Wednesday 16th May 2012 - Kingsbury Water Park, Birmingham & Fazeley Canal - The good thing about heavy rain is that it fills reservoirs and canals, especially when it falls for days and days as it has done this April.  As a result British Waterways have been able to re-open the Grand Union Leicester Arm and so we now have a plan for our cruise until September.  It's nice to know we haven't been wet in vain.  Of course we are still heading for Crick Boat Show, at least we will be when the crew member returns on Friday.  Maureen ran away for her grandchildren fix on Monday, catching the 9:24 am bus from Fazeley into Tamworth then taking a train from the High Level Station to Chesterfield and later the same day on to Harrogate.  She is becoming quiet a seasoned public transport traveller and next time she will hopefully have her Senior Citizens Railcard to reduce the cost - still too young for a bus pass!   We know these stretches of the Trent & Mersey and Coventry Canals well having moored Ramyshome at Barton Turns Marina for her first few years.  However one thing we had never done was explore Whittington village which lies to the south of Lichfield.  The need for milk and our regular Saturday paper made the exploration necessary and we found a Co-op to fulfil our needs plus some interesting architecture and at least one interesting dining pub to sample, maybe later in the year.  The village isn't quite up to the standards of Alrewas but was certainly worth the walk in the sunshine.  We had done the bulk of our shopping in Rugeley, the supermarket comfortably within carrying distance of the canal but the moorings are not exciting and we know a pleasant rural spot beyond Armitage, where the toilets come from - the place not our mooring.  That evening we received a postal delivery.  It's a complicated story but a parcel that should have been sent elsewhere for us was delivered to RBOA colleague Jayne Robinson, who by chance was visiting her correspondence address on the day it arrived.  Living just round the corner in Kings Bromley Marina, husband Ray was able to pop out and bring it right to Ramyshome's door.  Fradley Junction was fairly quiet as we came down the locks on Friday and we were able to find a mooring along the Coventry Arm.  The volunteer lockkeepers seemed to have survived their first day on duty and were keen to come back for more over the weekend.  Sadly the B.W. shop has closed due to the cuts but the Swan Inn looks much better, the pub sign restored and we are told the food is much improved.  Perhaps we will also give it a try when we come by later in the year.  We should have three more opportunities if the new plan holds.  With Maureen gone far away, Roger & Molly decided Fazeley Junction's charms were not sufficiently captivating so we have sailed up the first four miles of the B & F to more alongside the suitably named Canal Pond at Kingsbury.  There are plenty of jobs to keep us busy for the next few days but we will enjoy the surroundings until it is time to go back to Fazeley to collect the wanderer.     

Tuesday 1st May 2012 - Bosley Top Lock, Macclesfield Canal - The first of May and although we haven't cast off our clouts at least we are on the move.  Hurrah.  Having got approval from Roger's Mum to our leaving, we slipped away from Marple on Saturday afternoon.  We had intended to stay until Sunday morning but the weather forecast suggested a late afternoon cruise was a better bet.  This isn't the prettiest stretch of the Macc Canal and too many moored boats make progress slow, but there are some extensive views across the Cheshire Plain or north over Manchester to the Lancashire Hills; and as they will for a few days yet, hills and ridges line our route off to the east.  In just over an hour we found a space amongst the boats moored at Higher Poynton and then hunkered down for the rest of the evening and all the next day whilst the wind blew and the rain lashed down.  The end of April - temperatures more like January.  Monday on the other hand  dawned bright, sunny and warm so, after a chat with a local boatyard about possible winter moorings, we headed south passing Bollington and Macclesfield for a late lunch on the Gurnett Aqueduct.  Gurnett or Gurnet depending on which sign you read, but however it's spelt it is a pleasant, popular mooring.  Not great for TV reception but perfect for calling in at the Garden Centre to stock up with bedding plants for our roof garden and the pub has a good reputation.  The poor plants will need sheltering from the northerly wind which is blowing on to our backs as if trying to hurry us along but we are not rushing.  As always we shall be sorry to leave the Macc and we have a lunch date with grandson Charlie tomorrow.  Sounds like it could be messy but fun.  So tonight we are moored a short way back from Bosley Locks listening to the sound of sheep and their lambs - it makes a change from noisy Canada Geese.  This year's second descent of Bosley Locks postponed until late tomorrow when the family have gone.   No doubt the exercise will have the Lockworker casting their clout before that work is done.

Sunday 22nd April 2012 - Bugsworth Basin, Peak Forest Canal - Climbing back up Bosley Locks on the Macclesfield Canal had never been part of Plan A, B, C or even D but that seems to be the way with this year's cruise. Sadly Roger's Dad passed away on Easter Sunday morning by which time we had made it to the moorings below Bosley Locks.  Once again we had extra crew, the Altrees and the Thornelys to work the locks, or perhaps just to make sure we had actually left for the summer.  Having spent the previous afternoon aboard Nb "Serafina" chewing the cud with owners Brenda & Gordon, on Saturday evening we went aboard Nb "Just Siviting" for more boating chat with Austin & Liz Siviter.  Catching up with boating friends is a big part of this cruising life.   The sad news came early the next morning and so we sailed on into Congleton to enable Roger to take a train back to Marple.  Having dealt with the immediate and practical matters he was back on board by Tuesday afternoon and the following day we were climbing back up the 12 locks then cruising on towards Marple Wharf.   Announce a hosepipe ban and the rain comes almost immediately, at least it has in the North West.  For once we are getting a proper April with heavy downpours interspersed with sunshine that can lift temperatures to quite pleasant, if not to the dizzying heights experienced in March.  Fortunately we have managed to avoid sailing in the worst of the rain but waterproofs are de rigueur and, as today, just occasionally we can get very wet before we are able to moor up.  It does at least make a change to see countryside along this canal re-establishing its green mantle, trees coming into bud and hedgerows already full of colour.   Previously we have only seen it in deep winter or autumnal hues.  The lull that comes between death and funeral allowed time for Maureen to make a visit to see grandson Charlie in Harrogate and also to see Jasmine our first granddaughter who came a month earlier than expected but seems to be doing fine.  Stephen and his partner Jamie are also doing fine and obviously delighted with their "little burden", as are we.  We plan to take Roger's Mum to visit her second great-grandchild this week before we finally get our 2012 cruise under way properly.  Life goes on, we hope.  

