Winsford Top Flash to Beeston.

Travelled 11.4 miles, worked 6 locks in a time of 6 hours.

Saturday evening Bob on NB Glenfield moored in front of us for the night. It had been a good couple of years since we had seen him, so it was lovely to catch up with him and to give him a book back that he lent Keith.

Yesterday (Sunday) was another busy day for me, what with finishing off the Spring clean in the back cabin, I also top coated my sale boards with some white gloss. During the morning a hire boat pulled in at our bow, and ask if we sold ice cream as they had run out. I could not sell them ice cream, but they did buy a packet of firelighters ha ha ha. I managed to wash and polish one side of the boat, the other side will be done when we are moored up in a shady place. Bob off of NB Glenfield left us to go on his travels for the Summer, so we said our goodbyes for now.

By the time I had finished polishing the boat, it was time for lunch and then I sat and watched the F1 GP, which was a fun packed race from Malaysia. Having cooked dinner and enjoyed a pint of Bass, I settled down to watch the "Dancing on Ice" final which was one of the best they have ever had, I am so looking forward to the next one now. As the daylight faded, we were treated to a stunning sunset over the Winsford Top Flash.

This morning we woke to heavy frost and a rather chilly back cabin, so there was a reluctance to climb out from beneath the duvet, but Paddy needed walking and we wanted to be on the move. At 8.45am we left our weekend mooring and set off in beautiful sunshine towards Beeston.

My first lock of the day was Minshull Lock 11'0" and we saw a boat already at the lock. NB Tilly Ho Jo went up in front of us and I went and helped with the paddles. As we moved up through the lock, two further boats arrived at the bottom, they had come out of the Marina.

As we approached Cholmondeston Lock, we were amazed to see most of Venetian Marina empty, but then realised that most of the pontoons had been removed and more were going the same way. Apparently the marina is under new ownership and they are doing a lot of work on the place. At the lock there were now two boats in front of us, so I stepped off the boat with the centre line, secured the boat to a mooring ring and then went up to help with the lock work. It seems that this spell of warm weather has got people on the move.

We arrived at the junction of the Shropshire Union Main Line Canal at 11.55am. With it being lunch time, I ducked down into the galley to make us something to eat whilst on the move. We stopped at Calveley to empty the toilet cassette, so I topped the water tank up, I had used a lot of water over the weekend, Keith got rid of the rubbish he had collected a long the towpath over the weekend. Just after the sanitary station we met up with NB Mary Russell, who we had met up with in Stone about 3 years ago. Hello's and how are you's were exchanged, and we were once more on our way. Before reaching the Bunbury Staircase Locks we passed some kilns, which we had never seen before, but because the undergrowth has been chopped back they are now visible.

Bunbury Staircase Locks in view, I once more stepped off the boat to work the locks.

I had forgotten how heavy these gates were and the fact that the bottom paddles were so highly geared they take an age to wind up.

We made it through Tilstone Lock and Beeston Stone Lock and Keith suggested we moor up in what was a lovely sunny spot with a lovely view. We closed the boat up and walked over the Chas Hearnden narrowboats, to say "hello" and to have a natter. Chas was very busy preparing his hire boats for the coming season, but Chris one of his helpers let us into the shop, where we picked up the latest Towpath Talk and bought a ribbon plate.

Back on the boat it was time for dinner and for me an early night.

Spring clean and painting.

When I opened the back cabin doors this morning to take Paddy for his walk, not only was a greeted by a pea souper, over night we had been joined by a fisherman. As Paddy and I walked past the fisherman's tent, he was snoozing on his camp bed completely dead to the world, in fact so dead to the world he was snoring, which must have been scaring the fish away, because none of his four rods showed any sign of having a catch on the end of the line.

After some breakfast, it was time to get on with the list of jobs I had gathered in my head. The sun was beginning to burn through and we could see down to the River Weaver.

1st job was to help Keith change a plumbing joint under the back cabin floor, which is part of the engine cooling system, with that job it was on to the next job.

2nd job was to rub down the red on the bow to prepare it for some undercoat and then to apply the pink undercoat. Whilst I was doing that Keith was sawing in half a piece of board he found whilst collecting rubbish yesterday, which will be ideal for advertising our coasters and placemats.

3rd job was to undercoat the board that Keith had successfully saw in half with white paint, they were then allowed to dry in the very warm sunshine.

4th job was to add the first coat of red gloss to the bow as the undercoat had dried in double quick time. With the paintwork now in drying mode, it was time to think about my 5th job which would take the longest.

