In a pickle

We had three or four inches of snow on Thursday night.  This was the first time Buddy has seen real snow so it was going to be interesting to see how he handled it.  The spot where we are currently moored is one of the quietest we have been in for some time.  It’s so peaceful laying in bed and hearing nothing but bird song.

I took Buddy out for his quick morning walk and he wouldn’t get off the boat.  He was so frightened and he kept lifting his paws up in turn. He was running backwards and forwards on the deck hoping to find a spot where there was no white stuff to jump into.

 

In the end I had to drag him off but once he was in the snow he was fine and started tearing around.

Our daffs are all out now – we were surprised as it has been so cold.  Anyway they make us feel spring-like even with snow outside. 

After breakfast we went for a walk around Branston water park.  A lot of the water fowl were in the car park as most of the lake was frozen over.  There was even a tern on the post.

These greylag geese had us in stitches breaking their way through the ice.  I couldn’t understand why they didn’t just fly across to the non-iced area.  They seemed to be breaking the ice with the top of their backs and they kept coming up for air in unison.

When we got back for lunch Buddy wouldn’t come on board; he loved the snow so much.  The sun had been out for the morning so a lot of the snow had melted.

After lunch we decided to have a bit of culture so went in search of the old Branston pickle factory.  We found it after a lot of road walking which wasn’t much fun for Buddy.  It is an impressive building but rather spoilt by being a B&Q depot.  Crosse and Blackwell claimed it was the largest and best equipped food preserving plant in the British Empire.

The whole complex appears to be surrounded by these ornate brick walls.

At one end are a couple of squares of terrace houses that the factory foremen used to live in.  

These also exhibited the same ornate brick work.

These were a couple of the bottling sheds, again with the same brickwork design.

On the way back we passed a pet shop and Buddy got himself a smart new winter jacket.

When we got back to the canal we found we had a neighbour. A couple of guys had moored up and their boat had a brilliant name.