Happy Easter to you:

Late again I know, but it’s the thought that counts! We spent another week in Market Harborough which is lovely, in fact I don’t know if I told you but it’s so nice we have booked a mooring spot for the winter months when we can’t travel. Not much happening at the beginning of the week just mooching round the shops and spring cleaning the boat as we were expecting Richard’s sister Marion and her Husband Neal for a weekend trip, but on Tuesday we got a call from our friend Sally who was in Stratford with friends,  she had fallen and broken her ankle and needed an operation to have pins and plates put in, which meant she wouldn’t be able to get her car back so on Thursday Richard took the train down to Stratford to pick her up and take her back to King’s Lynn, which then meant he had to get a lift back to the boat with our visitors so I had to finish getting the spring cleaning done on my own, so get well soon Sally, although I know you won’t be reading this as you find it far too boring !!

Good Friday started beautifully so I went down the shops as  I wasn’t expecting Richard and the visitors until about three ish, I went to the shops in a t-shirt no coat as the sun was shining and it was really warm, but as soon as I started to shop the sun went in and it started to drizzle and then it drizzled for most of the weekend on and off, so instead of setting straight off on Friday we stayed put and went for dinner at the Union pub which is just a step away from the boat at the Marina, nice dinner and a couple of pints so thanks for that Marion and Neal. Saturday we had a lovely cooked breakfast and took off up the canal to Foxton Locks, ten locks in a staircase and as it was bank holiday there was a three and a half hour wait at the bottom so we had a spot of lunch and a drink whilst we waited, the locks were a whole lot easier for me as I had loads of help from Neal “NOT” well he was a tiny bit helpful, no he was o.k. ish !! “only joking Neal” but it would have been so much nicer had the sun have been shining, We spent the night out in the gorgeous countryside and came back the next morning down the locks and back to the Marina, we only had a fifteen minute wait at the locks this time although we did set out early just in case we had another long wait. I can’t put the pictures up as the G power here is absolutely useless, but you can’t be in beautiful countryside and expect a good connection “can you” let me know if I am wrong. Richard and I spent Sunday at the Marina and then set off back up the canal heading for the locks again on Easter Monday we weren’t going to go through the locks as it was still bank holiday and there would have been the same long queues’ as we had encountered on Saturday so we moored some way back down the towpath, so we called Joe and Jayne and told them where we were and they came down to the Locks which as the sun was now shining was a whole different place, the locks are a real tourist attraction and there are restaurants and bars and it’s just a lovely place to walk and just spend a sunny afternoon, so we had Dinner sat outside of the canal side restaurant and stayed until about eight until the sun went down. Tuesday caught the bus in to Market Harborough as I needed the bank and some shoes “more shoes I here you cry” well actually they are my new multi Gym, Fit Flops, they are allegedly going to tone most of the muscles in my body, make me 3 dress sizes smaller and cure all of my ails “I’ll let you know how they do” it just seems all too easy to put on a pair of shoes and just walk, they will become every girls dream it any of the above work and If they do work I will justify the cost as a whole lot less than a Gym membership not that I ever had a gym membership “ I was always waiting for this easy option”( Wait and See)

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Back again to King’s lynn

Hello again a happier entry this week after last week’s sad entry about our poor old giggsy, also I was a little mixed up with my dates we left to go to King’s Lynn on Thurs 27^th and had 10 days

there, as we were both able to go together this time as we didn’t have Giggsy, we hired a car from Crick which we had heard about whilst we were there a couple of weeks ago and that they were very cheap so that’s what we wanted, so our new friends David and Vivienne on nb April Fool who we have met here at the marina at Market Harborough took Richard to pick the car up and then he came back with it to load us up and off we went, staying with Linda as usual, we got to see Simon and Sarah’s baby Lily Mia who has grown in leaps and bounds, and Hayley and Jamie’s Harvey and Ellie, Jamie cooked another of his wonderful Sunday Lunches. we got out to see one of Richard’s favourite blues bands “Gin House” who were playing at the pub in Dersingham.

