Salthouse Dock

The plum glut needed sorting this morning along with the apples and beans. So blanching and stewing took up much of the time. Sadly because I didn’t feel like doing this yesterday, about half of the plums had gone past being wonderfully ripe and had to go in the bin, sorry Frank and Helen. We now have apple ready for a crumble, beans for quite a few meals and stewed plums to have with breakfast over the next few days.

Our yellow water tank needed emptying so as today we had no direct neighbours we emptied and rinsed out the tank. Unlike in the middle of nowhere, nobody came up to chat to Mick whilst this was happening!

At 2.30pm we watched todays boats arrive, another six. We’ve been wondering if C&RT have a system for allocating the berths, say rotating them on an eight to ten day basis, or Mondays berths 12-17, Wednesdays 18-23 but boats that left yesterday were replaced today by others. If there is a system we haven’t been able to work it out.

At just gone 4pm Micks old school friend Jeremy arrived, after a cuppa we headed to the Pier Head to catch the Mersey Ferry across to Seacombe. We had just missed the 5pm ferry, but this meant that we could watch it cross the Mersey before it returned to pick us up. I try to avoid waves, so am always a bit apprehensive of going on such boats, but it was an experience I wanted to do and was glad that there was little if any swell. As we were about to pull out the Isle Of Mann Ferry came into dock. We could see all the way though underneath its catamaran hull as it moved sideways into the pier.

The views back towards Liverpool were great with it’s iconic waterfront. Very few people were actually looking at the view as most were just commuters returning home.

We spent a lovely evening catching up with Jeremy and Sarah, chatting away, eating and drinking wine. It had been something like seventeen years since Mick had been to their house in Wallasey. I’d never been to the Wirral, despite in my early twenties having gone out with a chap for a year or so from there. Thinking about it I only met his Dad once, the relationship was obviously never going to last!

With the last ferry crossing long gone we walked to New Brighton Station via the scenic route. This took us through Vale Park where Major Mace and his wife have created a drift wood Fairy Village. My photos don’t do it justice as it was quite dark, also we had a train to catch. But here are some photos from the local paper. We then walked down along the waterfront where another creation by the Major sits on the beach. In the light last night my photos make the galleon look very atmospheric. It is on the beach for all to enjoy until one day the sea will reclaim the drift wood. But this has happened several times already and a new ship is built to replace it. If we had time it would be great to come over during the day to see it better, but that will have to be one for the next time list.

The shops and arcades of New Brighton were all shut up, a surprise as in Scarborough the arcades and chippies are open till late in the summer.

We said our goodbyes to Jeremy and Sarah at New Brighton Station, all very yellow, and climbed on board a yellow train that would take us around the houses, then back under the Mersey to James Street Station not far from Oleanna.

0 locks, 0 miles, 5 bags beans, 1 big crumble waiting to be topped, 4 days worth of plums, 1 tummy on the mend, 6 boats out, 6 boats in, 1 attempted toilet roll murder, 1 ferry, 17 years, 1 yellow train, 1 surprise package on it’s way, 1 Thank you to Joa.