Glawster city.

  

In our spare time between seeing family and friends we have been strolling around the docks and the city. Workers were busy in Neilson’s dry dock caulking a wooden boat to make it watertight. We like this ornate old clock above the jewellers shop. Funny the more you wander around you see things you haven’t ever spotted before, like this carved stone head.

                   

As you can see it sometimes gets rather busy around the Gloucester Quays shopping mall and the Museum area where a narrow boat cafe is now moored. The new Cinema and TGI Friday’s have also recently opened here. It is rumoured that Coots Cafe will soon be a Wetherspoon’s. ideally placed right next to Gloucester micro brewery!

Five years afloat.

         

During our continuous cruising we have met and befriended many people, most of whom are/were fellow boaters. Three of us used to moor together over winter and the girls and boys would sometimes go off together, or to the nearby pub for lunch. Now they have moved back onto land we have visited them in their new homes and still keep in touch with each other. Our first four winters we were iced into the canal but it was nice and cosy aboard because the Squirrel was keeping everything warm. The fuel boats cover much of the canal  system, so we send them a text and they stop by to fill our diesel tank and drop off a few bags of coal, perfick!  Boaty news and information is exchanged while the topping up is in process, the canal boat grapevine also works very well! The places we have cruised to are, Gloucester, Chester, Manchester, Nottingham, Market Harborough, Oxford, Paddington and everywhere in-between!. It was great to moor right outside Paddington Station free for one week as we were within easy reach of many shops and the underground and all the lovely parks.

 

We have many favourite mooring  places, but I think anywhere between Foxton, Braunston or Rugby and down to Thrupp is just fine by us. Gloucester must be the trip we like the most though, as we have cruised down three times, so far! Friends and family come to visit us and it has been great to have our grandson staying on board with us too. Oakfield has performed well and provided a lovely cosy floating home for us, cheers everyone, especially those who follow our blog!

A flotilla of Lifeboats.

   

     

They gathered in the sunshine, then took off to form part of the flotilla through the Saul waterways event. A fundraiser for the Inland Waterway's Association and Cotswold Canal Trust over the next three days..

Wildflowers.

                         

We have seen patches of wildflowers on quite a few waste bits of land and they really brighten the area up, but also attract insects, perfick. This small crop of lovelies is tended by the bridge keepers at Patch Bridge for passing visitors to enjoy..

Two more!

           

‘Excelsior’ and the ‘Kathleen and May’ were the last two old ships to travel up together from Sharpness into Gloucester Dock ready for the filming. Quite a few spectators armed with their cameras had gathered at Patch Bridge to see them pass through. That makes a total of five ships I think. the’ Earl of Pembroke’, the ‘Irene’ and the ‘Lady of Avenel’ were already moored there. Unfortunately our time was up in Glos then we moved off southwards, so unfortunately we will not be seeing any of the action during filming.

In Gloucester Dock.

  

Rails had previously been laid and the museum exhibits moved out of the way into the car park onto them. So here is the Earl of Pembroke and the Irene moored up in readiness for filming to commence.

        

Buildings were being prepared by dressing  them up to look ‘old’ and piles of props had been unloaded ready to be placed into position. When we returned by bus from our doctors appointment the whole place was buzzing with activity. The word had got round in the local press and via the boaters grape vine about the filming, and loads of people were turning up to photograph the preparations.

There’s more!

  

Another ship came up through High Orchard Lift Bridge and we could see that another was waiting down at Romans Quay, so I walked down to see it. The pic in the centre is of two largish boats moored in Monk Meadow Dock which I went around en-route.

     

The ship that was waiting with her crew basking in the sunshine on deck was the very shapely ‘Irene’. She was then called up on the radio to take her place up in the docks. By the time she cruised under High orchard Bridge the skies had turned rather grey.

Tall Ships arriving.

     

Great excitement as we had the red light as we approached Netheridge Bridge at Quedgeley, so we pulled over to hover on the right.  Two old chaps called out as they rowed past us to take no notice as the bridge was not usually manned. We then saw a top of the mast and the chaps in the skiff had to quickly retreat out of it’s way! We went on to moor just above Saul Junction where we were joined by our daughter and two grandsons. later her friend from Bristol arrived with her two children, then we all went to the Stables Bar to play in the garden and have lunch. We went back to Oakfield for a natter over afternoon tea while the children played games. It was lovely to see everyone again and to keep our eldest grandson who was staying the night on board. Next day he wore his wellies to wade through all the big puddles and we went to the Stables for coffee to wait for the ‘Pirate Ship’ to come up. It came slowly and steadily through Fretherne Bridge, then on up to Saul Junction Bridge. The ship was being steered under power by the skipper standing at the back turning a large wooden wheel. Of course from this position he couldn’t see the gap and his shipmates were shouting out directions to him. Left hand down a bit etc!. Our last pic shows it passing Oakfield on her mooring, perfick!

Busy with friends and family.

Please excuse the lack of blogging but we are spending much time babysitting and out and about with friends and family. Making the most of this lovely weather aboard and also being taken places by car, something we don’t have with our roving lifestyle on the water!

           

The Glos Museum pieces have been relocated as they will be filming in the dock area which is closed for mooring in at present. Rumours have it that Johnny Depp will be there and the film is Alice in Wonderland, hmm, only rumours mind! If you are interested in this area have a look at Hugh Conway Jones brilliant website, www.glosterdocks.me.uk

Just pootling about.

Wow what a beautiful hot day today, not what we were led to expect from what the weather person foretold. Anyway we saw lots of these and some fish as the canal is so clear hereabouts. Well I suppose it should be, after all, we are floating on Bristol’s drinking water!

Street Art.

Hoardings were erected in Kings Square Gloucester for young artists to create their own masterpieces and these were a few of the ones that I liked. What do you think?

           

That’s better.

We had a torrential down pouring of rain yesterday evening which washed all the dust off our boat that the cyclists had caused. Saved me the job of cleaning it as it has been too darned hot to wash it by hand! This is a close-up of the so-called dredger that is operating in and around the Glos Dock area. It is in fact a tractor unit mounted on platform in front of a push barge. The spinning drum/fin thing is dropped down into the canal at varying depths to stir up the silt. This is then sluiced down through Glos Loc, or it may reach Purton where the intake for Bristol's water is taken in to be purified for domestic use.When the ‘thing’ is operating it makes a huge noise. They are doing this for about a month too, the two men must be bored as it creeps along extremely slowly. How effective do you suppose this must be? Or, is it just a huge failure and waste of money?

New freezer.

             

We walked through the 13 cent. St Mary’s Gate to the Cathedral and a quaint little cottage.

       

Past the memorial to the Glosters and The Comfy Pew then right through the centre to St Oswald's Park to reach Gillman's huge showrooms, where we chose a new freezer. They provide a very good service and delivered it to the boat and took our old freezer away, perfick!