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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Sunday 9 November 2014

Felt a bit of a plonker

Blimey, I talked about WW111 yesterday and last night I honestly thought war had broken out. The noise was horrific! Loud bangs, booms and what sounded like canon fire going off from nearby houses. Now I'm not one for moaning as you well know (is that shouts of 'yea right'! I hear?)  but November 5th has been and gone and the fireworks should have been put away until next year. We even had to turn the sound up on the TV and no, I'm not exaggerating. So glad when it all died a death by 9ish. I expect more tonight so maybe the ear plugs will have to go in! 

What a lovely day for a walk this morning and as soon as I dropped down below the lock I was again lucky enough to see the Kingfisher. He fishes the stretch between Langley Mill lock and Eastwood lock every morning so I pretty well expect to see him on a daily basis.


The mist was rising from the water and the glare of the sun was blinding so seeing anything was difficult but what I did see when looking across Anchor bridge was what appeared to be steam rising from the fence. Nothing unusual in that but it was the way it was streaming across. Not something one sees every day.


Veering off the towpath I cut across the fields. Loads of birds around, some of which I'll post on my wildlife blog. Off course I'd forgotten about all the rain yesterday. Only had on my walking boots instead of wellies and my feet, as well as trouser bottoms, got very wet! Then I had to cut across the field of horses. This meant clambering over two stiles. Biggest problem was my legs were to short to reach over the center rail so you can imagine what happened next. I managed to get one leg over, sat on the rail and shuffled along and then promptly fell backward hard on my bum when I tried to get the other leg across! So there I was, bottom on floor and leg stuck up on the rail. Talk about feeling an idiot! Sooooo glad there was no one around to see it. Got myself down okay but then had to walk the rest of the way back to FS feeling a little moist from the waist down!

I'm showing this stile as it is an exact replica of the one I had to get over. Except the other one was by a very muddy and very wet field.
 Returning along the Nottingham canal (disused) it was nice to see horses along the route and as I was watching them pass I noticed that the meadow had small sunflowers in it. Having taken my other camera with macro lens I had a field day scanning for bugs.


So here is my bug and macro fest.

 No not the planets in the solar system but Pearl droplets on a spiders web

still a few wild flowers in bloom

Tiny fungi in the horses field


Inside the sunflower



Bug enjoying what pollen remains in the Sunflower head



1 comment:

Halfie said...

Amazing photos, as always. I love big close-ups.

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