Beautiful Blues and pickle.

We went a walking the next day, to the very end of the recently restored canal to this bridge, then over the fields.  

When David was talking to the Society members, he was told of the great controversy and this is only hearsay, but Leicester County Council were in ownership, the canal society are in the process of getting ownership back there was money available that could very possibly have gone missing, an ex-Labour MP is denying any financial impropriety and the local farmer, who had limited access to his fields we think that meant but when asked what bridge he wanted insisted on having this whopper for his combined harvester, after it was built it was discovered that with this limited access he did not have any right to insist on a bridge of this size and consequent expense.  

All of these unproven allegations do not come from me you understand, but when David and I looked about the bridge which is said to be ugly, out of keeping and ridiculously big, cost a fortune to build but we didn't see any corn growing that might need a combined harvester, I tell you Reader you couldn't make it up.   

"Ugly and out of keeping bridge"

"Ridiculously big bridge" 

The current terminus of the canal, with a turning circle for only a 52' boat, do not take that as gospel, we didn't try.  But you can see a bit of the intended route.

We walked over the fields and towards Snarestone, it was lovely and warm and before long David unzipped his warm fleece.

I saw this gorgeous blue butterfly and if anyone can identify it then please do so in the comments.  I was surprised how close I could get to it, I took this close up and withdrew so as not to disturb it, then as I looked about in this scraggy, seemingly unused paddock of grasses dock and dandelions there was a mass of butterflies.  

The Ox-Eye daisies coming to an end now, and I'll miss another year's opportunity to collect seeds. 

We half thought of having a swift half in The Globe pub but it was shut, but we did discover the exact whereabouts of a farm shop here, its a new-ish one, the owners are still developing it, currently its a trailer parked outside a barn, (on the main road very close to the village church) they have fridges with milk, cream, local cheeses, bread, vegetables, salad and delicious local chutneys, jams and good bread. 

Support them if you are near the produce was good quality.

Delicious.

Back towards the terminus, these are the visitor moorings just before you get to the winding hole where we winded and then reversed through the little swing bridge and then on backwards around the bend.

 

After a cool start to the day it was a lovely end, we sat in the sun and later had salmon steaks for supper.

Never cast a clout till August is out and Blackberries

That evening we spent in the cratch, a couple did walk by, the chap started talking to David and the lovely lady to me, it started with knitting and progressed to Covid (the dreaded) and how we had all coped, then her life, she was born in Market Bosworth, had lived for a decade in Snarestone now lives in Newton Burgoland, what a brilliant name?  She filled us in on all the pubs in the area and nice walks.  Well they spent about 70 or 80 minutes talking, if it hadn't been for Covid and the distancing thing I would have invited her in.

The next day David walked down to the little shop at the terminus to join The Ashby Canal Society, and they gave him the current magazine and a few back numbers they had, I read one and they had handy hints for Boaters on the canal with shopping as not many of the surrounding villages have shops.  It also gave details of the handy bus service, the number 7 bus which runs from Measham to Atherstone and many villages in between, its in danger of being cut so an extra plead to use it or lose it.  I have included the timetable below.

Bus Times 

The next morning we caught the bus to Congerstone where 

The Horse and Jockey for what turned out to be a marvellous meal which we tagged onto David's Birthday celebrations as those were a bit quiet this year, this means I let him choose the wine.

This pub is very close to the canal at one point so I do heartily recommend it to all.  

When we got off the bus this blue bin met my eye, it had stones in it......

It's to invite the local children to contribute to a Stone Dragon, I thought it a tremendous idea for a small community to do.  I can see in other parts of the country the stones being used as ammunition but not here in darkest Leicestershire.

  

Congerstone stone dragon.

The pub was fabulous with all safety considerations in place to make me feel happy, bearing in mind at home I have my mother who needs protecting.  The food was delicious and good value for money with two courses for £18.

Pub click here.

On the way back the bus stop is situated opposite some disused farm buildings, it appears that the farms in this area were pretty small, we have seen maybe three or four farms in one village alone, these most likely were of a small size in centuries gone by and now seem to have a house a barn and a yard, all ripe for development.

David having a quick peep but didn't think this was an ex-dairy farm.

 

It had been cold when we went to catch the bus that morning, Reader I even had a vest on, but when we got back to Snarestone and the nice bus driver had dropped us off at The Alpaca Farm, where there are Alpacas to see, a cafe and a KNITTING SHOP, as recommended by the nice lady who I had chatted to for so long the previous evening.

When we got back to WaL, tupperware out and off we went blackberrying.  Masses of big fat juicy ones all along this straight section of new mooring.

The remainder of the evening was partly spent wondering where and how to fit the masses of blackberries into the freezer.....

Get to the very end and then keep going!

So we made our way very slowly further up the Ashby canal, this really is a most lovely section, its bendy, the bridges and the tall wide flowers although there is a bit too much of that pink one.