5th job was to strip the back cabin down to begin the Spring Clean. Yes it is the first day of the British Summer tomorrow and so I have done a Spring clean in the back cabin. I took down the plates, washed and dried them all. I rubbed down stoves chimney pipe and painted it in black gloss, so it looks nice and smart for the Summer, I then took down the Winter curtains and replaced them with the Summer curtains, once I had found them. I always put things in a place where I can find them and then yep you guess it, I forget where they are arghhh. After 15 minutes of searching I finally found the curtains in one of our plastic boxes, the curtains were ironed and hung. All the cabin lace was washed, bleached, dried and some of it re-hung. Most of the back cabin is now done, I just have some lace to hang tomorrow once it is dry and the remainder of the plates. Whilst doing the back cabin, I did stop for lunch whilst the Malaysian F1 GP was on, I was then back into Spring cleaning mode. I finally stopped cleaning for the day at 4.30pm, because I felt like I had done a good days work.

The fisherman packed up and is now on his way home after catching nothing at all and I am now about to feed mog and dog, before cooking us something for dinner.

There is something very rewarding about getting a list of jobs completed, tomorrow I will start on the saloon.

Chat soon x

Middlewich to Winsford Top Flash.

Travelled 2.4 miles, worked 1 lock in a time of 1 hour 5 minutes.

For some strange reason I woke up thinking it was Saturday and I have not been able to shake that thought. Awake early with a cup of tea brewing whilst we watched a little TV in bed. Marmite was doing all she could to get our attention, which meant only one thing, her food dishes were empty. Of jumping on us, does not get our attention, she resorts to clawing at the curtains, this still does not have the desired affect, because she does not rule the roost. Eventually it was time to get up, take Paddy for his walk and then both he and Marmite got their breakfast. Marmite never lets you forget that she feels neglected, she will whinge on and on.

Keith and I took and early walk into Middlewich, to see if we could remember any of it from 2002, which was when we were last there, this was when we hired NB Holly from Middlewich Narrowboats, so I could see if I was going to enjoy life afloat, because unlike Keith who had been around the water for many many years, this was to be my first time on a boat and on the canal. That first day I worked 27 locks in the pouring rain, as we worked our way to Stone to see Roger Fuller about building Hadar. I think Keith hoped secretly the weather and the work would have put me off, but not a bit of it I was in my element and loved every moment of it and still do. The only thing I recognised was the church, but nothing else came to mind. We went into Tesco to get a few bits, before heading back to the boat.

We left Middlewich at 10.00am, all the moorings along that stretch were so very quiet, there were only two other boats moored on them. At Stanthorne Lock a boat was already descending the lock, so I stepped off of the boat and walked up to give them a hand.

Alongside the lock was this holly bush with all its berries, which is a little surprising at this time of year.

At Bridge 22A, we went under the main London to Glasgow electric railway line, before stopping above Winsford Flash, where there are lovely 48 hour moorings.

Once the boating season starts, these moorings will be very busy purely because of the view. At this time of year the view of the flashes is really beautiful, because the leaves on the trees are not out yet.

All moored up, doors and windows open, Keith went off to collect all the litter which has been left at this beauty spot. What makes people want to dump their rubbish at such a beautiful place???

The trees and bushes have leaf buds on them and the Lesser Celandine is out in flower. The sun is out and it is very warm this afternoon. If it continues like this over the weekend, I will be getting some painting done.

At the moment Marmite is lounging outside in the sunshine and Paddy is laying on the back counter. I have done a wash, had lunch and cooked Pork Chops for tonight's dinner. It is now time to sit back and enjoy a beautiful afternoon.

Chat soon x

Rode Heath to Middlewich.

Travelled 9.6 miles, worked 20 locks in a time of 6 hours.

We set off from Rode Heath at 8.10am with warm hazy sunshine on our backs.  My first lock of the day was Thurlwood Lock and wooo hoo it was in our favour, it turned out that all but one lock was with us on our journey. Someone was smiling down on us.

I so love looking at peoples gardens and see all the effort or not they put into their little piece of paradise. This really caught my eye.

As we approached Hassall Green, we noticed that British Waterways was piling the visitor moorings and a very nice job they were making too.

We were very surprised to see the Romping Donkey being knocked about, it looked like it was being knocked down, but I see from a new facebook page for the pub that is not the case. The Romping Donkey has new owners and the place is being renovated, because part of the place was in a dangerous state. It looks like the new owners have got their work cut out, but here is hoping we may eventually get to eat there, we have tried twice. On the first occasion they were only doing sandwiches and you needed to pay cash as they had no card reader, the second time it was all locked up, so we had not been back since. But with new owners and such a lot of work going on, we may just have to give it a 3rd try.

