Whaley and the Water Weekend

Our last post was largely about the weather, and in particular about the inaccuracy of weather forecasting. The theme could continue here, but, hey, let's give the weathermen a break. You know, I just don't care anymore about the weather, and I possibly now regret my petition to have all weather people put on Performance Related Pay.

But staying on he subject of the weather - just for a moment - the Whaley weather swung violently between that very wet rain, and that very beautiful sunshine. Saturday was mostly wet, and you might have expected a dismal turnout. But the trip boats continued to fly past full of customers (flying so fast that one of the wee Bollington day-trip boats pulled the pins from of one of our neighbours). Yes, like me, the Whaley people also didn't care about the weather, and on Sunday when the sun did come out, all of the people who did care about the weather came as well, and the place was buzzing.

We arrived on Friday night and tied up and the end of a line of boats who we later found out were 'traders.' I don't think anyone noticed we had nothing to sell! We did have Rocky though, who seems to be adored by everyone. Perhaps we could have charged folk to stroke his neck?

We had fabulous food out on Friday at Casa di Pizza and on Saturday at Zayka. Work friends and neighbours popped in to see us and on Saturday evening (just as the rain subsided) First Mate served a bunch of us with cocktails (Passion Fruit Martinis - and very nice). After two of those, the world seemed good, and I was at peace with the weathermen.

The weekend wouldn't have been complete without Alton chugging by, and although we didn't need anything this time, near enough everyone else seemed to, including a jump start for Gracie (although a push start would have been more impressive!)

Here is the final picture from the weekend, so sing along everyone ...

What a difference a day makes

Twenty-four little hours

Brought the sun and the flowers

Where there used to be rain.

Weather or Whether....

We enjoyed planning our Spring Bank jaunt to Bollington. We were fastidious in booking ahead for restaurants, calculating routes and packing food and clothing. Then the weather forecast was so dreadful, predicting relentless downpours for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that we came very close to staying home under the duvet for the entire holiday. It had rained hard on Thursday night and First Mate had been miserably soaked to the skin on Rocky's walk. So we were justifiably wary of three days of the same.

But on Friday, reckless as ever, we made the decision to go and see what happened. We could, after all, always come back to Furness Vale the next day.

We got to the boat at 5.45 and cast off for the 2 hour cruise to The Strines. It was supposed to rain. It didn't. We made fabulous time due to another boat doing 3 out of the 4 swing/lift bridges for us. We tied up in sunshine, walked to the Sportsman in sunshine with Rocky for dinner. He clicked with another boater's dog, Gale, and lay on the floor French kissing her. He was happy and we were happy.

On Saturday, we did not lie in but instead cast off at 8 am, made it to Bridge 25 in the dry and tied up at noon. It then rained very heavily during our afternoon nap but miraculously cleared for a sunny walk to see the Historic Narrowboat gathering at the Adelphi Mill. This was a meager showing with Alton and two other boats but it was gloriously warm and pleasant strolling over the viaduct to reach them.We had dinner with Rocky and more new canine pals at the Windmill. It was excellent. On Sunday we made it to Marple and in fair amount of sunshine. Had a lovely walk down the lock flight, chatted to a number of boaters including this one!!!  and had a good dinner at Marple Spice. On Monday we came back to Furness Vale, again in sunshine with just one spit of rain which amounted to nothing. So, all this boring detail is leading us to the main point, that if we had gone on the weather forecast, we would have had none of these pleasures.

We have just returned from preparing Princess Lucy for Whaley Water Weekend. She is decked with flowers and has had her roof accessories painted but downpours, thunderstorms and plagues of locusts are predicted. We are definitely going and in hope that we can defy the weather forecasters again. The main header picture for this blog is of late and lovely Jemma basking in the afternoon sunshine at the same festival which we happened on purely by chance last year. But then someone did say that 2013 was the first time in ten years that the sun had shone and they normally expect to get a soaking. Ever the optimists, Our next job is fitting solar panels.