All back to school.

The grandchildren are thrilled to be back at school, and we’ve got time on our hands. At the moment with the PM’s ‘road map’ we are just allowed to move for essential services. Things should be back to normal on 12^th April, and we’ll only be allowed to moor somewhere for 14 days and then move on.

We did a trip to get water Monday, as the forecast for very strong winds that would make winding the boat pretty tricky at the end of the week. It was quite drizzly for the short journey and the sun came out in the afternoon, so we went walking.

 We’ve strolled up to look at the new lock gates being fitted at the top lock of Johnson’s Hillock Locks twice this week (there are pics of them being loaded onto the work boat on a previous blog). The work has been delayed due to the canal being frozen a couple of weeks back.

 

 

Monday we saw the scaffolding at the new gates.

Yesterday the chaps were having to tinker with the brick work to make sure there’s a good fit, so the canal won’t be re-watered until next week now.

To make sure the lock stays empty for the workforce there are stop planks in place above the top gates and a rather large pump to keep the chamber as dry as possible.

Several of the pounds have been drained.

It’s sad to see how the old original stone work in some of the pounds has fallen into the canal. If I won the millions, I’d get a team together to repair them.

It’s shocking how shallow some spots are too.

Looking towards the disused Lancaster Canal, Walton Summit Branch. It used to go near  Preston and the goods transshipped onto a tram to Preston. It was too costly to construct an aqueduct across the River Ribble.

View south on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal from bottom lock & Walton Summit Branch junction.

This milepost has a tree growing around it!!!

After gongoozling for a good while, we strolled back through Wheelton and across country. We walked under a couple of beautiful railway bridges. The Lancashire Union Railway used to run over them.

Our wheel fenders are doing a good job of catching the rubbish blown along the canal. We took two sacks of stuff we’ve fished out to the bin today.

We’ve been watching these leaves shoot through the snow on the towpath where we’ve been moored for 3 months and have been wondering what they were. We picked some, and it's wild garlic. So it’s super to nip out for some to add to our cooking.

From the side of Heather’s house you can see Big Hill, on the edge of Wheelton Moor. Every time we leave their house I say, “we must go there”, so we did. Stunning views over Chorley and the Lancashire plain and south towards Winter Hil. It was quite hazy so we couldn’t see Blackpool Tower.

It’s incredible to think of the lead and rocks that used to be quarried way up there.

 

Half term break

We had great fun during the half-term break. A few weeks ago, we were discussing with the three grand-kids, what we could do, to make the holiday fun during lockdown. Magnus wanted to, melt metal & make a saucepan!!!!

As a compromise, we melted old wax and made new candles in jars and mini floating Star Wars ones.

Everyone wanted to make pizza, so similar to our Christmas bake off, each of them made some pizza dough.

We had a joint effort to prep the toppings.

Each of the kids planted some cress, which we have since eaten for lunch in sandwiches.

We discovered a canal side playground.

OK, so I’m a big kid, but it was a very comfy, swing and knitting!!

The grand children’s primary school are taking part in the 100 Challenge in memory of Sir Captain Tom Moore, there is a just giving page donations.

Nikita ran 100 times around the play ground.

Magnus scooted 100 laps of the BMX track.

Lance pledged to go down the slide 100 times.

In addition, Edmund’s doing the challenge in London & running 100 km, he has a link to his giving site for UNICEF.

The beginning of the week was good weather, so we took the opportunity to cruise to Adlington to get diesel, gas, coal and engine oil. We then winded and got water at Botany. While the water tank was filling we watched the CRT lads loading some new lock gates onto a tug. The end of the week was pretty wet and windy.

Once the engine oil was changed we strolled to Botany to dispose of the old filters in the boaters skip. We don’t often see the canal from above.

Since my last blog we have had another cold snap & were frozen in for a week or so. We went to the boat a few times for lunch break, during home school to stoke the fire & to do some ice breaking.

We were VERY honoured to have a kingfisher sit on our bow rope and to stay while we took his photo.

 

This week we have had some super evening reflections.

 An amazing sun rise.

Home schooling.

 

Homeschooling is going really well, and we feel we’ve got the IT bit down to a fine art, as things ‘have’ been running smoothly. We have to keep a close eye on the clock to make sure the boys log onto their live sessions in the dining room on time, otherwise they are marked late/absent!!!

Nikita has live online lessons with her teacher & class each morning and Thursday afternoons, so she has the front room all to herself.

Magnus has live maths with his teacher each morning. He sits at one end of the dining room table (Lance at the other) with his headphones on so he’s not distracted.

The boys both have recorded English lessons by their own teachers and some other lessons on YouTube too. This makes our lives so much easier as we’re pretty sure we weren't taught the grammar terminology:- digraph, trigraph, split digraph and the list goes on. Plus, it appears that hundreds, tens & units have lost the ‘units’ and now the units are referred to as ones!!!!  

Each Friday afternoon the headmaster does a massive conference call type assembly for the whole school.

Most lunch times we have a musical interlude where Nikita and Magnus have a practice session.

Since our last blog we’ve only cruised once to get diesel and water.

We’re bringing 10-15l water back from the house each day, so the tank has lasted over a month. Magnus loves to help.

I knitted myself a huge shawl with the 24 mini skeins of wool I spun from my advent fibre swap.

 

 Once again we had a lovely family gathering for Heather’s birthday with cakes scattered all over the UK.

I’m a bit behind with my birthday knitting and have sent two IOU’s. These socks are knitted with naturally, solar dyed (on the boat roof) wool and will be posted off soon (I promise).

We’ve had quite a lot of rain interspersed with more icy snowy weather.

This stream is about 3’ higher than usual, it’s the kid’s favourite paddling spot…...not at the moment.

The path is being eroded by the stream. The level had gone down the day we went with the boys.

 

This was my view over the canal from bed one morning.

There have been some stunning sunrises.

A rainbow to welcome us when we got in from schooling.

The moon and its reflection have been breathtaking.

Some days it’s been impossible to keep the solar panels clear of snow.

The boys loved doing a litter pick along the towpath and lane.

Once the rubbished was binned we did puddle smashing!!

Last weekend I made marmalade, and it appears to be my best ever, plus a batch of scones.