Saturday 15th June

No new mooring in the title today as we didn't move on.  Instead we got the bus to Middlewich and went to the Folk and Boat Festival (FAB for short!).  It is a 7 mile journey which should take about 17 minutes by car but it took 50 minutes by bus!!  There are so many housing estates which are covered by the number 37 bus.

Jazz band

Boggart's Breakfast (see end)

The festival procession started at 11am but the bus was late arriving in Middlewich however we were just in time to follow it and listen to the jazz band which brought up the rear.  The procession took us up to the main field where the main stage was and lots of traders.  We had a coffee and I managed to locate a programme but it wasn't easy!  We thought we would have a wander down to the canal and see what was happening but I have to admit that I was rather disappointed as I thought there would be much more.  The programme says that Morrisons were sponsoring the boat rally - what boat rally or am I being stupid???  We came across the IWA stall and bought Muffin a scarf so that he now looks like a proper boaters dog!  As we were walking along the towpath, Fred and Lisa from Chyandour were just returning and offered us a cup of tea on their lovely 8 month old boat.  They had her built to their specifications and moved on board in October last year.  She is a beautiful boat and I was quite jealous!  I only starting using Twitter over the winter and use it just for canal folk and so far this year we have met up with two fellow Twitterers and, hopefully, made some good friends.  We look forward to meeting up with Fred and Lisa again somewhere!


A real boater's dog now!

We spent the afternoon going backwards and forwards from the Bull Ring in the town to the main field.  I love the Morris dancers and they were holding court in the Bull Ring along with a couple of tap troupes.  Muffin seemed to take everything in his stride - though it must have been a sea of legs for him!  He found lots of other dogs to have a quick play with including quite a few other "poos" and "doodles"!  We were so lucky with the weather as the forecast had been for heavy rain but, even though there were a few black clouds around, it was dry all afternoon.


Boggart's Breakfast (see end)

Jockey Morris (see end)

Muffin fell into a deep sleep on the bus on the way home as he must have been exhausted.  He was on my knee and I tried to wiggle him to see if he was awake but he most certainly wasn't!

We got back to the boat about 6ish - both feeling as tired as Muffin had been and had a quiet evening.  Me on my iPad and Richard desperately trying to find something interesting to watch on TV!

Just as an added extra and to explain the photos, Boggart's Breakfast are a border morris team based in Sheffield and are described as a bit "steampunk", "tradition-challenging" and "the dark side of Morris".  Jockey Morris are much more traditional and are from Birmingham.  They mainly dance Cotswold Morris but also feature Border and Rapper dances.