August 2012

1st August. Cruised to Audlem today and will stay two days. Had a fun evening in the pub with three other single-handed boaters, all men, two with old working boats, and the couple that run the Mill gift shop. Got some good sausages and bacon from the butcher. The village is looking good and prosperous, a lot better than poor neglected Market Drayton.

        

3rd August. Cruised the short distance down to Coole Pilate leisure Mooring where there are benches and BBQ facilities. I am armed with my instant BBQ pits and local sausages but will the weather play ball? It has two chances as I am staying here tomorrow as well.

4th August. A summer storm resulted in a double rainbow and a spectacular (by English standards!) sunset. However the first time I have had the opportunity to moor here complete with sausages and BBQ grid, the weather doesn’t play ball.

        

5th August. Short cruise into Nantwich today. Walked into town to pick up the FT and settled down to work. Also need to give the boat a bit of a clean before Kevin and Conor arrive tomorrow.

6th August. Into Nantwich in the morning for appointment with Bank and some shopping. It is a really fine little town. There is a fascinating Millenium Clock in one of the squares. The evening bought visitors to the boat cruising the last of the sun lit water.

          

In the afternoon Conor and I took our cameras and went for a walk along the tow path to admire the aqueduct and the sculptures. We also had a close encounter with a friendly robin.

  

7th August. Set off early for Wrensbury on the Llangollen Canal. Got through the narrow locks without mishap. The countryside is very pretty and given the popularity of this canal it was unusually quiet. Took a walk into the village and came across a very interesting burial site in the grave yard. It is the grave or a Traveller or Gypsy. It was very recent and in fact we thought that we had seen the funeral party leaving the Village Hall. It really was quite extraordinary.

8th August. Continued along the lovely Shroppie to Whitchurch. Moored up in time for lunch and took a walk into the town which has an imposing church, an impressive craft centre and some interesting old buildings. I continue to be impressed by the valiant attempts at urban renewal in these middle England towns even it the teeth of the recession. There are three proper butchers and two bakers in town. We treated ourselves to pies and pastries!

        

9th August. Cruised into Ellesmere today and settled into the Marina. Kev & Conor will drop me off at Whitchurch tomorrow on their way home. I will catch a train to Edinburgh to stay with Sally & Andy for a few days. K & C are taking me out to dinner tonight.

10th August. The problem with cheap train tickets is that they take you all around the houses and all day to get there. Got to Edinburgh late afternoon. Lovely to see Sally & Andy again.

11th August. Into town on the bus to have a wander around, go to the Book Fair for a talk, have coffee at Henderson’s, take in the “Van Gogh to Kandinsky” exhibition at the Scotish National Gallery and see the craft market at West End where Sally got carried away and boughht a rather “alternative” kilt! Andy did not look convinced! Back home for lunch and a quiet afternoon before going to the wonderfully refurbished Usher Hall to here the BBC Scotish Symphony Orchestra, with Donald Runnicles conducting, playing Beethoven’s Pastoral and the Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony.

           

12th August. Drove out to the Pentland Hills south of the city for four hours of hill walking which made me realise two things, what a difference 10+ years makes to your performance at this stage of life and how unfit I am due to having been confined to the cabin due to foul weather for much of the alleged summer! The views were good and apart from a strong wind, the weather was fair. After the walk we demolished some rolls and headed for Rosslyn Chapel. This is a site that I have wanted to visit for many years. Ever since reading books on the history of freemasonry which alluded to links between this lovely little church and the Knights Templar. It is just a small church but it was designed to be just the altar end of a massive cathedral, the foundations of which have been excavated, but was never finished. What remains is as heavily ornamented as anything at Angkor Watt and totally enchanting.

        

         

13th August. Andrew and Sally were off to work today so I took myself into town on the bus and walked, and walked, and….. Some of the things that intregued me were the shop and venue signs…….

                

annother was the courts, closes and allyways hidden away behind the Royal Mile…

       

then of course being Festival time there were loads of Buskers, most of whom were trying to sell there show for later in the day, some of them were just hoping to recieve gratueties or sell CDs……

           

The hilly nature of the city, it is built on seven hills, lends itself to sweeping vistas and the “Adams” terraces take adsvantage of this and look as impressive as the crescents of Bath. There is also a pleasing mix of old and new.

       

14th August. Met Henry and Charlotte at Crewe Station and travelled on to Ellesmere Marina with them. The weather stayed good so we got sausages from the butchers and had a BBQ.

15th August. Cruised through to Chirk. The expected rain held off for a few hours but was tipping it down for the last while. Moored up and had lunch while waiting for it to at least ease off a bit. Following a wet walk through soggy cow pastures we had a good afternoon visiting Chirk Castle where my delightful grandchildren showed that they were not beyond “dressing-up”. Our route back took us over the Chirk Aqueduct with its adjacent rail bridge, built a little higher to emphasise the superiority of rail over canal transport!

