Gt Score Swing Bridge, Leeds and Liverpool Canal

One of the new BW beehives which have been set up near Litherland. What next?

We were up and off in time to get to Bridge 6 for 9pm so that BW could let us through the first of the two swing bridges that they operate for us.

After Bridge 9 we were on our own with 5 of the b*** in the next 3 miles. The first one is a footbridge and you need a handcuff key and the Watermate key to get at the pull-up lock before pushing the bridge open.

Then comes Maghull Hall Bridge. This one has handcuff locks on both barriers which have to be undone and the barriers pushed closed by hand. Then the bridge is operated by the Watermate key and is electric.

The third bridge, Shaws, is another footbridge and you need the handcuff key again to push the bridge open and closed.

Methodist Swing Bridge has push barriers again, but you have to put the Watermate key in the box first to release the locks. Then the bridge is electrically opened and closed.

The final bridge is Bell's and this time the barriers are electric, but the bridge is a push one.

Confusing or what?

Before finally mooring up we had another fully electric swing bridge and two more that are fixed open. We moored on the landing stage of the last one.

A long, DL, card with a bought topper of a drawing of a smart couple. It is all black,white and silver, with sparkles that don't show on the photo. I added some colour with the red and black spotted ribbon.

Litherland, Leeds and Liverpool Canal

"It's not the leaving of Liverpool...." Our 9 days in Liverpool came to an end this morning. We have had a really great time, visiting the Cathedral (dark and lumbering), the Walker Gallery (great pictures but noisy kids), the Tate (wasted half an hour of my life) , the Bluecoat (confusing) and, finally, Port Sunlight and the Lady Lever Museum (got Burne-Joneses - so fantabulous!).

My nephew's wedding was yesterday at a mock Elizabethan hotel in the Wirral. David had to hire a DJ and all the accoutrement's and we were transported from outside the Premier Hotel at Albert Docks (that's what gave me the idea of taking the boat in the first place).

Although the wedding was a straightforward registry office type do, the bride is Jewish and as the evening began there was a lot of singing and dancing and the bride's father and the groom were thrown up in a blanket and the couple lifted up on chairs and carried around. It was really lovely, especially as Matt is usually a really quiet and retiring sort of guy.

There was only one boat due out today, and as we managed to get the hire suit returned by 10 we asked if we could accompany it and leave a day early.

So, at 1130 we set off back through all the docks to Stanley Locks and back onto the L&L. The weather turned sunny just after leaving so it was very pleasant and, as usual, the BW guys were very obliging and helpful - even though one boat had Everton supporters and we had a Manchester United one. They did threaten to leave us to it several times though.



I have finished the Christmas cards for Amber Moon. I used a similar picture to last year but this time I mounted them onto a "label" Nestabilities die cut mat.

I used DL cards (long thin ones) and wrapped the ribbon around a piece of card before sticking it down onto the base, then added pictures with sticky fixers. I suck a peel-off greeting above the ribbon on the right hand side and two sets of three gold dots on the sides of the green matt.

Salthouse Dock, Liverpool

I am gradually filling in the blanks in the blogs now we are back on G3 - but even so I keep losing the signal here too.

We had a wander around Albert Dock this morning. David went to see the BW Harbourmaster and then we had another wander around town. It has been beautiful, warm, sunny day and we haven't needed a fire.

The DUCKs launch regularly by us and send a mini tsuname out making all the boats bounce and bang against the moorings. We do get a warning though, because they blow a horn as they are about to launch down the slipway.

This evening we took a walk to the riverbank. The sun was setting and there was a lovely pink glow over Birkenhead (can there be such a thing?) Almost romantic!







Back to this lovely boat horse in Hungerford. I printed the larger picture onto paper in "draft" so that it is sort of washed out and then matted it onto white paper and then red. The second picture was printed normally onto photo paper and then matted in the same way. I wrapped some white spotted, red ribbon around the larger panel and then stuck them onto a white card blank.

