Nantwich Embankment
This morning we woke to ice on the canal, about time too, we’d been feeling a bit left out!
When we moved on board Lillian we treated ourselves to a King Size all seasons feather duvet. This consists of two duvets, one a summer weight the other autumn weight, you can popper them together and make a winter weight duvet. So far joining them has never been needed, but last night I felt a touch cold in the middle of the night. The summer duvet was under the bed so I made do with a couple of easy to reach blankets . Today the other duvet has come out from storage but not been poppered to the other one. This means we can have an amount of temperature control independent of each other. Mick hadn’t felt cold, so if he’s too warm he can fling his side onto me instead.
The ice wasn’t that thick, you could see it ripple as we moved around inside. Mid morning a crunching cracking noise came, a boat was on the move breaking it’s way through. A hire boat from Norbury Junction, lady stood at the front with pole at the ready should they encounter thicker ice. A short while later a C&RT work boat came past with a cargo of aggregate. The ice was now being broken up, this usually helps it to dissipate quicker. Large flat icebergs drifted past us, layers of ice stacking up on top of each other.
A moored boat from beyond us reversed down to the water point taking advantage whilst they could move. They were there for an age! The water pressure isn’t that good, but we suspect the tap was frozen and took a while to defrost. One other boat on the move was NB Jenny Wren from the Carefree Cruising Fleet. They pulled in for diesel opposite us, struggling to get the stern into the side due to the ice.
With a covering of ice on the cut now Tilly is grounded, no shore leave until it melts. Why? Well she may decide that she can walk on frozen water, fall through and then that would be that! But with the sun out and the engine having been run for a while this morning inside the pram cover wasn’t too chilly, so half an hour of supervised looking at the world from a different view point was allowed. One day she’ll work out how to get out without our assistance and that right now would be bad.
The highlight of the day was a walk to the recycling bins. Much of the ice on the cut had gone by now but all around the basin a thin layer of snow had settled. The chap from the boat next door to us was using the services and having to defrost the tap to be able to fill his large water containers. Luckily there is hot water on hand inside the block to assist.
My next knitting project was started this afternoon. Colour matching the yarn went well, so we’ll see how it turns out, I’m adjusting an existing pattern which can mean redoing bits until I like the end result. Along with this I also crocheted a fat ball net for the birds.
Not wanting to litter the countryside with plastic mesh bags, or buy holders for them. lnstead I made a small string bag that we could hang from the tree opposite. Here the birds can peck away whilst Tilly is kept occupied watching them.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 thin layer ice, 5628 flat icebergs, 4 moving boats, 1 short walk, 4 snow storms, 3rd episode Shakespeare and Hathaway, 1 black, 1 white, 28 tonnes of chocolate, 16 hours mixing, 1 fat ball holder, 1 sheet of floating greaseproof paper, 1 slightly strange ginger cake, 1 bored resigned cat.