A wallop, a bang and care for a poke in the eye

That afternoon David and I went for a stroll around the lanes here.  All was fine to begin with, a nice wide lane with only a few cars, the next lane was busier, narrower, bendy and without a pavement or worse still no gap to fling your body into, it was a tiny bit terrifying.  Two fields later and an unmarked path though a large property and over an overgrown bridge we got back onto the tow path and there came across a familiar boat NB Saoirse.

Last spring we joined with Steve and Andy to travel up the Buckby Flight making life a breeze.  It was a lovely and unexpected catch-up.

These two are Vloggers, filming aspects of their life afloat, then extensive editing and then posting.  

It's the modern way, but I'm an old fashioned girl, so blogging I'll stay.

 

The next day was rain during the day.  Fancy a change? suggested I

So we did and drove to Cheshire Oaks, a place of wonder for most husbands I would have thought but David was feeling generous of spirit and came too.

For those of you Readers in Vietnam Argentina and Ecuador, Cheshire Oaks is a Designer Shopping Outlet a wee car drive away from here.

David looked at waterproof coats but couldn't decide, I looked too and chose one with pockets and a good peak on the hood.  Why oh why don't they design good deep hoods for people who wear glasses???

The rain had cleared away by the time we got back to the boat so we sat in the cratch with a glass of and our books when the overpowering smell wafted in.  Yes the farmer had been spreading the slurry 20ft from the boat.  Shut the windows QUICK.

Well after a couple of nights at this rather lovely mooring, but it has smelt better, we departed.

On his way, David pulls away.

I call this plant Queen of the Meadow, here is some growing on the towpath as tall as me.

Horse chestnuts already.

Eventually we rocked up at Church Minshull visitor moorings.  We've not managed to get in here before, so it was a bit of a surprise when we found a considerable ridge at one end of the moorings, it was clearly visible but it David had tied us in tightly and we crossed our fingers.

Later on we took a path to walk down to the village.  The path was flat to begin with but then it became slippery, muddy and sloping downhill.

Looks not too bad here but David was in flats and slipped all down here.

You can see the gap here. But I think this was the next morning pushing off hence the ropes.

I would like to complain officially about the overhanging bushes and shrubs.  It was the same right in Middlewich where plenty of dog walkers go.  I'm amazed they tolerate that.

Rose thorns so that's nice and spiteful.

We had supper in The Badger that late afternoon, it was very nice, busy too.  The Landlady when she heard us talking about the steep path down to the village gave me their own leaflet with the foot paths mapped out so we took a much nicer and open path back to the canal in time for some serious clunks as WaL walloped against the shelf as boats passed.

We quickly decided to move early in the morning, indeed I might have said this was the worst mooring we have ever had.