It's the Easter school holidays and it's snowing!

Every night I've been covering the bedding plants with an old coal bag, but as frost was forecast last night I bought some bubble-wrap and made them a nice cosy blanket. We didn't get frost, instead they were covered in snow!.

When we got up this morning the view from the boat was more like Christmas than Easter.

The geese aren't happy and are strutting and tutting and trying to avoid the melting snow dripping from the trees.

Back to Chirk

It was time to leave the Montgomery Canal today so when the Lock Keeper opened up at 12.00 we came back up onto the Llangollen Canal. Traffic is definitely starting to pick up and we met 3 hire boats coming down New Marton locks.  All 3 had happy, smiling holiday makers and it was nice to have someone to chat to again after the solitude of the Monty.

When we came out of New Marton Top Lock the surface of the canal was covered with a thick layer of oil/diesel which has continued all the way to Chirk. BW are obviously aware of it as there's an oil boom across the bi-wash to stop it going down-stream. Heaven knows where it's coming from, but by the amount in the water it must be a major spillage.

This is the third time we've moored at Chirk Bank but it's the first time we've managed to align the satellite dish. It seems that just by mooring 1 ring closer to the bridge allows you to get sat signal through a gap between the trees.  We couldn't even get digital TV signal here last time. I'm really glad it's sorted as I want to watch the Master Chef final. I know we could always watch it on the BBC iplayer or Catch-up TV but it's not quite the same. 

Whittington Castle

We've got the car with us at the moment so today we went for a drive out to Whittington Castle which is near Oswestry.

It's only a small castle and is being looked after by the local community rather than by the National Trust, so entrance is free and there aren't as many restrictions of access as at NT properties.

Later this afternoon we walked over Chirk Aqueduct and up to the tunnel. We also went into Chirk village which is about a 5 minute walk from the canal. It's a nice village with a good butchers, bakers, hairdressers, fancy goods shop and a Spar supermarket.  At the moment, the road through the village is being resurfaced and there were traffic restrictions and lots of large road laying wagons and it was all a bit chaotic. 

Chirk

There's not a lot to tell you about today. It's been pretty over-cast and grey and we've only seen 3 other moving boats.  The only excitement was when we met a hire boat just as we were going through a bridge. He was coming round a bend in the canal so fast that he couldn't stop when he saw us and ended up ramming his boat into the towpath. Then, of course, he couldn't get the boat off the bank again so his wife came out to see what was going on and she was still in her fluffy pink pyjamas. I know it's a laid-back way of life but it was 4pm!!!

I've never seen so many snowdrops as there are up here. There are great swathes of them all over the place.

The daffodils are starting to appear too.

We're now moored at Chirk and will probably stay here for a couple of days.