Early shop

 

Wow did I get a surprise when I opened the back cabin doors this morning, it was a pea souper, which was not spoken about on the weather forecast. The fog did mean it was however a cooler start to the day and ideal for an early morning shopping trip to the new Tesco store up the Ellesmere Arm, so having walked paddy, eaten breakfast and drunk our tea, we locked the boat up and set off for Tesco before 7am, the store opens at 6am, so we were looking forward to a nice quiet shop. We were not disappointed because we were the only shoppers in there, the only other people in the store were the cleaners who were sweeping under the shelving to retrieve food which had tried to escape by hiding and the staff were all in on duty. Having got our trolley of shopping we were behind one other lady at the till, when a member of staff opened another till just for us, I felt very honoured, not that it was especially for us, but you know what I mean. Tesco like all other shops at the moment in Union Jack crazy, it is on a lot of their packaging and they have a lot of novelty goods in store to buy. Trouble is the prices have been hiked up so much, it is not something I will buy into. By 8am we were on our way out of the store and into the sunshine, which has burnt the early mornging fog away. We were back on the boat, before most people were up and about. I put the shopping away whilst Keith started the generator up to charge the batteries for the day. Coffee was made and we sat down for a break before heading off out to the Ellesmere market which is held every Tuesday.

The indoor market is only small, but nevertheless we got a few items we needed. I liked the paintings on the walls of the old market place. We then had a wander around the town, popping in and out of the charity and antique shops. On returning to the boat, we got sorted out to head over to the sanitary station, to fill the water tank, empty the toilet cassettes and get rid of rubbish.

Travelled 2.6 miles, through 1 tunnel in 30 minutes.

Having done all the jobs, we set off from the sanitary station at 11.40am, turning right heading towards Ellesmere Tunnel, where we had to wait for a boat already coming through from the other end.

Having negotiated the 87 yard tunnel we came out into bright sunshine. Just after the tunnel we moored up with Blake Mere alongside us.

It really did look amazing in the sunshine. After some lunch, we went for a walk along the towpath with Blake Mere keeping us company. Unfortunately you cannot walk all the way round, but it did not stop us venturing into the undergrowth to see the Mere close up. Whilst delving in the undergrowth we found some logs close to the boat, so thought we would load a few of them into the hold, we will chop them up at a later date. More wood to burn over the coming Winter.

After a nice stroll along the mere, we got the chairs out and sat alongside it.

It was just nice to sit and listen to the bird song and watch the waterfowl on the mere. The Mayflies were out in large numbers on the lily pads.

Mr Wren was sat in a tree close by really telling us in no uncertain terms that we were not welcome to sit where we were sitting and we soon discovered why. In a bramble close to the waters edge he and his missus had set up home and they were clearly feeding young. After a while he must have decided that we were ok, because he stopped screaming at us and went about his business. As the afternoon wore on, the temperature dropped off, so we packed away the chairs and headed back into the boat. The TV is now on, Marmite and Paddy will get fed in a short while and then I will make us some dinner. Later on we will settle in for the evening and an early night, because we hope to set off earlier tomorrow.