We came back on Saturday always lovely to get back home again there is no better bed than your own, we arrived back so while I unpacked and got the washing done Richard did the shopping, not been back long when we got talking to a lovely couple on one of the holiday boats who had arrived back at the marina to drop off the boat, so I invited them around for a cup of coffee and a look at our boat,  then we shared a bottle of red, reminded us of the wonderful times ahead and why we love boating so much and why we are living this lovely relaxing life that we lead, because we are always meeting really nice people, so when we drink our next bottle of red, we will think of Alan and Wendy and thank them for leaving it for us this morning before they left to go back to the real world in Oxford and when we pass by your way, on the Oxford canal we will give you a shout. On Sunday Joe and Jayne came over for lunch I cooked this time a lovely mustard and honey chicken with salad, and loads of profiteroles for dessert, always lovely to see them, Joe and Jayne I mean not profiteroles. We kept the car an Extra day so that we could drive to Tamworth on Monday cos we had papers to sign, so that done we came back to crick to drop off the hire car at the most gorgeous farm house come garage and workshop with beautiful gardens and stables, with the most delightful dapple grey ponies hanging out of them just waiting to be kissed, well they couldn’t get away could they, “ don’t know if I mentioned it but I love the smell of horses and kissing them on their velvety noses” Mentalist Stuart would say (that’s my son) but you just can’t beat it, that’s it for now, until after Easter when we have a couple of visitors coming to stay and have a little trip out with us for the hols, so see you soon Marion and Neal.

Bye for now

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Sorry I’m late again!! (Neal Mcgee) another avid reader hounding me !!

But I really do have a reason not an excuse, we lost poor Giggsy on the 19^th

March so we were a bit upset and I had to tell all of his family and friends that have known him all of his fifteen years, before I told all of our readers, I mean it wouldn’t have been very good if one of giggsy’s friends had tuned in to this site and found out he had died on here, well what can I say in his obituary he was a wonderful companion, whilst walking in the countryside, but apart from that he has been pretty crazy all of his life really, from the moment we took him on at 8 weeks old, he has tried to run away, on his first walk he took off and had us chasing round after him for hours and it carried on much the same, giggsy would run away come back some hours later as black as a free range pig that had been rolling in the smelliest thing he could find to roll in, whilst we were in Wales, it was dead fish, dolphins, crabs, jellyfish, or any other smelly thing the sea could wash up, then we moved to London, for a while, he still took to running away, only this was more dangerous, we would be out for hours thinking he would be killed on the road or railway, but no, not Giggsy, he was street wise by then, avoiding capture from the dog warden, I only thought of that today, I used to think every time after hours of searching right we will wait for the dog warden to call and say they have him, but he was never captured, but then they would not have stood a chance with his whiley ways,we then came to live in Norfolk, a new countryside for him to explore, the first time he ran off while we lived on a busy road, but he survived, we then moved to a village West Winch, which was safer but he still had the A10 to negotiate which he did on many occasions if he managed to dig his way out, or someone came to the house and left a gate open, after some years of taking to the countryside whenever the fancy took him, and don’t get me wrong he was well walked, and it wasn’t like he needed to get out, we moved back in to the town, by this time Giggsy was about 10 years old, he got out of the house once so I was called from work I also called Richard from work, and we started hunting the town for him, we spoke to many people who had all had sightings of him, so we looked and looked, Richard found him standing, as if waiting to be picked up, ( not sure if I said but whenever he ran away before as soon as he saw his pursuant he would disappear, ) but this time he just stood and Richard said it was as if he had become too old to cope with the roads and the traffic of the town and was glad to be apprehended, so that was the end of his running away, and from that day he would dive to the door as if to escape but then he would look and think, “ no I don’t think I will do that”. He was still singing his favourite song(Mellow Yellow by Donovan ) up until last year when I think he became a little deaf, he would howl along to the radio whenever it was played, he also sang along to other tunes that took his fancy, he had a jolly good innings and he had become old and frail and when he had a stroke and we took him to the vet, the vet suggested that he had had enough and it was best to let him go, so that’s what we did, he died in my arms and all of the stiffness that had slowed him down over the past year disappeared and he just melted away.

Aaahh that was sad re reading it, hope you were not to upset.

