Below Adderley Locks, Shropshire Union Canal

 Halloween is coming....

Off early again and up through Audlum, a quick stop to shop in the Co-op for essentials and then on to the bottom of Adderley locks.

No alarms or excursions today and we were moored up  by 1230.

An autumnal scene at the top of Audlum.

This is the birthday card I made for my youngest grandson's first birthday.  He has an apatite on him like nobodies business.  I used one of Mo's Digital Pencil stamps and coloured it in with pencils.  This was then fussy cut onto a die-cut mat and matted onto a larger yellow one.  The number one was then die-cut in silver mirri card, along with his name in orange letters.

Hack Green, Shropshire Union Canal

Sunrise today! 

David was up and off at 0630 and we watched the sunrise while we did a lock.  When we got to the top of Hurleston locks I helped him down the first two locks and then left him and caught the bus into Chester whilst he went down the rest single handed and moored up in Nantwich to wait for me.

After I had done the shopping, and bought him some lovely chocolates, I caught the bus back to Nantwich and we then travelled on to Hack Green where we stopped for the night at the top of the locks.





I have a fascination with back cabins; they are so small and yet contain everything you need plus all the ornamentation. 

This is just a plain card using a black card base, a white, embossed card panel and the photograph matted onto black, white and silver card.

Wenbury Church, Llangollen Canal

 

 Left at dawn, again and stopped to buy coal at a boatyard. 

There was a half hour wait at Grindley locks while the volockies brought 2 boats up and then had to get the water levels right for us to go down. 

Saw a kingfisher today too.

We arrived at Wenbury at half past one and later had dinner in the Dusty Miller.

A couple of interesting trees that I saw from a lock today.

I love pansies, these are decoupaged.  The base card is white and I embossed some light blue paper with my Cuttlebug.  Then two lengths of blue ribbon was tied around it and tied in knots.  The flowers were placed onto a white embossed oval, then a navy blue one and finally a scallop edged white one.

To finish off three light blue pearls were added to the bottom left and corner.

Bettisfield, Llangollen Canal

A couple of lovely autumnal scenes on the Llangollen.
















We stopped off in Ellesmere to do some shopping and then travelled on for couple of hours before mooring up in Bettisfield.

We have an amazing engineer who has done some really crappy jobs for us.  I made this card as a thank-you for some work he did for us.

As he usually wears dungarees I made this thank you for him. It is a white card blank with some red gingham paper stuck on the top, but with a slit at the top to form a collar and used brads for buttons.

I made faux stitching around the edges and die-cut the tools which were tucked into the pocket.

Below New Marton Locks - Llangollen Canal

 I know we like early starts, but today was a bit excessive.  We left the basin at a quarter past SIX!!!  It was still dark and we bumped and ground our way down through the narrows, missing all the dramatic scenery, but on the other hand we didn't meet another boat until we got to the lift bridge past the aqueduct.

As you can see, sunrise as we went over.  I walked it again.  Getting really brave, no?

When I got to the 100th turn of the lift bridge I finally noticed that it was not going up any more.

The man on the other boat tried pushing, and I eventually had the nous to wind it own a bit and then up again, that seemed to work.  Still, I didn't have to wind it down.

The hire boats were out in force after Chirk and by the time we got to New Morten locks there were queues of 4 boats coming up stream at both locks - still I didn't have to do much work working them, there was lots of help.

Two days ago it took us 5 hours to get from the top of New Marton to the Basin in Llangollen and 4 hours to get back down!  I've seen a slower current on the Thames!

Another example of my expanding repertoire. 

An "exploding" box, because when you take the lid off the sides explode out and fall down.

This box contains a pair of baby stocks.

The sides are decorated with patterned paper and die cuts with a rosette on the lid.

I have made several in blue, pink and white.

Llangollen - Llangollen Canal

 The weather is still lovely, we have been so luck this trip.

The family emailed to say they would be visiting at lunch time, so we walked down the (steep) hill to meet them and eldest grandson said he wanted to go to the boat for lunch, we we walked back up the (steep) hill.

After lunch they left us and I decided to walk up to the Horseshoe Falls (the start of the canal), so it was half way down the (steep) hill and along the towpath.  I must admit, I only remembered it being about 1/2 a mile long and was dismayed to discover with was 1 3/4 miles, so it was "on! on!"  The picture proves I did it, and got back in one piece (but I did discover the back way into the marina and didn't have to climb the (steep) hill again.

We had planned dinner out with Jackie and Chris in the Cornmill, so it was back down the (steep) hill, a really lovely dinner, and then back up the (steep) hill for the VERY LAST TIME.

 
Sunset in Llangollen Basin

I have been branching out from card cards and this is a card and a box.  It is an easel card with a box in front which holds 4 tealight candles.

The front has 2 sets of patterned paper, the large one matted onto gold mirri card and the smaller one matted onto red card and gold mirri card.  The card base was also red.

The box is attached to the bottom of the card and has a flap which opens to get the candles out.

I decorated the front of the card with some die cut leaves and paper roses.

The inside has more patterned paper matted onto gold miri card and more die cut leaves and a rose, and a small white panel, also matted onto mirri card for the greeings.

The box was finished of with a red bow.

Oh! and there is another box to put it in, but I didn't take a picture.  Doh!

Llangollen - Llangollen Canal

 The usual 7 o'clock start, the current getting really strong now, especially at bridges and the two tunnels at Chirk and Whitehouses, we bumped and scraped all the way up.  We met three day hire boats just before the long aqueduct and they kindly let us go in front (as they hadn't got much of a clue) and we were up in the basin at Llangollen for 12 noon.

As usual, a really spectacular trip, the leaves on the trees are turning yellow and gold and the weather has been lovely.  Chirk and Pontcysyllte aqueducts were stunning - I walked them both - though I must admit mostly looking straight ahead and not down the sides.

So we are in the basin, the electricity has been turned on and I am on my 3rd load of washing....

I made a white panel of card and embossed it using the Cuttlebug.  I stuck it onto a white card blank and added a 3d butterfly.

The sentiment was computer generated and matted onto red card.