A family crew

Edmund and Josh came to stay for a few days, so Heather & Ada both booked some time off work so they could also spend a few days with their brother as we are all 200 miles away from him. We were blessed with lovely sunny weather.

Tuesday we cruised from Rufford to Tarleton so uncle Ed could meet the three kids from school. We then all cruised to the lovely remote spot at Sollom for tea, which for shear ease was a finger buffet for the 10 of us. The children are experts at how to unlock & move the swing bridges.

Wednesday was Edmund’s birthday so we took advantage of an extra crew of 5 to head up the locks on the Rufford Branch. It was great having 2 strong lads to lift the clough ground paddles for us. We know from previous experience that some of the upper pounds can be quite low and true to form one was indeed very low. The job of running water down to get us afloat when were were grounded was a wizz when you could phone ahead to the advance locking crew. We also ended up with a huge bag around the prop, which luckily came off fairly easily.

We had a great birthday meal at The Hop Vine pub in Burscough. While we waited for our meals to be served we played dominoes and Dobble. Heather made a lovely birthday cake with 29 candles on
that set off the smoke detector when he blew them out.

 

No cruising

 

We have had a busy few days but haven’t gone anywhere in the boat. 

 

 

 

Last weekend we were being looked after by the grandchildren as Heather & Jason were away for the weekend. We picked them up from after-school club Friday. Saturday we caught a couple of buses to Blackpool. We’d taken wellies & a change of clothes for us all with the plan of rock pooling on the sea wall. However, storm Gareth had other ideas, with it’s gale force wind and squally showers. Poor Lance actually got blown over by the wind. The photo by the sea just doesn’t do the roughness justice, the waves were ferocious. So we went to the Sea Life Centre instead. Our plan for lunch at the Wetherspoons pub on the sea front had to be aborted as Blackpool FC were playing at home and the fans were queuing to get into the pub. Interestingly Blackpool FC appear to have very similar colours to Luton Town FC. We hopped onto a bus and went to Lytham St. Annes for a meal.

Sunday was yet another wet & windy one. So a train-set on the table was constructed before Ada & Dale dropped in to take Lance to a party.

 

Last Wednesday I went to a ‘sock party’ in Ormskirk with some of the others from the knit & natter. The speaker was ‘Windwick Mum’ a sock knitter & pattern designer, she has had her own yarn colour way designed by ‘West Yorkshire Spinners’ and we got a sneek preview of the yarn before the launch next month. It was a wonderful evening with 2 local dyers selling their yarn, Lazy Kate and Ovis Yarns. 

 

 

Ada & Dale hosted a family meal the other weekend, which was lovely.

We’re now going to have a look at how high the River Douglas is running after all last night’s rainfall.

Frogs love songs!!

 

So……..the evening before last we kept hearing a weird squeaking noise between the bank and the boat, we though a mole may have fallen into the canal. With torches in hand we loosened the mooring ropes & pushed the boat away from the bank. Oh, may be the frog can’t get out with the metal piling on the bank, John got our dying sieve & lifted it out, oh gosh, it was 2 frogs tightly locked together & on closer inspection there were lots of frogs, so we put the two amorous frogs back into the canal. Last night same noise occurred, guess we’ll be expecting lots of tadpoles this spring.

Rufford sunset

Flaming February we ask ourselves. No fire on today, all the doors & windows open & it’s 19c in here. This time last year the ‘beast from the east’ was just taking hold and we were frozen in at Marsworth!!!

The half term week that Nikita was here went SO fast. Her friend joined Heather, Jason and the boys on Sunday for a ride & help us down the Rufford Branch locks. The kids are excellent crew member. We all had great fun as the sun shone and it was another lovely warm day.

Fairy Glen

Nikita is staying with us for the half term holiday and we’d booked to go into Salthouse Dock for the week, however, CRT rang us last week as there are complications with planned work to replace a bridge and the canal’s now closed. So we are just leisurely pootling up and down the canal. We got up the locks on the Rufford Branch in no time at all as Nikita is so much bigger and can do the paddles & push the gates all by herself. Today we met Heather and the two boys at Fairy Glen near Parbold, for a picnic. We’re moored a short walk away by the disused locks at Appley. I took a black sack & our grabber to do a litter pick along the glen & footpaths. There was very little actual rubbish but my sack was quite heavy with the loads of dog poo bags that had just been left. 

 

Yesterday we strolled to ‘Cast North West’ (http://www.castnw.net/) a charity fishing & farming centre for youngster with learning & social disabilities, in Newburgh near Parbold. We had an excellent lunch in the cafe and had a stroll around to look at the animals. 

 

Nikita and John are making needle felted llamas and Nikita has started knitting a scarf. Plus, she loves drawing and has done lots in her sketch pad.

We hired a car last week for a few days to attend my young cousin Nick’s funeral near Peterborough. It was a very difficult time for his sister Jen and her family from Australia who were only able to stay for a week. It was so lovely to see Jen, Jason, Danny & Joe along with lots of other family members.