Cats and Castleford

A quick blog tonight. Its such a good signal here,whereas Leeds was soooo slooowwww.

We had to make way for a big fuel tanker, and he didn't half give us a good rocking about as he went into the lock.

A Lovely cat called Rusty, wandered onto and into the boat. ( Finlay was out for a walk, at the time). I think he could smell tonights dinner.

Before leaving Leeds, we had gone to the excellewnt market, and bought some big prawns, a dressed crab ,cockles etc, so will be having "Tapas" for tea. I still haven;t been able to purchase a bottle of gin, Yikes. so will have to drink copious glasses of red wine. Onto Pollington tomorrrow, and trying to meet up with Steph on Witchboy( also she is about to get her new puppy ! she still has lovely old Bess, though).

Heres cat pics for Chris.

Can I smell dog ????? cooo. look at all that beer!!!!

Heres "the boat that rocked" us.

TERRIER RACING

Well, we had been drawn to this show by the last sentence on the pamphlet and flyers.
“Terrier Racing “.

It was getting to the end of the Childrens sports so, we all moved with our bales to make a smaller arena, and you could feel the excitement mounting. All of a sudden there seemed to be terriers of all ages, breeds, sizes etc. The ubiquitous Jack Russell, cairns, westies, highlands and I am sure some that weren’t strictly “ terriers”.
Mick made a stupid remark “ Should we enter Finlay ? tell ‘em that he is a Spanish terrier ?”. What ? are you mad? He will mistake some of those dark cairns for a rabbit and it will be Night Night Bunnikins.

So,
First up was all of the terriers together. Being held by their owner with the other owner at the other side of the ring, shouting encouragement. Hah, they didn’t need it , I can assure you. !!!

They have to chase , what I think was an old cuddly toy, that had been soaked in something evil smelling. . And then it was “ are you ready ??? Release the dogs. “!

Well, the first half of the course, most of them were intent on the smelly rag thing, and then it only takes one, doesn’t it?. One Jack Russell, decided to have a go at his neighbour coming up on the inside, a few more got distracted and started “having a go” and a black mixed type, flew past and grabbed smelly rag thing.

Then it was a case of everyone trying to retrieve their dogs, for the next race. That was a hoot, as some dogs were still racing after nothing in particular, two were having one hell of a scrap, “ Bertie “ was considering having a go, until his posh lady owner grabbed him. People and dogs were chasing madly about trying to get the right combination of dog and owner. Most of the spectators were crying with laughter at this point.

Time for the next race. The so-called winner , 2nd and 3rd place had small red ribbons put on them, and were exempt from the next race. So what followed, was a race with smooth haired terriers, a race with rough haired terriers. Etc. These races all culminated in much the same way, a bit of scrapping half way down the field, one wee dog making it through, and a few dogs just haring madly about, one or two even pulling up sharp to have a sniff at where the Livestock had stood to be judged. nice.

But one of the sweetest was the race for the “under 1 year old terriers”. One lady had a JR pup, that was so small it fitted onto her hand. Anyway they let the pups have a go. They didn’t get the hang of smelly rag thing at all. They were intent only on each other. A bit of a play, a little wee , some communal sniffing of bottoms, and some pretend snarling., and the one that sat in his owners hand ? ....... just looked at it all, cried and got back into his “mums” skirt. Aaah. Everyone was laughing and aaaahing. And it was a case of “ oh well, we will bring’em next year and let’em have another go”

Now enjoy the pics. They say it a lot better than I can.

They're Off !

Look at Mctavish. On his way t'winning post !

and Yes the guy on the tannoy did make a comment about the lady in the pink. something along the lines of " theers a strange sight, terrier wearin' pink jacket"

Big Birds and Old Tractors

After the disappointment of no rosettes for us, we wandered back off to main arena, and it was time for the Falconry exhibition. Good looking bloke with the gift of the gab, good looking girl who don’t say owt and good looking raptors = can’t go wrong. So he came out first with his Harris Hawks, entertaining birds and happy to do his bidding. He got people up close and personal with these.

