Wednesday 3rd April

We left the Shady Oak quite early this morning and set off for Chester.  I took the opportunity of a good length of lock free canal to cook a cottage pie for the evening – I love doing that and not having to worry about cooking later.  I also made sure the washing machine was still working after its winter of not being used.  (I put the washing out on the rotary airer when we arrived in Chester at 4.15pm and it was dry 2 hours later – the wind is good for something!)

Under the Chester City Walls

We did all eight of the locks on our own today though there seemed to be lots of pairs coming up – annoying that.  The sun shone though the wind was still quite brisk so doing locks weren’t a problem. 

I saw my first ducklings of the year today - just two of them but they were very tiny.  Unfortunately I was walking between locks and didn't have my camera with me.

I am the master of all I survey!

Richard did the Northgate staircase locks as last year I found them quite hard.  Muffin stayed on the boat with me and sat in his bed on the roof – he seemed quite happy up there as he could see Richard and all about him too.

We went for a nice walk round Chester in the early evening.  Down to the Dee and then along passed the racecourse.  Muffin jumped down onto the grass from the high path and couldn’t get up – he ran and ran and we reckoned he would easily have won the 5.30 if there had been one!

Spring has sprung

It was nice walking through Chester after the shops had shut as it was fairly quiet – tomorrow we are going to do the sightseeing bus.