To the rescue

Last week we rescued a tiny oak sapling from being strimmed. It was growing right by the waters edge on a well groomed stretch of towpath. Our previous bonsai oak was stolen last summer, so fingers crossed this little chap does well.

The last couple of weeks we’ve been travelling away from Chorley, where we could walk to Winter Hill. Now it is way in the distance.

The first leg of our travels took us down Wigan flight of 21 locks, we made good time and completed the journey in just over 3 hours, thanks to the help of Peter, one of the volunteer lockkeepers there. Some locks are really leaky and at the helm you get your feet wet!! It is a lovely journey with stunning views from the top locks.

You need to keep all the windows closed too as the wall leaks and squirts water quite a distance.

We spent a few days travelling along the Bridgewater Canal, where we’re allowed to stay for up to 10 days, as it’s a privately owned stretch of water. There was some ugly graffiti as well as some fairly arty bits in the urban areas.

It’s always fun to go over Barton Aqueduct, a swing bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC).

This is the junction where the underground canals to the mines started and an interesting inland lighthouse, at Worsley.

We spent a day in Lymm, where we were served typical northern pints with a large head!!

I loved the yarn bombed letter box.

We spent a few days near Stockton Heath and walked along part of the MSC and over one of the huge locks. There’s very little traffic these days along it. There are many swing bridges along its length, and their control rooms look very much like signal boxes.

 

 

Alongside and crossing the MSC is the now disused Warrington & Stockport Line (LNWR) Railway. Many of its old bridges still stand.

Last year we didn’t get around to making any elderflower wine or cordial, so we’re making up for it this year.

John’s got over 4 gallons of wine fermenting away.

I bottled about 6 litres of cordial yesterday.

It’s a shame I couldn’t capture the aroma of the honeysuckle and send it over the blog.

As we’ve had some super warm weather, I’ve got yarn in jars solar dying on the roof.

We got a military escort off the Bridgewater Canal, a couple of these huge planes flew over.

We are now moored at a gorgeous spot on the Trent & Mersey Canal, with views over the River Weaver valley. However, it wouldn’t have been so wonderful in 2012, this spot is just behind our boat.

The milepost is just beside the boat.

We can hear one of the weirs and see the long viaduct which carries the West Coast Mainline.

We had planned to go down the Anderton Boat Lift and spend some time on the River Weaver, but the lift will be out of action for urgent repairs and one of the locks is also closed due to a problem, maybe another time.