Have a look at the photos and see, you have to keep a watch out for oncoming boats.

You absolutely get a feeling of being miles away from everything.

Below on the moorings south of Shackerstone was this chap and his aerial, well I shall resist schoolboy jokes but I have to say the internet is pretty poor around here, that's the other side of getting away from it all I suppose.

  

As we came past this I thought it must be an ancient burial but no it the site of a Motte and Bailey castle, Wikipedia gives no age but I think it must be post 1066 and all that. 

The photo below is of the long crescent shaped moorings here, on the left are the permanent moorings and on the right looking northwards are some spaces for visitors.  Its a most attractive spot.   

The canal now opens out a bit more with views over open farmland and ripening wheat.  From a farming and seasonal point this is my favourite time of the year with the golds and olive greens stretching out for miles.  

I'm not a fan of willows on a good day, but cases like this drive me mad, David crept forward in the hope that any oncoming boat would see our nose....  Nothing was coming, the tree is part of a garden.

This tree would be an early cull if I brought this house.

The old miles stones, the 1 indicates the end of the present canal and the 9 of the end before closure. 

Two beautiful stone bridges mark the approaching terminus of the canal today, after the short tunnel that goes under the playing fields at the village of Snarestone.

 

This is the last bridge and we recognised this oncoming boat as being a hire from Ashby Boats, the family were having a grand time but not actually looking in our direction as they took the bend, but there was room to avoid and we told the captain that there was another boat out of sight for him that he would meet on the bend and bridge.  The captain was French, we think he understood us....

If fact the boat following us had appeared at a distance, but got closer and closer which meant he would have held his speed past moored boats.  Something bound to cause those boats irritation.  But we carried on at a speed which was fitting for this canal shallowness, when we got to the end he was completely on our tail.

When you arrive at the end of the canal not at all far from the village of Snarestone, there is the winding hole (Turning circle for my non-boaty friends), we intended to wind WaL (Turn around) and reverse WaL through the wee swing bridge to take advange of the visitor moorings here 48 hrs that is here along with the Ashby Canal Society shop, cafe and 

brick-a-brack or if you are American, Antiques.

So D turned WaL nicely but at 70' it took a minute or two, then I noticed that the crew from the boat behind had come up on the path gone past us and "Asked" the lady representative if they could have the last spot there that David and I had thought we were having as we were in front of them.  As we reversed though the bridge we asked, not knowing that she had already, if we could moor there, 

"You'll have to sort it out between yourselves" 

Reader I have to tell you I thought it was dead cheeky of the boat behind, you should have seen the crew members body language.  Anyway, another chap called out to us that if you carry on reversing around the corner there are masses of empty moorings which is what we did and we were so glad we did.  About 200 metres of free, private mooring.  

French family enjoying themselves.

Glorious views all around this area.

Ignore all those shots, they are really included for my own benefit when I read back on our trips over the winter. 

This was our mooring for the next couple of days, hardly anyone walking past and the boat that was bad mannered can have all the walkers looking in.

Supper was finishing up the packets of Falafel with salad, the peaches and raspberries with yogurt.

I said five total not one way!

We had a lovely few days with the Fine Company.  Many laughs to go with serious consultations about paintwork, the need for a new paint job, (sadly this was dismissed by the other two boat owners), toilets, polish and just how on earth Del gets his boat (Derwent 6) to have such an amazing mirror like finish, it looks brand new, honestly brand spanking new, but no, its twelve years old.  Full credit to him and his elbow.

The next morning David and I cycled off.  I haven't cycled in about 18 months, I had my padded shorts but I was happy to go about five miles.  There was a farm shop and that was included in the ride, now David must have misunderstood me and we did 7 miles to get there but a shorter run of 5 miles back and I can tell you Reader that was way way way too far for me after such a long break.  

I will not be cycling again for quite a few days.

But during the ride we passed by that farm that we had partially seen from the canal.  David was intrigued by the byres and the farmers wife told us that no there were no cows here any more, not for 45 years, but the barns were used now for lambing.  I asked if there were any plans for demolishing them but no definitely not.  Good.  Not many echos of former farming lives down our way.

A rare straight section of The Ashby.

I do like gateways, this one is looking over to Market Bosworth.

This is the other side of the farm, victorian barns I would hazard a guess at, how nice to see the remnants of blue doors, at our farm all were bottle green.  Attractive brickwork pattern too. 

I asked David if he missed farming....

An attractive farm house but it was the chimneys that caught my eye.

Beauts, I bet you can't get them like this today.

Back at our mooring.

John & Louise's handsome Jasper.

We had an impromptu barbie queue with Johns supersonic bucket which magically cooked after four minutes, I kid you not but I can't remember the name of it.

