Rain & ice balls Easter week

Thursday 12th April 2012 (Easter Week)

Macclesfield Canal, Hall Green to Rode Heath, Trent & Mersey

We awoke around 8am this morning quite a few people were on the move & the day didn’t seem too bad. Breakfast was toast & porridge & thoroughly enjoyed!  We left the mooring at Hall Green & through the stop lock.

Past Red Bull Services & a wave to Tony who fitted our 2nd new drive plate on Tuesday. round Hardings Wood Junction, through lock 42 & a stop for water at the BW premises by the bridge.

The cottage opposite has a very pretty garden.

Filled up with water we made our way towards Rode Heath,

The weather was now starting to rain persistently with hail stones mixed in for good measure & very little breaks in the cloud. We plodded on, passing the pretty church at Church Lawton.

We arrived at Rode Heath around 2pm 7 would have gone further in a day but the weather was foul by now so we decided to call it a day.

We walked to the village PO to post a parcel, a book from my Amazon online sales that we happened to have on the boat as Lochaber was reading it, Titanic, the boat that never sunk! What a co-incidence!  I returned from the shop livid, now remember that I am English living in Scotland  therefore had Scottish style notes in my purse, the shop informed me that they do not take Scottish notes due to the fact that most of them are fakes! Mine are not, if in doubt put them under your scanner, get a life they ARE legal tender, I think I made my point & she reluctantly accepted my £10 note.  That was the last straw, the diabolical weather, the Scottish note saga, let’s get in the pub for some grub & a beer.

The meal at The Broughton Arms on the way out was ok, I mentioned it in an earlier blog but today it was absolute garbage & I mean garbage, so much so that Lochaber raised his voice & complained & that is a rare occurrence. as we sat in the pub the sun emerged & the temperature rose so we moved to outside on the patio, what a difference to a few hours earlier. A mother duck came up the steps calling her young ones trying to get them to the bank, these were the first ducklings we had seen this year.

It turned out to be a lovely evening after such a miserable day.

Looks like more of a jaunt than work on a BW boat!

We had not long been back to the boat & most of the canal traffic had ceased then we heard the humm of an engine, a late cruiser we thought, it was John on nbAlton, the coalboat. they did not know us but we follow them on Twitter so I tweeted that we  had seen them.

Today 5.5miles, 13 locks, 4hrs

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April Already

Tuesday 3rd April 2012

I haven’t blogged since our long weekend on That’s D’riculous as it has been back to the hum drum day to day of work for both of us, although luckily I do enjoy my job I have next year in my sites now & really want to be fulltime on the boat.

The weather has been beautiful over the past couple of weeks for the time of year, even in Scotland. In fact I think we have had some of the highest temperatures in the UK, certainly records were made in Aberdeenshire with record highs of 23c in Aboyne, we have enjoyed eating outside in the garden & have done another carboot sale to increase the “boat fund”. Had a look at all the stuff we own last week & if we car boot every spare weekend all summer we will still struggle to clear it all!

Colin managed to get a shot at one of the three Woodpeckers that visit our garden regularly.

The really warm weather & clear skies has made for some gorgeous sunrises too.

Here are a few pictures from last Wednesday  when my working day took me to Dunkeld & Pitlochry & it was like summer but without leaves on the trees!

The River Tay at Dunkeld

Kayakers on the River Tay at Grandtuilly

Mr & Mrs Duck enjoying the sunshine!

Then as we knew it would at this time of the year, today it all changed DRASTICALLY. We awoke to 4″ of heavy wet as opposed to powdery snow, blizzard like conditions & temperatures of -1c.

The daffodils & the wildlife look very confused today, even Caley our mad Spaniel was a bit shocked at the conditions during her morning walk!

I have seen heather under snow, obviously living in Scotland but I have never seen Cherry blossom weighed down by snow.

Although I have to say it looks really pretty.

So this unbelievably erratic day weatherwise ended this evening watching a cock pheasant trying to find some seeds in the snow from under thew bird feeders. He was a big chubby fella too!

I am so looking forward to the end of this week, we travel down to Aqueduct Marina on Thursday evening after work to start a 10day Easter break on our beloved nb. Bring it on, no matter what the weather & if it rains we will not moan as we know that despite our erratic weather the canals desperately need lots of rain.

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