Next came the Peregrine Falcon. Naught little bird , this one, as he just wanted to fly about and didn’t really want to do as he was told. Anyway I nipped off to the ladies, and when I returned Mick was all misty eyed and informed me that I had missed the best bit. Young bloke got Bodie( falcon) into a high stoop and then he plummeted to the ground and just stopped short to get his prey. Apparently it was breath taking. Anyway as this Peregrine Falcon, had been generally time-wasting and messing about, it put a bit of a delay on the Golden Eagle flying. The young chap asked the compere if he had time and she replied "Yes, quick get on wi’it."

TOO LATE, he had just got the big Russian Eagle on his hand, ready to re-enter the arena, but from the other side making a sneaky entrance at quite a determined pace was the VINTAGE TRACTORS. ! oh come one !. The only people interested in these is VINTAGE FARMERS.

Mick did spot his fave – one that he had driven as a boy. And old grey thing. Anyway tractors is tractors. They all look much the same to me and to everyone else apparently. Most folks started wandering away or talking to their neighbour, or going to get a beer, or going to get some grub, anything but watch these old tractors chug and grunt their way around the arena. A lot of us looked longingly at the big Russian eagle, and she looked longingly back at us. We never saw her fly, as the old vintage tractors, after doing 2 laps around the arena, then all lined up in t’middle and just sat there chugging away.After about 10 mins they all rattled off out again, and people started returning to the side of the arena. Ooooh whats next,.

The Airdale Beagles !!!! The oldest bloodline pack of hunting beagles in the country. We were treated to half of them, they all raced into the arena, yowling and howling . a few stopped to have a pee up the corner of the bale we were sitting on. One even got high enough to splash Mick, but I didn’t say owt, and neither must you. Not sure when they had last had a walk, as most were voiding themselves in the arena( it was the Childrens Races next !). The Hunt Master looked fine and dandy in his regalia, and he knew all of them by name. Children and adults were invited to go and mingle with them. However, I decided against it, when I saw the Hunt Masters assistant pull her hands back a couple of times and shake them, and inspect them. I reckon she had a few teeth marks there. Great looking hounds, all so very pretty and feminine looking.

ASfter a while they all departed.and next up was Childrens Races. Hee heee, what a lot of cheating went on.Skipping races turned into running races with the odd skip here and there. Excited kids throwing themselves all over the ground( remember that the Beagles had just beeen in !!!!) . Sack races were good, but one disgruntled little chap, slapped his sack on the floor a couple of times, a sweet little girl fell over after trying to run in her sack. All the time the guy judging them was shouting “ bring skippin’ ropes back” “ bring them theeer sacks back “

THEN our hearts started pounding, when over the tannoy came “ all you lot sitting on bales around arena, if you bring ‘em in closer, whilst kids finish races, and make a smaller arena. Then we can get ready for t’ terrier racing “ ………

Finlay and I enter a competition.

Walking nicely here, just passing Mick and camera, and Mick speaks to Finlay. ! Prancing and dancing the rest of the way around the ring. Thanks Mick.

Finlay being "felt up" by nice lady judge. She liked his strong, straight legs. Yeah, they enable him to run. !

After some of the judging, we wandered along to have a look at the Dog exhemption competetions, with a view to just watching all the doggies and their owners. But being such a lovely day and with a rather nice pint going down, I asked Mick whether he thought Finlay and I should have a go ? What at ? “not doing as he’s told” competetion ? “ the dog most likely to bogger of after rabbits and not come b ack” competition.

So I went and enquired. The lady said Its just for fun, you know. I thought , well I wouldn’t be entering if it was serious, would I? so at 1 yorkshire pound a go, I put our name down for no 1- the sporting dog and no 12 the most obedient. Why do people laugh at this one ?

