Open thread - England and new kitten

Here are some photos of the island. We finally sold our houseboat (above) and took the opportunity to take some pictures. We're going to miss it, but it had to be done...


This lovely boat belongs to Joe and his wife Penny. Joe works at the boatyard on the island and is also our resident handyman. He's refitting the shower enclosure for Kate, the new owner of our boat.. She and her partner Alex will enjoy life in their new community.

This is Pegotty, a Dunkirk boat. It was one of the many small vessels involved in the rescue and evacuation of Allied troops in the Second World War.

From Wiki:

The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and 4 June, 1940, when British, French and Canadian troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War.

On the first day, only 7,010 men were evacuated, but by the ninth day, a total of 338,226 soldiers — 198,229 British and 139,997 French— had been rescued by the hastily assembled fleet of 850 boats.

Joe brought up his two children on Pegotty. Then he bought Violet Ellen and his daughter lived in the historic boat with her partner until last year, when Pegotty was refitted and sold. We were on the island last year and we watched while Joe lovingly restored the hull of the boat and told us all about its heroic past.

A lovely view of the river Thames, looking towards Twickenham and Richmond. The nice building on the left is St James's School.


This is Pirate, our new kitten. He's adorable, very curious and incredibly affectionate, considering the two baths he had since his arrival on Wednesday. We're doing what we can to rid him of fleas without resorting to chemical treatments. The second bath worked well. We used a natural "recipe", consisting of a gallon of warm water, salt, balsamic vinegar with orange peel and two pairs of extremely scratched arms, followed by a long rinse. The fleas just dropped off and drowned!


Our son is coming for a vacation with his cat-crazy girlfriend in a couple of weeks. He has already warned us that she will monopolize our little Pirate for the duration of their stay.

That's all for now, folks! Back to $P in the morning...
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