Hooky in the Sunshine

It's been another glorious sunny day so we moved to moor at Lyme Green.

It's a good spot if you don't mind the tanoy anouncements and piped music coming from Homebase on the retail park. If you're in need of some retail therapy there's also a Poundstretcher, Pets at Home, Harveys furniture store, PC World, Next & Matalan. On the leisure side there's AMF Bowling and a Burgerking.

My latest crochet blanket is coming along nicely. The pile of squares is growing rapidly.

Originally I edged the squares with a row of grey double crochet but it didn't look right so I've pulled it all back and have ordered some black yarn which I think will look better. I've got another 4 colourways to work through yet. At the moment I'm doing 6 squares in each variation but I haven't worked out how many squares I'll need  in total. I suppose it might be an idea to measure the bed and see how big the blanket will need to be.

Someone needs a mouse trap!

Just one of those days

A Cruising Day

Yesterday we walked the mile and a half back into Marple and had lunch at the Ring o'Bells. As usual the meal was excellent.

The big freeze hasn't materialised so today we cruised back to Gurnett. I've got more chemo this week so we'll need the car and Gurnett is a good spot to park it. We stopped off at Higher Poynton for lunch and walked down to the recycling centre to get rid of the used engine oil from the engine service Roger did the other day. Oil disposal is a major issue on the canals with places to get rid of it being few and far between.

The Forecasters were wrong AGAIN!

Yesterday, with the weather forecasters predicting another big freeze last night,  we decided we'd better go to Marple and fill the water tank. It's only about a mile away from where we're currently moored and was a nice short cruise in the sunshine. While Roger filled the tank I nipped into Marple town to refill the cupboards. It showed how out of condition I've become over the past couple of months as the slog back up the hill pulling a full shopping trolley had me absolutely knackered. Normally it would hardly have raised my pulse. We turned round at the junction and returned to our spot opposite the deer park where we've been joined by another two boats.

This morning we expected to be frozen in but the temperature hadn't even dropped below freezing overnight. If we'd known that, we'd have gone on to Bugsworth yesterday. Never mind, we'll stay here for a while longer, it's quiet and the dog walkers are well behaved hence the towpath is both poo and litter free.

This afternoon I decided I'd have to start trying to build up my stamina so we went for a long walk. Just after we set off it started snowing. It wasn't much but over on the hills towards New Mills it was sticking and the puddles in the fields were frozen.

We passed some lovely houses. This one was quite modest compared to some of the others!

It didn't feel very cold but there were icicles hanging in this tree.

We walked in a circle going towards High Lane and ended up at Ridge End at The Romper pub (now for sale) then cut across the back of the deer field back to the boat. Total distance was just over 3 miles, not bad to start with and hopefully I'll soon be back to walking our normal 5+ miles. Chico really enjoyed himself too.

I saw an advert for a porthole for dogs on the internet. If we could retro fit one in the boat Chico could watch the fish

Frozen In

When we woke up this morning the canal was frozen right across and the ice was about 1cm thick!

It was another lovely sunny day so we walked into Poynton to do some shopping. It's only 1.5 miles and didn't take us very long to get there. There's a large Waitrose in Poynton that has this mural outside.

We gave Waitrose a miss (too expensive) and popped into Asda before going to the Farmer's Arms for lunch.

By the time we got back to the boat the ice had almost gone and then a few boats went past breaking up any remaining ice. It was too sunny to sit indoors so we decided to cast off and carried on to Lyme Park where we're now moored. It's a notorious mooring spot for lurkers but for once there are no other boats here.

It's a lovely spot, this is the view out of our windows tonight, complete with deer.

Another Glorious Day

The weather at the moment is certainly glorious! It was warm enough today to do without hats, scarves or gloves and we made the most of the sunshine by cruising slowly to Higher Poynton.

With views like this it's no wonder the Macclesfield Canal is so popular with boaters and walkers alike.

We're now moored at Higher Poynton, overlooking the playing fields. I don't particularly like mooring here but it was the only place we could find a space.

There are lots of passing walkers most of whom have dogs off the lead. Because they wander off oblivious to what their dogs are doing, there is dog muck all along the towpath. They don't seem to be too bothered about dropping litter either!