Salthouse Dock, Liverpool

Wow! Such an exciting day! Both boats were ready to enter in the top lock at 1000 and with two BW guys doing the locks (with a little help from me) we were off. The top lock has extra long tubes over the paddle gear and a long windlass is required, so I couldn't do that one.











We were soon down the locks and heading for the bascule bridge. Unfortunately we were two low to need it opening. Fortunately because it doesn't work any more anyway. We were heading for the old clock tower in the centre before turning left to go through all the docks to get to the new canal bit.




To the left of the tower is the River Mersey, though the locks down to it from here are no longer in use.








Then it was under this futuristic bridge and into the first of the two new locks. The difference in water levels is only tiny. Apparently when the docks were taken over by BW they agreed a certain depth, but the other docks kept the old one (or something like that).

Then it was past the Liverpool waterfront and a second short tunnel with a kink and the last lock.

Coming out of the last lock we were told it was turn left, left and right. They forgot it was 3rd left to start off with and also forgot to tell the Harbour Master that we were coming. We were trying to get into a dry dock and then the barrier to Albert Dock was closed and we had to hang around outside, not knowing quite what to do.

We were eventually allowed through Albert Dock and into Salthouse Dock. The sun came out and everything was perfect. David could get the satellite to work so he had television and I could see the John Lewis store from the windows of the boat!




Jolly Nation make some lovely decoupage figures. This is the hiking lady. I stuck a piece of green wavy paper on the right hand part of the card and added the decoupage on top, putting a compass in the top left hand corner and a flask in the bottom right hand corner.

Eldonian Village, Leeds and Liverpool Canal

We were waiting with Tottleworth before Bridge 10 by 0745 and left there at 0830 with BW opening the swing bridge. We then went on to Bridge 9, where they did the same again.

Stopping off at the Litherland sanitary station, we had a pumpout and were in Eldonian Village by 1115.

The trip hand been uneventful - no antisocial behaviour. In fact most people seemed really pleased to see the boats going past.

The shark was in a car park, looking a bit sorry for itself.



Here is a photo of a lovely Rottweiler which I turned into a card simply by matting it onto white paper and cutting the edges with deckle edged scissors and then matting it again onto red card.

Melling Stone Bridge, Leeds and Liverpool Canal

Rounding a corner we came across this structure
in a field. To the left of it there are lots of poles and then further on there was a stone henge and lots of wooden carving and structures. Bizarre or what?

We didn't have far to go today as we are due to meet the BW guys tomorrow at Bridge 10. We just went through the 5 wing bridges in Melling and stopped just after bridge 11.

Later on we were passed by "Tottleworth" which must be the other boat that is going down to Liverpool tomorrow.



I have made quite a few cards using this photograph. They were lock wheeling for charity at the 3 locks (can't remember their names, but there is a pub at the middle one) on the Grand Union.

This one I matted onto silver, white and red card. Then I matted some blue card onto silver and tied a polka dot red ribbon around it before fixing it to the white base card. The picture was then fixed over the top left hand corner. Finally, I added two sets of red gems to the two sides.

Haskayne, Leeds and Liverpool Canal

I actually took this photograph yesterday. The pheasant was walking along the parapet of the bridge just like the Famous Grouse grouse in the advert. Quite comical.

Not travelling far today, so it was a late start (for us) at 8.15. The sun was shining and it was really warm. We didn't even need a fire today.

This part of the canal is really pretty. The towpath side is lined with stones and the towpath has been mowed right up to the edge - so no sprained ankles when jumping onto the bank from the boat and finding the hole or getting stung up to the knees with nettles.

Most of the bridges are also made of stone and have a pointy arch unlike most of the bridges on the system.

There have been very few boats on the move. Today we only had one plastic, one Springer and the Pride of Sefton go past. We are supposed to be going down into Liverpool with another boat, we we have had no sign of it yet.

Yet another one in the personalised Christmas card set. This one has a sparkly lilac candle with silver holly leaves.

I have tied some ribbon through the holly wreath charm and stuck it onto the card with a couple of glue dots.