It was FA Cup Final day between Chelsea and Arsenal (Del's team)  Al&Del had disappeared in to watch it leaving the four of us to enjoy a glass of but we could hear okay when Arsenal scored, they went on to win and Derwent's crew were jolly happy.

The next morning we all had coffee together before John and Louise made the move to leave first, they are on their way back to their marina a few days away.  

We waved them off and hope that its not too long until we see them again.

Socially distanced coffee on the towpath.

The equivalent of reading tea leaves, what do you see?  Del saw a man playing conkers. 

 

Off they went, you can see the two doggies, Jasper and the cute as can be puppy Lola.

Photo by kind permission of Al from Derwent6 as we pulled away to continue northwards.

Al and Del, bye for now..

We had the best time meeting up with old friends is the wonderful thing about boating.  We hope to see Derwent6 again when we return this way..... when.

And we're back....

So Reader here we are, back from home and raring to go nowhere fast.

Our thanks to Amanda & David for the Care and Control of WaL during their  time aboard, Amanda cleaned out all the portholes for me and David has done some engine things which only men understand.

We met up with them finally north of Hinkley on the Ashby canal, it was to have been in Hinkley but it seems that my idea of quiet away from it all boating was not a unique thought and as Amanda coined 'All the world and their mother is here too'.  Well maybe we'll change our plans then says I but they did find the very end of a stretch of armco that they squashed WaL onto for the change over.

I would have dearly loved them to have stayed onboard with us like the old days but there is Harvest and Covid19, so for now this is it.

This photo shown by kind permission of David Lewis 

They stayed for lunch and then departed, its David's responsibility to feed the nation and gather in the harvest.  We stayed put that evening as unpacking takes me ages and it was a nice spot they had landed on.

The next day we did make a move.  It was beautifully sunny, a little breezy but lovely.

The last time we were on here we think was six years ago, David kept saying that he'd forgotten how beautiful it is on this canal.  Judge for yourselves, the weather certainly helped.

 

Farming news is that the wheat is doing nicely, but no where near ready here yet.

Lots of nice bendy bends with bridges and blind corners along the way.  The progress was medium to slow owing to the famous shallowness of this canal.  But who wants to rush anyway?

There was a boat coming here just out of shot.

Now do you see this barn,  its shape and size?  David comes from a long line of farmers and his grandfather had one of these type.  Its called a Byre, this would have housed cows and they would have been kept in stalls individually, tethered and the farmer (Most likely his wife too god forbid) would have moved from cow to cow with a bucket milking by hand.

David's father who was born in the 1920's and some of his twelve brothers and sisters  milked the cows before school, the aim was to hand milk ten cows each, well that aim was probably for an adult.  

Later on an airline was installed so that the cows were milked still in situ, but still several men to milk and care for them.  David thinks that his grandfather had in the region of 40 to 50 cows.

When Tom (David's father) started off on what is now our farm he had a state of the art parlour in the 1955 and milked a revolutionary 60 cows.  When I met David they had another brand new parlour and barn milking 120 cows.  When the herd was sold in 2011, there were 500 cows.  David worked with his brother everyday, all day in the care of them taking their welfare as importantly as that of his children.

     

A nasty incident occurred on a bend just before we reached our destination, it was a wide bend with moored boats on the bend, a boat coming towards us which took a bit too much of the canal forcing WaL onto what was a sand bank, WaL lurched sideways, the sound of breaking glass sent me RUNNING into the kitchen (Galley for purists) to this sight:

Two bottles of red wine, a bottle of cordial and a brand new bottle of salad dressing had fallen off the kitchen counter.  Red wine was splashed on every surface and I'm still finding it days later.

Not at all annoying.  

Well not too much further to go, our mooring tonight was with a wonderful set of friends, NB Derwent6 Al & Del, if you open this link you'll see when we first met Al & Del   See here   (along with our "Boat Sharers" that is, David & Amanda) 

and NB Ploddin' Along  HERE    John & Louise.  We first met them way back in 2012, literally passing in different directions, but I saw the boat and recognised it as one blog I had been reading, some loud yelling followed and days later we found ourselves behind one another coming down the locks in Stone I think (Could have been Stoke).

We've been friends ever since.  John is a lapsed blogger, but he might up take blogging again.... Go on my son!!  

Del in action here with ropes and John about to take our rope so we could join the party.

 

A reunion took place with much swapping of news updates and other vital information took place most of the afternoon.  Rain stopped play in the shape of a thunder storm that clipped by the mooring, I tried to get a photo of the fork lightening but failed miserably.  Supper on board our own boats then chairs out again later to resume.

So good to be with Long Lost's, but through the power of blogging you can feel as if you have stayed in touch all these years.

Supper was vegan tonight, falafel  and vegan goujons and salad(Sainsburys), our daughter got us onto these and they are very tasty.  

Please don't tell our farming friends!!