Having done the first of the Hassall Green locks I walked on down to the second one with the roar of the motorway traffic ringing in my ears.

The lock is so close to the road, I could have waved at every driver and they could have waved back.

At lock 61 in the Wheelock flight, the arm on the paddle gear would not close, I tried everything to make it close to no avail, so we will be reporting it to British Waterways.

At lock 65 wheelock, I got chatting to one of the British waterways workers who was working on the other lock in the pair. I told him about lock 61 and he told me he had reported it a couple of days ago, we will still report it though, so maybe something will get done sooner rather than later.

We stopped at the sanitary station at Wheelock because I wanted to get some dog food, so whilst there we top the water tank up, and got rid of rubbish. The time was 11.30am and as we were a lot earlier than we thought we would be, we decided to carry on towards Middlewich. I made some lunch which we would eat on the way after I had worked the first three locks which were together. There are great expanses of countryside, with farms dotted about, but nothing much to write home about as far as scenery is concerned.

After Wheelock we passed Paddys Wood. Honest the wood has that name, it is not a name we gave it after our Paddy. The wood is only very small, but when we stopped there some years ago Paddy enjoyed running in and out of the trees.

Some how we came out of Rumps Lock with a football on our gunwale.

As we approached Kings Lock there was a herd of Swans enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

Kings Lock did not look very open.

At 2.10pm we turned on to the Shropshire Union Canal (Middlewich Branch) or the Wardle Canal. The first 100 yards or so were known as the Wardle Canal and is claimed to be the shortest canal in the country. I had the gates on Wardle Lock open ready for the boat to enter.

Wardle Lock Cottage looks very sad without Maureen Shaw there. I wrote in a previous posting that Maureen had left the cottage and died on the 17th March. The cottage now has new owners, but nothing has been done to the cottage yet. It will not seem the same without Maureen there. I dare say that when we come this way again things may have changed.

Last lock of the day done, we found ourselves a mooring just past the next bridge.

All moored up, Keith went off to the Kings Lock Chandlery to get a couple of items. We have decided to go into town tomorrow morning, because both of us are a little pooped. I have a feeling I will be in bed early tonight.

Red Bull aqueduct and Poole aqueduct, Kidsgrove to Rode Heath.

Travelled 3.25 miles, worked 12 locks in a time of 2 hours 40 minutes.

Last evening with no TV signal, we got the DVD collection out and watched the new "Clash of the Titans" and we began to watch the new "Four Feathers", but with Keith snoring and me feeling like I needed my bed, neither of us bothered to see the end, we just headed off to bed.

After a fantastic nights sleep, we were awake pretty early as seems to be the norm these days. So I made us a cup of tea, before we were up and about. We were in no hurry to set off as we had thought of stopping below the Red Bull flight at Church Lawton, so we left our mooring at 9.10am.

No sooner I had cast off the bow rope, Keith shouted to hang on as there was a boat coming towards us, it turned out to be Bruce and Sheila off of NB Sanity Again, but they were on NB Bunnies Warren heading back to High Poynton and Braidbar Boats. We had a quick natter with them as we both headed in opposite directions, I have no doubt we will see them again sometime soon. When you come off of the moorings on the aqueduct, you have a tight left hand bend to get around.

This proved easy enough for us, especially as there was no other boat coming, thankfully we did not meet NB Bunnies Warren on the bend, because we may have spoilt the nice shiny paintwork and given Bruce and Sheila a heart attack LOL.

At 9.25am we turned off of the Macclesfield Canal at Hardings Wood Junction and back on to the Trent and Mersey Canal with its orange water from the tunnel.

I stepped off of the boat to work my first lock of the morning. Some of the paddles are very stiff and took all my effort to get them to move.

At lock 42 the second of my two locks, there were old floral tributes, Stoke City scarves, shirt and football boots, which meant that something tragic had happened here. I have since found out that 19 year old Mike Sutton died after hitting his head whilst trying to jump the lock. Such a tragic loss of life at such a young age, but this is nothing new. I cannot see why young people think it is a fun thing to do. This accident happened on the 3rd December 2011, which means the stone work would have been slippery and therefore very dangerous. On reading the news report, some people were calling for better safety measures and even lighting. None of these things will stop young people from tempting fate. Lighting will actually encourage more of this sort of thing to happen. It looks like many tributes have been laid for this young man, which means he was highly thought of, the problem now is all the flowers have died and are strewn along the lock side, just waiting to be kicked into the lock, which will be hazardous to boaters and their propellers. I can understand those who loved him want to pay tribute to him, but it is time the dead flowers were removed from the lock.

