Homeward bound.

Last night sunset was lovely. Moored behind us was Tranquil Dayz, who had been moored in the arm for the Winter, they were now on their travels for the year.

We got woken up at 6.30 am by slapping underneath the boat, probably by a large Carp. Then a hire boat went past at speed in the fog.

We decided to set off at 8.50 am with the fog beginning to lift, we headed for the winding hole.

A pair of Swans are setting up home near the winding hole and are very busy making their nest.

They were so busy making their nest they took absolutely no notice of us winding.

A Pair of Canada Geese were taking a break in the field opposite the towpath.

Whilst winding it was a great chance for me to take a photograph of Keith.

They grow big in the canal. Sadly this Carp was no more.

Having winded, we said “Goodbye” to Radford Semele church.

By the time we were getting close to Royal Leamington-Spa the sun had come out and it was really rather warm in the Spring sunshine.

A local farmer was out feeding his Ewes and their Lambs.

Seeing Lambs always brings a smile to my face, they are such wonderful characters.

At Kate Boats a boat was getting ready to slip its mooring and asked if they could join us through Cape Locks, which of course we said “please do”.

Sharing locks is always a great thing, halves the work load and saves water, so a win, win situation.

Having left the top lock at The Cape of Good Hope, Keith went ahead and picked me up at the bridge’' ‘ole, where I got the boat pole ready for winding in the arm.

Back at out mooring. We had a lovely couple of nights out and hopefully once a few things have been sorted out on our calendar, we will be off cruising sometime in April.

So bear with me folks. I will be back .

Boats which have come past us today.

Collingwood.

Callisto on the fuel run.

Saltisford Arm, Warwick to Radford Semele.

Hi Friends.

If you read the title of this post and thought oh an old posting. No this is a brand new and exciting posting.

Today Keith and I left our mooring in the Arm. 

It has been a long 18 months for the both of us. But with Keith having been so poorly, it was going to take a while for him to be strong enough for us to get out, Not only that the hospital did not want to let him go completely until they were happy with him.

For two days I spent washing and polishing the boat and getting the brasses up to scratch. We then had lots of boat checks to do and things to put back on the boat. With that all done, we got up this morning all excited, even though the weather was damp and spitting. I like to think that it was tears of joy for us going out.

At 8.40 am we left our mooring and said "Goodbye" to the Arm for a couple of days.

It was onward towards Leamington-Spa.

Cape Locks was my workout for the day. Now not having done locks for a while, I was dreading how the old bones and muscles would cope, but I guess because I have been keeping myself fit with gardening etc, it did not hurt a bit.

We stopped near the New Morrisons outside of Leamington-Spa. Keith wanted to take four Measham Teapots to the Auction house, so having moored up and locked up we strode down the towpath towards Leamington-Spa. Just as well Keith knew where he was going, because I did not have a clue. Anyway after what seemed miles walking, we made it to the Auction House, we dropped the teapots off (Not literally). They cannot go into the Antique sale until May, so we have a bit of wait to see how well they do. Whilst in Leamington-Spa we went and had lunch at our favourite Chinese Buffet, Oriental Star. Fabulous food as always. Browsing and lunch done, it was back to the boat and onward to Radford Semele.

Along the way there were copious amounts of wood, but it was all on the offside, which we could not get close to, which was disappointing.

The wood piles I love seeing, what I do not like is rubbish. This was just thrown down the bank on the offside.

At 2.35 pm, we arrived at Radford Semele and it was completely empty. I had expected to see a lot of moored boats, but there was just us. This is our mooring until Wednesday. OMG it is so wonderful to be out and about. 

I absolutely love our mooring, it has given me such pleasure being there and having the friends we have there, but when you have been used to being on the move, it does come hard to stay in one place for 18 months. We will be heading back Wednesday. 

A sad loss.

The Arm has two resident geese. I have always called them George and Mildred.

Sadly George has been found dead out on the main line. For a couple of days Mildred had been seen alone calling, but nothing was thought of it because they had been seen on their own before.

Mildred is going to be very lonely without her mate, who was always so attentive. So we will all have to keep an eye on here.

Wasps V Harlequins

A Winter’s Morning.

Canal Frozen over.

Snow settling on the frozen canal last night.

Chilly.

Beautiful.

A wintery sprinkling.

A Winter’s morning.

Rosie and Jim coping with the conditions. I went out and found them up the canal. They were with the other ducks in a defrosted pool of water.

Smile it is only the Winter.

Breakfast time.

It did not end well for this Squirrel.

Racing at Warwick.

For those of you who pop-in regularly, you may have read that Keith and I won the best dressed Victorians at the Victorian evening back in November. Our prize was a years membership to the horse racing. We were unable to get to the first couple of meetings due to ill-health and the cancellation of the New Years Eve meeting due to a frozen course.

Going to race meeting is one of the things we want to do on our Bucket List.

Today we took advantage of a break in the weather, which had been very windy and wet over night to walk to the race course to see some racing.

We arrived for the 2nd race at 1.20 pm.

We did not place a bet this time.

The first race was won by

2 Upepito (FR) ridden by L Treadwell

5 Keel Haul (IRE) ridden by J M Davies

3 Greywell Boy ridden by S Twiston-Davies.

It was actually quite thrilling to watch the racing live and not from my arm chair.

Because we won the annual membership, we get to go into the members enclosure, so decided to stand up on the balcony.

We had a great view of the parade ring and winners enclosure.

We could also see the bookies taking their bets.

Third race on the card was Betfred Mobile Hampton Novices' Chase (Listed) 3 miles 110 yards.

The winner  and runners up were

5 Sego Success (IRE) ridden by Tom Cannon.

2 Grand Vision (IRE) ridden by Brendan Powell

1 Deputy Dan (IRE) ridden by L P Aspell

Having enjoyed our first taste of horse racing up close and personnel, Keith was beginning to worry about his back from the standing, so we decided to call it a day and walk back home. I think perhaps next time we will go on a warmer day, then perhaps Keith’s back maybe happier. But we both enjoyed the experience.