Quite a few of us in the line-up for the first one ( I should have put us in no2 – non-sporting dogs), a bleddy young Staffy( he kept trying to have a bite out of Finlays backside, when we walked around the ring – not Crufts size !). One of the judges( a bossy lady with bright red lipstick) had come up to the owner of said staffy and said to her “ If I were judging on my own, your dog would win, I so lurve staffies ”. Yuck. ! I looked down at my lovely old grey-faced Finlay, and thought what chance have we? NONE ! Looking around there were various appealing looking kids with their equally appealing looking dogs and pups. One lovely little black sprocker( cross twixt springer and cocker), so young that all he could do when the nice lady judge felt him up, was to fall onto his back and wave his feet in the air, your heart just melted. And then there was A LADY. She would definitely get in the line-up of 5, as she owned the park the show was in( I reckon , anyway). She was even doing all this cruft business, of holding the dogs tail up high and putting her hands under his face to show his lines. ! Huh, and I thought it was just for fun.

So NO , we didn’t get in the line-up of 5 and YES, the staffy DID and so did Lady Fancypants and her silly little dog. ! so this was all going to take some time, and after seeing that no2( non-sporting dogs) had only 4 other dogs and I just KNOW we might have had a chance, we decide to go and have a gander at something else, and perhaps try another pint. It was such a warm and lovely day.

Part 2 of Dog Exhemption – after a couple of hours, I sort of just wandered back to see how it was going, and they were judging no 11- the dog in best condition( I couldn’t have entered Finlay in this as the nice lady judge would have felt all his fatty lumps on his tummy), so do I go for it or not.? “ Can we have the dogs for the obedience tests, please?”. Come on then, Finno, we have nothing to lose, cos I just know that he will do this ok, as he just loved his lessons back in Spain.

Quite a few of us again, and we had 3 folks rooting for us, Mick and a couple with their labby + neckerchief, who we paid to cheer us on- no, not really. So it was a walk into the ring, into sit ( I put finlay into SIT and DOWN, after seeing the appealing kid before me get his appealing golden retriever to do a fancy commando roll – bloody little show-off ), and then a sedate walk back………………..except that Finlay didn’t do a sedate walk. He started prancing n dancing on the end of his lead. I heard Mick say “ That’s it, he’s blown it !”.. Yeh, and we did. But boy, did we come off to some applause from Mick, and the paid couple, plus a couple of old ladies, that Finlay had sucked up to before we entered the ring. ( he had done his head in their lap trick, whilst they tickled his ears ), and then one old lady said “ if yer not local,luv, yer’ll not win”. I think it was more a case of “ too old and grey “.

Heyho, well its all in the taking part and we enjoyed it. And Finlay got a bonus. Some time later, a lady and her hubby and little dog came up, and she said “ may I stroke your dog, I think he has the lovliest face?” aaah what a nice lady. Finlay thought so, as he gave her a good washing all over her face, and all she did was laugh like a drain. !!!

Finlay on the buses & Racing Terrriers

Shire Horse( it were a winner) sorry for the "lancy" dialect

Arrived lovely Skipton. We walked, did the museum, then I took Mick on another walk, up to Skipton Castle and beyond. Looked for a jig-saw mat. ( chris has come up trumps, as usual), went to the pub and fish and chips, Mick bought a winning lottery ticket !!! If Sue in Spain is still interested in reading the blog, I may be getting a text, as she is bound to want to know how much ? aye up !. Had a great time. On thursday another boater had told us about bus to Settle, so off the three of us went. Mick went for free ( with his old chaps card), Finlay went for free( old dog) and Jenny had to pay £6 return. ! HOW MUCH ????? Lovely place, and had a long walk all around it before gettin "back on't bus". all the bus drivers think they are racing drivers, they dont half fly around the corners. up you get, boy ! ah , but which one ?

LET ME OFF GRHHHHHH

Friday we moved upto Gargrave( the furthest we can get due to the drought), and we had seen signs for the 106th Gargrave Ag.Show( wonderful and sooooo funny). However on the way, the wind got up ( all boaters hate the wind, you know,) and something happended that I have never seen before. Mick and I were disputing about how hard I was pulling Trundle into the side for mooring up, when a gust of wind came along, took his cap off his head, turned it around neatly and plonked it back down again, back to front. !!!!!. what a laugh !

