The 2 Neil(l)s

The two lovely Neil(l)s were coming up to stay onboard with us for a weekend, but travelling out of Cornwall in August is apparently traumatic ...

 

I did suggest they may like to abandon the weekend's adventures with us...

 Traffic was diabolical!

They are intrepid guests! And we were delighted they had decided to keep on keeping on.

Big Neil texted a couple of times with updates and discussions re dinner and a refusal of an invitation to his mum for chickpea and veg curry - apparently it's not on her list of dietary delights ...

As we moved from Nantwich down to Coole Lane Bridge the bread was proving and then baked after we moored up. The sourdough takes a time but I can do so much other stuff while the bread is getting itself sorted ...

We had chosen Coole Lane as it had road access, and a good parking space, and the mooring was quite pleasant and open. Not too much chopping and cutting to be done to the weeds.

Yay!! Nearly with us!

In an excess of panic that the curry would not be good enough, I did a couple of condiment dishes as well - shaved coconut with sliced banana in lemon juice, and cucumber raita. And mango chutney, sweet chilli sauce and chilli flakes. 2N had brought an apple pie for dessert plus clotted cream ... And good chaps that they are, they brought their own wine - not enough for the weekend, but plenty for that night.

So that I didn't send them away from the table immediately after eating so I could get to the bed on the dinette**, we played cards. Having had a nap that afternoon, I was able to stay awake. But Little Neill was still in bed several hours earlier than usual ...

** Big Neil cannot fit on the dinette. At 6'4" he hangs over the end of our bed, but at least he can stick his feet off the end... The only places in the boat that he can stand upright are the open duck-hatch and the stern hatch - only if the stairs have been lifted up out of the way. So we do have to make sure he has a bed he can stretch out and over its boundaries.

Time to get out of bed, chaps! Bedding from the dinette always resides on the bed during the day and the day starts when I get up from the dinette, OK?

Although to be fair, I was the only person dressed at this stage - David still has his PJ trousers on but has managed to get his shirt on. The maroon seat squab has bulldog clips on it because during the tenant's tenure the zip got broken. Big Neil is a fabulous upholsterer and said he would sew up the squab while he was with us.

Carol and George formerly of widebeam Still Rocking were joining us that morning to assist with the Audlem Locks. Big Neil had to deliver the 2N car to his mum's place in Nantwich and his mum, Elsa, was bringing him back. The meeting point was the Shroppie Fly, after 3 of the locks.

Little Neill was immediately set to work steering - I think I was making scones at this point. He was most disparaging of my instructions for where to go to get into the lock. I am sure he should have been wearing glasses so he could see past the end of the boat!

Visitors, especially ones doing locks, need feeding up with cheese scones. And especially people who read the blog and who know about the cheese scones, and even more especially, people like Carol and George who are delightful friends.

It was so very lovely to see Carol and George again, and they got straight to work! I didn't get to have a hug until the boat came up in the lock!

Clearly after the third lock because BN is back!

So I made a double batch of scones - that meant BN had to bring more milk back too. Elsa stayed on the boat for a couple of locks and took a cheese scone back with her. BN mentioned later that the scone may have been a shock as it had cayenne pepper. (I asked her on the Sunday and she declared it was delicious - I didn't mention the cayenne ...)

The volunteer lockie informed Carol, a lockwheeler of many years standing, that she was using the wrong hole on her windlass. Carol may look as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but he had chosen the wrong person to mansplain/scold...

Scones were consumed here - this is where we met Mike and Helen for a weekend boating down to Hack Green and Nantwich a few years ago. See, the sun was out at this point, but we did move back inside when the rain started yet again.

Still outside with George but the clouds were encroaching...

 

That rose between two men is the lovely Carol.

 

The by-washes had claimed their prize of stuff falling out of the bookcase ...

While the rest of us chatted, BN got on with his designated task of stitching up the seat squab cover. Such an amazing job he did of it that the stitching is invisible and you cannot see that there is a zip there! He used a curved needle and some pretty strong thread.

BN looking supremely confident and calm.

LN waiting on BN to leave the lock.

