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.