Next day we went off to the show. we had been drawn by the " terrier racing-last event". absolutley intrigued. Asked a bloke on the gate when it was to take place " about 4.30, when everyone is beered up "( in a thick lancashire accent). So we had a wander around, poking about in all the tents and looking at the timetable for events coming up. We had missed the "Hunters" being judged at 9am. damn. ...... so we saw, Shire horses, then we saw judging for " 'Eifer in milk" " Best 'eifer wi' caaaalf", " Bull wi' best set of bol....." NO, not really. Then we went off to see the shetland ponies being judged. blimey they say owners start to look like their dogs . Oi. more on this later. but the lady? judging the ponies was almost the build of a shetland.and she had this enrmous hat pulled right down over her face ( remember Freddy " parrot-faced" davies?)

Wandered over to the sheep pens and far too many breeds to mention. they all taste good with rosemary, garlic, lemon etc. Finlay went for a drink, and then realised it was sheep dip. What next ? Kids fancy dress on ponies. ahhhh. Poor little sod, there was only one. He were dressed up as a packet of polos, and his litttle 'oss wore a green and black shroud covered with fake polos. Nere the mine, lad, Granny took him all around the enormous ring, and then he did a lap of honour !!!!!! Granny was a real country farm type, all tweed jacket, and rosy face.

Next will be Finlay and I enter a competition, and much much more. !!!

Long time no blog, but lots to tell

a lovely view

Leeds by night

Sunday we left Lovely Leeds( 15th Aug)and trundled off to Apperley Bridge in the
Company of Norman on his soon to be named boat “wild thing”. We would end up travelling all the way to Skipton with him. So much easier with two boats.

Chris and Mike ( Yorkshire tykes or is it ticks?), called to the boat with a bag of cookers from the garden, 3 jig-saws ( I reckon she thinks we get bored on boat !), plus a bag of bottles from Morrisons, that we had requested. they stopped to have a bit of tennis balling with Finlay, plus a drink, and then we were spirited away to their house to wait for George and Ellie ( their besties), and off we all trundled to The Shama in Bingley. Best Indian meal ever, and the nice surprise was that we were all being treated by Chris as a thankyou for helping out at her birthday party – 60th !. It was our pleasure and thank you again, Chris.

So next morning we pressed on towards Bingley 5 Rise.. With the water shortage at the summit of the Leeds/Liverpool, they are letting boats UP in the am and DOWN in the pm. We moored at The Fishermans public house. What a surprise !.- this is just before the 3 rise and 5 rise staircase locks. Watched the RSPCA rescue a swan. He seemed to have something lodged in his throat.possible fishing line, so they whipped him off for a check-up. We will have a look on the way down to see if he is back.

We wanted to be first boats up in the am, and at 6am, this woman was walking by the boat , saying into her mobile phone “ Quick, there are no boats queued at the locks”. Ha, with that we 2 boats were up and away, and beat them to it by about 15 mins. As they say “ the early narrowboat catches the lock.!”.

Took us 1.25 hrs to do both staircases. Not that we are allowed to do owt. The lockies do it all, as they are quite complex locks and in the wrong hands very dangerous.Barry the head lockie has a gong from Lizzie, as a thankyou for his 33 years service to Bingley.

The canal to Skipton was a little shallow, but as long as you went slowly, it was ok.Came to a built up area and some woman in her garden was saying something to us. By the look on her face it wasn’t exactly “ have a nice day” but more “ slow down, you shoud be doing walking speed “ “ we are”. How slow does SHE walk ???

