Sunny Days and Washing Lines

The First Roses of Summer

What a glorious week! Boating takes on a whole new dimension when it’s warm. Doors and hatches are flung wide as soon as we set off and our collection of fleece garments will be stored away until Jack Frost comes nipping at our toes. We float along under blue skies, listening to the birds and sniffing the summer scents of fresh green meadows. The yellow flags are waving a salute as we cruise along, pink clover and blue cranesbill nestle in the green verges, still frothy with cow parsley. Beauty is all around us.

Last glimpse of Hawthorn

 Meanwhile, back in the real world, everything hasn’t been quite so rosy. We left Wrenbury early on Monday morning, heading for Grinley Brook and hoping that the rush of boats that passed yesterday, weren’t all moored at the bottom of the staircase locks, waiting to go up. So far. So good. The locks along the Llangollen Canal are narrow and fast fillers - we make good time through Marbury, Quoisley and Willeymoor. Even though its still early, there are a lot of boats moving and I open the bottom gate at Povey’s Lock for a very nervous young man, chugging ever so slowly out, so we can get in. He inches carefully through the gates, hardly making any headway and then swings the tiller hard over, completely forgetting that he has a mountain bike riding on the stern rail. It scrapes the wall and I yell out to warn him, but it’s too late. I hope they managed to straighten out the buckled wheel, but it looked too far gone to me! 

Montgomery Magic

The lock-keeper at Grinley Brook was in a good mood when I went to let him know we were waiting to come up. For those of you who have yet to experience the thrill of the English Canals, a staircase is a run of locks where the top gate of one lock is also the bottom gate of the next one and woe betide anyone who tries to come up the locks while someone is coming down. He said it had been busy yesterday (Bank Holiday Sunday) with some boats queueing for 3 hours. I admired his dedication, I'm betting there were some frayed tempers in that queue! 

Blakemere near Ellesmere

Tuesday was another sunny morning as we made the short trip from Grinley Brook to Whitchurch - I had an ear worm playing in my head ('Mandy' if you’re interested) and was singing as I skipped up to the lift bridge. In another part of my brain I was writing a shopping list for our trip into Whitchurch later and also wondering if we could squeeze in a visit to ‘Benjamins’ coffee shop. It takes 40 turns of the windlass to raise the lift bridge and by the time it finally clanged onto the stops, the world and his wife had appeared and wanted to cross the raised bridge. I let Carl and another boat through, then closed it to let the pedestrians cross, then opened it again to let another boat through. Meanwhile, Carl had reversed down the Whitchurch Arm and bagged a lovely sunny spot for us, next to a really shiny boat called ‘Plan B”. I wandered over to say hello and marvelled at the gadget he was using to wash down his paintwork. He had one end dangling in the canal and it was sucking up the water and jet washing his paintwork. Marvellous! I have all the details and the next time we find a Screwfix, one of those machines will be coming home with us. He also introduced us to Belvenie Whisky later that evening, which is probably why we were still snoozing when they left the next morning. Bon Voyage ‘Plan B’ - hope our paths cross again. 

Idyllic spot for a Shepherds Hut

Wednesday - can you believe it? Still sunny. Chugging along through 2 lift bridges and lazing through the rural pastures, past the entrance to Whixall Marina and on through Whixall Moss to an idyllic mooring where we can watch the sky turn fiery and enjoy the solitude. 

Fiery Sunset at Blackwater Marina

Thursday dawned grey and chilly - boo! We pottered up to the water point to refill the tank and saw that there was already a boat on the water point, moored across both water taps so no room for us. We didn’t want to hurry them, so we pulled in across the way to wait for them to finish filling up. After a while, the hose was put away, everyone disappeared inside the boat and we waited to see if they would move off. Eventually, I wandered up and called across to ask if they could pull back so we could get to the tap. They weren’t a happy crew and there was much glowering and sulking as they threw off their ropes and stormed off. I gleaned that they had run the tank dry and even though they had filled up, it still wasn’t coming through the taps. Oh dear! We would have helped them if they had smiled and been sociable but I’m not at my best until after my morning coffee, so maybe my face wasn’t smiling either! 

Narrow Bridge - Breath In!

I rarely take the tiller, although I’m usually safe to leave in charge while the Captain nips below. It was unfortunate that I happened to be steering when we met a day boat and, in a panic, the steerer knocked off all power and swung aimlessly across the canal. Honestly, there was nowhere for me to go. I hit the throttle and went hard astern but we still collided quite hard. It doesn’t happen often and, once we had checked to make sure the kettle was still on the stove, we weren’t too concerned but the poor family on the day boat looked terrified.

Sad to see this falling down

 Everywhere we go along the Llangollen, we have happy memories of sunny days spent boating with friends and family. In Whitchurch, we lingered in Benjamins and I whizzed off a message to Terry and Liz saying ‘Wish you were here’ and before you could say ‘2 extra hot Latte’s please’I got a call saying they were on their way. We just had time to drag home the trolley, tidy the boat and they came strolling along the tow-path. We shared a leisurely afternoon with much laughter and a few beers - it’s been many months since we last met up. Tomorrow, we collect daughter Claire for a cruise across the Pontcysyllte - I’m not sure she’s looking forward to it but then neither is Carl and he’s driving! 

Quoisley Lock

We’re down on the Montgomery as I write this - I would need to take up a whole Jotting to do it justice and after last weeks overdose, I thought I’d better not wear my welcome out (embarrassed face emoji). 

That’s about it for this week my friends. Have a great week and I’ll write more next week from Llangollen. 

Love from The Floating Chandlers 

Ps The Chandler's Floating Laundry is open for business! The Brolly Mate needed a little bit of adaptation to accommodate the whirligig washing line but finally, I can dry my washing outdoors. I wonder how long it will be before my tea towels are beetling off across the cut on their own - they’re bound to blow away! 

Whitchurch

Pps It was a very hot afternoon and Carl was down in the engine room, tinkering. I thought the nearby Visitors Centre in Maesbury would sell ice-creams but sadly not. I must have looked very disappointed as the manager went across to his house and gave us two mint Magnums out of his own freezer. What a lovely man!