Back to Tattenhall

With all the Christmas shopping finished, we cruised back to Tatenhall today. We're moored outside the marina on the 48hr moorings but will move onto the visitor moorings in the marina tomorrow for a week. This is so that we can safely leave the boat while we go off visiting family and friends again. Also we'll plug into the electric so I can leave the TV recorder box on while we're away.

While we were in Chester we met the skipper of the restaurant boat "L' Eau -T Cuisine" who boaters may know as Bargee Bill, the inventer of Bargee Bill's Prop Cleaner. He's a real character and invited us to join him and his wife at the Mill Hotel last night for a bite to eat and for the Jazz Night. The bar (which has a good selection of real ales and excellent bar food) was packed and the group who play there every Monday were very good.  I think we'll have to go back in the new year for another visit.

We're snowed in!

We'd planned on leaving the marina this morning to go back to Chester for the weekend but at 8.30 it started snowing and by 10.00 the ground was covered with almost an inch of the white stuff. I suppose we could have gone cruising as we both have all the cold and wet weather gear,  but at times the wind was blowing the snow horizontally so we decided to stay here in the marina for another day.

We'll have to move tomorrow, even if it's only over to the pump-out and diesel pontoon as one tank's full and the other's getting rather low.

It's been another bright and sunny day although the wind's quite bitter. 

This morning we collected Chico from the local kennels where he's spent the weekend.  I always shower him as soon as he comes home to get rid of the smell of the kennel and just in case he's picked up any fleas. Unlike Charlie who absolutely loved baths and showers, Chico hates them and had to be bribed with sweeties. He then curled up in front of the fire and caught up on lost sleep.

I've spent the day catching up on the washing, making the most of being plugged into the electric.  It's also been bread-making day and this afternoon when we came back from Chico's walk, the boat was lovely and cosy with the fire ticking away slowly and smelled of fresh bread. 

Tattenhall Marina

We got back from Macclesfield early this afternoon after spending a very enjoyable evening at the Davenport Arms pub/restaurant at Marton. The food wasn't as good as on previous visits but the company was good and it was great to catch up with old friends.

Opposite the entrance to the marina there's an ice-cream farm and we called in to have a look on the way home this afternoon. It wasn't very busy, just a few families with young children so we stopped and had an ice-cream cornet. I had "cherry crumble" and Roger had "sherry trifle", both very nice and it's a good job the freezer's full or I may have been tempted to get a "take-away" carton.

We've put the Christmas decorations up, but as we're still planning on cruising until closer to Christmas we haven't put the outside lights up yet. It won't seem like Christmas is nearly here until Roger gets the roof covered, he's just a big kid at heart!

Our mooring here in the marina is covered by the web-cam so if you're interested you can spy on us here

Bunbury, Beeston & Tattenhall

Yesterday we moved on to Tattenhall. We had a good journey and passed a few other moving boats.  It’s about 6 years since we last came this way but little has changed.

At Bunbury Staircase Lock we met a boat coming up, so as we were going down we passed in the middle. That certainly speeded things up and I was glad of the help with the lock gates which are heavy on all the locks on this section.

At Tilstone Lock there’s a memorial under the holly tree. What a beautiful spot to bury a beloved pet.

The land at Beeston is very soft sand so when the canal was built in 1787 the banks kept collapsing. To solve this problem, one lock was built from stone slabs and the other built from iron plates.

double click on the photo to read the details

The lock cottage beside Beeston Stone Lock used to sell wonderful home-made pies, cakes and preserves but closed down a few years ago.

 Behind the cottage there’s a large rabbit warren in the sandy hill.  There were lots of bunnies scampering about.

We moored outside Tattenhall Marina on the 48 hr moorings ready to move in tomorrow morning. Like the moorings at Calveley, these are also dedicated winter moorings and there are already a couple of boats here paying BW for the privilege.

I won't be posting a blog  for a few days as we're going to visit our daughter. Hopefully I'll be able to give you a photographic tour of Newcastle when we get back. Have a good weekend everyone.