Bingley was the last of the locks, now its all swing or lift bridges. Some where you have to stop the traffic. Gulp. But heyho. I don’t look the car drivers in the eye, just in case they are gesticulating or whatever. Not my fault that they live near a canal in an area of outstanding beauty.
Going along it started to rain a bit, Norman in Wild thing, was following and I shouted back to ask him if he wanted a sarnie?( his mrs was catching up with him in Skipton). Yes please was the reply, but how to get it to him ? Mick came up with a good idea. Pass it to a waiting hireboat and ask them to pass it to him as he passes by. Brilliant. Everyone had a giggle about flying cornbeeef butties !

Exhibits, Ferrets and Fish and Chips

Latest exhibits at T'Armouries. !!!!

Bestsy Ferrett( on the NB oored behind us in the armouries

Mick being escorted back to from Trundle to Witchboy by Stephs elderly Bess( dog)

BIG locks on the aire and calder.

So off we go up along the keadby and stainforth. Its ok and we have spotted some good mooring spots for the way back, stopped at Thorne, and bought some meat from the butchers shop. nice little town. some years ago we came to look at a NB here. I had seen it on the internet. 57ft she was lovely, but we were not in a position to do anyhing then. I digress.

Onto Ferrybridge (rather depressing place)to meet friend Steph ( and bess the dog) on Wtchboy. It was only at this point that our paths would cross, so we had to stop. She found some secure BW(Behind locked gates) mooring at Ferrybrdge. We started of by mentioning tea, until she said, oh lets have a celebratory pint. Off to a nice looking pub - no real ale, oh. OK a Pint of bitter - no pumps broke. We managed a pint anyway, then we wanted a 2nd pint ! as you do !

so tried next pub - closed. oh. we had thoughts of eating out this night. well lets ask a local - we got the only gay in the village, who suggested a place ( turned out to be a Premier Inn eatery !), and we sent Mick off around thecorner to get directions. ! Steph suggested back to her boat for a bottle of wine, and you know how the rest goes. we quaffed that, so we fetched a bottle, then we had a sleep, then we hiked off about 2 miles for grey overcooked steaks ( mY chicken was well cooked,though, a pint apiece and abottle of wine for 3. Back to out boat for coffee ......... err hm and a very smal galss of wine. Yeah thats about the state of it. But we had some laughs, and said goodbye the next morning. we will meet up in the winter no doubt.

Friday - Rained all day from Ferrybridge to Leeds. The locks are HUGE and electris and HUGE. they are great. Arrived at Leeds Arm ouries( what a fantastic place to moor). Mick and I have said we could spend a week here, doing sight seeing, galleries etc. and on the way back, we are going to do an "open top bus thingy" and be REAL touristos !!!

However, Chris ( hey Julie, if you are nebbing over her shoulder, just get back to work, will you !!!) and Mike came to pick us up and take us to Websters in Baildon. WOW , I reckon the best fish and chips EVER- done in dripping. oh god, they were sooooo goood. ! Might have to have another fix on the way back( but Chris and Mike will be on their hols), well we will try the best that Leeds have to offer, I guess.

Saturday. Leeds Market - I had to buy " 1lb honeycomb tripe" for Mike. !!! Bloody hell whats all that about ???. Mick said we would have to beat it with a bat to keep it in the fridge. I suggested the best place for it was his bait-box. !!! Never tried it, would if given the chance, but at "end o day" I am a lincolnshire lass. give me George Adams 1910 recipe sausage anyday !!!

Tomorrow onto Apperley bridge, where we will again be collected by C and M, and off to the best indian restaurant EVER. !!!

Torksey - Keadby a fast river and a small opening

Getting close to Keadby( boats are getting big )

The lock opening( at this point we were going quite fast( for a NB) and Mick was just about to turn Trundle into the tide.

Made it, and he didn't bang the sides !!!!

