guinea pig. I have travelled to a lot of p[laces including Oxford, London, Cambridge, Boston, Lincoln, Newark and Nottingham.

There were plenty of passers by.

Arrival of the Mayor of Burton upon Trent - Nick greeted him with the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition.

As we were the "outsiders" at the gathering (in the nicest possible way) we were asked to judge the illuminated boats.

and they even awarded us the trophy for the longest distance travelled to the rally!