After we'd all scoffed scones, LN and I accompanied Carol and George back a few locks to pick damsons. LN and I share a passion for making fruit jellies... So we gathered damsons and hawthorn berries. We debated about what to add to the hawthorn berries because Neill said they were a bit bland. The consensus was that we would add mint and grated ginger. But the fruits stayed in bags on the bench overnight. Too much locking to do!

We did the Adderley flight with Little Neill on the tiller - the bywashes on these lock flights are pretty vicious and it pays not to be precious about the rubbing strakes which are there for a purpose. There were a few crunches and also some flawless entries. 💗💙💚💜

See? Confident, relaxed, flawlessly coiffed for his public.

 

We then looked for suitable moorings. There is a 5d mooring stretch after the Adderley flight - it was empty of boats and we soon found out why: the Shroppie Shelf was along the whole length of the moorings and we don't have the wide tyre buffers/fenders that are required to hold the boat away from it.

So on we went with 2N on the stern. They were under instruction to yell when they came across armco. They did and the mooring was lovely - we had been on the go for a fair while and the batteries were on 100% so the fact that the mooring just past Betton Coppice turnover bridge was shady didn't matter - it was a sunny afternoon and warm, strange as that may seem this summer.

So we were moored up in double quick time, table and chairs were out, wine, sherry, port and nibbles on the nice wide towpath.

Quiche, cheese, chutneys and crackers, hummus, sherry, port and wine - and the best of company!

Through the trees on the offside in the early morning - lovely!

 I needed no dinner after copious nibbles, but the guys decided that they could eat. So I warmed up rice (leftover from the night before) and mushroom and capsicum sauce for them. Then bed after more cards.

David and BN were keen to watch the final of the Women's Football World Cup, so in the morning we had to find somewhere with decent internet service. We reckoned Market Drayton would be the go, even though they have a weird mooring restriction of no mooring between 10am and 4pm. We moved as close to the 48 hour moorings as we could get and settled in - we thought that it was likely any affected residents would also be watching the game so we would not be asked to move on ... And so it proved.

Because LN and I weren't interested in the football, we made a sumptuous breakfast for our menfolk and served it to them in front of the game. We did forget to serve the mushroom sauce we had heated up though ... BN explained that to me later - he thought it was likely that LN had not wanted to add another food to the already full plates as he doesn't like food to touch ...

See, sumptuous breakfast which included breakfast potatoes, scrambled egg, baked beans, chopped tomatoes and sourdough toast - but no mushroom sauce ...

Imagine LN as green with yellow spiny bits and a long tail ...

LN and I did the jelly. Well, when I say LN and I, I actually mean LN did. I did find the jars and wash them, I did find the honey and I did direct LN to the mint (fridge) and ginger (freezer). But he did the rest. Note that the hawthorn jelly not only had mint and ginger but also a good squeeze of lemon juice to give it more zing. It is yummy. The damson is more of a pouring syrup - I think I will use it on apple crumble when our next guests are here ...

Hawthorn, mint, ginger and lemon jelly. Not a lot, but enough to try.

Two jars each! Damson jelly in the big jars.

 

Game over, England lost, Spain won. We moved forward to water up and empty rubbish. BN needed a walk so headed off to find a shop and then received about 3 messages of additional things to buy...

When we set off from the water point, BN was on steering. I do like it when we have guests who will happily steer!

I don't know where this is but it made me smile.

So BN was on the stern for the Tyrley Lock flight which has by-washes more fierce than the ones on the Audlem and Adderley flights.

They are signposted but no dire warnings!

And as I'd got off to help with the locking, he was on his own when the most vicious by-wash of all got him - jammed up against the offside rock wall. So he had to throw the rope to us and a passing dog walker, so we could haul the boat away enough that he could get some forward momentum.

Those locks are physically and emotionally exhausting - the cutting they go through is amazing and the engineering is always impressive, but as a boater the lock entrances are challenging!

This may have been after the last lock...