We left you last time, when we had come down the Foxton Locks, we sailed on down the Market Harborough Arm of the Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal, this part was not quite as pretty as what we had just come through, but we were a whole lot lower down now, so we were not having the views over the countryside that we had been seeing, but still lovley non the less, I had two swing bridges to manouver along the way, the first one was fine but the second was a road swing bridge and after struggling, for a while I could hold the traffic no longer so I let them through and got Richard to come and do it while I took the boat through, "cos I can drive you know", but I’m usually too busy with my binoculars and reference books to check out what wildlife I am actually seeing, further down the M H Arm we passed a Bone processing plant, that absolutely stunk, we had been warned about this stink, whilst we were in Sharm El Sheik, (Weird I know) but whilst Chatting to Colin & Catrina some people we met, he told us that he used to work there and that it is well known for its smell, and it was also in our Canal Map book, so it must be smelly to get a mention in a book.

We travelled to Market Harborough and it was such a lovely Marina and gorgeous little Market Town that we thought we would stay a few days, and then poor Giggsy died, so we stayed there, Joey and Jayne came over for lunch on Sunday lovely to see them again!! No really it was, we came back to King’s Lynn for a week on Monday so we left the boat tucked away in the marina.

That’s it for now

Love

Chrissie & Richard & Rio x x

The Home of the Crick Boat

Another week gone by already I can hardly believe it was a week today when I did my first tunnel, well it is and I have done another since then, we moored at Crick Marina after I had done the tunnel, so that we could plug in to some electric shore power so that I could do the washing and cleaning as the banks of the oxford were just as wet and muddy as the Ashby had been, but it was just as beautiful. The Marina was nice but looked oh so different from when we had seen it every May for the last four years, when we have been to the Boat Show, the Marina and all the surrounding fields have newly built boats from all of the boat builders, there are food stalls, beer tents, music tents, food bars, and many more attractions that have made some great days out for us, and also spent time admiring all of the boat builders work, until we came to find the Boat Builder for us (Amber Boats) so we have sort of come back to the start.

Crick itself is a gorgeous little village, that we would never have seen unless it was for the canal, just like all of the other pretty little villages we have seen along our way, when we moored up before we started the cleaning and stuff we decided to go to Edwards the lovely little restaurant that is on the canal side, we had a lovely lunch and then got to work. Later I went to the end of the drive at the Marina as there is a garden centre, I needed to redo my plant pots with a bit of Spring Colour, well after looking at everything I decided to go for the readymade, beautifully colourful planter box that looks super on the front of the boat, “well I could never have made one look that pretty, green fingers I have not”  but the  mint, chives and parsley I had from last year in one of the cauldrons, seem to have regained new life all on their own,  I will replant them in some fresh compost and just tidy them up and I will re pot the evergreen bush /come Christmas Tree in to the other cauldron and I will be set for the summer. Hopefully I have a picture to show you before I have a chance to kill the plants, or as the weather seems to have become arctic again overnight and the frost does.