So we left Torksey at 9.15 and were told that for the first 1.5 hrs we would be against the tide ( poor old Trundle), after that the tide turned and boy, we were flying. Scenery wasn't as boring as we thought it would be. Gainsborough was a bit muddy looking, but the river, for being tidal, wasn't without its beauty. We had to speak to locky( at Keadby) twice, so he knew where we were. About 20 mins from Keadby, he gave us our instructions. the lock opening was by the side of a coaster, go past opening, turn and then head back into the tide. sounds fair. Mick actually did it text book, but he said you could really feel the force of the tide, and when he saw the Keadby entrance, he felt like he was trying to put 2 pints into a pint pot. Trust him for find a drink-related comparison. !!! He did mutter something about clean underwear ???? not sure what he meant

But it was exciting, and now we are on a boring bit. Thursday night we will meet up with Steph on Witcthboy, before she heads off to Selby and York, and we will be mooring up in Leeds Armouries friday night hopefully, and then on towards Skipton.

sweeping bends, lovely views and Ermintrude at the beach !

These were the lovely dutch barges, one supposedly belonging to that lord.

Stopped the night outside The Bromley Arms. Very good food, and busy. Also some folkies on their way home from a festival popped in for a pint and gave us a few tunes.

So onwards to Newark on Trent, we stopped for a beer and a chat with "Cuddly"Ken & Sheila cruising on their boat NB Largomente. They are our new neighbours at Floods Ferry( perhaps the reason we ended up buying , as they seem so happy there ). They have done the tidal Great Ouse, but found it a bit daunting, as there are so many tree trunks and dead cow to look out for.

We had planned to do this, but with the spring tides, you cant make a start until 17th August. Bit late for us, as we want to get to Skipton and then make our way back very slowly.

Again Newark on Trent will be explored more thorughly on our homeward journey.

Arrived Cromwell L ock, and the previous post should have been here. How tragic about all those sappers. the oldest being 29 yrs and the youngest 17.

This is the weir.

The blog just went a bit haywire so everything has gone back to front.

So , Our plans for doing the tidal trent were naff.So the Locky suggested that we do his plan to do the tidal trent, and that sounded a lot better. We left Cromwell Lock and headed for Torksey( very, very pretty). Great trip, weather gorgeous. We have to steer clear of the 600ton gravel barges, various sunken islands,( we found a small sunken atholl, but Cap'n Mick got us off), and the shallows as you go around the sweeping bends.

leaving Cromwell Lock

The Tidal Trent is great. sea birds, lovely views, but we have had superb weather, if it was raining perhaps not so good. but how about this : a beachful of beauties !!!!!

We couldn't stop laughing at the cows at the beach.

TORKSEY !

Very pretty. Nice and helpful lock keeper, and we need a pump-out. So the DIY BW pump-out is broke and there is no money to fix it. Locky informed us that he would do it for us, but first we had to go halfway into the lock, he arrived with his portable pump-out machine. to do the business, so to speak. Anyway, this is a great place for gongoozlers, and of course, they thought there was going to be some major locking going on. I had to politley inform them that , in fact, it was major pumping out going on. They were a bit disappointed,and some of the kids went running off crying " pooh pooh". Charming. Well, the pump out was weak, and we didn;t get it all out and we had paid for it, so he gave us a BW pump out card to be used at a latder date, so not so bad.

Right, 2 episodes of Benidorm coming up., on ITV 4, its raining, I am off

Keadby tomorrow, that could be interesting, as we will,be going WITH the tide. fast !

Views lovely and quite surreal. such as this:

Cromwell Lock

"The ten men from 300 Troop 131 Independent Parachute Squadron of the Royal Engineers Territorial Army. Were on an 80-mile night navigation exercise on the River Trent, on the 28th September 1975. During the force six gale and the river in full flood, the assault boat that they were part of was swept over the weir, (Known locally as the Devils Cauldrin), of the eleven soldiers on board ten were drowned, one soldier was saved after clinging onto the assault boat for an hour, It was the largest peace time tragedy in the squadrons history.The scene of this tragedy is marked by a piece of granite bearing the names of those young men who lost their lives that terrible night nearly thirty years ago"

So very sad. The oldest was 29 yrs and the youngest 17.

