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Friday sunset over Warwick
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When going through the
photographs on my phone this morning I came across two from when I was in
Yorkshire earlier this week. When I was
visiting last week, the water levels were low so we could use the stepping
stones as a short cut to the village – not so this week:
I mentioned yesterday how
the landlady of my B&B keeps giving Buddy treats behind my back. Here she is giving a treat with my permission
– just look at Buddy’s tail:
Karen worked from the boat
on Friday morning and Buddy and I had a walk back to Radford Semele. The weather was really rather nice and I saw
quite a few butterflies including: Brimstone, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Red
Admiral, Peacock and Speckled Wood.
There was also a rat scurrying along the towpath but it wasn’t bothered
about getting out of the way.
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Walking back to our
mooring at Lidl – what a glorious morning it was
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Whilst having lunch Karen
remembered that it was a year ago to the day that we moved from the old
Chalkhill Blue onto Chalkhill Blue 2. We
had the boats moored next to each other as we moved our belongings and poor old
Buddy was quite upset. He kept sitting
on the back deck of the old boat or just wandering around the emptiness inside ☹
Here’s a link to that moving weekend.
Later in the afternoon we
all set off for a cruise to get water and also to get in position for ascending
the Hatton flight. Mike and Lesley are
coming over on Saturday morning to come up the locks with us. We couldn’t believe that it’s over eight
months since we last went up the flight; Mike and Lesley helped then too. We remember it being a glorious January day
and coats weren’t required!
As we cruised along I explained
to Karen how I often count down items on a journey when I’m on my own. For example, I would say, 11 bridges, 6 locks
and two aqueducts. Then when passing one
of the items I would repeat it with one item fewer. Karen wasn’t surprised! I used to do the same thing driving too and
from work but with traffic lights and roundabouts and once nearer the
destination I would add in left and right turns.
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Bridge outside Leamington
with freshly painted black and white iron protector posts (used to prevent towlines rubbing
away the brickwork)
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Just before Warwick is a
24-hour Tesco where the canal does a sharp right into a road bridge. It is quite a blind bend and, as is usually
the case, we met a boat coming the other way.
We were into the bridge hole so they reversed back as soon as they saw
us.
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The blind bend and bridge outside
Warwick
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Once we got Warwick we
pulled up alongside Mharie and Andy’s boat and stopped for a good old chat
about boat life and all things boating.
They have a young baby, Rose, and Freyer who is at preschool so Mharie
describes herself as a stay at home mum.
Since living on the boat Karen has referred to me as a stay at home
husband, I think I’ll add a second profession – stay at home dad (even though
all our children have long since flown the nest).
Mharie had been baking and
had made me some delicious lemon biscuits:
I’m afraid they were all
gone by the time we had finished our cruise.
We pulled up at the bottom
of the two locks at Cape and took on water.
Karen took the opportunity to make some soup whilst we were waiting. She was still making the soup when we were
ready to set off so I did the first lock on my own. I mention this as we have been trying to
avoid me doing locks on my own whilst my back strengthens but these locks are
quite easy – gates and paddles very light.
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Buddy waiting patiently at
Cape bottom lock
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| Repair works to a culvert below Cape bottom lock |
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Familiar sight at Cape top
lock – all the drinkers sitting outside gongoozling
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We moored up and walked
back to Leamington to get the car. For
some reason we both felt shattered so spent the evening in.
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