We’re famous

We have two photographs of our boat in the December Towpath Talk. Page 2 shows me taking the boat out of the recently repaired lock 2 and page 49 shows us passing Wigan Pier. We’d travelled a good bit with Colin & Carole on nb Emma Maye and they were waiting for us at the junction of the Rufford Branch the day it opened after lock 2 was repaired. 

Thanks to Colin who’s a reporter for the publication for letting us use the photos.

We enjoyed watching the workforce repairing the gate post of lock 2 during the proceeding days to our journey.

I don’t think I’d like to be in the water at this time of the year.

 

It was a gorgeous day for our trip down the Rufford Branch, not only did we have help from Colin & Carole at the top locks, we paired up with another boat, which halved the lock work.

 

The work had already started to prepare bridge 2A (railway bridge), for it’s new top. There were several cranes & diggers in the field along with the new bridge. A pontoon was half way across the canal ready for the planned complete closure of the canal the next week.

 

This week we had a good day in Southport and we brought our panto tickets (OH, yes we did!!). We’re not going to be quite the massive mob of 20 that we had at last year’s panto, but a select 9 of us this time round.

I was excited about going to the Slipway knit & natter, Burscough, as I had taken part in a fibre swap for BritSpin last month. As we were travelling Ali, who was my swap partner wasn’t able to post it to me. I was thrilled when she gave it to me at the group. She’d carded some mini rolags in blue & made a project bag, also included were some sweets (which were too shy to pose for a photo!!!), a sock brooch & a fridge magnet.

I got some Amazon vouchers for my birthday from Louise & Lyn and once again, had to wait until we got to the NW to use them. Since we’ve lived aboard I’ve wanted a cast iron pot to cook on the fire with. Needless to say, we’ve had lots of different stews this week. It’ll be interesting to see if our gas lasts longer now I’m cooking on the fire & cooking potatoes in their jackets in the ashes tray.

Early morning at Rufford.