Loughbrorough to Nottingham

On the way out of Lough and at the first lock, I spied something I had never seen before !. A Cat and a Rabbit, playing together. The little girl in the garden saw me looking so I asked if they were buddies, and yes they were, but they wouldn 't pose for a piccy.

Last night we moored up on the Beeston/Nottingham canal. Its great. Clean and tidy and has a real nice feel about it. The boats in front and behind us, were young folks with very small kids/babies aboard. They all made their own amusement, playing on the grass opposite. Its was really nice..

Trundled off this morning, and left the canal behind and onto the big, wide river. Its beautiful, and boy are there some gin-palaces cruising along here. They bounce us up and down as they roar past. good fun, though. Mick raised his can of Speckled Hen to one lady on her "liner", and she looked down at us far below and raised her .............................................. Champagne flute. that gave us a real giggle.

Finlay has developed a real problem with the rail bridges. Every one we go under, he spends about an hour shaking and looking forlorn. We keep trying to distract him by shouting " Rabbits!", but it doesn't always work.

This afternoon we have moored at The Bromley Arms, Fiskerton( and before you all say summat about us mooring outside of pubs, on this stretch of river, there is no choice, because its a RIVER, see. !)There is a monster boat behind us( the sort we like, dutch barge), and of course, a wag at the pub bust a gut to tell us that the man on board is a LORD( yeah, well we know one or two !!!) and the richest man in Nottinghamshire !

One of our chums is a count, Honest, he bought the title .

Anyway here are some pics. Tomorrow onto Newark on Trent.

The old Fellow,Morton and Clayton building. The regeneration in Nottingham is amazing and done well. All along here are restaurants/bars( to be tried on the way home )

A beautiful river.

The locks are BIG. !

Chap with a cats face. !

I knew I had something else to tell you. When we stopped in Leceicster, I went into the LOCKED castle gardens in the morning to let Finlay do his biz. and there was a couple sitting on a bench and the bloke had the face of a TABBY CAT. !!! No, I hadn't smoked a weird cig, nor had a drink at that time of the day. ! He was tattooed with whiskers , little snout etc. He looked a right prat, I can tell you. He even spoke to us, well he wanted to know all about Finlay. I had a job keeping my mouth closed, as it had dropped to the level of my knees, at this point. All I can say is he can't have been a very good puss, as Finlay would have given chase !!!!!! miaow, saucer of milk for me. !!!! it gave me a good giggle to start the day off , anyway.

We moved down from the canal nr Loughborough and onto the wharf, as I want to top up with water. Also after we had been shopping, some rotten sod had let their dog crap( enormous pile) by the boat. There was a dog bin 2 steps away. Anyway, some of you know what I am like with dog-poop. I wrote a large note calling them irresponsible, and stuck it in the pile ( enormous !) with a stick. I felt sick, so we had to move.

Have been checking out fuel prices on the way to Nottingham, and they are going up, up up. So thats it tomorrow Nottingham., and pastures new for us. and it is going to be raining, great ,,, and mick has said that we will have a meal out. whey hey. double great.

Oh the last thing that made me laugh today. Theres a kid on the boat nr to us with his granddparents. I reckon he;s hyper and guess what his name is ????? FINLAY ! yeah.

Hope you had a great birthday, Roger Wicks. ! I know you don't follow the blog, but Jackie may, and she can tell you that I have given you a mention. Chris, you know where we are going

A nice big bull. !


Left Leicester yesterday in the company of a nice young couple on NB Lucky Duck, they too, have a blog. Mick and I got quite a surprise, as the young fella is a teacher,they both look so young, Sorry James and Amy, if you should read this, but this happens when you get to our age. EVERYONE starts to look young. Aaarghhhh !. We had to water up ,and they continued on their way. At one of the locks coming away from Leic, there were a load of youngsters on an outward bound sort of thing. they were taking their own sweet time doing the lock with their canoes and kayaks . I enquired as to whether anyone was supervising, and was told most definitley that there was " but you can't hurry 8 years olds " ! I could.

