Vandalism on a large scale

 

 

As we were travelling out of Liverpool on Wednesday a friend text us to see if we were aware Coxhead’s Swing Bridge had been vandalised. We had planned to go past that bridge so just carried on. The degree of damage was shocking, the control panel for the bridge was intact, but the actual hydraulics box with the bridge mechanism in had been almost knocked down and a Canal & River Trust welfare unit had been pushed into the canal. A local farmer had had is JCB stolen over night, which had been used to do the damage. There were still police on the scene when we got there. The bridge contractors were able to open the bridge and let us and the other 4 boats through. However, they are now waiting for a temporary piece of equipment and will only be able to open the bridge twice a week. They think if could take a couple of months to get the repairs done.

We spotted a turtle sun bathing as we were cruising along and saw our first goslings in the docks as we were leaving. 

We are thanking our lucky stars we had such a lovely week in Liverpool it’s pouring down today.

 

While in Liverpool we visited the Philharmonic pub, we had been there on a previous visit to Liverpool but it was too busy to take photos. It used to be a gentleman’s club and is famous for it’s beautiful marble gents loo. The lady’s loo has a picture on the wall of no doubt the sorts of ladies that frequented the club in it’s day.

 

In the docks

We’re still at Salthouse Dock and we visited the court room at St. George’s Hall & stood in the dock!!!

 

Heather and the children came for a couple of days. They got off of the train at 07.30 on Good Friday.  After hot cross buns and a drink we all headed off to catch the ferry across the Mersey. It was good to be able to travel on The Dazzle Ferry ‘Snowdrop’. The Isle of Man ferry was just loading up and we could see through the inside of it’s catamaran middle. We eked out my tiny bit of sun cream between the 6 of us as it was pretty warm first thing.

 

We got off the ferry at the U-boat exhibition, Woodside.

The kids enjoyed exploring the sculptures in Albert Dock and on the river front.

Ugo, Tate Gallery

 

We had a lazy afternoon and shade bathing as we were very hot.

Heather & Nikita sat on the roof and watched the Good Friday full moon come up over the Mersey police HQ.

 

Yesterday we visited St. George’s Hall and looked around the Victorian prison cells, court room and viewed the spectacular hall from the gallery.

 

 

 

Lush have recently opened their largest store in Liverpool over 3 floors. We usually use their products as they don’t contain sulphates, which helps to prevent blue/green algae flourishing.

 

Tall ship Zebu is moored in Canning Dock next door and was manned by a group of pirates for the weekend!!!

Sunny Salthouse Dock

What a fantastically warm and calm day for us to go into Salthouse Dock, Liverpool again. I’ve just caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror, I think I have caught the sun. There were 6 boat descending Stanley Locks leading to the docks today. We shared the locks with a restored working boat now named Equus. Equus has had several names and roles in it’s past and was originally called Garnet, a Shropshire Union flyboat, she has had bits added & taken away several times and now resides on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal (L&L) at Latham as a leisure boat. We knew there’d be lots of volunteers helping us down the flight and along the locks in the docks, so I made a big batch of ginger nut to share. In between cruising and waiting for the locks John made a batch of hot cross buns.

 

Last evening we moored at Litherland as there is a handy Tesco, so we could restock our empty cupboards. Just ahead of where we were moored was a coots nest with 2 chicks, we just love the way the parents feed them, where as the mallard duckings have to fend for themselves. All the way along the canal there are coot, moorhen and Canada geese nests.

Litherland

 

 

We were SO pleased we weren’t travelling across the Liverpool Docks on Monday as it was very windy. There were breaking waves on the canal where we moored. 

Waves at Melling

Monday at Melling

 

On the way along the L&L we passed a house with a band of frogs on it’s roof!!!

 

Our original batteries have done very well as they should have a life of 3 years and ours are more than 3 ½ now. We thought it best to renew them before they totally gave up the ghost. Colin from The Woolboat gave John a lift to get the new ones, while sat on The Woolboat with Carole, chatting and knitting.

John has our biggest batch of wine yet on the go, more than 5 gallons. The bathroom smells lovely as the fermenting vessel lives in the shower most of the time. I have knitted a huge demijohn cosy, which I put on a long hot wash while we were cruising today and it has felted beautifully. I need to now make 5 more fairly quickly as the wine will need transferring into them within the next few days.

Demijohn cosy  before & after felting in washing machine

A few days ago we had a moor hen on the bird feeder, they usually prefer to clear up on the floor after.

At the wood yard

Our boating friends from Burscough have told us how they like mooring at the wood yard, on the outskirts of the village, so we thought we’d give it a go. The mooring is actually the landing point for swing bridge 30, which is now disused. Although the wood yard have a generator going most of the day, it’s a very peaceful spot, over looked by the old aircraft hangers of the WW2 airfield peeping through the reeds. 

We have had lots of visitors to the bird feeder, which is so lovely.

Yesterday we caught the train from New Lane Station, a tiny halt that has a train stop there every 2-3 hours. We spent the day in a very sunny warm Southport, mainly to pop into the bank. Once finished at the bank we strolled along the pier and the foreshore as the tide was in. We ended the day at The Tap & Bottles micro pub. We knew which train to catch back to our little halt, once the train had pulled out of Southport the guard announced “if you want to alight at New Lane make sure you’re in the last carriage” as he’ll only open the his door, however, we’d got on at the front of the train and there was no way through the train, so we had to get off at Burscough Bridge Station and walk back to the boat along the tow path under the beautiful setting sun. Sadly, the photos of the sun set just don’t represent the amazing colours and reflections we saw.

On the way into the village Sunday to attend the Artisan Market at the wharf we saw first ducklings.