Back to the Park

Doesn't happen very often, a big family get together and this weekend was one to remember. .  Saturday's prelude to the party was spent playing UNO with the grandchildren and then Poker in the evening. Christine and Iwona pretty well stayed sober even though the wine flowed freely as well as the Jack Daniels and coke. By 4am only Kevin, Colin and myself were left playing, Ian having departed to his bed an hour earlier, so we decided it was time to call it a night and stagger to bed.

This photo was taken in 2011 but it's the JD that I wanted to show. Every year it gets refilled and this year was no exception. Half of this was drunk by Colin, Ian and Kev on Saturday night!!!!!

 After just 5 hours sleep, all of us apart from Chrissy, who hadn't touched a drop, was still under the influence. So dealing with the exuberance of the children with all the screaming and jumping around was hard. Thank goodness for Christine who fed and watered them as well as kept them amused until we all came too. With the family party that afternoon I want to thank our son who obligingly let us use his house for the gathering as well as putting on a spectacular spread of Polish meats, ribs, chicken, burgers and sausage and all BBQ'd to perfection. Our niece Lizzie having arrived in the UK from Australia and with new boyfriend Richard, also managed to attend. All in all Colin and Iwona catered for and managed to seat all 17 of us. My one regret of the day was I hardly took any photos and I didn't even take one of Lizzie and Richard. So this is all I have to show of the day.

Lizzie is in the last photo in brown.

So today we pulled pins, winded, watered up at the slowest tap on the system (unless you know different) and headed back to Campbell Park. Before we left I had walked through the bridge 'ole (where the stinky body had been) and noticed a long line of boats now moored. I also happened to clock that most of them had come from Newlands, our preferred mooring spot. An hour later we left  what we now call The Trickle Tap and hoped that with those continues moorers having moved to Pear Tree we would now be able to find a spot for us. Approaching and then passing under bridge 84 we noticed huge cracks in the front facing brick work and more worryingly a huge hole under the bridge arch. I know that bridge 82 is on the 'to do' list this year because of the huge crack along its length so  maybe this bridge should be included as well.

Looks to have been patched before

When we rounded the last bend before Newlands there it was. One lovely space by the winding hole. We secured FS and then walked the 2 mile back to Pear Tree to fetch the car. On our return the boat behind had left ( was it something we said??) but I dont suppose it will be empty for long. We will be staying for another week before leaving for Linford

Still eating Grab Apples