Llangollen week 8

It's a bit wild & windy in Llangollen today! We spotted some kayakers making the best of the River Dee  this morning, they're braver than me...

 We had a walk up to Plas Newyedd, the house is closed October until April but the grounds are open (& free)

 The house with Castel Dinas Bran on the hill behind & some impressive topiary in the foreground

 This cute building was the dairy 

 Spotted some snowdrops in the gardens, 1st we've seen this year.

Did what shopping we needed on the way back & now settled in for an afternoon of snooker & the papers.

A sort of a plan....

When we left Goole on the 18th May 2010 we had no plan other than to get beyond Skipton on the Leeds & Liverpool as, until then, that was the furthest we had been & we didn't want to plan too far ahead, just to go where the fancy took us. 
Up to now the fancy has led us over the summit of the L&L, down the Wigan flight, the Leigh branch to Manchester on the Bridgewater, up the Ashton, along the Peak Forest, back via the Macclesfield to the Trent & Mersey, the Middlewich branch to the Shroppie, down the Staffs & Worcs  through Birmingham, down to Stratford  upon Avon & back & then down to the Thames        (Paddington Basin) via the Oxford & back up by the Grand Union. Then back up the lower end of the Trent & Mersey via the Coventry eventually ending up here in Llangollen for the winter. 
So for this year 2012  we have decided we do need a bit of a plan which is (subject to change!) to head up to Manchester via the Bridgewater then either up the Rochdale & back down the Huddersfield Narrow (or vice versa) then up the Leigh branch to Liverpool or the Lancaster via the Ribble link ( or both, maybe) We thought we'd do the Rochdale / Huddersfield in spring when hopefully there will be enough water.


It's a glorious day here in Llangollen after a cold & frosty start, I have been playing with the new camera so took some pics on our walk into the town this morning...

 Some of our neighbours on the winter moorings

 The towpath high above the town

 Our route into town past  Riverside Taxidermy on the corner

Soona keeping an eye out

I'm still getting the low battery symbol (thank you Dave for the link, I've bookmarked it)  but  managing to get  quite a few pics taken between battery changes so will see how it goes.

Llangollen week 7

I haven't blogged much recently as not really been much to say! Our days are a round of doing the chores ie tending the fire, water tanks, loo cassettes, a bit of cleaning then chores done, walking  the byways around Llangollen. 
I mentioned in a previous blog the excellent service provided by Smiths, the local coal merchant & it seems that good customer service extends across the town. The Post Office happily hold our mail ( all Post Offices should but some don't or do it with bad grace) the greengrocers always have a smile & their free range eggs are big & tasty, the chemist sorts my monthly prescription, again with a smile. 
Today I decided to wash the curtains ( must be the mild springlike weather!) so I took them to the Blue Bay Launderette, spotlessly clean, £3 for a standard machine & 80p to dry them & yes again with a smile. On the way home I called into Chapel Street Dental practice, we both need dental work doing, I lost a filling & also have a chipped front tooth & Mark's cap keeps falling out.
Again & yes I'm repeating myself, smiling & helpful staff, they are taking on new NHS patients & it's not a problem that we live on a narrow boat so we have appointments for next Wednesday plus an apology that the appointments couldn't be sooner!
The windows have been cleaned, the curtains ironed & rehung so quite a productive day. It has been mild & sunny with not too many dog walkers about so Sid has had lots of outside time today ( he is still very wary of dogs & runs back indoors as soon as any appear)
Oh & I've signed up for twitter, not sure yet if it's a good idea.... but a widget shows my 'tweets' in the right hand column & I may tweet more often than I blog!


Not many pictures today because with some Christmas money I bought a new camera, its a canon powershot   & it takes AA batteries, my old camera's integral battery didn't last long between charges & often let me down so I thought that would be a positive as I could always carry spares. The problem has been that it eats ordinary batteries in minutes so I invested in some high capacity rechargeable NiMH batteries as recommended by canon but they only lasted for about 3 pics then I realised it was probably the charger that wasn't up to the job so now have a new charger & it seems to be okay ( fingers crossed). We are hoping to get out walking tomorrow so it will get a test run.

 A couple of pics taken with the new camera on our last walk up & over Trevor Rocks, a steep climb but worth it for the views. It took 2 sets of batteries just to get a few pics!

& this one taken on the way back down, I nearly didn't post this one as Elsie on nb Bendigedig posted an almost identical photo taken in the same spot a few days ago but I thought it was worth a second look.