 

So we were on the look out for a decent mooring but the damn shelf thwarted us again. I walked ahead of the boat that had the 3 guys on it, and I was poking into the water with a shortened pole. I was a few hundred yards ahead of the boat talking with some offside moorers about where there was a good accessible mooring spot, when I looked back to see the boat was stopped, ropes were being held and the boat was at a strange angle to the towpath.

There were all sorts of hand/arm signals going on, none of which I recognised. But back I went anyway.

It transpired the engine had overheated, sounded an alarm and the engine had switched itself off. One of the men had had to do a giant leap to shore with a rope. David has just told me it was him - why, I wonder? - he's the oldest and shortest...

Anyway, we had to moor in a most awkward position, the bow was about 2 feet from the bank and the stern was about 6 feet out. I was distressed about the engine and the mooring position - how ignominious.

Magnesium, a couple of hugs, a call to Ed, a sherry on shore away from the boat - what boat? whose boat? not mine ...

You can see all of us apart from LN who is shaded by the powerpole... The boat is away in the distance as befits one that is poorly!

Ah, there's LN and the boat in the background, way in the background...

The water in the header tank had depleted far more than it should so the skin tank wasn't able to operate efficiently. We couldn't top it up until the engine had cooled, so that was the chore for first thing in the morning. 

Dinner was thai green roast veg curry - not my own paste, Irene, but out of a jar. Lovely but not as good as Donna Hay's recipe that I usually make. Roasted parsnips are beaut in this!

 

And surprisingly I slept well...

And I didn't get up at 5.30am like I was tempted - I waited until at least 7.30 ... We kept a very close eye on the engine temp gauge that morning and realised that when in tickover the engine gets warmer than when operating at cruising speed - less cold canal water going past the skin tank, we think.

There is a very long cutting before Norbury - narrow, tree-covered, damp, and some very high bridges. Lisa Carr had told me that this canal is gloomy and I think she is right!

See what I mean?

This one has the additional crossbeam - what is it actually called?

Our job was to deliver 2N to Norbury Junction to be collected by BN's mum, Elsa. His dad came too. Easy to see where he got his height and dark brown hair from ...

Off they went with many hugs and some stuff from the fridge and cupboards plus some sourdough starter (I gave some to Carol too - note to self: ask Carol how the bread-making has gone.)

I was tempted to stay at Norbury overnight, but, even though where we moor is purportedly (I am told) my decision and mine alone, ACP wanted to move on. So move on we did. How does that work?

I'd prefer this had no spelling mistakes, but the sentiment is good. Obviously given I wanted to stay in Norbury and we didn't even though it's my decision, I clearly have more work to do on both defiance and incorrigibility!

Dog Days - Part Two

 We love the Middlewich Branch - it is open, lots of lovely mooring and the towpath has very little overgrowth of high and wide weeds. And it's very picturesque.

But before getting on to the Middlewich, we had an appointment near Kings Lock at the junction, plus we needed to visit the chandlery - we have never had spare Morse cables and given we've had the boat 10 years, Ed suggested it was time we did as they are a bit prone to sudden unheralded failure. So we moored before Kings Lock on the visitor moorings - there's a good long stretch of mooring space but it was quite noisy as it is very close to the road. However once inside the boat the noise recedes. 

One bonus was that we were moored almost directly opposite the small Morrison's supermarket - easy access to magnums ...

The pound above the lock is pretty wide and there were a lot of swans about, both in the water and on the towpath. 

Quite late at night I took this photo out of the galley window - it had been raining, as you can see by the drips on the window, but the swans were still up and about! They looked beautiful in the fading light.

After our appointment in the morning, we headed down the lock and got water at the most inconveniently placed tap I've ever seen - right on the corner at the junction but only accessible from the T&M. While David filled with water, I went over to buy fish and chips at the chippie that had some good reviews. The service was great, the fish was cooked while I waited and tasted good, the potato fritter was really nice and crunchy, but the chips were decidedly soggy and not good - they had been cooked some time before and left to rest in the warm mortuary of the heatlamp. We didn't eat until we had been through the lock and moored up - that probably didn't help the chips. But the fish didn't suffer, so I think the chips were already deceased and rigor mortis had let go its grip.