By the time we had finished cleaning we left the marina at about 3pm the next day, after shopping in the local co-op, we only sailed for an hour or so until we came to rest at Yelvertoft another of those quaint villages, and spent two nights here, so that we could visit Crack Hill, which to me looked as though it could have been where Richard Adams got his Idea for writing Watership Down, not my Richard Adams, the Richard Adams that wrote the book, “well if the book was not set here then it should have been, I have never seen a lovelier hill, that is in the middle of nowhere, full of rabbit holes, it is a visitor attraction as well, as it has a big stone plaque on the top with a map of all of the places that you can see, and as the day was really warm and clear we could see for miles. Friday we went to Welford, which was another of our favourite haunts whilst we were planning this life, we would come on a Sunday have lunch at the Wharf inn, and then go walking, well this Sunday Joey and Jayne came to visit and they came to the wharf for lunch, always lovely to see them. Monday we took off down to Foxton Locks another of the places we used to visit whilst looking for the perfect boat, this is where I did my other tunnel it was Market Bosworth Tunnel, which is a little shorter than Crick, but a whole lot easier with the lights  on, and easier for Richard to walk over the top with the dogs too, I felt a little bit scared in the tunnel, you know just a feeling of something heavy, maybe my imagination but anyway, to stop my mind wandering in to the land of ghosts and ghoulies, I began to sing some bright cheery songs very loud so that none of the tunnel ghosts would bother me, thinking that I couldn’t be heard,"wrong" when I came out of the tunnel the boat waiting to come through, said thanks for the “songs from the shows” they only heard me wailing all the way through, obviously the sound travels !!! won’t be doing that again “We past some gorgeous scenery, really I don’t think it can be beaten, but we will see, we past a horsey farm, that had some horse boxes that said Piggy French she is an International event rider, from Norfolk, and reading her website she has just moved her horses to Leicestershire, well I thought the farm house looked just like the one from Jilly Cooper’s book “Riders” it really was gorgeous and obviously a wealthy horse farm. We arrived at the top of Foxton Locks at about 3.15  and as we do, we got chatting to a lovely family, Mum Kathleen, and two of her seven sons,  four of which were barristers, she delighted in telling, she also has two daughters, anyway they were on their way to the pub at the bottom of the locks and asked us to join them, we had a few pints and some jolly good chat, Kathleen was wonderful for eighty four, and I know she won’t mind me saying, as she is proud of how fit and well she is at that age, “and she was” the boys Maurice ( a Barrister) and John (a drug baron  sorry Managing Director of a Drug Company) were lovely too, they think I am a bit of a journalist, but when they read this lot, they will soon realize that just ain’t so, but whatever they think we had a lovely few hours and thoroughly enjoyed their company, may be see you along the cut again sometime ? And enjoy the rest of your time on the canal.

Today we came down the two sets of five staircase locks, they work differently to normal locks, but the lockkeeper was around to help so that makes it a whole lot easier, however the weather forecast was for gorgeous sunshine with temperatures reaching fourteen degrees, I won’t swear, but you just don’t want to believe a word they say, the temperatures was nigh on freezing and really gloomy probably one of the coldest days we have had on the canal so far, but we live and learn and today I learned that the only forecaster to believe is the pine cone I have on the top of the boat, which we found when we were down in Pershore in Worcestershire at the start of our adventure.

Until the next time

With love

Chrissie & Richard x x

p.s pictures when I am on full power. and for Colin Marshall "did Joey give you that book " ?

Down to the Oxford Canal

Hello Again,

Here we Are on the Oxford after doing the Ashby Canal we came back down it very slowly stopping off at the quietist loveliest places, back on to the Coventry canal, heading towards Coventry, but then turning off at Hawkesbury Junction, that took us on to the Oxford Canal, which is just another gorgeous Canal, just open countryside with the Spring opening up before our eyes. With wide open rolling fields, fields ploughed and starting to come alive with colour.” While I was at secondary school in the first year, I must have been eleven, we did a poem, we used to have speech days where classes recited poetry, and we did the one below, it scared me a little, we not only spoke the poem we also had to work out what the poet meant and what he was saying was that sometime in my future this would happen, there would be no countryside, only buildings and houses, and only one rabbit would survive, well having spent a while worrying as any young child would, I now realize the poet(Alan Brownjohn )didn’t know that land would be kept as green belt and that planning permission would come in to the equation, bless him, he didn’t know he was terrorizing youngsters in the  early seventies.

WE ARE GOING TO SEE THE RABBIT...

We are going to see the rabbit,
we are going to see the rabbit,
Which rabbit, people say?
Which rabbit, ask the children?
Which rabbit?
The only rabbit,
The only rabbit in England,
Sitting behind a barbed wire fence
Under the floodlights, neon lights,
Sodium lights,
Nibbling grass.
On the only patch of grass
On the only patch of grass
In England, in England
(Except the grass by the hoardings
Which doesn't count).
We are going to see the rabbit
And we must be there on time

First we shall be by escalator,
Then we shall go by underground,
And then we shall go by motorway,
And then by helicopter way,
And the last ten yards we shall have to go
On foot.
And now we are going
All the way to see the rabbit,
We are nearly there,
We are longing to see it,
And so is the crowd
Which is here in thousands
With mounted policemen
And big loudspeakers
And bands and banners
And everyone has come a long way.

But soon we shall see it
Sitting and nibbling
the blades of grass
on the only patch of grass
in - but something has gone wrong!
Why is everyone jostling
and slanging and complaining?

