I went on a...

...canal trip today. A friend I hadn’t seen for some years invited me.

I have to say, I don’t think it was a very interesting canal. I have been aboard canal boats before and lived for a short while on one. I also painted some castle scenes on the doors of this guy’s boat. That was an interesting trip.... But all this was a very long time ago.

Anyway today was two hours one way and then two hours back again. No locks. My friend is terrified of locks and the deep sides. But I love locks. Just a single lock, but not those at Bingley 5 Rise. There is no way I could move lock gates now!

I ate all my lunch on the first half of the journey. Caught up on chat. She has had a BAHA implant. Apparently she was offered BAHA or cochlear implant which is what I have. She remembers everything I went through with the operation, that is the specialist had to take the first one out (that he had just put in because it now wasn’t working even though it tested okay moments before) and put a second one in while I was still under the anaesthetic. And this second one, the one I have now has only 18 channels working out of the 22. So four channels were duds. My friend wasn’t going to go through that so opted for BAHA. It was done by local anaesthetic, so she was awake and went home the same morning. But it was a few weeks later before the external bit can be press-studded into her head.

Coming back I am thinking I need something for Blip. So I took some photos. I think it is rather dilapidated. There are all these scaffolding landing stage type moorings on one side. And very home made sheds and all kinds of stuff on that canal bank. These seem to be boats with permanent moorings.

In one boat was a grey parrot. That took me by surprise so I only got a quick out of focus photo. It’s there in the collage. I have never seen before on any canal all these home made scaffolding landing stages for each of these moored canal boats. There were a lot of them. There is a scarecrow on one bit.

Anyway because it is Good Friday the traffic was horrendous. It was already at gridlock on the expressway Gateway to Wales at half past 8 this morning. But I had already worked a back route to get where I was going to.

Coming back home was another matter. I couldn’t even turn right to get home, the traffic was at gridlock again. So, I turned left and went deeper into England, away from Wales...

Finally I found a right turn which might work. I didn’t look at maps or google or sat nav.

Bliss, no other cars on the roads I took. Then I found this small church and graveyard. So I needed to stretch my legs. But the church was locked as they often are these days.

There was an important looking grave plot with several graves. I have never managed a panoramic photo before. It took me half a dozen attempts before I got it. So that photo is the first extra.

The second extra is a bit more detail of the inscriptions as a collage.

It is hard to read the inscriptions in the red sandstone. The first has worn a bit, but seems to be a daughter of a 2nd Duke of Westminster. The other two in the sandstone are just about readable. You should be able to read them. I think this plot is some of the Grosvenor family.

But you also have Hansel Prince of Pless. His mother was a society beauty, Princess Daisy of Pless. There seems to be a bit of intrigue round this guy. I am assuming because he is buried in this plot that the Grosvenor family gave him somewhere to live. I don’t know. But he came from a very rich ruling family, between Poland and Germany, and yet had nothing later in life.

Anyway, trying to get home I went many miles out of my way, saw new born baby lambs, but I didn’t have to sit in any gridlocked traffic.

I came into the potting shed with Popeye when I finally got home. It’s dark now, and I am finishing this entry. Popeye is keeping my lap warm. And I am totally ready for bed...

Hope you all had a good day today.
Take care x