Clear up begins

It's been quite manic here with the men arriving from Crocers to take down the marquee and the loos being loaded onto a trailer ( glad they didn't tip off the fork lift truck. Imagine the mess!!) The weather had been foul and I didn't envy the men having to roll up all that wet canvas and get it on the lorry. In fact as the rain was forecast to arrive in the wee hours of the morning, and because our bunting had all been made by me out of quilt covers from a charity shop, ( no noise you see if the wind blows. All that plastic bunting makes a hell of a racket!) Ian decided that taking it down wet and in the rain in the morning was a bad idea. So last night in the dark and just as the drizzle started, we climbed on the roof and took it down. Anyway I'm getting off the subject. All our men from the work party came and cleared the site of banners, bunting, beer barrels, lights, electric cables etc while I helped out in the cottage kitchen with the drying up of  500 pint beer glasses 300 half pint glasses and 120 wine glasses. It took both Heather (who washed them) and me nearly 3 hours. Eventually by 2pm the site had been cleared. A few boats still remain especially here above the lock. Tomorrow I'm off to the zoo, would you believe, with my grandson Josh. All I can say is God help me! If my writing is illiterate when I get back you'll know that I will have been completely worn down and frazzled by a 3 year old!

Looking very sparse now (and very wet.)

Shame the weather wasn't better for the journey back to Trent lock

Can anyone identify this plant. Flowers are very small and were growing amongst the bluebells in Shenley Wood

Phew.... Its over

Am I glad that last night was the final night in the main marquee. Not that I didn't enjoy every minute of the entertainment put on by the boaters but three late nights in a row as well as copious amounts of wine was not doing much for ones body. Then there were the early starts, walking Jade and setting up the stall every day. Still, the rally is over and after totting up the takings over the three days, I found out the bric a brac stall took in excess of £400. Not bad seeing as it was all donated from other peoples cast offs.

Kevin singing. Litchfield cruising club

Jim MacDonald Nb Elizabeth

Long Eaton boat club

Michael Gold ECP&DA work party organiser

John Bayliss fell asleep during Michael's performance. Surely it wasn't that bad!

Stoke boat club. They were hilarious.

Today there was a noticeable chill in the air. What a change from yesterday which was gloriously hot.  The number of people through the gate was also down but the bar in the beer tent was continuously busy. So much so that they sold out of beer by 16 45 and had to close 15 minutes early. Even though the beer tent was heaving, nothing much was happening elsewhere so the decision was made by the committee that we could all pack up at 16 30. Most of the things on my stall had gone and any decent objects left was packed up, boxed and dispatched to Nb Icing ( Margaret & Dennis ) to take to Pelsall in two weeks time. So there you have it. 40th anniversary of the opening of the Great Northern Basin was over. It was a great and successful rally. 96 boats attended, there were 4 society stalls, 11 trade stands, ice cream and hot food stands. We estimated that we must have had 2-3 thousand people attending over the three days.  I wonder if they will have another in 5 years time to celebrate the 45th anniversary. I would like to think ECP&DA will hold the rally again. Hopefully we will still be boating and be able to attend.

All seems very quiet after the last three days.

Jade in the way as usual.

Dog show day.

The entertainment last night was fantastic. A band called the Chilly Dogs played a mixture of blues and country music for most of the night, not finishing until nearly midnight. Not sure I can keep up the pace as I'm usually in bed by 10pm and tonight will no doubt be another late one as as we have the boater clubs performing for us as well as a fun auction to raise money for the ECP&DA.

