Boathouse by moonlight

I finished the oil painting of the Boathouse in moonlight today. In the meantime Alex has been struggling with a large frame.
This afternoon Alex is off to Cardiff with one of our daughters to take one of the grandchildren to see the X factor Road Show. The last time we went to see anyone in Cardiff it was Alison Moyet in St David's Hall. She was terrific and obviously had a large following.
I remember one moonlight evening in Welshpool. It was approaching Christmas and at that time of year it was common for gangs to steal a lorry load of Christmas Trees overnight from the plantations around there.
It may seem hard to believe but in those days we were quite interested in either preventing crime or catching criminals. Every night part of the duties would be to go around every "lock up", vulnerable premises on the area, (shops garages etc) and physically check doors windows for any sign of a break in. If one was discovered the following morning you could guarantee being called out of bed to explain why you hadn't discovered it.
Anyway Mike and I were parked amongst a host of Christmas trees. It was quite eerie in the moonlight with  cold  mist swirling around us. In order to hear any sounds we had the windows down. Occasionally we heard muffled sounds and movement in the trees which on investigation turned out to be no more than an odd animal. All of a sudden we were shaken by a thundering noise coming right at us. We looked at each other with some misapprehension. I reached for the door handle and felt for my truncheon.With that from out of the mist a white horse appeared galloping towards our panda. It reared up and wheeled off disappearing into the trees. God knows where the horse had come from but my heart was beating louder than the horses hoof beats.
When it had gone we looked nonchalantly at each other and decided it was time to go and check the lock ups in town.