Galton Pump House, BCN Old Line

 After a surprisingly quiet night we woke up to a dry morning, which was a relief after all the rain last night.

How I miss not being out in the country (?) all the time.  The trees are beautiful, there were birds tweeting in them and ducks in the water.  But on the other hand, I also love living in the centre of Birmingham and having everything close at hand.  And David likes being in Birmingham too - no need to get down the weed hatch!

I did my stint in the refreshments tent and managed to to gorge on the lovely cakes, but had to hang onto the tent during the gusts of wind.

I am publishing this before the bonfire starts, so I have something for tomorrow.  It is raining now.  So fingers crossed.

Another birthday card for a guy who works on our moorings.  It was for his sister.  I used a photograph taken on the Llangollen, which is a canal he know well.  I matted it using Nestabilities in yellow and pink (colours matching the boat).

I used another square card blank and matted a Cuttlebugged yellow panel over some pink card which I edged with a Martha Stewart punch and wrapped some pink ribbon around it before sticking it onto the left hand side of the card.

To finish off I added some green swirls and leaves and three pink blossoms and a pink bow.  The sentiment is a silver peel-off

Gaton Pump House, BCN Old Line

It was just a short run.  A trip to Galton Valley for the BCNS Bonfire Meet.  Just over an hour away and only 3 little locks.

Everything was fine till we got to the bottom lock.  David put the boat into reverse to stop it and got something around the prop.  We got the boat into the bottom lock and David went down the weed hatch.  Something nasty. 

We pulled the boat through the bottom lock and a hire boat (which had water in the bilges up to the engine - who had the worst problem?) came down the middle lock.  Mike Rolfe was following us, so he took the next lock and I helped him up to the top.  He then came down to help in the weed hatch.  To no avail. 

So, we hauled the boat up to the lock mooring at the top and called River Canal Rescue.  It took the guy 3 hours to reach us and had the offending wire out of the hatch within 15 minutes!!  You just need the right gear.

By this time all the bank side moorings had gone and I didn't fancy breaching up and having to negotiate wet cratches so we moored up on the visitor moorings by the pump house.


"It's my girlfriend's birthday on Wednesday, can you make her a card?  She loves cats and cute.  Oh! and she is busy on Wednesday, can I come and pick it up tomorrow morning?"

I printed off the cat three times, coloured it in with pencils and then decoupaged it.

A square white card blank was covered in pink floral paper, some pink ribbon tied around the bottom in a knot and a panel of green floral paper matted onto silver card was laid over the this.  The circle was die cut, as was the silver surround and the whole thing was stuck on with sticky fixers.  I added the sentiment and name which was matted onto the green paper and some white roses with die cut leaves and a swirl cut from the green floral paper.

Of course, the card would not not fit into the envelope, so I had to make a box. Time was getting short, so I just matted another piece of the pink floral paper onto silver card and stuck it to the top of the box and added a strip of silver peel-offs along the sides of the lid.