So today dawned with another fantastic day with temperatures in the 20's. Just like yesterday the public flocked in as soon as we opened and as an added attraction several boats throughout the day came up the lock to entertain the masses. My stall was as busy as ever and half way through the morning I had a lovely surprise when Kevin ( one of the boaters regular blog readers ) turned up. If your reading this Kevin it made my day. I wish Harry could have been with you so I could put a name to a face but unforeseen circumstances got in the way. Maybe next time we meet we could go out for a meal and drink together. After Kevin left I was released from bric a brac duty to sort out  the dog show. Yesterday I had been very concerned that only 4 boaters dogs had been entered but by the time  the show was due to start at 2pm another 11 had turned up. With it being a fun dog show we had a little girl who wanted to be entered as a dog of mixed parentage and choose the name Poppy as her doggie name. Also a huge stuffed dog went into the class of most handsome dog to the hilarity of the onlookers. Needless to say neither won but a prize of chocolates was given to the young girl and a goodie bag of dog treats hung round the stuffed dogs neck!  Annie and Jim on historic boat Nb Elizabeth entered Tilly Pin and got first prize for the waggiest tail! Anyone going to the Pelsall rally can also congratulate Clive ( site manager ) who did a great job in showing Trixie, owned by friends Bob and Joan Nb Valencia, on achieving the Judges Choice cup for best in show with their gorgeous Pomeranian x. I wont name all the dogs that won but the two I have named will most likely have been recognised by a fair few. Most of my photos today are of the dog show but I'm not going to apologies for that because after all I ran it!

Judge Cheryl making her choice

Lovely dog that. Great name of Money Maker and the breed put down as over sized stuffed.

Girl in red on the chair entered as Poppy

Difficult to judge on ones shoulder so the judge asked for him to be put down ( not literally!)

Annie with Tilly Pin 2nd left.

And the Judges choice best in show went to Trixie

Receiving the cup

One of the many stalls had hand made wooden toys. Here he is giving a wood turning demonstration.

Working boat Dove on view

Anyone want any rubbish bric a brac?

Big day arrives

Finally after all the preparation of the last week, the big day had arrived. It was an early start as the dog had to be walked and the stall set up and although the official opening wasn't until 1pm, the gates opened to the public at 10am. It was still quite chilly first thing but the sun was out and it promised to be a fabulous day. And boy was it great. The support we had was phenomenal helped, no doubt, by wall to wall sunshine. Working boats Bath and Chertsey entered the lock, Bath facing forward and Chertsey facing back. It was easier to breast up like to make the way down to Anchor bridge where the band was to be picked up. Bath would then wind which meant both could came back facing the right way. Margaret (nb Icing) and I was very busy selling the bric a brac and it was surprising what people bought and took away with them. How does the saying go, what is another mans rubbish is another mans treasure. Anyway I did manage to get a few photos when there was a lull but the majority of the time I was a captive to the stall.

Some of the first public on site checking out historic boat Elezabeth.

9am and some of the stands are set up.

Push me pull me!

The band arrives in style

Jim Stevenson president of ECP&DA with Mayoresses of  Aldercar and Llangley, Amber Valley and Erewash councils officially opening the site.

Band playing

Spread laid out for the dignitaries. The top tables was for us volunteers.

Oh and by the way I didn't have to volunteer for loo cleaning duties. They were to be serviced by the company that owned them.

Tomorrow is set to be even hotter so we are hoping for another good turnout. Only one fly in the ointment, there doesn't seem to be many entries for my dog show and after ECP&DA has forked out for rosettes, prizes, doggie goodie bags and a cup it will be a pretty poor affair.

Well for once the forecasters were right!

First both Ian and I would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments and well wishes from our blogger friends, but also our family and friends. We are truly humbled.

What a great night we had last night. So many congratulations hugs and kisses went to Ian that he was quite overcome. Some of our fellow boaters and friends  piled onto Nb Icing owned by Dennis and Margaret. It's the designated  'party boat' because of it's long front deck and ample room inside. Beer was drunk and loads of laughter and merriment as well as a game of Mexican Train was enjoyed by all. We eventually fell back into the boat just before midnight having had a wonderful night.. So as promised here are the photos of yesterdays continuing site work..

Decision was made to use the large tent as the tombola and book stall and the smaller tent as the bric a brac. There is so much stuff for the bric a brac stall that I expect we will be spilling out onto the grass.

Bunting goes up

Another grass cut hopefully the last one before the event.

Wonder when the bunting will go up on the boats.  16 boats by 9am

The books have been set out and the bric a brac sorted. 105 boaters packs have been filled with only the rally plaques to be added as they still hadn't arrived from the suppliers by the time we packed up at 6 pm last night.
So now for today............
OMG. What can I tell you about today! First we struggled to put the bunting up on our boat. The wind tried very hard to snatch the bunting from our hands and send it across the canal. We eventually acheived our goal and while Ian went off to help with the electrics, I took Jade below lock to see how many boats had turned up.