I was very amused by the cygnets at our lovely mooring above the first lock on the Middlewich Branch - when on the towpath their mode of communication was hissing, but once in the water, having just stopped hissing at me until I directed them off the side of the towpath, they were back to their begging mewing. It's like they didn't know I was the same person they had been threatening less than 30 seconds before. Birdbrains, obviously!

A conclave of cygnets, plotting their hissing strategy ...

Fortunately they tended to ignore Yogi - he was below their eye-line and perhaps too hairy to qualify as food ...

We (when I say we, I mean I) did a pumpout and filled with diesel at Aqueduct Marina and I noticed while we were there that there were lots of wasps about. I killed about 4 inside the boat in the 30 minutes or so that we were moored there. And when we left the marina, having changed our minds about reversing back to the extensive moorings with picnic tables a couple of hundred yards behind us, I noticed a wasps' nest on the towpath side - there was a gap in the grass above the concrete edging and lots of wasps coming and going through the hole. I phoned the marina and told them its location - they were pleased to know as they had been trying to find it. I hope they have had it removed/fumigated/eradicated.

We had pulled up a couple of kilometres further on where we thought would be a lovely place to spend the afternoon and night. BUT as soon as we got off the boat, there was an overwhelming smell of pigs. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! A ghastly smell - it brings back terrible olfactory memories of Organic Pig Farm no 2 at Wells back in 1990 where we B&Bed with the kids, not realising how stenchy pigs are en masse. 

So we moved to above Minshull Lock - no pigs, only horses and a lovely place to let Yogi play on the towpath without the lead on.

David pulling on the middle rope to bring the boat to the place we wanted to moor above the lock. He looks happy, doesn't he?

Lovely sunset

Same one, different position...

 

The following morning, after lots of rain, in the evening and overnight (the sunset was misleading!), we got ready to head away. One task I did was to let down the 'blind' on the cratch cover as it was terribly wet, having been left wound up all night. But as I let it down, out flew an Aqueduct wasp, wet, bedraggled and very pissed off. The little bastard stung me! Viciously! And then it flew away, unscathed. I was brave, but I did swear and I did yell for David to bring vinegar and a paper towel.

One thing I did which I shouldn't have - no, trust me, swearing is obligatory when stung by a wasp - I pressed down on the sting site when I probably should have pinched it to stop the venom spreading. (Olek suggested later that I should have sucked the venom out, but I am fairly sure that would not have been a good idea...)

Anyway, quite a deal of pain for a couple of hours or so, and a lot of swelling over the next couple of days.

The swelling starts with puffiness on the back of my right hand. Considering I was stung on the top joint of my thumb it's bizarre the swelling was so far away.

Pretty swollen and tight. I couldn't clench my fist very well so my strong right hook was affected...

The next morning, my wrist was swollen too

See how wounded I was?

However, we moved on because I am brave and didn't need a lie down for a wasp sting. At Cholmondeston Lock above Venetian Marina the volunteers made a pig's ear of letting the water into the lock - they lifted the paddles far too fast and I could not stop the boat from surging forward to hit the top gates. When I complained, the volunteer said that my husband had said it was OK. What bullshit! 

After the lock, David and I discussed what he had said and the only flaw in David's words was that he was polite (read: not stroppy enough). He promised to be far more assertive in future (read: more like Marilyn).

On we went to the Barbridge Junction (had to do the turn in 2 goes, with reverse applied...) and then on past Hurleston Junction (for the start of the Llangollen Canal) - that junction was much further away from both Barbridge and Nantwich than I remembered! We stopped to throw out rubbish at the Nantwich services, didn't bother getting water and then headed on across the aqueduct. 

The moorings at Nantwich are really good, but a bit more signage with a picture showing the extent of the 2 day moorings, the permit holder ones and the next set of 2 day and 14 day moorings would be helpful at each end.

As it happened, we moored up right in front of the people who had helped David at the Cholmondeston Lock - and I had been a bit short with the woman about the speed of the paddle raising. I did apologise to her as soon as I saw her there at Nantwich. She declared that those volunteers are the worst she's ever dealt with and she doesn't let them help her. I wish David and I had known!

