Pause

Tuesday and an idle day, the last before I head north for a concert with Monteverdi Singers and an Evensong with Cantamus, plus catching up with various folk.

We had some much needed rain overnight, and lunch out at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, very good indeed. Real attention to detail.

And then summer came back as the clouds broke apart. This reflection of sunlight on water was even better live, but the photo's not bad.
On Wednesday morning,  since we had been discussing where our first night's stop should be when we get moving again,  we walked the route. 
Splendid bridge but nowhere to tie up.

Lots of locks, and nowhere to stop! This was the canalside view a few metres shy of Spaghetti Junction:
but, again, no way of securing the boat..

Andrew will stay put, all being well, until I get back on Monday. He'll have the IWA District newsletter to produce, which will keep him busy, and no doubt lots of walking around the city. Then we're headed back out into countryside. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vegvisir 2024

Image
And we're off! 6 weeks, then 1 week back home, then off again! A gentle start on Sunday 27th as we loaded up our stuff on board. Andrew then went home so he could be at Conwy Folk club on Monday evening, stage managing for visiting guest artists. Meanwhile I was stowing the remaining gubbins and shopping for all our fresh foods. It felt like about 10kg as I walked the mile or so back from the shops!  I then had a little chat with Linda and Mike in the office, who agreed that we could move round to their canalside wharf overnight, once they had closed up. This meant that Andrew could park up at 1am or so, and simply walk across the car park, instead of wandering along the towpath looking for the boat. This is because you can't turn just anywhere in a 57' boat. On leaving our moorings, we can exit from our Arm onto the Main line in one direction only, heading north. It's then at least 30 minutes' cruise to the next winding hole (turning circle) and then 30 minutes bac...
Read more

Stoke-on-Trent

Image
We had arrived at our mooring by late morning, so took ourselves off down the towpath to check out the Festival and its ice cream van. What a terrific range of stalls! Had a chat with our IWA counterparts inthis region and bought a book from them. We had a pint and lunch from a Thai stall, which we ate while gongoozling at the staircase lock just around the corner. Sadly the queue for the ice cream van was rather too long, and the canal museum rammed, so we passed on those. Fun seeing a blacksmith at work though. There was an open air music arena, and a parade of littl'uns waving their fish themed creations , topped and tailed by puppeteers with a huge mermaid at the front and dragonfly at the rear. Hands full of beer, no photos, sorry! A quiet evening back on board. Early start for Andrew, dashing home for the post and a few jobs, and then up to Blackpool, overnighting there before visiting his Mum. Meanwhile I had the exciting task of..  The launderette. 2 miles away, up the hill...
Read more

Coming home 12th - 15th July

Image
I arrived at the visitor moorings at lunchtime, and here I can brag. There were two boats moored about 70' apart: I'm 57' and coming down with the flow so lots of momentum. I was going to have to do a 180° turn across the flow, kill the speed, and get into the bank without too much fuss, and without clattering anyone else, so I could get secure without the boat drifting away. I only nailed it! And a splendid view: Wet and cold all afternoon so did not indulge in any of the lovely walks thereabouts, but instead made myself a gf pizza. Dead simple, cupboard staples, stupid cheap, not buying ready made ever again. I can't believe that Saturday is my last full day on the River. The weather has been mostly pants but the morning was OK to prowl looking for rust to cover with a conversion paint. It's quite happy to be drizzled on after a while, and guess what, it probably will be. After lunch away to Northwich for rubbish and water, and then probably down to Saltersford mo...
Read more