Sunday 17th March
We left Mercia Marina at about 1.30 pm, some time after Andy
refitted the remote unit, only to discover it still didn’t work. This time
though, he thinks it’s the main unit not sending a signal to the remote.
Hopefully he’ll get it sorted before we get back.
So, back to the holiday. It took us just over an hour to get
there, spotting lots of small snow drifts along the way. The road leading to
the farm is the A623, so you would expect there to be a pavement running
alongside it, but no such luck, which means we’re rather limited for walking
after dark. Well, practically any time really, since this is quite a busy road
from what we’ve seen so far.
Rusty behaved quite well on the ride here, although she’s
feeling unwell this morning. This comes as no surprise to me as it doesn’t take
much to upset her these days.
The cottage is a converted barn, with everything except the
bedroom on the lower level. We have a lounge, kitchen/dining room, shower and
loo, and we have a garden and parking space. At the moment we’re in a bit of a
mess, with our belongings scattered around higgledy-piggledy, but we’ll try for
a bit of order later today.
One thing is for sure, if this bad weather continues, we’ll
be returning to Mercia sooner than expected. Meanwhile, we’ll be planning our
days out this morning, assuming we don’t get snowed in of course.
Monday 18th March
We saw no reason to treat yesterday any different than any
other Sunday, which is just a chill-out day for us. (Aren’t they all?) All we
planned on doing was driving into town for the paper. However, when fate
conspires against you, what can you do?
So, simply because the so-called bread knife was tearing our
loaf to pieces and, since there was no knife sharpener in any of the kitchen
drawers, we had to drive down to Buxton to see if we could find such an item.
Our first stop was at Morrison’s, surely they would have one there, wouldn’t
they? Nope! Wifey emerged with some other bits and pieces, but no knife
sharpener.
On our way in we did notice an Asda store and so, on the way
back we stopped off there and, for the princely sum of £14.95, I bought a
sharpener. I could have bought a breadknife for £10, but we have more than
enough of those on the boat, so a sharpener it was to be.
The rest of the day was spent lazing about and walking Rusty
through the mud of the farm track.
The only major calamity was the batteries running out on my
Blood Glucose tester. Of course I didn’t bring any spares with me, so it was a
case of making sure I took enough walks and ate only low carb food. Today we
will have to rectify this situation but, since we are currently covered in a
thick blanket of fog, we’ll have to wait until it clears. Hopefully we’ll get
to travel further afield later today.
Tuesday 19th March
The fog cleared about 10 am yesterday and our first port of
call was Morrison’s, for those batteries, then we headed for Bugswort Basin on
the Peak Forest canal. At least, that’s where we headed but, try as we might
and after much running in circles, we simply couldn’t find the access road to
it, so we settled for Whalley Bridge.
Both of these places are at the end of the Peak Forest
canal, with Whalley Bridge being the town and Bugsworth Basin being the branch
where sandstone and such were loaded onto horse-drawn barges,for distribution
to various depots around the country. Bugsworth has since been renamed
Buxworth,simply because the natives didn’t like being called ‘bugs’, I suppose.
We’ve travelled to both of these place with Shiralee, but
this was the first time by car. We parked at Whalley Bridge and walked along
the towpath to Bugsworth, a distance of about ¾ of a mile, and it stayed dry
for all that time. Amazing!
Having read through the Visitor’s Book here, and reading the
note about a holidaymaker’s dog being savaged by the two Border Collies next
door, I have been wary of taking Rusty out when the occupants of that bungalow
are home. Normally their dogs are kept in the back of their Land Rover – how cruel!
– but yesterday afternoon they were running around free in the access road. The
fence around this cottage is not secure enough to prevent them from entering
this garden and so, just as soon as I heard them making a fuss, I turned tail
and got Rusty inside. I too have made a not in the Visitor’s Book.
This morning is clear, so we should get away fairly early.
We’re planning on a ride to Castleton where, according to ‘Farmer Giles’, there
are some pretty good walks to be had.
Incidentally, when I mentioned the lack of a pavement on
this road, he told us that there is a pavement, but the local Council are too
lazy to keep it clear. Obviously it does gather muck thrown up by traffic, but
how long does it have to be left dirty before it becomes part of the road?
Well, only four pages long, but I’m going to post now.
Cheers me dears
Dave, Sheila and Rusty
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