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View of the breach looking
towards Middlewich town (photo by VisionExpress)
|
Mind you, that’s what
Brian and Ann-Marie on the local fuel boat will be doing. Their normal route is round what is called
the four-counties ring, the Middlewich branch forming the top part of the
ring. For the next few months they will
be serving the four-counties U instead 😉
There are 20 boats
grounded between the breach and the lock at the end of the branch in
Middlewich. CRT are building a temporary dam ,called a cofferdam, so the section can be filled with water pumped up from the Trent &
Mersey so the boats can make their way out into Middlewich.
 |
Fish rescuers at work in
the drained section trying to save as many fish as possible – apparently, they
even rescued a 4lb eel
|
On Saturday we drove down
to Reading to spend the weekend with my middle daughter Lauren and some of the
other family members. Catherine, Karen’s
eldest daughter, and her friend Sarah were running in the Reading half marathon
on Sunday, so we were all there to lend support. The return of the cold weather and snow
had caused half marathons in Coventry, Fleet and Bath to be cancelled as early as
Thursday, but the Reading one appeared to be going ahead.
By Sunday morning
everywhere was white but there was no sign of a cancellation. The girls were going to set off for the race
village at 7.45, but at 7.30 an email arrived saying the race was cancelled. Talk about cutting it fine. As it was we had a good family time and I
even managed to do a few jobs for Lauren and Lewis – not bad considering my
record for DIY 😉
Monday and Tuesday were
spent mainly walking around the outskirts of Leamington and also along the
River Avon. So much for the butterflies
I saw last week, the weather had turned cold and snowy again so there have been
none to see this week.
I’ve mentioned before
about the elephant wash in Leamington where, it was purported, Sam Lockhart, a
famous Victorian elephant trainer, used to bathe his elephants in the River
Leam. It was also said that travelling
circuses would bathe their animals there too.
 |
The elephant wash when we
visited in September 2017
|
Contemporary historians
are now saying that they very much doubt animals would have been bathed in the
Leam as it was like an open sewer in the late nineteenth century. Anyway, there seems to be plenty of fact
about Sam and his elephants, so we had a look for some of the evidence on
Tuesday.
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| Baby elephant house |
We found the house where he
kept his young elephants, but it seems the main elephant house has long since
disappeared.
 |
Sign indicating which street
the old elephant house was in
|
Sam buried one of his
elephants in the garden of one of the houses he used to live in. This was confirmed when it was knocked down
for flats and elephant bones were found when the footings were being dug. I find it amazing to think he used to ship
his elephants all over the world to put on shows; he even put on a performance
for Queen Victoria at Olympia.
The plan for Wednesday was
to turn the boat round and cruise back to Warwick, getting water on the way of
course. My sister is coming down at the
weekend and it would mean we could go out in Warwick if the fancy took us.
Before leaving, I did some
washing and when it was nearly at the end of the cycle there was a loud bang, a
horrible grinding noise and a lot of smoke (that’s the bad news ☹). I quickly disconnected the machine from the power
supply and hung the washing out to dry before investigating. It seemed that the drum was knackered, and
the motor had clearly burnt out too. I
know it was only five years old, but it seemed the best thing to do was to get
a replacement.
We had deliberately bought
a smaller than usual domestic machine so that it used less water and took up
less space than the standard sizes. Of
course, being smaller, meant it cost more but we had found an ex-display
model so got a good discount. I spent a short time searching
for a replacement on the web and it transpired that the model has now been
replaced but at least the new model would still fit.
As luck would have it, I
found a company that had a greatly reduced one in stock (damaged packaging but
unused) that could be delivered next day – good news 😊 That meant I would have to stay at Lidl as
the delivery van could park right next to the boat; however, we needed water so
it was a quick cruise to Warwick and back again first.
 |
Leaving Leamington on
Wednesday
|
It was a lovely sunny day and still with a cold wind. It did mean
I could cruise without a coat as the sun was on us the whole way to Warwick.
 |
Entering Warwick by the
24-hour Tesco
|
As we went past Tesco I
stopped by a narrowboat called One Eyed City who was moored there and had a quick chat with the
owner. We had been moored together at Lidl a couple of
weeks ago and he had told me he was waiting for the boatbuilder to come and re-lay his
floor. They have since been and it
transpired that the poo tank had leaked causing the dampness, so the repairs
were a bit more major than he had previously thought. It must have been pretty unpleasant, living
on the boat with that sort of leak ☹
 |
Approaching the boat yard
in Warwick
|
I pulled up at Kate Boats
to take on water and get a pump out.
Pete and Sally, fellow liveaboard ccers, were on duty and Pete asked if
I wanted him to do the pump out. I did
feel a bit guilty as he was a friend but told him yes as it was so expensive -
they charge £20. He told me it’s only
£10 if I do it myself so I quickly changed my mind (more good news 😊).
 |
Doing the pump out three
boats abreast
|
We turned around again at
the boat yard and headed back to Leamington.
When we got back to Lidl we moored back up where we were before, behind
Mick on his boat and Dave on his.
In the afternoon I walked
along the River Avon to Warwick to get into the mood for removing the old
washing machine. When we walked under a railway line a transporter train was crossing. It had dozens of Range Rovers and Discoveries on it and it reminded me just how many they must produce in the Midlands as, whenever we are driving on the M6 or M40 it seems that nearly all the transporters are full of Land Rover cars too.
When we got home I had to get on with removing the washing machine. In the end I managed to
get it disconnected quite easily so it’s now ready to be taken away when
the new one is dropped off.
When I took
it out I found an unopened large box of clingfilm at the back and that was sort of good
news 😊 as I had just that morning added clingfilm
to our shopping list.
I know I mentioned we’ve
bought a new camera, but I am still using my phone to take blog pictures. Karen used the camera in Porto as practice
and some of the photos are stunning. We
need to buy a macro lens ready for taking butterfly pictures this year. In the
days before digital photography I had an SLR camera with a macro lens for
taking butterfly pictures. Of course, in those days, you didn’t know whether
the picture was any good until the film was processed. Many were the films that were exposed with no
decent pictures on them at all ☹
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