The start of my travels

Today we have driven to Tamworth as I am working down here tomorrow. It was nice to see the Coventry Canal and to know we are never far from our watery roots!

It has been a stressful few days as I have started to prepare for a long work stint in various places; Portugal from Tuesday, then straight to Ireland next Sunday for two weeks. After that I travel to Inverness, Fort William and the Isle of Skye, followed by a week 'elsewhere'. I haven't been told where yet, but have been requested to keep it free as a really busy period is coming up and I will be needed.

I have spent the last few days washing, ironing, cleaning, packing and trying to fit in pupils who will miss some lessons while I am away. Luckily a friend of mine who is an excellent teacher is covering for me while I am away so I know they are in safe hands and the school are really understanding and flexible. I am very lucky to have such understanding colleagues. Phil is with me this weekend and will come to Scotland, but in order to 'Maximise profits' as he put it, I am travelling alone to Portugal and Ireland!

Today has been beautiful. I got up at 6am as I had so much to do. The canal looked fantastic:

There was a Moorhen at the end of our jetty:

And he and a mallard were giving each other some very dirty looks!

About mid-morning, as I was working on the PC I heard the familiar sound of ducks nibbling away at the weed attached to the boat. I had some spare bread which needed eating so I rushed out to feed them and found the mallard with the last two of her brood. She started with eight, but there are only two left now:

Yesterday I had my last walk with Jack for a while and we walked down to the allottment to see how it is doing. I think it is doing pretty well actually:

 

And so are our herb and salad patches at the end of our boat:

Jack and I had a lovely walk and I watched the swallows swooping and feeding on the insects on the canal:

Jack was really tired and we were looking after him last night as his mum was having a well earned night out having just finished her degree. he decided to settle on the floor but still had to have his red cushion to lay his head on. He's like royalty that dog!

Eventually he discarded it because he was so contented:

But the lure of the comfy chair was finally too much for him:

Well that is it for a bit now. When I finish this work stint we will be going down to the basin by the bay and it is amazing down there, so come back in a few weeks to see some lovely pics.

We will also be glad to get away from the marina as things are really kicking off there now. Other people are having similar problems to us, in fact more so! I think things will get sorted out eventually, but for now I am glad to be away from it all and I certainly don't want to go back to it as it is now.

Be back soon

Al :)

Birding

Today the forecast was for rain in the afternoon and I decided that I really needed a walk, so we got up at the crack of dawn and went out into the countryside to a remote part of the Trough of Bowland for a bit of birding.

I love the journey out to this spot because the iconic shape of Ingleborough can be seen for much of the journey:

It's a mountain we have climbed many times but we have never once been at the top when it wasn't foggy. Today visibility was good and we were tempted to change our plans for a quick assault on the summit! Knowing our luck and with rain forecast we thought that it would not be clear once we got up there, so we stuck to our original plan of a more gentle walk.

The woods were really pretty, but very few bluebells are out:

As we walked through the fields the sheep must have thought we were the farmer because they kicked up a terrible racket and followed us into the woods:

We saw loads of birds - in fact we did a tick list on our way back and here it is:

Birds seen:

Redstart / Chaffinch / Pied Wagtail / Tree creeper / Blue tit / Great tit / Coal tit / Sky lark / Meadow pippit/ Wood pigeon / Curlew / Kestrel / Buzzard / Goldfinch / Nuthatch / Crow / Rook / Jackdaw / Many types of Gull / Lapwing/ Robin / Swallow/ Pheasant / Oyster catcher / Starling / Pied Flycatcher.

We also saw a little owl:

We heard a Cuckoo, Blackbird and Wren  so all in all an excellent morning of birding.

After a bacon sandwich in the local village cafe, we headed for home just as the rain started. This encouraged me to do some work indoors when we got back and I worked really hard! Having had such an early start I still had much of the day left and even managed to take Jack out for a walk along the tow path this afternoon in the rain.

I cooked chilli con carne for tea, one of my specialities. We had it with baked potato tonight since we had lit the fire and all we needed to do was open the door and throw the potatoes in wrapped in foil - best baked potatoes ever!!

Now after a hot shower and a few glasses of wine, all is well with the world!

A very happy Al :)

Bank Holidays

We seem to have a number of bank holidays in May, which is great for most people, but no good for me because I normally work on a Monday and being self employed, I have to make the time up on another day.

Having said that, it is nice to have a long weekend and it has been a great few days on the boat. Last week I was away in Suffolk (family stuff) and it was nice to get back into a routine on the boat again.

Phil always laughs at me when I come back from my home county because even after only a few days away, I revert to my old accent. I have lived in the north for over 25 years now and have acquired some of the flattened northern vowels, but as soon as I go 'home ' I start speaking like 'The Singing Postman' within minutes. The singing postman was a 'hit' many many years ago and if you want to know what an East Anglian accent sounds like put 'The singing postman' into youtube and watch the video. 

Today has been beautiful and despite having loads to do (a very busy work session coming up), I went for a cycle ride along the tow path this morning.

The swans have cygnets - difficult to see from here, but the male was moving fast towards me as I took this picture so I didn't want to stay around too long.

The Bluebells are out

the canal is looking green and spring like



and very beautiful

The juxtaposition of the power station in the background with the renovated old mill is slightly incongruous

This afternoon son number 2 came over and we tried out a different pub for our tea. This pub is in the middle of the Trough of Bowland and is no where near the canal or estuary, so it was a refreshing change. The food was good and the local brew excellent and it is only 5 minutes drive away so I think it could become our local.

The song thrush was singing his heart out this evening:

He was sharing his spot with a chaffinch and I managed to get both of them in the shot.

I did take some video footage of him singing but other noise got in the way (another boater's loud music and the noise of cars on the road), I need to get up early one morning and do it then - watch this space ....

I am really enjoying these few days off on the boat as I will be away for quite a few weeks soon, travelling to Portugal, Ireland and then the Scottish Highlands, including the Isle of Skye which I am looking forward to. Maybe while I am away things will settle down on the Marina too. Other people have complained about the same things as us, so hopefully it will improve.

In view of the fact that I won't be around for a while I have tried to get things 'ship shape' before I go. I  have started to fill our third wood store with the wood we have acquired from our builder friend:

 

I've strapped the canoe to the roof ready for when we get on the move (soon I hope)

The allotment is doing well and we have planted salad stuff, herbs and strawberries at the end of our boat too:

Tomorrow is apparently going to be wet so I am glad I bought some new wellies to replace the designer ones I bought a few weeks ago which fell apart within days. These are also designer but look far more solid:

We had hoped to get in a walk this weekend, but I have been too busy. If it isn't raining too early tomorrow, we might have a quick walk in the bluebell woods where a cuckoo has been heard recently, so we will see.

A tiring day so an early night ...

Al