Sunday 24 April 2016

Blossom and flowers everywhere - it must be Spring

Hi, nice to see you here again

We left Chester yesterday and shared a couple of the locks with a single-hander on an older boat.  He wanted me to go into the lock first and then came in before I'd got our boat lined up and rammed us at speed. The collision was so hard that he knocked some ornaments off my shelves!  And he took some of our new blacking and gunwale paint off too...................
At Tarvin lock I let him go first but he couldn't even wait until 2 boats had come out of the lock before trying to get his boat in.  Just how he thought he was going to manage it is beyond me and the other 2 boats were NOT amused at all. He was only a short man and needed to stand on a step to try and see out of his pram hood windscreen which was filthy and a bit cluttered so maybe that was the reason he was bumping into the boats.


As soon as we got up the lock I told him we'd decided to moor up for lunch and let him carry on.  I was really glad not to see him waiting for us further on.

Rant over.........

On a lighter note, Spring is certainly making herself visible now. The trees are all in bud or leaf and the scenery has turned much greener that it was when we came down to Chester 3 weeks ago.


There are some lovely gardens along this stretch too.  We really do appreciate all their hard work making their gardens look nice for us and are even more grateful that we don't have to moor the lawn or pull weeds out anymore.


I've never seen a plant like this before. The stems were like a conifer but with pink flowers








The hedgerows have also blossomed while we've been in the city.


and the bluebells are out in force


As it was such a lovely clear sunny day we had good views of Beeston Castle



and nearby Peckforton Castle



We shared locks today with another continuous cruiser and it was lovely to be with someone who knew what they were doing and had consideration for other boaters.  Like us, they slowed right down past moored boats and managed to come alongside in the locks without any banging and pushing.

We pulled in just above Bunbury Staircase and said our farewells to them.  We'd come to visit friends Jill and Allen Pugh who have recently taken moorings here.

When we arrived they were renovating their coracle.






That's all for now, it's time for my Sunday roast.

See you soon

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