We Don't Seem to be Achieving Much.......



A view of Warwickshire, Napton in the foregroundWell my friends, what can I say to apologise for the L-O-N-G break? I'm sorry--really! Things have been a bit at sixes and sevens and I haven't settled down to write about our exploits. The trouble is, there haven't really been any exploiits. Our wonderful holiday to the Isle of Mull has rather overshadowed anything which has happened since.

We've spent the last six weeks in Warwickshire, researching the book of walks I'm writing. We left Braunston and made our way down to Warwick to moor in the Saltisford Marina for a couple of weeks, and did a few walks whilst we were there. The logistics of writing a book of walks when one doesn't have a car are quite tricky! We caught a bus to Charlecote, walked to the village of Hampton Lucy and started a walk from there, then caught the bus back to Warwick. We also caught a bus from Warwick to Stratford-on-Avon to do a town walk, but unfortunately there was an accident on the M40 which caused a tailback, and what should have been a twenty minute journey was extended by another two hours, resulting in our not having time to do the walk. So we went on the bus another day and this time we were luckier, getting there in fifteen minutes.

We are most impressed with Saltisford Canal Centre. There are some permanent residents and they are very friendly and welcomingl. The place is well organised. with laundry, shop, pump out and water. (Electricity if you're lucky!) It's close to Warwick town for shopping, and there are good transport links.

CharlecoteSeveral sets of friends came to visit us whilst we were moored at Saltisford, and we had a wonderful evening with a group of friends at Warwick castle concert and fireworks, complete with a take away delivered to the castle gate for us.

Then we set off back towards Braunston and did a couple more walks on the way. We counted ourselves very lucky not to have been affected by the floods. If I hadn't been writing the book, our plan was to do the Thames this year. Several sets of friends who were on the Thames are still stuck there. The river is running fast and it isn't safe to move.

I've also been on a patchwork and quilting course at Loughborough University. It was an interesting experience, but I'm afraid I was very much the new girl--the other members of the group were SO talented. However, I learnt from them all, and picked up some useful tips.

So there we are. Or rather here we are, at Calcutt till the end of the week, then back down to Warwick to get a few more walks 'under our belts'. But we're very fortunate at the moment. A friend has lent us her car for a few weeks. It's making such a difference to the project, and we intend to do some of the more distant and inaccessible walks whilst we have it.

So, I'm afraid that this is not the most exciting of pages, but that's all there is folks! We're just busy getting on with what we have to do, and it's a rather different summer for us.

Home Page

Back to Summer 2007 Page