Knowle Hall Wharf, Grand Union

 We travelled all of 2 3/4 miles today.  We have been having a bit of trouble with our batteries while out and thought we needed new ones.  But we set off yesterday with hopes that it was just that we hadn't really run the engine enough.  Well, yesterday we began with 100% juice and when we stopped we only had 93%.  This morning it had gone down to 79% and would not come up so we stopped at the Stephen Goldsborough boatyard to ask for help.

We are now moored up by their wharf with an electric landline and awaiting a new alternator. 

To be truthful, I was quite happy not to have done the 5 wide Knowle locks today, still quite shattered after yesterday!

Notice, BW are aware that yet another paddle is not working.

More signs of spring, lots of ducks, moorhens and birds in general.  David said he saw at least 2 kingfishers this morning.  That's 3 in 2 days, more than we saw during the whole of last year's cruising.

I walked into Knowle, great bread shop. Well worth the walk.

Talking of ducks.  We have about 5 in Birmingham (but lots and lots of Canada Geese).  So here is a card I made of a couple of ducks.

I actually manipulated the photograph and put the 2 ducks closer together so they look like a couple.  I matted the photo onto black card and then onto orange pearlescent card, this had the corners rounded off and then it was matted onto more black card and the corners were rounded again.

A green card blank was used and I Cuttlebugged some orange pearlescent card and cut it into a wide strip.  This was stuck down the middle of the card blank and the matted photo was stuck towards the bottom of the strip.  An orange silk daisy was stuck to the top right hand corner of the photograph.

Rowington

A beautiful sunny, hot day. Considering how many boats there were about, we only met 3 boats coming up the locks.

A quick trip to the little village shop by the moorings in Lapworth turned out a dissapointment, it is now a carpet shop! Fortunately we saw a couple walking up the locks with plastic bags and they showed us another shop which we didn't know about, so we could get some bread and ice cream (which we saved for after the bottom lock).

We stopped at Rowington as there were lots of moorings. Normally the moorings both sides of the bridge are heaving with boats. Do they know something?

The bridge above is covered in a creeper and is totally covered.



An acceptance card for a 60th birthday. I made the backing paper again, this time from a photograph I took in someone's front garden. I made a photo box in Word and added the word "Acceptance" onto it and then printed it onto normal copy paper. Holographic peel-off strips and a prima flower with added sparkle.

I then printed out the insert with a formal acceptance