Tuesday 6th March 2012 - Portland Basin Marina, Dukinfield - How everything looks better in the sunshine.  Even the metropolis that is Ashton under Lyne & Dukinfield take on an almost attractive hue under blue skies.  So much better than the grey days we have had since Christmas.  The boatyard has been a convenient mooring even it falls a long way short in the prettiness stakes; just a short car hop to Roger's ageing mother; under two hours to our grandson; a ten minute walk to useful shops.  You may think all that is leading up to news about our departure but for the moment we are in limbo.  Our second canal of the year is planned to be the Rochdale but it is presently shut to navigation with no confirmed opening date - just like it was 4 years ago.  Is it us!  So we await news as to whether we will be able to go that way or have to re-think our route across the Pennines.  However that may allow us a little more time to prepare and also to recover from the helter-skelter of last week's celebrations.  Maureen reached a significant birthday, her 15th. You work it out.  At such a great age one has to be careful not to have too many shocks so instead of one big party there have been several celebrations.  On Friday, in company with some Derbyshire friends we listened to the magnificent Ashley Hutchings and the guitar wizardry of Ken Nichol at a little village hall.  An event partly funded by an organisation called Live & Local - well done to them.  At almost the opposite end of the entertainment scale, on Thursday we attended the afternoon matinee performance of the musical "Oliver" in the Palace Theatre, Manchester.  Note afternoon matinee, the home of the retired, unemployed (at those prices!) and as it turned out the uneducated.  Or to be fair, the partly educated as we were surrounded by thousands of school children.  Fortunately they were enthralled (well most of them) by the sound and visual affects.  Neil Morrissey, he of Men Behaving Badly, etc. performed creditably as Fagin but was outshone by an excellent, very young Oliver.  Of course food was part of the celebrations with a meal in a local pub on the day and an excellent dinner party at the home of Cheshire friends on Saturday.  Phew, what a week.  The daily chores of living afloat have continued apace but over the winter Roger has been conducting an investigation into local football that will come to an end tonight.  With a number of local clubs playing to a reasonable standard he has been tracking down the divisions from Macclesfield Town scrapping into the second round of the FA Cup via an awful nil-nil draw at Stockport, Droylsden, Stalybridge, Hyde - another grim nil-nil-, Curzon Ashton, Woodley Sports and tonight Mossley who play in Evo-Stick Northern League North.  Premier League it isn't but nevertheless enjoyable most of the time and it keeps him from getting under Maureen's feet.  Ramyshome awaits her winter engine service and new batteries are on order as the existing ones are slowly dieing.  A few more of the winter jobs have been completed but the rest will have to wait as we head off to visit Maureen's parents later this week.  Then it will be a mad panic to get ready to start our 2012 cruise.  Or maybe it won' be such a rush if the Rochdale Canal remains closed.                        

Sunday 12th February 2012 - Portland Basin Marina, Dukinfield - Although Ramyshome has been ice bound for almost two weeks now the crew have been very mobile.  Our now annual trip to the south west by car proved very successful.  It was good to catch up with family and friends, to hear the promising news of goings on at Roger's most recent employer and to see again countryside that was for two years very familiar to us.  The only negative was the extra pounds the crew brought back to Ramyshome.  Fine dining is enjoyable but heavy on the waist.  Fortunately we avoided almost all the snow and ice and we did get in a couple of long walks around Old Sarum and along the K&A Canal, another frozen waterway.  Travelling south we followed the canals, the Macc, T & M, Coventry, Grand Union, over the Thames at Oxford and finally beside the Basingstoke.  It is still hard to reconcile that a 5 hour car journey would take several weeks by boat.  Even though the car journey was so much more interesting than the slog back up the M5 & M6 motorways we would much prefer to have taken the very slow lane.      Our Waterways are about to change; not becoming tarmac highways but escaping the clutches of the Government into the hands of a charity called the Canal & River Trust.  The next step is to elect boating representatives to its Council and those of us with boat licences are trying to get our heads around the Single Transferable Vote System that someone thought would be a good idea.  The Big Society creaking into life; who would have thought our old canals would be leading the way.  We only hope it will be the right way.    Having slept in beds that didn't rock and enjoyed the extra floor space of several houses it was back to real life with a bump aboard Ramyshome.  A frozen canal meant our water supply was out of reach by boat.  So after the laundry was done we refilled our tank by carting several cans of water from boatyard tap to Ramyshome's tank.  At least the tap wasn't iced up so we'll be able to keep ourselves clean until the thaw comes, hopefully later this week.  Winter boating at its best, or worst.