It was a pleasant late afternoon when we’d moored up in Braunston, so we went on a wander to see if any peregrine falcons were lurking around: we couldn’t see any on their usual church spire roost.

By the lock, the rowan looked splendid, but we weren’t sure what the grapes were doing there. Perhaps they were a lure for the peregrines, but we thought it unlikely. Then out of the blue, a peregrine whizzed past, did some aerobatics then whizzed off after a wood piegon. Perhaps they do like grapes for dessert…

This chap was spending absolutely ages taking a photo: I think he was playing with Neutral Density filters and very long exposures, so here’s one of ours that took rather less time.

Wandering back along the main street, we yet again failed to work out what this addition to a cottage was all about.

And, by the time we made it to the church, our friends were again in residence on the steeple.

We thought everyone in Braunston loved their peregrines, but it would seem not. The lady walking her dog in the churchyard was thoroughly fed up with them: she really didn’t like wading through well-stripped avian carcasses amongst the gravestones.

Ah well – time for a Guinness, and a well-timed discussion with the bar’s resident boat engineer on the likely life time of boat domestic battery systems: we suspect Song & Dance may need an upgrade soon…

And, although Braunston has a reasonable store and a good butcher, for a change we did the OAP bit on Thursday, and got a free bus ride into Daventry so the quartermaster could assuage her by now desperate Waitrose withdrawal symptoms. We’ll soon be home for the winter, and the addiction will be much less of a problem.