           

16th August. If you thought that the Chirk aqueduct was impressive then the Ponticysyllt at 120 feet over the Dee valley will really amazing. With a tow path on one side and a 2 inch metal lip on the other it is not only impressive but a bit scarey! We moored up in Trevor Basin and walked to the river at the base of the aqueduct. Leter in the day Betty and Ed came by for tea with their grandaughter Rebecca.

           

17th August. Moved into the shed this morning to wait for Jim to come and paint the name and apply the strip. Henry made “for Sale” signs while Charlotte and I cleaned the windows. I will move out tomorrow looking very smart! Jim did a great job and Henry & Charlotte caught the train home.

18th August. Cruised to Ellesmere today through the beautiful Shropshire countryside in heavy cloud but no rain. Amazing how different it is going with the current as opposed to fighting it. Did what H & C & I had taken 8.75hrs to do in 6.5 hours. Lovely and sunny by the afternoon. Did laundry, boat cleaning and shopping.

19th August. Pulled over to the services to top up with water and got going by 8am in fine weather which lasted till just after 11am. I had pulled up to have a pee and a hire boat went by at such speed that it caused my wine rack, cutlry and other items to come crashing down off my kitchen work top. Only one of the six bottles broke which is lucky, that it was a bottle of red is less so. I ran up on deck and shouted obscenities after the idiot which made me feel marginally better. Cleared it all up and set off again for Whitchurch where I will tie up.

     

20th August Cruised from Whitchurch to Wrensbury. Had fun playing with the camera in the evening light.

       

21st August. Wrensbury to Hack Green. Stopped in Nantwich for lunch and just after I set off the heavens opened. I had intended to go through to Audlem but it was so wet and miserable that I stopped at 4pm. Not long after that the sun came out!

22nd August. Long day but thankfully dry. 13 miles and 25 locks. I am aiming to get to Tixal and moor up before the Bank Holiday rush! Spent the night at Goldstone Bridge.

23rd August. Pulled up just 3 miles short of my intended destination today, having done 20 miles. The reason for stopping was the sight of Graham on “Maid of the Mist” waving to me. I have not been on their blog for a while so did not know we were on the same canal. Needless to say we will be sharing a bottle tonight!

24th August. Had a lovely evening on “Maid of the Mist” with Jean and Graham. Photographed their boat and left them a thankyou card before hitting the cut at 8am. The morning started off quite well with no rain, even the occasional glimpse of sun and the pretty sight of poppies in the wheat fields. Through Autherley Junction and Hatherton and on to Gailey with no incident. There I stopped to have a pee and get something to eat before going through the locks and on to Penkridge. However when I went to re-start the boat – nothing! I was fortunate to be right next to JD Boat Builders, the workshop that did my service earlier in the season. Unfortunately they were very busy getting their hire boats out and couldn’t attend to me before about 5pm. However, attend to me they did. The problem, being electrical, was illusive but Dave worked hard to get it sorted and in the end succeeded. I decided to stay here for the night.

25th August Cruised from Gailey to Penkridge. Did several trips to the shops to stock up in preparation for Marian and family. Will spend two nights here and use tomorrow, when it shouldn’t be raining, to polish one side of the boat and clean one side of the roof.

27th August. Cruised to Great Haywood where I met Marian, Pete and Conor. We had lunch at the lock tea rooms and took their stuff back to the boat. We will be here for the duration of their stay.

28th August. Conor and I went cycling in Cannock Chase today and he did very well. We did at least 30klms. When we got to the bike shop I got him some proper kit. He was very chuffed! When we got back we had a great BBQ.

29th August. We all went off to spend the day at Shrugborough Hall. It was quite wet during the time that we were there but brightened up as we got back to the boat with sunshine and a brisk wind. I bought the boat round to the junction in readiness for the meeting with the valuer tomorrow. Squeezed in on the end. It was a bit tight and the strong wind didn’t help but we made it.

30th August. We had the meeting with the Broker today. I did not take to him, he really did not show “Carpe” due respect for the splendid vessle she is. Sent an e-mail to Andy and Richard telling them what they could buy her for and pointing out that I needed a reply prior to this time tomorrow at which point I would have to hand her over to the broker. Marian and I started packing stuff up in boxes I scrounged from the Anglo Welsh boat yard. Marian and Pete decided that they should leave after an early dinner so as to leave me free to move the boat in the morning. Still no responce from Andy & Richard.

31st August. Finnished packing up the things I want to take off the boat and called the broker at noon to say I would let him sell the boat.He said that he had a space for “carpe” at King’s Bromley from which they would market the boat and I should take her down there and come back to the office at Great Haywood in the morning to sign the contract. Frantic phone calls backwards and forwards and Nikki is on schedule to collect me and all the boxes in the van arround lunchtime tomorrow. Set off at 1pm for King’s Bromley. Sadly still no word from Andy & Richard.