Nantwich

A sunny morning to explore my new estate. They keep saying we might be here for a while if the canal goes solid. I have my own picnic bench and they have been suggesting that maybe we should have a barbecue one evening. It however is a bit too chilly on my bum for that.

So I was minding my own business making sure I’d marked everything as being mine, doing my best to fend off the masses of passing woofers and succeeding at this mostly, when I turn round and there was a trespasser! What was he doing? This is my estate! He’s certainly not having my bench!!!!!

I sat down under MY bench and sat my ground. He sat down too. We sat and avoided looking straight at each other for what could have been days. The non stare zone was strong, who would give in first? Certainly not me!

People walked by with their woofers and still we sat. ‘Ah look at the sweet kitties’ Sweet my …….. if he comes near my bench! Still we sat, the zone stronger still. Then this man arrived, ‘No fighting you two!’ He walked into the zone and broke it! Go away, we were doing just fine until you came along!

Because the bond between us was broken he started to back away slooowly, I started to regain my estate, slooowly. This was all going to end well in my favour. If I was lucky I might end up with a second picnic bench. but the stupid man kept trying to stroke us, couldn’t he see we were involved in some serious feline negotiations, things started to get edgy.

That is when Tom appeared, trying to pick me up. Nothing for it, the sloooow careful negotiations were on the rocks and our time was running out. Nothing for it but to speed everything up. Arched back, mohican fur, chimney sweep tail, side ways running put into action. Just a shame that my arched back made it easier for Tom to pick me up!

Tilly was returned to the boat so as to avoid any possible vets bills. She certainly seemed to have the upper paw in the situation. But now he was strutting his stuff around under my bench, even daring to sidle up to my hatch! For the next hour or so Tilly ran from window to window keeping a close eye on her new neighbour. He had been here before her, so she had most probably been stealing his estate.

Mick had done the paper run on a bike first thing and had had a look around the Farmers Market that is held every last Saturday in Nantwich. He returned with a pork pie for himself and a parsnip quiche for me which was very tasty. With Tilly safely indoors, we decided to make the most of the beautiful sunny afternoon and go for a stroll. Knowing that Jaq from NB Valerie had been moored on the embankment this week we decided to see if she was still there so that we could finally introduce ourselves.

Almost at the winding hole was sat a dark green boat with solar panels catching the sunlight. We tapped on the roof and could hear stirrings from inside. Jaq’s head popped out from the bow doors and when we said who we were a smile quickly crept across her face. We were invited in out of the cold for a cuppa and a long chat. When you follow peoples blogs you know all that they are willing to tell of their lives, you know what they look like and certainly with us you know what we like to eat! At last we could put a voice to Jaq. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, thank you for your warm welcome.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 happy cat, 2 not so happy cats, 1 newspaper, 2 pies, 2 puddings, 0 juice, 1 item listed, 1st stages of etsy done, 1 hour stand off, 1 stupid name Lowkey! 2 many woofers, 1 stupid man, 1 bench to reclaim, 2 cuppas, 1 green boat, 1 Jaq smile, 4 fingers crossed for Tuesday, 20 minutes catch up with Australia, 1 bully beef ding ding for Tilly tonight.