Because my hand and wrist were still swelling I decided it would be sensible to take some antihistamine tablets. I had scoured the boat looking for some, but couldn't find any; so it meant I had to walk to Boots. I felt distinctly woozy while walking there - a 15 minute walk, I think. Could have been that my sea-legs were confusing me with being on solid ground, but I did feel decidedly strange. 

Am I alone though in finding pharmacists singularly risk averse and unhelpful here in the UK? I knew I needed antihistamines, but Irene had raised the possibility that the sting site might have been infected. So I asked the pharmacist how I would know. Well, it would be red, puffy and hot apparently. Fine, that's good information and it was already red, puffy and felt warm to me. But considering I was feeling a bit woozy and couldn't tell if my hand was hot (because I was in my wooziness), I asked the pharmacist to feel the back of my hand to check. Oooh, no. Couldn't do that in case I was infected ... Can she not wash her hands afterwards? What happened to being the first port of call with a health issue? Chocolate teapot was the politest thing that sprung to mind, but nary a word passed my lips while in the shop ...

So I bought antihistamines and headed back to the boat, fuming about jobsworths and wusses. 😡😠

I took a tablet and went for a lie down and a sleep. And while I slept, the swelling started to recede. Good job!

And my sweet temper was restored. 😇😇

The afternoon sleep was a boon because I needed to be awake late that night - Marta, Trevor, Darby, Karol and Olek were coming through to collect Yogi on their way home to Scotland. Their plane frfom Poland landed at about 4.40pm, they had to drive to Chipping Norton to drop off Olivia and pick up Olek, then drive to us at Nantwich to collect Yogi and then home to Crossmichael. What a long trip!

It was about 11pm by the time they got to us. We had sent them a pin of where to park the car, and they let us know when they were 5 minutes away. We got up and headed down to meet them.

We thought Yogi had been happy with us, but he went absolutely nuts when he heard Marta's voice! It was very lovely to see. We all went back to the boat - the kids climbed up the steep bank so the rest of us had to - I couldn't have done it in the daylight because it was so very steep. And I had to do it on all fours so I didn't lose my balance and fall backwards... We bundled up Yogi's gear and handed back the bedding that they had left on board after their weekend with us and walked them back down to the car - on the towpath, the steps down to the road and along the footpath - not the bank on the way back thank heavens!! We turned off the Do Not Disturb function on our phones so we would see the text when it came to say they had arrived home safely. Much relief when that one came in at about 4am! 💗💖💖💕

The Nantwich Aqueduct - beautiful construction.

 It's all go in our life on the canal - but that morning, we had a bit of a sleep in and then went off to the supermarket: there was some shopping to do and cooking to be done because we had Neil and Neill coming to stay that day. But more of those adventures shortly!

 

I'm having a 'mare about the trees growing unabated on the canal bank and their capacity to break down the structure of the bank - a case in point. Seen on our way from Nantwich.

 

See, it's bloody big!

Here's where we moored to await the arrival of the beaut Bude contingent - the lovely Neill and Neil.

FYI, when it's raining, David sits just inside the stern doors so he can chat to me without getting wet - and he is closer to the kettle for tea-making duties!

I think this contains valuable advice. Particularly the last point ... but both preceding points are pretty important too, I reckon! And Crows are very clever birds, hence our motorhome is called the CROW - it stands for Cafe Rata on Wheels and it is driven by a clever bird ...

Etruria to Rode Heath and Kidsgrove: Part One of the Dog Days

After the family left, most heading for their hols in Poland and one (Olek) back to work in Chipping Norton, David and I were left alone but with an additional crew member: Yogi, the teacup Yorkshire Terrier. He is little and very cute. But frankly, not much use when it comes to steering or lockwheeling. He is good at wheedling. To be fair, he doesn't have to do much of it because David is an absolute pushover. Just as he anthropomorphises Mel, he does the same to Yogi. So it's David's wishes that get expressed and then met, ostensibly for the dog's benefit ...

The family had just left and he was already on the bed ...

