A few days in Skipton, then back to Bradley

We actually sneaked an extra half-day on the Gallows Bridge moorings, Meg's Tuesday appointment at the vets resulted in another one this morning, so we held on  another night.

Val and John came across on Wednesday, bringing a cake, a selection of vegetables from John’s veggie patch, and a bottle of an unusual Welsh whisky.





It certainly has character… A special occasion tipple, I reckon. Then again, it is my birthday today!
Penderyn Single Malt is distilled in Penderyn, in the Brecon Beacons of South Wales, and at 46% ABV has a considerable kick.









There’s a family of swans that patrol this length of moorings, you can’t go near an open hatch without Cyd, Eric and the three kids appearing with open beaks. Val had great fun feeding them pieces of brown bread…

The youngsters are already tame enough for hand-feeding.

Little Harry wanted to see what the commotion was, but Cyd wasn’t impressed.

They take their territorial boundaries seriously – that’s Eric all fluffed up heading off to have a word with another family that have drifted through Belmont Bridge onto his patch.


Honour satisfied, and relax.


The interloping pen and cygnets headed off back towards the junction, but the cob hung around under the bridge for a while, getting his own back by taking his frustration out on passing walkers.

He’s a big chap!

Meg’s visit to the vet was inconclusive. A urine sample on Tuesday indicated an infection, so she’s been on antibiotics. But today’s sample showed no improvement, and she’s still eating very little. A bit worrying. She’s still got several days of the medication left, so we’ll review after the weekend. They might have kicked in by then. If she’s feeling better I’ll probably bike a wee sample back to Skipton for them to check.

On another subject, I’ve started work on tidying up the front doors. One has had a cracked glass for some time, not too noticeable with it being laminated and decorated with a stained glass design. So I got a replacement pane from a glaziers in town, fitted it and stripped the paint and lead strip from the other. We were sort of art deco, with straight lines and geometric shapes. I think we’re going all art nouveau this time… Watch this space…

This morning then, after Meg’s doggy-doctor visit and a grocery top-up from Tesco, we were away back down the cut to Bradley. First we had to push across to fill with water and dispose of the rubbish, then go up through Belmont Bridge to turn around at the Springs Branch junction.

Winding at the junction

I was thinking about topping up the fuel tank as well, but the wharf was very busy. We’ll last another couple of weeks.

On the way back under Gallows Bridge we encountered the wide Endeavour, the SCAD (Skipton and Craven Action for Disability) boat. One of the half-hour trip boats from Pennine Cruisers nipped through the gap as the skipper held Endeavour back.

A bit further on, and it was a bit odd watching a boat seemingly disappear into a solid wall…

…but he was going into Pennine Cruisers dry dock.

We were lucky at Snaygill Swing Bridge, the charity boat Adams Ark had arrived at the other side moments before, and a party of energetic teenagers soon had the bridge open and waved us through.

The sky had been grey most of the morning, and a fine drizzle started to fall but only lasted 10 minutes.

By the time we reached Bradley I was dry again.

Moored at Bradley

We’ll be here for a few days again.

Carol (Still Rockin’) rang this morning to wish me happy birthday, but also to point out that I’d not published any comments for the last couple of weeks. I rely on email notifications of pending comments, and I‘d not been receiving any, so assumed that there were none outstanding. After all, I’ve not been posting much recently, and what I have written has been pretty inane stuff. Anyway it turns out that there are 17, going back a couple of months! They are all published now, apologies to all of you to whom I’ve not replied. I‘ll check my email settings, but meanwhile I’ll keep an eye on the comments section of the blogger dashboard menu.

Locks 0, miles 2¾