The rabbit has gone,
yes the rabbit has gone,
He has actually burrowed down into the earth
and made himself a warren, under the earth,
despite all these people.
And what shall we do?
What can we do?

It is all a pity, You must be disappointed,
Go home and do something else for today,
Go home again, go home for today,
For you cannot hear the rabbit, under the earth,
Remarking rather sadly to himself, by himself,
As he rests in his warren, under the earth:
"It won’t be long, they are bound to come,
They are bound to come and find me, even here."

I hope it didn’t scare you all too much, because from our views on this beautiful country in which we live this will never be allowed to happen, so worry ye not.

We stopped at Rugby, the canal runs alongside the retail park, so while Richard filled up with water I said I would pop along to the shops, well I have a fifty pound next voucher burning a hole in my bag, so I had to go in there, nothing in for me at the moment so I still have it, I will wait for the Spring/Summer collection !! so I had to pop in all of the other shops, I forgot that I had told Richard that I was just popping to re supply at Tesco, so two and a half hours later he began to wonder, but it’s easy to get lost in shopping so I just bought some shoes, it’s always shoes, well just some trainers for the summer to run around in, I did remember the shopping I had gone for eventually so when Richard phoned he was surprised to find me still in Tesco. On and on down the Oxford, stopping off along the way each night I cook mostly, but it’s always nice to have a dinner in the pub alongside the canal, so we did that on Tuesday, and then on Sunday we were at Braunston where we had a gorgeous proper Sunday lunch at the Plough which was in the Tiny pretty village, it also has a beautiful old 14^th Century Church so as we were moored just below it, I went up to see it as Sunday morning is usually the only time you can get in, so I had to do the service, which turned out rather nice with a few of my old school favorite Hymns, on Monday morning we took off heading for the Braunston Tunnel “Richard doesn’t do tunnels, so we called on our Friend Chris Giles of nb. Almyne    www.Almyne.giles.me.uk  as he was in the area and he took us through this one as it was 2042 yds, Richard took the dogs over the top, we had a late breakfast to thank Chris for taking us through the tunnel we moored the night at Norton Junction which is on the Grand Union Canal heading for Leicester. We moved on the next day up through the staircase locks at Watford, Well I thought Watford was in London, but not so, we moored just off the Watford Gap near to the M1. “No wonder I get confused with my geographical bearings” and on to another quiet stop where Chris of Almyne was moored so as I was cooking a curry and he is on his own, we invited him to join us so we had a lovely meal with a fellow boater as a guest, and he has some right tales to tell as he is a single handed boater, rather him than us. We sailed on this morning going on to Crick, where there is another tunnel to go through but I had decided that I can now manage a tunnel on my own this tunnel is 1528 Yds ( sorry Joey I may have exaggerated when I told you it was 3000metres)  well I dropped Richard off at Bridge 10 ( Giggsy jumped off a bit previous as usual and ended up in the canal again) as that was where the tunnel started and he was off over the top, before he jumped off with the dogs(after dragging Giggsy again) he said I will put your headlight on, “no thanks I said I have already done it”  in to the darkness I plunged, struggling through, following a tiny red light which was all I could see, I could also see the light at the end of the tunnel but I was all over the place, thinking all the time why I was having such a job steering straight, well on and on I went weaving from side to side in the pitch darkness apart from the little red light and the distant white of the end of the tunnel, so I started thinking I’m sure it’s not always this dark, so I checked the lights and switched everything on the panel on whilst still trying to steer straight, and Wonder of Wonders I had light, Silly cow I was, only had the navigation lights on didn't I "  which are a small red and green light to tell people on rivers which side you are on, that was 700 yds in to the Tunnel, the sign saying I had done it, became oh so much clearer with the headlight on !!! from then on it was plain sailing so to speak,following the light beautifully straight through the tunnel, and waited for Richard at the other side, Well you live and learn and next time I do a tunnel on my own I will be ready with lights and everything !!

