A family crew

Edmund and Josh came to stay for a few days, so Heather & Ada both booked some time off work so they could also spend a few days with their brother as we are all 200 miles away from him. We were blessed with lovely sunny weather.

Tuesday we cruised from Rufford to Tarleton so uncle Ed could meet the three kids from school. We then all cruised to the lovely remote spot at Sollom for tea, which for shear ease was a finger buffet for the 10 of us. The children are experts at how to unlock & move the swing bridges.

Wednesday was Edmund’s birthday so we took advantage of an extra crew of 5 to head up the locks on the Rufford Branch. It was great having 2 strong lads to lift the clough ground paddles for us. We know from previous experience that some of the upper pounds can be quite low and true to form one was indeed very low. The job of running water down to get us afloat when were were grounded was a wizz when you could phone ahead to the advance locking crew. We also ended up with a huge bag around the prop, which luckily came off fairly easily.

We had a great birthday meal at The Hop Vine pub in Burscough. While we waited for our meals to be served we played dominoes and Dobble. Heather made a lovely birthday cake with 29 candles on
that set off the smoke detector when he blew them out.

 

No cruising

 

We have had a busy few days but haven’t gone anywhere in the boat. 

 

 

 

Last weekend we were being looked after by the grandchildren as Heather & Jason were away for the weekend. We picked them up from after-school club Friday. Saturday we caught a couple of buses to Blackpool. We’d taken wellies & a change of clothes for us all with the plan of rock pooling on the sea wall. However, storm Gareth had other ideas, with it’s gale force wind and squally showers. Poor Lance actually got blown over by the wind. The photo by the sea just doesn’t do the roughness justice, the waves were ferocious. So we went to the Sea Life Centre instead. Our plan for lunch at the Wetherspoons pub on the sea front had to be aborted as Blackpool FC were playing at home and the fans were queuing to get into the pub. Interestingly Blackpool FC appear to have very similar colours to Luton Town FC. We hopped onto a bus and went to Lytham St. Annes for a meal.

Sunday was yet another wet & windy one. So a train-set on the table was constructed before Ada & Dale dropped in to take Lance to a party.

 

Last Wednesday I went to a ‘sock party’ in Ormskirk with some of the others from the knit & natter. The speaker was ‘Windwick Mum’ a sock knitter & pattern designer, she has had her own yarn colour way designed by ‘West Yorkshire Spinners’ and we got a sneek preview of the yarn before the launch next month. It was a wonderful evening with 2 local dyers selling their yarn, Lazy Kate and Ovis Yarns. 

 

 

Ada & Dale hosted a family meal the other weekend, which was lovely.

We’re now going to have a look at how high the River Douglas is running after all last night’s rainfall.