nb Ashdown: A Lovely Few Days

Sunday, March 17, 2013

A Lovely Few Days

Lots of pics in this post.

We have been on the move again for the past 3 days. Although the weather report forecast rain, rain and more rain the nights have been a bit wet but the days have cleared up beautifully.

In the end we did not do a 360degree turn in Tixall Wide due to the rather cold night and layer of rather thick ice over the whole wide.

Tixall Wide full of ice

Ice on the windows

There were some individuals brave enough to break through, after which the ducks and swans were very happy.

Path carved through the ice

Rather thick ice pieces - they skitter across the ice surface on breaking

Ooohh goody water

Oops, a bit slippery

and yes Buzzards again

Especially the swans as indicated by this series of images - spring is on the way ;-)

Andrew has thoroughly enjoyed steering the boat along the canals and for a whole three days on the trot and more to come.

This morning before setting off from our mooring above Gailey Lock, the towpath was on the right side for me to clean the other side of the boat. So she is now ready for perusal at the Easter Banter we are attending at Gnosall.

I should also mention that we saw some very interesting male albino pheasant in the field across from our mooring. Unfortunately I was not able to provide proof as they were way across the other side of the field and just not possible to photograph. But I did steal this image from the internet which will give you some idea. The extraordinary thing was that there were actually 2 of them and they stood out like a sore thumb in the field and on the edge of the woods. I can only think that they must have been very adept at hiding in the woods when very young to survive to adulthood.

and a normal one I took myself today

Tonight we have made it back to the Shroppie (Shropshire Union Canal) the first time since we did our very first canal trip in a hire boat back in 2006.

and todays trip:

Total distance:10.34 miles Elapsed time:4h4m20s Locks:1 Bridges:27
Average speed:2.54 mph (2.79 lock/mph)
Our first heron in a while too -

Andrew very kindly moored us up right by some bird feeders that someone had left in the hedge and I spent a lovely hour or so capturing as many of the common hedgerow birdlife as I could.