On the way down the flight someone had been leaving the bottom gates open on the pairs of locks, which meant more work for little old me. We exited the bottom of the Red Bull flight at 10.30am and were going to stop, but because it was so early we decided to carry on through Church Locks.

The Church Locks despite being pairs only have one lock navigational on both pairs. it is very sad to see locks in such disrepair. There was talk of them being restored, but it is clear nothing much has been done so far.

We did the Lawton Treble Locks and then moored up at Rode Heath opposite the Broughton Arms at 11.50am. We then did some work on the oil pressure relief valve on the engine, before I suggested we had some lunch at the Broughton Arms. This suggested was made with a little trepidation, because when we last ate there in 2006, the food was dreadful. The mash potato was out of a packet and the vegetables were cooked to within an inch of their lives. But we need not have worried because our lunch of Fish and Chips was quite delightful, as was the pint of Pedigree. So the Broughton Arms is now back on my list of places to eat. Tomorrow we will be heading towards Wheelock and beyond no doubt.

Chat soon.

Oakgrove to between Red Bull aqueduct and Poole aqueduct, Kidsgrove.

Travelled 11.95 miles, worked 13 locks and 2 swing bridges in a time of 6 hours 40 minutes.

We were awake very early at 5.30am arghhhh, so there was nothing for it but to have a cup of tea and some toast whilst we watched some TV on for a bit. Once we were up and Paddy was walked, it was time to ready the boat for the off at 8am. My first swing bridge was key operated and easy peasy. We crept past Brian and Ann Maria, hoping not to wake them.

It was onward to Bosley Locks, we got there at 8.50am and Keith wanted to check the propeller, because he reckoned we had something on it.

The offending item turned out to be an Ikea sack, which was tightly wound round the propeller and shaft. Eventually Keith managed to cut it free and we were ready for the off again at 9.15am. I went to set the first lock and found the bottom gate paddles had been left up, this was the same at locks 2,3 and 4, where we met a two British Waterways boys coming up the flight. The one working the locks told me they had caught up with two men on a boat who had been leaving the paddles up, they had had a stern word with them, so we had to hope that had worked and I would not have to do all the extra work involved. Because they had left paddles up the pound in which they had their boat was very low, so we sent down a lock of water to help them out and we carried on our way, wishing them a good day.

The view across to Bosley Cloud was fantastic in the morning sunshine. We got to the bottom of Bosley Locks at 11.05 am, which was not bad. When the sun came out it was lovely and warm, I was just in my short sleeves and a waistcoat.

At Buglawton, we got surprised by a Sparrow Hawk which flew through the hedgerow and downed a Blackbird right beside us. The Sparrow Hawk pinned the poor old Blackbird to the ground and did not bat an eyelid as we cruised past, which allowed me to get this photograph.

According to nature it is officially Spring and this display of Daffodils certainly proved the point.

As did these very cute Lambs.

We were back in Congleton, but we had no plans to stop, so I went and made us some lunch on the move, which consisted of hot cross buns and some homemade victoria sandwich, with a coffee.

Mow Cop was not back in view.

Loved this Squirrel, who was determined to get the seed out of the feeder.

At Scholars Green, this swing bridge was not for budging, no amount of pushing and shoving by me was going to move it, so I had to tie the bow rope to it and Keith pulled it open using the boat. I managed to partly close it behind us. Usually it is left open, perhaps that is why because you cannot operate the darn thing. We passed by Ramsdell Hall, which I wrote about in a previous posting.

We arrived at Hall Green Lock and I stepped off of the boat near the footbridge. A gentleman from one of the cottages had heard us coming and came down to the lock for a chat, he also very kindly shut the gate behind us, so we could go on our way.

We arrived at the aqueduct at 2.40pm and have sort of moored up. We are over a foot from the bank, so Paddy will be doing his leap of faith tonight when he goes for his walk. Poor boy is somewhat of a coward when it comes to jumping gaps, so he will need a lot of encouragement by Keith or be lifted off. Dinner tonight will be the 2nd half of last nights curry. We have no TV signal here, so the DVD collection maybe coming out. Since being moored up, I have cleaned the brass inside and out, so it is gleaming for tomorrows descent down the Cheshire locks. I am just hoping my back holds out, because it has been complaining a bit today.

Chat soon xx