Friends on board

Nice to have Liz and Neil with us yesterday....... Especially as they had thought they wouldn't make it. It had been too long since seeing them last and it was great to catch up.
Sat in the Sutton Hall garden in the sunshine! Astonishing after all this rotten weather. Lunch, then back on boat by the fire (still needed despite sun) for a cuppa together. Another nice day.

Dogs

I like dogs and there are a lot of them along towpaths and on boats, most friendly and amusing. But we are getting more and more fed up with (some of) their owners' attitude to their poo. Throwing a rope over bollards on locksides and then discovering it has swung through a pile of fresh muck is quite horrific. I have stepped off the boat into it on numerous occasions Too. But the worst habit we have found is those supposedly responsible owners who pick up their pet's mess, carefully tie it inside a plastic bag and then throw it in the hedgerow!? The hedges and trees are adorned with little bags swinging in the breeze. What on earth are these people thinking? We would far rather they dragged their mutts off the path under the hedgerows, where no one need tread, let them poo where it will naturally degrade and not contaminate anyone.

We watched a boater (no licence on his boat, by the way) walk his large dog a short way up the path, let it poo and then kick the pile into the canal........just as disgusting when you think ropes and people can fall in.

There are posters along the canals stating " there is no such thing as the dog poo fairy" - so true.

Macclesfield silk

On Friday we walked along the canal into Macclesfield, stopping on way to book Ani into a boatyard for the week we return home. And guess what? they had an aerial that we could buy. Pete would have left it of course but I insisted, so we now have TV again albeit BBC Wales! Did find the other channels eventually!

We had a wander around this old town, which enchanted me because of the silk industry it built up around. Lots of old mill and factory buildings and hilly terraces of weaver's cottages. After a lunch in an overly priced but pleasant cafe, we visited Paradise Mill museum, Cartwright and Sheldon's intact weaving factory mainly producing woven silk for ties, that was finally closed in 1981. Full of all it's original 1800s equipment; worn wooden Jacquard looms in rows in a beamed loft with a thick undulating floorboard floor. What an atmosphere. The punch cards used to compute the designs and the machine that produced them, bobbins of jewel coloured silks, a designers desk with original painted designs and rich woven fabrics on the looms were wonderful to see. Thank goodness someone saved it all in 1981. They clearly could not have carried on as they could only produce 2yards of fabric per loom per week - hardly competitive. But you wonder if quality has suffered for quantity and speed.

Our guide demonstrated the looms and when Pete asked if the weaver would have been able to work the treadle with either foot, he demonstrated how that wouldn't have worked. This 30 a minute noisy kick down for the equally noisy shuttle to be thrown back and forth would have been hard work and all powered by one leg. Or guide said when you see a resident of Macclesfield walking round in circles you know what he did for a living!

Interesting day. Macclesfield's industrial utilitarian beauty, with green hills back-dropping it's steep streets was a joy.




    

Da boys

Dodd boy helpers.........priceless




That Congleton mooring........fabulous

Frogs and wind

Moored at foot of Bosley Locks in a sheltered spot thinking that we were wise stopping short of the aqueduct where it was very open. Wrong! The wind whistled all night again, not to mention the frogs wedged down the side of the boat who 'rivitted' all night as well. ( thought it was a dog barking in the distance to start with)!

Today was Sara's most unlikeable day. I hate wind with a passion. I want to punch it into submission. The boat decides it can do what it likes, skitting and skimming into banks and locksides as it pleases; 2 fingers up to us! Then I stupidly decide we need to wash some clothes and peg them out on our flimsy hooked-on clothes horse over the side. They were so heavy being wet that I thought nothing of it. 2 hours later; no sign of them. 2 good t shirts of Pete's plus a good thermal vest, 1 t shirt of mine plus vest I particularly liked plus pegs - and the clothes horse contraption which was very useful but obviously not heavy enough for purpose. Learnt my lesson the hard way! Fully expected them to turn up wound round the propeller this morning, but no - - the frogs however.......

And to make matters worse, the TV aerial had decided to work for once which was good having had no signal from that or the satellite for some nights so that we caught up on the news, largely the Thatcher funeral, but then it 'all went up the pictures' ( to use my dad's expression) when the screen went black - our old indoor aerial finally giving up the ghost. I now realise how sad I am needing TV - it makes me furious when I don't have the choice. Pete however, no problem, not important, can sit and watch the fire!! After nearly 20 years together I wonder if we are compatible!

Today, Thursday, against sodding wind, we progressed up the locks.. 12 Telford built. Because we had lovingly repainted the gunwale and all its knocks yesterday and I didn't want to chip it again driving in the wind, and having read the top gates were 2s, not just one f....off one which are impossible for me, I gaily said I will do some......... managed 5. Top paddles were horrendous. Pete should have married a ten ton Tess who wasn't deaf (I can't hear his wise instructions). Good job we are in the middle of nowhere for the expletives I let rip.

