Still at Zouch

It was torrential rain this morning but had died down enough by lunchtime for us to take Chico out for a nice long walk. We headed off along the towpath towards the Soar Boat Club to see if there was any entertainment on at their Spring Bank Holiday Rally but they’d already finished and packed up. We carried on walking through a buttercup meadow and followed one of the parish walks for 2 miles to Bishop Meadow Lock where we sat for a while and watched the boats. Chico thought the buttercups were very tasty and obligingly posed for the camera.

Overlooking Bishop Meadow Lock is the 69 acre Astra Zeneca research and development plant which closed earlier this year with the loss of 1200 jobs. It was the second largest employer in the area, after the university.

We noticed that the weir at the start of Zouch Cut was flowing faster than when we passed the other day. Presumably the heavy rain overnight and this morning has raised the water level a bit, but not enough to activate the flood-water relief gate.

flood-water relief gate

Just beside the flood gate there was an enormous Elderberry tree in  full bloom. If it's dry in the morning I might nip back and pick a few blossoms to make Elderflower Champagne.

Still at Zouch

We had a really good time with Jean & Garth last night. After drinks on their boat we walked 20 mins. to the Kings Arms pub and had a lovely meal. It's one of those '2 for 1' pubs and the food was basically pub grub but the quality and service were excellent and we rounded off the night back on their boat drinking yet more wine! They also have a 15 year old Westie, a tiny frail little dog called Bonnie who, like Charlie, is also deaf and blind in one eye. Like Charlie she's also extremely spoiled and joined us at the table to make sure she didn't miss a thing.

It was bitterly cold this morning and they passed us just before lunch, carrying on their way towards London and then the River Wey.  Most people think the boat's called Sycamore, as in the tree, but actually it's "Sycnamore Too". It's their second narrowboat, the first was "Sycnamore", but for many years they were real sailors and owned a yacht. Unfortunately Jean suffered terribly with sea sickness so they had to move onto the canals.  If you say it slowly with a Yorkshire accent you'll understand the name  (Sick na more)

Lazy day at Zouch Cut

I just LOVE  PoundSaver shops!!  I spent a very happy half hour browsing round the one in Loughborough yesterday. They're always a good source of cheap crafty things for me to do and this time I was inspired by a small hot water bottle. Granted it wasn't a very nice colour, but I intended knitting a cover for it so that didn't really matter and at £1 it was a cinch. I had a part ball of dusky pink chunky wool in the stash under the bed which was just perfect for what I had in mind.

from this

to this in 2 hours

This morning Charlie had me up at 6.15 so after we'd been out for a quick walk I made myself a large coffee and started working out the pattern (if you'd like a copy please email me and I'll send it to you).  It only took a couple of hours to knit up and was just about finished when our friends Jean & Garth arrived.  They couldn't moor near us so stayed back just past the lock moorings. The hot water bottle's already spoken for and will be winging it's way to Newcastle as soon as I can get to a Post Office.

Again it's been a very busy day with lots of boats moving about. We've had the usual 'speed boats' and one was so fast I almost fell over as the boat rocked so much when they went past. I'm afraid I broke my own rule and yelled at them to slow down. Granted it was a young lad driving, so maybe his excuse was that no-one had told him to slow down past moored boats.

Zouch Cut

Because the canal basin at Loughborough is right next to a bar/restaurant with student flats above, I was a bit concerned that it might have been noisy last night. I needn't have worried as it turned out to be very quiet and peaceful.

This morning I did another shopping run into town and then after lunch we headed back down the locks to moor in Zouch Cut. It's very busy here and we managed to slip into the last spot. We're hoping to meet friends Jean & Garth here tomorrow so hopefully at least one of the moored boats will move on so that they can get in.

There are lots of beautiful BIG houses around Normanton on Soar but just half a mile further along they're a bit more modest.

It's the Soar Boat Club rally this weekend and if the weather's nice on Sunday we might turn round and go back, moor up and have a look.