So until next time

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

The Battle Ground (I don’t mean us on the boat)

Hello Again

I said I would write and tell you of our next adventures when we had been to Bosworth Fields, and very interesting and lovely they turned out to be, the weather from Stoke Golding to Shenton, which is the little village between Market Bosworth and Stoke Golding, where the Battle took place, was beautiful and has stayed so for all of our journey so far, we moored for the night at Shenton, which we didn’t actually know was nearest to the Battle Sight, we thought it was actually in Market Bosworth, but like I said you learn something new every day. Shenton where we moored is another of those tiny villages that are just so lovely to visit, we went to the local farm shop, just to buy some fresh meat, but discovered they only do frozen, “I’m sure it was fresh sometime, but frozen is no good for us as we don’t have a freezer, we didn’t need it right then, but it’s nice to support the local farmers and if you can get fresh, we can keep it in the fridge for a week, but it wasn’t to be, we walked with the dogs all around the fields and I have never seen so much open space without a road or a car in sight it’s gorgeous, and I do have pictures but will have to wait for some extra G force before I can upload them, we walked up with the dogs when we first moored up, so we could not visit the battle site Exhibition,museum, and shop, but we did have a lovely coffee and scones at the restaurant, but sat outside with the lads, “ you know what they’re like, you can’t leave Giggsy for 2 minutes and he’s off barking like a maniac, but Rio is as good as gold” so we planned to go back the next morning without them, which we did and it was really interesting, I am sure we did this subject at school, but it’s so much more interesting when you are grown up  In the Museum there was a Long Bow set up, that Richard managed to shoot  240 metres, which is what one of King Richard 111’s  Top Bowmen would have been shooting, so well done Richard, I couldn’t even get hold of the bow, the distance from shoulder and outstretched arm was far too long for me. The Battle was fought in 1485; the Battle of Bosworth field ended the 30 year war of the roses. It was here that King Richard 111 was killed by Henry Tudors Army, and Henry was crowned King Henry V11, we walked on the spot where King Richard was killed, and also saw the well where he took a drink on the day of the battle, which is called Dick’s Well !! In the Grounds I also saw a beautiful Kestrel, couldn’t get too close to it but I did manage to get a picture.

We left the Battle site the next day and tootled up the rest of the Ashby, well as far as you can go, stopping off at lovely quiet places along the way, it comes to a dead end as the work to open up all the way to Moira is still in progress, but it is a gorgeous place and we will come back up this way someday soon, we sailed back to be back at Trinity Marina as we were meeting our new old friends Linda and Mick and had another night of too much beer at the lovely Old Wharf pub, we went shopping in to Hinckley on Saturday and took it, easy on Saturday night and had a quiet night in, and on Sunday we ate lunch at the Trinity Quay Pub as Joey and Jayne came a visitin, “we are never too far away from Tamworth whilst we are in the Midland’s” but it’s always lovely to see them, I made a homemade Rice Pudding again, which we had instead of pudding at the pub and it was as ever just gorgeous, and saved me and ?Richie from eating it all ourselves in one sitting as we normally do.

We left Trinity Marina on Monday Afternoon and sailed just down to a very quiet spot on the Ashby as we are heading back for the Junction to put us back on the Coventry which we will travel along from where we left at the Junction to come on to this Ashby Canal, but we will be going on the other way and heading for the Oxford Canal at Hawkesbury Junction, so until the next time.

Bye for now

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Ps. I have been a little bit worried about Giggsy this week, you know he normally bites me and is totally nasty whenever I ask him to do anything, but he has been lovely to me, and also has been dragging his bed all over the shop, so I thought maybe he was on his way out, as two of his brothers have died recently and he was trying to make his peace with me, and find somewhere quiet to go, but he is back to normal today snapped at me just like normal, but he is still dragging his bed around, don’t know what that’s all about, but we will see.

It’s a small world!!

Hello Again

Well as much as I was going to write more often, there just never seems the time, busy doing nothing much really just enjoying the countryside, the secret villages that no one’s ever heard of unless they come this back door route through Britain that we are taking.