Tonight, however, it all comes good again. We moor in the picturesque foothills of the Pennines - just South of Macclesfield in a place called Sutton Lane End where we find a stylish tranquil pub/restaurant to eat and drink. The wind has dropped, there is total silence...... Oh yes, this is what boating's about, I remember now.

A me day

It's about time I had a ME day it's been far too long really . My owners (useless boaters I call them) had left me in the cold over winter shivering my anodes off, then with a quick - here is your arse wiped with a bit of bitumen and some new engine oil, then gaily rush off up the canal system; UP the system mind, not even South for the warm weather! I got quite excited once or twice when they took me into a marina thinking they would emerge with something nice for me , you know, a new fender or two, something brass and shiny, even a rope or a gas bottle would be ok, but no , out they come with one of those fan things that goes on top of the stove. Hello, keep yourselves warm why don't you? well thanks , I'm starting to feel like Marvin the paranoid android !
I admit I shed a tear into my cratch when we passed Red Bull Basin where I was born , when Mr Piper turned some bits of steel and wood into ME, a 50 foot pencil case! Anyway back to my trip, If that wasn't enough they then proceed to crash and bash me off what seems like every lock gate between Stoke and Congleton , did I mention the Harecastle tunnel? Oh dear, you would have thought by now my brain-dead owners might have checked the bulb in the tunnel light? Naw, 5 minutes in and poof, out it goes and I'm blind for the next 40 minutes except for the three candle power led wafting through the bow doors.
So it's about time, I'd say, for a bit of TLC. A trip to a proper boat painters would be too much to ask of my dithering owners, but at least today they had the common decency to repaint my port side gunwales, clean my roof and polish my sides . It's a start I suppose .....
Ani

Ps they still can't get a signal on the sat dish (no sniggering at the back please!)

Location:Bosley locks Macclesfield

Congleton

A panoramic of our mooring taken by Andrew. You can't see the wind!

This is more like it

Carried on along the lockless Macclesfield for all of 2 hours in order to meet with Pete's boys again in Congleton and found the most wonderful mooring just through the town. The canal is high up and at this point overlooks a valley with a viaduct and the ambling river Dane below on one side and a vast property, hills and fields towards 'the Cloud' ( a landmark hill) on the other side. Our galley windows are framed paintings. This is what boating is all about, those little surprises around the next bend!

Walked into Congleton, which has an interesting centre of old buildings once you get through the modern housing. The usual boarded up shops though and only the dreary, commonplace Morrisons, Superdrug etc etc.

The boys join us for dinner and it is actually warm enough to sit on the bank, although there is still a strong wind which buffets us all night. Stu kindly checked our bilge pump, which we thought was faulty and he and Andrew unblocked it's exit pipe, having discovered that was the real problem. They also bought us some much needed coal, which we would have been delayed in getting because the next boatyard is some miles yet. The fire still needs to be going constantly. Thanks, guys!

No TV signal here. What happened on Broadchurch last night??!! Not that I am an addict of course.





This photo doesn't do the view justice, it is a deep valley!

Stoke on Trent / hairy Harecastle

Picked up Stu on this stretch; on the Trent and Mersey towards Stoke. His able willingness a great help, meant I could sit out locks for a bit! Nice to have his cheery company on board.

We travelled into Stoke and the potteries, lots of these buildings are very interesting but mostly derelict. Stoke is miserable, summed up by the fact that we had to use an anti vandal key to operate the locks. The canal is a rubbish dump with deep dark locks, some entered through bridges and tunnels so low even I had to duck down. We ended up mooring above the last lock, beside an industrial estate and going for a beer in a Toby Carvery pub, not a great night out! And then Pete had to get up at 4am to drag the boat as the strong wind was banging us against the side.

Set off in this wind on Sunday morning to Stu's song of "rise and shine, it's tunnel time! " through Telford's Harecastle tunnel. A spooky but exciting event, 40 minutes of pitch black, dripping ceilings that get ever lower the deeper you go. Unlike our friends who did it in record time ( cant say I blame them for wanting to get through quickly ) and consequently unwittingly crashed through the doors at the end, we followed another boat in and took exactly 40 minutes. The doors had been opened for our arrival, thank goodness.

We then turned onto the Macclesfield canal at Kidsgrove, deciding against 'heartbreak hill', a flight of 26 locks on the Trent and Mersey, still going North, now in Cheshire. Moored up for lunch in The Bleeding Wolf pub, Scholars Green and stayed put for the night.

The weather still hasn't picked up although it is a little milder. Will we ever see spring?!