We moored up at fave mooring spot. Bit wiffy compared to last year and then I had another look at the map. we are twixt 2 sh.. sewage farms. !. Wind must have been in the wrong direction .





Anyway today we met another set !!!! these were older. At Barrow Deep, there were 2 day trip tugs with loads of bladdered girls on, and they took an age, but that was quite a laugh . Mick was a bit sad, as these girls weren't dressed up in fancy outfits.( the last group of girls we saw were wearing very short and low-cut little sailor suits !!!). so they banged and crashed their way out of the lock. Then the kids started sorting themselves out, I went back to the boat and made a coffee. However when I went back, as they were older, they had got their act toether, and were told to help myself and the dutch lady on the other boat, with the lock. great stuff.





So tonight we are in Loughborough, and apparently tomorrow we are off to visit the Bell Foundry. The oldest and largest in the WORLD. ! and on particular thursdays they cast a bell. so quite looking forward to that. Also they dont practise 'elf n safety. !








Remember Micks "old lady type" trolley bag. He broke it.! There was so much Speckled Hen, chilean red wine etc. he lifted it up and bust the handle but, of course, Mick went to B+Q, got some long screws and mended it. !!! Thats recycling. !





The next blog could be from the Trent, but not the tidal bit yet !. Kennet and Avon is closed, alledgedly. and as you know, Chris Frost, we are in Loughboro. !

sorry about previous blog

Some pics I did not want on there, I hadn't done a spell check, and I hadn;t tidied it up. apols, blog-trotters. I had an Interlectual Interlude. !!!

Mick had had some injuries, changing a gas bottle he dropped the locker on his finger and toe, fell over at a lock( bad paving- should we sue ? or ashould he take more water with it?), dropped a pole into the murky depths.

Before we left Leicester ( now the wine cellar is completely depleted), I am proud to tell you all, that we were found waiting outside of a ......? for it to open. what am I talking about. a BARGAIN BOOZE !!!! Have only been in one once before and I was wanting a paper bag to put on my head, so no-one recognised me. The thing is they are not actually a bargain . Far better off at Tescos !

Met speckled jim at this lock, I think he was tired as he just sat there and let me do all the work.

Bucky to Cossington

This was a lovely secrective mooring spot that we saw last year, and we were lucky enough to find it again and stay.It was just after the Watford flight, where I had had a slight "menopausal moment" and nearly opened the lock in the wrong sequence. Lockie said i should refer to it as and "interlecutal Interlude". ok, fine by me. Problem is we are running out of wine. Cripes. !

Sat am we left this great spot, I spied some geese on the bank, and practised my goose "honks". I manage to stop them eating, but have managed to get any in the water and following us, as they did last year.

Stayed overnight at Foxton, as I wanted to do them first thing in the am, when there are no gongoozlers around. Some old chap referred to Mick as my Dad !!!! made me laugh, Mick felt that the bloke ,perhaps need to get some glasses. Thats the polite version.

Stopped opposite Wistow Park for an overnighter. This was strange as a rather sooper-dooper boat had put himself right in the middle of a mooring space big enough for 2 boats. Think he had Marlene Dietrich syndrome, but anyway, I had always wanted to have that view to wake up to( beautiful, rolling parkland with sheep and cows), and we tucked ourselves on the end( being only 45ft we can get most places). normally when something like this happens, the other boater would come out and offer to move his boat up. Not this guy. He put his Cat Stevens musice on loud( great, we like Cat), and did some work on his boat, but refused to meet our eye. we were quite happy to say hello. They played some great music too, so it saved us having to use our power. When we left, he was peering through his side hatch , and I was just about to say "good morning", but he withdrew his head, like a shy tortoise, and peered at us through the gap where the hinges are. !

This little guy and his family, cleaned some algae off Trundles' bottom in exchange for a slice of bread.

Finlay had a new neckerchief ! He is also after some Beef roll, but he didn;t get any.........................not much anyway.