I left you last week with us at Grendon Bridge another of those tiny villages, having forgotten to tell you that I met along the canal a lady I used to work with in Tywyn when we were in the Corbett Arms Hotel in about 1974, it was Gwynedd Evans as was, just bumped into her under a bridge that’s amazing. So we carried on until we got to the Ashby Canal passing through Bedworth, and Nuneaton,   just an Arm off the Coventry canal it was built to be a through route from the River Trent at Burton “my home town” to the Coventry canal  near Bedworth, but that never happened because of the terrain it would have required expensive and complicated works, including locks, reservoirs, pumping engines and possibly even a tunnel, however a tramway system was built instead, so it just stands out on a limb but a very pretty one it is, so quiet and countrified, on Friday evening we moored at a lovely Marina near between Hinckley and Nuneaton, I was lucky to reach there at all actually, as I took a nasty blow to the head whilst we were cruising along, I jumped up to touch a pipe bridge we were going under “as any fourtyten year old would “but on my landing I landed on a coal bag fell down, hitting my temple right in the pointy bit of the tiller arm “that’s the bit you steer with “ well I thought I had knocked myself senseless, and was expecting to wake up dead the next morning due to some complication of the bump, but I survived to tell the tale, and I won’t be doing that again in a hurry. The Marina had everything we needed to dry the sheets(as you know I have the washing machine but it’s good to find a launderette to dry them) it is right near a premier Inn which also has the lovely gastro pub alongside, we ate there on Friday night, and on Saturday we walked to the Wharf pub just down the road, and bumped in to a lady that Richard had known over 30 years ago from King’s Lynn, it was Linda Pell as was, so we had a great night drinking beer and chatting to Linda and her husband Mick and we are seeing them again when we go past next Friday, and that is why this entry is called Its a small world, cos we have both met people this week from our past now aint that amazing !! On Sunday we had lunch again at the gastro pub, as Joey and Jayne came visiting, well they had been missing us already.

 We are slowly tootling up the Ashby today we have stopped at Stoke Golding, it’s one of those places that I had heard of but would have thought it was somewhere else and not here it’s a pretty little village with another beautiful church, but they are always closed and you can never get a look inside them, (unless of course you come on Sunday morning)!! But too much boozin on Saturday night’s puts paid to that!!! We are heading for Market Bosworth further up that is where the battle of Bosworth took place, so I will tell you about all that when we get there, must go now pudding is ready I have taken to making real rice pudding out of rice and milk and boy oh boy are they delicious, and I really hadn’t ought to get in to the habit or Richard and I will sink the boat with the extra weight

So for Bye for now

Love

Chrissie and Richard x x

p.s pictures when we get more power only got 2G's out in the wilds again should have done it yesterday when we had 3

Back on the Cut Yahoo !! 

Well we are back out on the cut and wonderful it is too, but not before we had Jo and Andrews wedding to go to, which only I went to actually as Richard was staying behind to look after the boat and dogs, well we have left them three times already this year and not only does it come quite expensive but the boys don’t like it, so Richard sent all his love and best wishes to the lovely Bride and Groom.  Jayne and I went to London on the train and what a bargain that was too, I booked my ticket a couple of weeks before going and only had to pay £13.00 return and what a wonderful service it was, trains on time from Tamworth and in London exactly to the minute, however the only problem with those cheap tickets you have to leave after 10am which then meant we were cutting it fine down at the London end, so the train takes us to Euston but then it takes an hour of travel to get from central London to Brentford which is where we were staying, but with the blind leading the blind yes Cath and Jane E your underground map reading skills leave alot to be desired, we arrived at the hotel at 2.10 and then had to be at the register office which was half an hour away through the traffic so it  was a real rush but we got there and very lovely it was too. You will be able to check out the pictures on the Gallery.

Monday Richard and I set off for our this years cruising, and its great to be back out on the cut, the weather was perfect and we can just cruise along to our hearts content and at any speed we feel like going, as long as it’s not over 4 miles an hour !!  We set off at about 11.30am and travelled for about 4 hours well we don’t want to over do it on our first day, we stopped at Alvecote which is right in open countryside and so pretty, there were the ruins of a lovely old Abbey which we paid a visit to, the sunset was gorgeous and it was warmish until the sun went down, I am glad we stayed in the Marina for the winter cos maybe it could have become a little tiresome with the ice and snow that we have had, so next year we will probably stay in a Marina somewhere from November until February so then we have the best of both worlds. Today we only travelled a little way just to run the engine to heat the water and top up the batteries, so we have stopped at a place called Bradley Green Bridge which is near to Grendon, Which is just a small church set in beautiful park land, the spring is coming to life and as we cruised past some woodlands the grounds in them were carpeted in snow drops which is such a wonderful harbinger of spring there were also Primroses which are found in the woods and hedgerows, they are solitary flowers which appear between February and May and today I saw them. “you know I read that from a book don’t you “ ? but check out the pictures anyway.

