Friday 9 May 2008

Turners Green

We've done lots and lots of locks since I last blogged, which is the only excuse I'm giving for not having done it every day.

We stopped for a quick shop in Banbury and then it was on to the top of Claydon locks for the night.
(15 locks)

The next day I got a bit of a lie in while David steered the boat through all the twists and turns around Wormleighton and then it was down the Napton Flight. The weather was warming up nicely so it was very pleasant. There were a few boats about but not one in every lock which happened last time we did them..

The spring flowers are really beginning to bloom, lots of bluebells, cowslips, buttercups and we saw several duckings and one set of cygnets






Then it was on to the Grand Union and an overnight stop at Tomlow Bridge
(12 locks)

Another of my favourite canalside cottages - and this one is for sale! It has been "done up" quite a bit since we first used to sail past it.

The trip down the Stockton locks was uneventful, then it was on down through the Bascote Staircase and on to Radford. At the bottom lock a BW man was checking the lock and offered to take my rubbish (which I was carrying from the boat) to the skip for me. Now there's helpful!!!


We stopped off at Tesco in Warwick to get lots of drink as it was really hot and sunny. We saw one duck with 15 ducklings and this brood of 7 cygnets who were only just out of the nest.

Then we moored up after the Cape locks to be ready for the biggie tomorrow.
(21 locks).

I forgot to re-charge my camera so I've no pictures for today.

We began the Hatton flight at 0615 this morning and arrived at the top at 0915 - which must be a record. Most of the locks were for us and we met one boat coming down. I got soaked as the light shower turned into a heavy shower. Then it was through the Shrewley Tunnel (where David got soaked, as usual) and we are resting here at Turner's Green.
(21 locks)



And now for something completely different. Two cards.




This Babe one was made from a sticker which I mounted onto blue card. I used double-sided tape to stick some blue polka-dot ribbon across the middle and bottom half of the white base card and tied a knot in the bottom one (I hadn't used the tape on the end bits!). The Babe was suck down with sticky fixers.










I think it is safe enough to show this one now, as the birthday is over. The dress was actually a Christmas tree decoration. I managed to get a couple in the sales. The bodice is velvet and it has chain straps and pearl decorations. I mounted the dress onto white, black and a pink/grey/white patterned paper and then onto the DL base card. I used a brad to hold the coat-hangar and some double sided tape on the back of the bodice. I then used some small tags and stuck messages on them like "Happy Birthday" etc and used a sticker alphabet to spell out the name on the bottom.




Of course I had to make a box for the card to fit into so I used my trusty Scor-pal and this time I cut a window into the pink box lid and stuck down some slightly opaque acetate to the back so the dress could be seen though.

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