Little Manxman

 

This is Thomas Junior born two days ago. 

Our 14-day isolation ends at midday today so we will hotfoot around to his place and introduce ourselves.

Hello Fresh.

 We are halfway through our 2 week isolation period, keeping busy hasn't been easy as it's not our house but there is a large garden with a huge overhanging sycamore tree which is shedding its leaves at a black bag full a day. Chasing these windswept, shrivelled, red and golden parchments plus weeding in the borders has given us a little exercise.    

Still, a few more bags full to fall.

When not outside we have watched loads of films on Film4, last nights The BookThief and Hidden Figures being stand out favourites so far.

Family and friends offer to shop for our needs, but trying to be as self-sufficient as possible we joined the Hello Fresh recipe suppliers, we received a box of ingredients for five meals today, the first of which we are having Friday night.

The isolation police called me Tuesday from outside our house but of course, we weren't in. I expect they thought they had caught us flouting the restrictions, turned out he hadn't read our landing form correctly. He did, however, offer to bring a parcel over that had been left on our doorstep....good lad.

There had been an airbridge between IOM and Guernsey but today the Chief Minister informed us via Manx Radio that this had now been shut down as 4 residents have tested positive on Guernsey.

Hanging up my mask.

FL has been winterised and left connected to the grid while we go home to spend time with our daughter and partner who are expecting their first baby. We are looking forward to meeting the little Manxman sometime at the end of this month. 

We booked a cabin on the 14:15 sailing from Heysham and relaxed for the three-hour journey.

Before we get home though we have to isolate for 14 days away from the family, isolation means isolation, no going out at all, even to the shops, a family friend has lent us an unoccupied house for this purpose. 

Life in the IOM is back to normal restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs and gyms are all operating as normal, no need to social distance or wear masks - there are no cases of covid out in the community. 

The few cases that have been found are in those who have arrived on the island and are on their 14 day isolation period - a further extended period of isolation is then enforced.

The rules are rigorously enforced, at least a half dozen people have flouted the rules and ended up with a two/three-week jail term. The authorities will check up on us from time to time while we are in isolation, this usually takes the form of an official ringing our mobiles from outside the house and asking us to present ourselves at the window. 

You have to hand it to the government here their actions have got rid of the virus in the community, they closed the borders on the 27th of March by the end of May the island was covid free. 

At the moment only residents and key workers with permits are allowed to travel to the island. A safe environment for our grandson to enter the world.

Those socks don't work by the way.😞😒

                                                     

  

The Epping has returned.

Today we had a trip to Bristol to collect The Epping stove from the restorers. We are very pleased with the results.

You can see how the stove looked when I removed it by clicking here.

New top plate and fire bricks.

New oven door 

New smokebox and damper

 

Below is the next restoration Olly is undertaking, Olly is a real stove nerd and has been searching for one of these units for years. It is the same model as was used in Shackleton's Antarctic hut.

Great Haywood

 

Haywood Lock

Shugborough Hall

Walled garden.

Packhorse Bridge.

Green balloon

                     

Seen landing at the marina bistro at 8am 

They often take off from here, it's impressive if the pilots' intention was to land here.

                    

Total for the year 

356 miles

150 locks

A pat on the back....

........or the head,

 if we are not careful.

Red

With FL safely back on her mooring we got to the basket 5 mins before departure for our eco-friendly flight back home.

 

Coventry Canal.

At Marston Junction, we turned left and backtracked along the Coventry canal to Hawkesbury Junction.

Looking back down the Ashby canal from Marsdon Junction.

We had our first meal out this year at The Greyhound with friends Dave & Julie who are cruising down to Oxford.

Thanks to the pubs' staff efforts we all felt safe. Tables were separated by partitions, food & drink were ordered via an app, so no need to leave your seat.  Proper pies, Adnams Broadside ale and good company made it an excellent evening.

The following morning we winded at Hawkesbury Junction to continue our journey north.

View from our mooring at Whitley Bridge.

Long-necked sheep.

FL crossed the River Tame at Tamworth.

John Deere 8370RT  pulling a field conditioner

After a quiet night, we left our Whittington farm mooring did the last two Atherstone locks and stopped to top up the water tank at Baddesley Green.  Turned out to be a long cruise for us of 13 miles to reach Tamhorn.

Tamhorn park mooring at 9pm.

Snarestone.

Seven years after we first cruised the Ashby canal we have finally reached navigation end.





Moored Snarestone




Old pump house now a residence








This bridge was built in 2016 to replace Faulks Bridge, latest building legislation meant this farm access bridge can carry more weight than the decorative old sign that adorns it suggests.












End of the Ashby ..for now.








Engine beams salvaged from the pump house.




Varnham's Bridge.






Snarestone Tunnel portal.




The tunnel runs under this playing field

The Merry Macs.

The furthest we have been along the Ashby canal is to the Battlefields at Market Bosworth.

So it is about time we got to the navigable end at Snarestone.

Although named after the town of  Ashby de la Zouch the canal terminated at Moira three miles short of its namesake.

Ashby de la Zouch was lampooned in an American WW2 song 

The Ashby is the longest contour canal in England, it also has a reputation for being shallow, FL will enjoy 42 miles of
lock-free cruising and a clean base plate by the time we return to the Coventry canal.

Foxwell's Bridge.

Ashby canal centre basin

Info board beside the canal.

Carlton village.

Barn doors - Carlton village.

St Andrews church - Carlton village

Cruising the Ashby

Dry canal bed ?

The Battlefield Steam railway runs from Shackerstone to Market Bosworth and Shenton.

https://www.battlefieldline.co.uk/