Wednesday, April 20, 2011

shorts and shades


Beautiful hot sunny days - so out have come the shorts, sandals and shades - yes, even Dai is wearing shorts (but not sandals after last year when he did and burnt his ankles badly!).

Had fish and chips twice this week from Bizzie Lizzie’s in Skipton - once when moored there and today when we walked 4.5 miles there and 4.5 miles back along the towpath - well they are good !!   

We are now moored at Gargrave and spent last 3 days walking (1) on part of the Pennine Way (2) towpath to East Marton (next village to West) and (3) to Skipton (next town to East).    Tomorrow I am insisting on a rest day just sitting in the sun!     Lovely walks though as we are in the Yorkshire Dales and where better for glorious scenery.

Now we are proper liveaboards ---- I have two planters on the roof.    One with pansies and one with that “cut and come again” lettuce.    Oh, and we also have a smaller planter with thyme as Dai uses so much in cooking.    

Heard this last week that BW are starting water restrictions from May 3 on the Leeds & Liverpool, so reducing the amount of water pumped in from the reservoirs and putting time restrictions on flights of locks as and when necessary.      They certainly need to do something as we have definitely noticed the water levels are fluctuating by as much as 6 inches from day to day.    A lot of the lock gates are leaking like fury and in a stretch of “bendy wendy”canal  just up from Gargrave there are signs every few yards saying “bad leak”.  We wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this particular canal closed again this summer just like it was last year because of lack of water, especially as there hasn’t been a lot of rain these last few months.

Counted one mammy duck yesterday with about 30 babies (give or take one or two as they were flitting all over the place).    Never seen so many with one mammy - think she must be the auntie who babysits all day!

We’re going to stay put in Gargrave now until after Easter (we are on a 14 day mooring) as no doubt it will be mega busy over the long weekend.    Enjoy the Holidays everyone and don’t eat too many Easter Eggs (send them to me instead as I bet I won’t get even one otherwise!!)


Since last blog we have done …  5 miles and 3 locks
Total since Setting Off ….. 1118 miles and  949 locks  

one reason the Leeds & Liverpool Canal has water shortage problems

Foxxie loving the sunshine ... but where's yer shades??

ice cream tug at Skipton





4 comments:

  1. Hi there, I love reading all the boaters blogs, yours caught my eye today because you are staying at Gargrave. My mother came from Skipton and moved to Rotherham when she married, so as a child we visited my grand parents in Skipton alot. A treat back then was a sunday dinner in a little cafe/restaurant called, The Copper Kettle. It was by a small shallow river that flows through Gargrave. I used to paddle in it after lunch, thats going back about 35 years now, I just wondered if it was still there.

    Regards
    Paul

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  2. Hi Paul
    well, the river is still there! and lots of kiddies paddling in this lovely sunshine. I think the place you mean is now shut down but there is still writing on the wall about it being a cafe. I will take a picture and put it on my blog next (which will be Wednesday as I do it weekly).
    cheers, Janice

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  3. Thanks Jaice,

    Oooh, thats got me thinking about 35 years ago, I would have been about ten then. My dad had a british racing green Mk1 Cortina, or a silver Reliant Scimitar about that time. We never ate out that much in those days, so Sunday lunch in a restarant was a real treat. I always had Scampi, chips and Peas, which to me at that time was the height of fine dining. Lol

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy your stay there and this glorious weather we are having.

    Regards
    Paul

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  4. Sorry, Janice, I misspelt your name, Doh!

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

 

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