Ange

I've gotta say it does freak me out listening to the creaking outside! Hubby's gone to bed now and I'm winding down myself with a lot of background noise - I prefer the ducks drilling on the hull any day of the week. Icing up is decidedly spooky. Night folks x

Thanks Martin Can't claim any credit - Dave took it.

Iona at about midday today on the L&L at Adlington. No ice breakers round here - nothing has passed us since the canal iced up Friday night. We're not moving till it melts - we only had the hull blacked last October!

I'm more worried about warm clothing and boots being easily grabbed this time of year. We know our boat insurance agent and I'm pretty sure we'll still be covered if cert is lost, phone is always in my fleece pocket (warm clothing), birth certs can be replaced at a nominal charge, don't have a car so only boat keys to worry about (one set also always lives in my fleece pocket). Will give some thought to spare underwear (point taken there) and bank cards- I'm thinking spare knickers in my fleece pocket is possibly a step too far! Oh & spare ciggies - that hadn't even crossed my mind but in the event of an emergency I'd definitely need a smoke! I started my reply thinking that as long as I've got warm clothes & boots to hand I'll be fine but you've made me think again! A bag of essentials next to the bed sounds like a good idea, now making my own list - thank you

I'm starting to hear that creaking sound again when I move around the boat so guessing we're icing up again. Love it and have to dissuade hubby from ice breaking as we only had the hull blacked last year (please back me up folks - I am right aren't I?) Tis truly wonderful watching the ducks skitter across the ice Edited cos the close bracket magicly turned into an eksclamation mark (and I really can't be bothered to conjure up the character map for my eks right now)

Not really sure what 'traditional' is. Our handrail is about 2" by 1" welded straight onto the roof.

I tried walking along the gunwhale this morning to get a bag of wood off the roof, slid off and nearly got my first dunking Luckily I managed to hang on and got away with one cold, wet foot!

I sent a Christmas card to a friend once whose surname I didn't know, nor her door number. I addressed it Netty, the flat above the papershop that used to be called Jewells, The Broadway, Thorpe Bay, Southend on Sea, Essex. She received it

That anchors the big metal pole which the aerial sits on top of when we're in a low signal area Dave pins it to the towpath to make sure it doesn't take out passers by! Edited twice cos I was flicking between the forum & TV and not paying enough attention!

A lot of forum members have CWDF stickers in their windows. (At our first banter the first forum member we met greeted us "hello, I'm Smelly")

Bumping this one before the Christmas festivities take over - it's not far away now! Are we going for 16/17 Jan? We still have to agree on a venue (and me & Dave have to book accomodation cos there's no way we're going down the Wigan Flight for a while yet!)

We're pretty good on the imagination front - you have to be to enjoy eksploring disused railway lines and ruined castles (our other hobby). This one was a real treat though - we normally don't find much more than a few railway fences and, if we're really lucky, the remains of a platform, but to find this magnificent structure, unseen from any roads that we'd been down, took our breath away. We've now visited it from all directions (some of them involving scrambling up and down some pretty muddy embankments) and wish we could get a photograph of the whole structure. We just couldn't find a vantage point far away enough. I am worried that it'll have to be pulled down at some point though if it isn't maintained. There were piles of bricks all around and plants and trees growing out of the structure - at some point it will become a hazard (though in answer to Derek - no, nothing fell on us ) We've also visited the stretch just beside where we're moored at Red Rock. It disappears just before the road by the pub (now called Bridge 63 but I believe it used to be called the Railway). We walked a short way towards Adlington, and intend to do the rest of the walk another day, to try to find out where it crossed Adlington and joined the eksisting railway line, it's difficult to make out on the OS map. We did find what used to be Red Rock Station - now a private residence.

Anyone fancy a pint? Mine's Newkie Brown Ale served in a half pint glass at cellar temperature Oops we're not in the pub are we!!