Cheers

It’s been so nice to be able to go for a pint, especially as April’s weather’s been fantastic.

We visited the Rivington Brewery outdoor tap room, with views over the reservoir and up to Rivington Pike and Winter Hill beyond. Their beers were served very cold and are modern highly hopped, citrusy type beers. The maltiest beer they had was a lager brewed in Manchester. However, the coffee stout at 8%abv was rather yummy, but far too strong for an afternoon in the middle of a 10-mile circular walk!

For lunch, we stopped off at Rivington Bowls club to watch a game and view the lower reservoir from its end.

I’ve been taking my spinning out with me to do on our walks.

Shore of Lower Rivington Reservoir

River Douglas for

 

 

 

 

 

The signs of spring are all around us. The most annoying being the Canada geese honking at antisocial times!! They are all sitting on their nests. We have seen some rather large duckling families.

 

 The bluebells are stunning in the woods and along the hedges.

Trees in blossom as we cruise along.

 

We moored for a week above Wigan. From the towpath we could see a lovely meadow below, with deer & pheasants. Across the canal was Haigh Golf Club.

Breathtaking sunsets over the meadow.

It is difficult to imagine what Wigan would have been like at its busiest, with its numerous coal mines and steel works scarring and polluting the area. Now these scarred areas are beautiful parks, nature reserves and golf courses.

We walked to the top of a huge slag heap, by one of the locks on the Wigan flight. The steep hill was formed from the waste from one of the foundries. The views from the top were amazing.

John’s been busy weaving.

We opened our Jubilee Fibres shop for the first time in almost a year last week.

As usual, we put out our flags and bunting for St. George’s Day.

I’ve finished knitting John’s jumper with genuine Icelandic wool that I’ve had for a couple of years now. He's pictured with one of our three NEIGHbours for the next few days!!

Heather’s been saving the fluff from their rescue dog Hunson for a while now. They both popped in today as we’re just a couple of miles from them and I spun it up, it’s really soft.