Autumn is getting going now, the first trees turning golden, leaves clogging our propeller, spider webs glistening in the early morning dew, buying coal (no logs required just yet), cooking for free on the wood burner, yes, I think autumn is our favourite season.
We arrived here yesterday after a two week round trip to Middlewich in perfect spirits. Then we retrieved the car and drove to Leigh - and I, for one, saw my perfect spirits evaporate in an instant. Bloody traffic! As soon as we returned to Crankwood I was tranquillity personified again. It's amazing. Just get yourself a few hundred yards away from that other type of transport infrastructure (roads, that is) and you are in a different world. Anyway, enough moaning for the moment.
As some of you will know, LottieD has a cruiser stern, meaning we have lots of space at the back of the boat compared to a trad(itional) sterned boat. Why, then, have I spent seven years juggling plates, glasses, cups, etc whilst trying to steer? We passed a young couple on a holiday boat a few days ago, glanced at their boat, looked back at each other, and said "why didn't we think of that?"
Yes, they had a table out back as they moved. Genius! Of course, on the basis that it's five o'clock somewhere we tried it out with an alcoholic beverage! Really, we feel so stupid for not doing this sooner, say, in 2010!
If you have a real eagle eye you will spot the cracked plant pot housing our thyme. It got itself blown off the roof, as did our rosemary which we never saw again. Did storm Aileen do this, you ask? No. This happened the night before, you know, when the wind actually BLEW. Storm Aileen? Do me a favour. We place so much store on weather reports living as we do and it really irritates when you miss a day's cruising due to a rubbish forecast. Oops, I appear to be moaning again....
Finally, you may remember we told you about the Waxi service on the Bridgewater canal?
Well, it appears this leviathan needs priority over everything else on the canal as these signs have sprung up in a few places.
Yes, it's reserved moorings for a service nobody ever uses. In Sale, at the Trafford Centre... Grrr. It's a good job I'm not a moaner!