Heather’s birthday

We travelled all of 4 miles & 3 swing bridges from Rufford to Tarleton to spend the day with Heather on her birthday. Heather & Jason both had the day off, dropped the kids at school & came to Tarleton to open Town Swing Bridge for us.

So our biggest baby absolutely loved having the ducks all to herself without her 3 babies wanting to feed them.

It was a very misty morning and the kingfishers kept us company along the way, but just too far away to take a snap.

There were lovely reflections going under Bank Bridge.

The trees are in bud, so spring is on the way.

 

Last weekend we strolled over the misty & very water logged Lancashire moss to Croston. As you can imaging we were very thirsty and had to have a couple of pints when we got there. It was just over an 8 mile round walk.

 

It was eerie seeing the tops of the wind turbines but not their stands!!

Anglezarke Moor in the distance at Chorley kept popping in and out of the mist.

Last Monday we caught the train to Liverpool for the day. We gave blood, mooched around the city and had tea & cake with our friends that have a winter mooring in Salthouse Dock.

In the evening we attended ‘Weaverpool’ a craft group held in the up-stairs of ‘10 Streets Market’, housed in an old warehouse. 10 Streets is an area backing onto the old disused docks, which is earmarked for a regeneration project. It was a varied group of young and old, doing knitting, weaving, embroidery, needle felting and spinning.

Happy New Year

Happy New year and decade to everyone. The boat looks very bare now all the decorations are down.

We saw the new year in moored with friends near ‘the wood yard’, on the outskirts of Burscough, Leeds & Liverpool Canal. We had a little bonfire which we sat around.

 

We had a 180º panoramic view towards the south & east and saw the midnight fireworks for miles around. It was easy to pick out Liverpool’s tremendous display.

There were some lovely sunrises over the old Burscough airfield.

 

The three grandchildren helped us moor at the wood yard, before we left Burscough though, we all went to Tesco for an ice cream for breakfast!!! 

 

It was a gorgeous day and we sat out all afternoon. The kids had fun helping us build a wood pile.

 

This was a very different Christmas for me, my first adult only one. Heather & family were in Scotland for the week at my sister’s in Dundee.

We went to stay a few days with Ada & Dale in Chorley. Edmund had his first Christmas off in 5 years and came up with Josh. We had an excellent time and I had one of Josh’s bubble gums, which I don’t think I’d had since I was a child!!!

We brought ourselves a joint Christmas present, an electric saw, which John tried out on New Years eve ready for our fire.

We brought the boat back down the Rufford Branch & it’s 7 locks and 5 swing bridges on Friday as lock 1 is having planned essential work done starting this week, it’ll be closed until March now.

We had our fantastic mini crew to hand and got all the way to Tarleton by lunch time. The kids worked really hard.

Magnus had a rainbow over his head.

The swans weren’t prepared to leave their bridge spot!!!

 

Once their dad had picked them up, we did a twilight cruise to Sollom, one of our favourite mooring spots.

We saw a huge gaggle of geese taking off and circling around in the dim light.

We’ve had a wonderful few days cruising and today I’ve had to scrub the floor to get rid of all the mud.

 

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

The deccies are up inside & turkey is ordered. It’s been far too windy to put the lights, bunting & pompoms outside. 

 

We had a couple of icy mornings at the beginning of the month and since then gallons of rain!!! The boys and I enjoyed jumping in the frozen puddles on our way to Mere Sands Woods.

Above Rufford lock

Yesterday we were at the panto in Southport. It was Jack & the Beanstalk. Last year we had a record turn out, but we were a select 9 this year. As usual we all joined in with the usual panto banter, however, the rest of the audience were very subdued!!!! Afterwards we had dinner at the Guelder Rose on Southport sea front. It was amazing to see such big waves on the sea, usually the tide slides in and out without you noticing.

My girls and me

The three grand kids came to stay last weekend. We had planned to take the boat to Tarleton to pick them up from school, but we decided to take the bus instead due to the wind. It’s pretty tricky navigating from Rufford to Sollom through the West Lancashire moss when there is a slight breeze, but with the gale force winds we’d have been stuck on the bank at the swing bridges.

Magnus created a super chocolate, banana & peanut butter pizza.

Nikita peeled potatoes for us all.

Magnus grated lots of cheese for the fish pie.

The ducks were well fed.

 

All the mole hills on the tow path were flattened and we collected a bag of sticks for kindling.

Magnus wanted to learn to knit, so he chose some yarn & wound it into a ball. He did really well and managed a few rows with minimal help.

We love looking at the alpacas on Carr Lane, Tarleton (on the way to school). We were greeted by the 4 week old youngster. Their owner explained the male had got out of his paddock 9 months ago, they wouldn’t usually plan having young in the winter!!!

We attended Magnus’ nativity at school last week.

We weren’t able to go to the other two grand children’s shows as we spent a couple of days in Kings Lynn. We hired a car to attend the funeral of one of our best friends, Steve, and he had a good send off. To chill out after the funeral we strolled into Kings Lynn along the River Great Ouse. The old dock buildings were lovely. We took the little ferry back over to West Lynn in the evening.

 

Steve in the early 1980's