In the morning, we had some errands to do: some banking and some washing - there were pairs of sheets and duvet covers. David suggested we take them to the launderette in Hanley so they could be washed and dried within an hour or so. A good plan. However we forgot two vital ingredients - pound coins to feed the washing machine and dryers, and our laundry powder. So the washing came back unwashed... Doh! 

The trip to the bank prior to that was successful though - and I did manage, along with the other deposit, to bank an old £20 note that I have been carrying around since we got here. 

And it was David who decided an Uber back to the boat from the launderette was required - I think he thought Yogi wouldn't cope. Not that I complained, mind you!

On our way into Hanley from Etruria we saw this - I thought it was a weird street name:

I'd be interested to find out why it is called that! I haven't been able to find anything about it on google.

We decided we would find a launderette near Westport Lake. So we set off the next day - and as a great start to the day, I right royally messed up winding at the corner below the staircase locks at Etruria. And of course, at least two people in the sheltered accommodation there leaned out their windows to watch the debacle. I just know if I'd been doing it superbly they would not have taken any notice! There was much gnashing of teeth and several tears - all mine...

But bread production must continue... Love that crunchy crust!

Getting to Westport Lake was a far longer journey than I remembered from when we travelled this way with Helen and Alan and Adair's brother and sister-in-law some years ago - a thunder and lightning storm that time, I seem to remember! 

I knew that it was very old/derelict/industrial in places but I hadn't remembered how wide the canal was or how long the trip was. Old and derelict as it was in parts, the water was deep and wide - and that is probably because of how much reliance there was on the canals as commercial transport. Barges continued to be used by the potteries well after the railways were developed because china transported by water suffered far fewer breakages than when it travelled by train.

After mooring up, we walked back with the dog to Longport Wharf to purchase some chandlery supplies. The only thing they were able to do was provide us with the contact details of a motor factors not far away who would deliver air filters to me at or near the boat. Smithsons were wonderful - two air filters were delivered the following morning to the visitor carpark at Westport Lake. I'd recommend them highly.

I think the chimney and part of the old buildings are being preserved but the amount of debris is pretty huge!

He's a little dog but an intrepid and energetic walker! Building being demolished across the canal.

It had been a lovely old building - but once the windows start to be broken it's the kiss of death, I understand.

I was able to indulge my desire to remove git gaps (other people's) - a hire boater arrived quite late and there was room but only if people budged up a bit. So I went and asked the woman in front of us who we were button to button with if I could help her moved forward a few feet. And then we moved our boat forward. That way the hirer could fit in. See, easy peasy to get those gaps filled...

In the morning, after our air filters had been delivered and David had fitted one without supervision! (note for Ian and Julia) we headed for the entrance to Harecastle Tunnel. We had decided to abandon doing the washing in a launderette and got it started in the trusty Zanussi on board.

As we trundled along and went under a bridge, I felt my hat being lifted off my head - damn blackberry cane hanging down had snagged it. Into reverse I went and retrieved it - not before I took a photo though!

Hat in suspension...

This looked to me like a large heap of mullock, however it was probably mainly bricks and concrete from demolished buildings.

David's worst fear about Yogi being unrestrained nearly eventuated when he blithely jumped off the boat on to the wet grassy bank and had to scramble not to fall in...

There was a wait of about an hour for people coming the opposite way, and then a quick chat with one of them, an NZ resident, about how to apply for National Super when he gets home and how to contact them from here - he couldn't find how to find their website: www.msd.govt.nz

The stern doors are closed to prevent ACD* from escaping. (*A Certain Dog, fyi)

The boats coming from Kidsgrove still hadn't arrived.

I'm not sure Yogi approved of his life jacket ...

 

We were first of two boats going towards Kidsgrove and the trip was really good. David had found two torches the size and thickness of felt pens with 2 lenses, multiple lighting functions and strong magnets on the bottom. He positioned them down on the stern deck each one facing the wall. Brill! The trip through took 34 minutes, 8 minutes slower than Mick and I did it some years ago. It did feel pretty fast this time, but clearly not! Although I read on fb yesterday that a woman took an hour to go through. I would have hated that! Being underground is not my thing at all, so I have to count off the 100 metre markers to console myself the journey is going to end ...