Lots of love

Chrissie & Richard x x 

ps. Lovely being out in the countryside, however don't get a very good signal so putting up the pictures its very slow and so maybe they will come later, but come they will.

Welcome to our new baby Grandchild         Lily Mia Adams born 6th Feb 8lb 7oz

Congratulation Simon and Sarah on the birth of your Beautiful daughter and thankyou for making Richard a very proud Grandad, a little earlier than expected but I am sure that you are both very pleased you haven't got to go in to extra time for a result !!! Baby Adams certainley didn't mind the cold snow and ice so hopefully she will enjoy the outdoors as much as we do, so when she is joining us on the canal she won't mind if the weather isn't perfect.

Thats one of the events we were waiting for the next is Joanne and Andrews wedding that is on tomorrow in London Friday 13th Feb ( so theyr'e not supersticious then) look forward to seeing you both. after that we can get back out on to the cut for our new adventures, weather permitting of course, well its not that we can't travel in the snow and ice but you dont want to set off in that kind of weather so we will see.

May I take this opportunity to thank all of our readers for their kind comments and wishes and please do keep sending your contact messages so that we know that you are still reading and enjoying this as much as we are ,we look forward to hearing from you all and maybe even meeting some of you along our travels

bye for now

love

Chrissie & Richard x x

p.s I almost forgot Happy Birthday to Me today, and thanks to Jayne Joe and Kimberley for festooning the boat in balloons and banners and Richard too for taking me out whilst they did it, so that was a lovely surprise, thanks to everyone for your good wishes, and sorry someone led you all to believe that I was 50, its an easy mistake to make !!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow Snow and More Snow

Don't ya just love it, I know that most people dont and I really shouldn't, cos of all the danger, and billions in loss of revenue for the country, but how can anyone not love a beautiful white snowy scene see the new rejigged gallery (for our latest snowy pictures)that our wonderful Simon, our very own personal web designer, has made it easier for you folks out there to view, he has put the pictures in to seperate catergories, so that they are a whole lot quicker for you to download and view he is just so good to us.

Well we are still here at the Marina cos we didn't go off on our little jaunt up to Fradley as the weather forecast was this snow and ice, not that we couldn't survive in this kind of weather out on the canal, but why go if you dont have to, the beauty of this life that Richard and I have is that we can do as we jolly well please, "and we jolly well do".We still haven't had giggsy looked at but he is as monstrous as ever, he has started to demand that we take him to bed when the fancy takes him, so he will bark until we put him on the bed, so like a fool I do (well for a bit of peace too) and then I ask him if he is o.k and then he will try and snap a chunk out of me, he also does it to Richard too, he needs to go to dog borstal or the nut house (No  offence meant to any nutters out there) " Well you have to be politically correct" it makes one afraid to say anything, but he is bad and it cannot go on,what he really needs is a lovely farm to live on where nobody ever asks him to move or make  any other demands on him, he will only go for a walk if the fancy takes him other wise he will just go out of the boat take a wee along the walk way and he is off back to the boat and there is no getting him to go any further unless you drag him along, he is becoming quite a pain and its sad cos he is so old and frail and I'm sure its not his fault but he is scary.

We will try again to get out and about so that we have an adventure to tell you about but baby day is getting closer(so come on Sarah) and so is the wedding that I am going to, so see you very soon Joanne and Andrew and all the rest of the family.

Bye for now

love

Chrissie & Richard x x

p.s  I am awarding the prize for the most comments sent to our contact page to my lovley loony cousin Pauline, she lives in Cardiff, "says it all" only joking Pauline being Welsh is lovley well she is, haven't thought what the prize is yet but it will be cheap well when I say cheap it won't be expensive  x x x