Dark satanic mills!

Shugborough

Wednesday night moored beside the river Trent on the Trent and Mersey canal by the Shugborough estate. This is a really pretty stretch of canal and Shugborough house and grounds make for a lovely view. The dank weather and still bald trees give it all a sad greyness, albeit atmospheric with mists flattening the distant treescape. An owl was hooting all night too, just to add to it all. When is the weather going to improve?!

I was surprised to find that the house was the home of Patrick Lichfield - his family name having been Anson, who have owned the estate since the 1700s. I took a tour of his apartment (in one wing of this vast mansion) which was fascinating with lots of his photos on show and evidence of the partying that he hosted - help yourself bar areas and music systems (cassettes!) His London studio is replicated as well, with camera equipment that now looks so dated. Across the hall from this is the original 'ladies boudoir' from the 18th century which he occasionally used as a studio with elaborately painted ceiling and 200 year old 'damask' wallpaper. What a mixed world he inhabited.

- - --------------------- - -

There is a young woman living in a tent on the bank by our mooring. Hard to tell how old she is - she has a weather beaten appearance. A fellow boater told us she is very nice and not to be worried by her, which we aren't. But you wonder how/why she lives like she does with 2 big dogs and a cat! Her pitch is very tidy and her washing was hanging to dry on a line between 2 trees, so we guess she is happy enough, but she must be so cold.

Even better than that.......

Strange what you find when taking the boat rubbish to the sanitation station - one man's cast off is a Sara's joy! Herb pot for the boat?

Hmmm, must get it planted soon because as the boat approaches, it looks like a sad old teddy bear on the bow - like those ghastly 'dead' toys that dustman tie to the bumpers of their dustcarts!!

Dad's old bike

Thanks to my father, we have the means to get to a shop for the odd pint of milk or wine that we may have run out of, without having to walk miles. He kindly donated his Brompton fold-up to us( presumably after checking with Mum that she didn't want to practice her wheelies on it still) which stores neatly behind my armchair in the evening. We daren't leave it on the back deck for fear of it being lifted - it being worth more than Dad's car was!! Great little piece of equipment, now we wouldn't be without it. Thanks Pa.

Moored just outside Polesworth this evening, before Tamworth. A peaceful mooring opposite Pooley Hall which I can't find any information on! Cyclists, families and dog walkers all strolling by, glad of a semblance of spring weather finally. Yesterday(Saturday) after an icy start, the sun came out and warmed our bones. And yipee that horrible biting wind has gone. We even managed to take off our top coats whilst travelling. A lazy day as there were no locks, 11 today however - Pete did them all as the only one I tried was far too heavy, good excuse to make him do all the hard work.

Interesting fact that since part of (or all of) British Waterways has been replaced by the Canal and River Trust, run by volunteers, the locks seem to be much better maintained, with mechanisms oiled and there have been volunteer lock keepers at some locks, which is really helpful. A thumbs up to CRT.

Some boats - out there

This boat fascinates me - called 'that 70s boat' - seen it before, would love to meet the owners!

........ Or would I?!

Ice and wind and lack of water

Woke up on Tuesday morning in the crooked house. Doors had swung shut that don't normally and the whole boat was on an angle. We'd moored between two locks, perfectly natural practice, but it seemed one was leaking, so through the night whilst locks were not being used the pound had lost water. Pete out at 6am in freezing cold filling it up again to get us afloat.

A horrible day's boating in a viscous wind which pushed me to the side every time we came to a lock and then I struggled to get off. 12 years of experience and I still get it wrong, push the nose out (if you can against the wind) and the stern bangs along the metal edging taking the newly done paintwork off in chunks! Pete is far better at it of course but we needed him to do the heavy lock gates.

Anyway, eventually moored up at Braunston Turn in sunshine albeit still freezing cold. Hot showers, hot dinner and another cosy evening put it all back into perspective.

Clothes

I have on
A vest
A long sleeve t shirt
A fleece jumper
A zipped fleece
An even thicker zipped fleece
A padded body warmer
A scarf
Leggings
Jeans
Socks
Walking boots
- I am an extra lumpy Michelin Man

There is an icy wind that still gets through this lot. Patches of snow in the fields, no buds or leaves to be seen, sodden towpaths.

Inside though it's thumbs up; fire is roaring, had a wonderful dinner on friend's boat last night, slept like logs in our cosy bed cabin (probably due to consumption of Jenny and Sid's entire wine store), woke up late, fire still in so no hurry to get cruising.

All this makes up for our miserable bloody weather.

Mooring at Marston Doles, Napton top lock this evening and trudging down to the pleasant Folly pub at the bottom lock for dinner and pint with J and S. Jolly nice.

Location:Napton