We were so lucky on our
holiday in Scotland; it was unseasonably warm and we had hardly any rain. The heaviest rain was during a morning that
we were taking it easy in our AirBnB flat whilst Jo was doing some stuff at uni.
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| Almost a 180 degree rainbow looking east from the flat |
It did get very windy on
some days but that just made our walks more invigorating.
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| Plenty of white horses on the Firth of the Forth and hair all over the place – Buddy ignoring the wind of course |
Karen’s other children, Catherine
and Matthew, joined us at the end of the week.
Matthew is in his final year training as a doctor in the Czech Republic
and is spending a two month placement at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. He came back to the boat with us on Friday so
he could catch a train down to Oxford on the Saturday. Catherine stayed up in Edinburgh with Jo for
the weekend to help her to continue celebrating her 21st.
We went out with Toby and
Ellie and their son Bertie one evening.
It was a really nice evening and good to have time together on our own
with them. Toby is my sister’s eldest
son and is currently living in Edinburgh.
On another evening we went to Linlithgow to have dinner with my youngest
brother, Richard, and his family. We had
hoped to meet up with Mel and John (I used to work with Mel) who moved to
Scotland a year or so ago. Unfortunately
they were on holiday too and, ironically, were touring around the south
including Stratford upon Avon which is in the area where we are currently
continuously cruising.
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| Before we left we had a final walk along the beach at Aberdour where we stayed |
On the way back home we
called in to see my parents in Yorkshire and picked up a couple of shelving
units that my Dad had adjusted to fit the new boat. The weather was still being kind to us and
the skies were cloudless - you will also notice that we have been moored
right outside a pub so we went for a quick drink with Matthew in the evening.
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Where we left the boat
during our holiday in Aberdour in Scotland, outside the Broen Cross pub in Rudheath
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On Saturday we dropped
Matthew off at Macclesfield station and then popped into the boat yard to see
the new boat. All was looking good and
it is booked to be dropped into the water this coming Wednesday and we will move in on
Friday when Karen gets home from work; she will spend the week at a B&B in
Leamington as we are too far north for her to travel daily.
A lot had been done in the
last week – we had seen her on our way up to Scotland. There is very little left to do and most of
it should be complete by Wednesday.
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| Oak floor is now laid (the walls still looking orange in photographs rather than the pale ash that they really are) |
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| Cratch boards installed |
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| Kitchen nearly finished – just some silicone to finish off. As it’s a smaller boat where we are shorter on space each tread of the steps lifts off to reveal additional storage space |
As this was hopefully our
last weekend on our current boat we took things easy and mainly just went out
for walks. On Saturday we met up with Karen’s cousin, Dave, and Barbara for a
drink in Middlewich. Dave and Barbara
had kindly helped me down the long flight of locks leading down from Kidsgrove
to Wheelock a couple of weeks ago.
On Sunday afternoon we
popped down to Acton Bridge on the River Weaver where a steam fair had been in
place all weekend. It was only about six
miles away and it brought back happy memories of when we were on the River
Weaver last year. The steam fair was a
mixture of traction engines and steam driven boats. It’s fantastic that people are still prepared
to spend time and money preserving these wonderful machines.
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| A couple of traction engines underway – we both love the smell of the coal fires burning |
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| Steam boat Daniel Adamson (aka Danny) moored before the bridge |
The Danny is a steam tug
built in 1903 and used to tow strings of barges on the Rivers Weaver and
Mersey. She is fully restored and
available for corporate and party hire which subsidises the maintenance and
restoration.
Danny was moored just
before Acton swing bridge which is one of many swing bridges on the
Weaver. They are not often opened these
days as freight is hardly ever transported along the river. Pleasure craft like us can easily fit under
the bridges. We have never been lucky
enough to see them in operation but they must have been swung when Danny came
down from Manchester during the week.
When we got back from the steam fair we repotted most of our pots with spring bulbs and winter pansies then went for a walk in the balmy October weather.
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| Heron on an unusual perch |
Karen was up and away to
Leamington by five this morning and I had to be up by six as the winter
moorings went on sale at that time today.
I have booked a mooring near Leamington for December, January and
February. We may not use it much but at
least we have somewhere close to Karen’s work where we can stay if we don’t
feel like moving on every two weeks.
As there are no services available (it's just on the towpath in the countryside) it is a very cheap winter mooring compared with those that have access to things like water, electricity and pump outs, so we feel justified in taking it. I
had to book it under the current boat as the new one isn’t licenced yet and
will now have the hassle of transferring the mooring permit and getting a
rebate as the cost is calculated per metre length.
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