We moored up at Kidsgrove after the first lock, near the second lock and just before the aqueduct to the Maccie; and I walked to Tescos to do a fairly big shop. When I came out I had the same struggle I always do when at a supermarket in an unfamiliar place - finding the way I came in so I can find my way out! I had to ask this time... 

We remember taking Olek there a few years ago looking for a football - after England had bombed out of the World Cup - it was very cheap...I wonder (given I am writing this the day after England missed out on the final to Spain) if footballs will be going cheap again?

David took Yogi for a couple of walks that evening and the tracks they followed led up on to the Macclesfield Canal - quite an amazing feat of engineering, these canals!

The second lock at Kidsgrove and the Macclesfield aqueduct.

The aqueduct for the Maccesfield Canal over the T&M just ahead of where we were moored. There is a path or two up to it from the T&M towpath and the water is very red from iron, I understand.

We headed on the next morning along some lovely stretches of canal and found a beaut mooring at Rode Heath - right next to the Rode Heath Rise, the site of a former salt mine, I think. What a beautiful amenity - much used by local dog walkers and picnickers. The houses alongside the canal were lovely and made good use of their canal frontage.

I once again worked at filling git gaps when a narrowboat arrived and was keen to fit behind us and in front of a poorly moored yoghurt pot, which had a big gap between it and the next boat. The yoghurt pot was tied two ropes to one ring and floating fairly freely out partway across the cut. I undertook to move it, having called out to people in the pub garden to ask if they owned it.  We (the man off the narrowboat and I) moved it forward and tied it to two rings, so it was more secure. The owner came back not long after, drunk but amiable, and was fine that we had shifted it. I know it's against the rules really to move someone's boat without their permission, but his was moored hazardously - if it had only been tied with one rope, we would have been expected to remedy it, so I just slightly extended that permission...

The boaters who moored up behind us turned out to be Denise and Malcolm  - that gave us a start as my little sister is Denise and her first husband was Malcolm. We sat out with them at the top of the Rode Heath Rise - much laughter and their dog Chester and Yogi played pretty well together - considering Yogi was the tiniest and Chester was fairly bouncy, it worked reasonably well for the most part.

Yogi and Chester - David had Yogi on the lead at first as he was worried Yogi would require rescuing - not at all!

Three happy dogs playing on Rode Heath Rise

The next morning we realised there were two boats with problems moored ahead of us, one on the winding hole entrance (rudder problems) and a hire boat (battery/starter problems). The hire boaters missed a whole day of their holiday which must have been a pain given it was one of the few lovely days! The rudder problem man was still there when we left after a couple of days.

I had an urge to do some baking and delivered cheese scones and strawberry and lemon muffins to Denise - just as Malcolm was about to bike off to get their car from Congleton. I think Denise saved his scone and muffin for him although she did threaten to eat them...

We had lunch at the pub with them (and 2 dogs) when Malcolm came back with the car - with much getting to know each other and seeing how much we had in common. After respective nana naps, we got together for nibbles and card games on nb Waka Huia - a lot of fun and laughter. 

 

Me, Denise, Malcolm, Yogi (on the table, courtesy of ACP) and ACP

Dessert at the pub after lunch. No dinner required apart from nibbles with cards.

We have told Denise and Malcolm they need to come to NZ and that if they hire a motorhome, we could do a bit of tripping around together. And of course they have to come to stay with us in Waikanae.

It was a pretty late night for me, and we had planned an early start the next day. I think it was 6.30am when we moved off, as quietly as we could. I resisted the temptation to sound the Mack truck horn - aren't I good?

Nice houses on the offside at Rode Heath

 

Squirrels on the roof by the lock

For his own safety, Yogi had to be tied to the fence at the lock. He waited pretty patiently for David.

After being tied to the fence, I thought he deserved Business Class treatment - his lie flat bed, food and drink...

 The following was certainly true for July. The weather is proving to be more settled in August, but I am not convinced it'll last ...