Bunting up

Great to see so many boats.

  As soon as I returned I started sorting the Tombola in the large tent. The wind by now was beginning to be quite alarming and the canvas was being whipped into a frenzy while the poles creaked and groaned. Then suddenly 4 of the poles gave way. The force of the wind made them bend and crease right at the knuckle joint.which attached them to the roof. Thankfully Howard ( ECP&DA chairman) was around and while he held on for dear life, I rushed to get more bodies to help.  Ian happened to be strolling past so he was the first to be grabbed. He was left holding a corner pole while I held on frantically to the middle and Howard departed with one of the bent poles to see if it could be repaired. The damaged poles were removed one by one and straightened sufficiently to be reattached again. Then men arrived out of the woodwork armed with a load of rope and between them all sucured the tent once again. The wind continued to blow a hooley right until late afternoon but thanks to the efforts of our work party team, the tent stayed firmly attached to the ground.

More stakes go in.

 The loo has turned up and were conveinantly placed a few yards from us. Seems we dont need to worry about filling up our cassette for the next few days. Hope it doesn't get to smelly as the wind is blowing in our direction! No one has been given the job of cleaning them every day. Maybe I had better volunteer.

Quite near to our boat as you can see. Thats my bird feeder to the left of the picture.

 Chesterfield and Derby and Sandiacre canal society's have arrived but due to the high winds will now erect there gazebos first thing tomorrow. Tonight is the boaters hog roast and so far the rain has held off and the wind has died so its all looking good for a bumper turnout. Early start for us all tomorrow and as I will be busy all day, goodness knows if I will have time to blog. If I get a break I'll give it a go.

The birds and bees and even the flies do it!

Yipee we are free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not going to say much on this blog tonight because we are about to go out and celebrate. You see it was the day we found out the MRI results. We really worried about seeing the consultant this afternoon and when he came into the room and said there was a problem with the radiographer reading the MRI, we thought the news would be bad. But no. He meant that they couldn't take a proper  measurement of the tumour and so were not 100% sure what the difference was from when Ian had the last MRI 6 months ago to the latest one last Monday, but we were reassured when the consultant told us that he was certain that the tumour had still shrunk slightly. Then he gave us the most fantastic news. Ian was now officially in remission and all treatment was to be stopped for the next 3 months. After that is anyone's guess but for now we don't have to go back to the hospital until mid August. For the next two weeks Ian must keep on with the antibiotics because his neutrophils are still lower then they would like. The registrar arrived to remove Ian's pic line ( which Ian says was completely painless ) and we were sent merrily on our way. I cant tell you how happy we were. Once the rally is over and after we have helped clear up the site we can finally pull pins and GO GO GO yeahhhhhhhhhh.

Just a couple of photos of the atrocious weather this morning. Hope we dont have any of the same over the weekend! More rally photos tomorrow.

Not snow but hail!

My wildlife photo of today

Plenty of pollen on this bee!

3 days to go.

Work is still progressing on site with the stage and bar area set up in the marquee. No beer as yet as that is due to arrive later from the brewery's. Water was also needed below the lock to service those boats that have been here for since last week and KFC had kindly allowed the society to tap into their supply. Ian has been sorting out the electrics to the marquee  although he did have to have part of the afternoon off for his chemo session. Yes his white blood cell count has come up but only to 1,004. Still the consultant obviously thought that it was high enough for Ian to have his treatment. Thankfully the chemotherapy unit was not very busy and we were in and out within 3 hours so Ian resumed his duties as soon as he returned. As I am helping with not only the dog show but also the bric-a-brac stall, I have been rummaging through some of the contributions made by fellow boaters and the public. There seems to be an awful lot of stuff to sort so that should keep us volunteers busy for a few days.

Water divining at KFC

This gazebo  is for either the book stall or bric-a-brac

Jim and Annie's ships dog Tilly Pin (nb Elizabeth ) watching the proceedings

Loads of goodies to sort through.

 Thought I would carry on with my wildlife photos as I do have rather a lot! Here is today;s contribution.

Green Veined white butterfly.