Bartimaeus

We had enjoyed having Bryn to stay, but I had been a little flat when he left. In our diary was another visitor in early November, Heather. She has been planning a visit for months, but over the last few days, she had let us know she might have to change her plans and we completely understood. All the same we had been looking forward to her visit, so we were very pleased when she said she would indeed come, but might just be a shorter time. 

We told her we would be in Nantwich and managed to get there the day before she was due to arrive. It is often crowded at Nantwich and mooring is restricted, but it was very crowded this time as the hire boat company that has boats operating from Wrenbury on the Llangollen had moved their boats to Nantwich as they couldn't offer holidays starting in Wrenbury following the breaches on the canal there. Their boats were breasted up in pairs and other boats were moored opposite on the visitor moorings. 

We found a two day mooring on the end near the aqueduct. Someone called to us it was clear ahead when she saw us slow down before the aqueduct. She assumed we were unsure about whether there was something coming the other way as it is on a corner, but we thanked her and said we were just stopping here. The boat behind had a very big collection of ducks.

We went into town and did a little shopping. I bought a birthday card and Shane bought pipe insulation, then we reconvened to get groceries.

In the morning I had an aim of posting the birthday card, and thought I'd combine it with shopping, but Shane had jobs to do then planned a cafe visit for lunch with time to shop before meeting Heather off the train so we didn't have to go in and out of town twice. The plan was good and so was lunch but both of us forgot to bring the card. 

We were delighted to see Heather though and on the walk back a butterfly was pleased to see her too. I was surprised to see a butterfly in November, but it seems the red admiral does have a wide time range and my book, over 20 years old, describes it as flying March to November. Today it was basking as much as flying.

Before dark we had a walk along the towpath and saw some statues I had seen before but there were some changes since I saw them a few years back. The dog has a new summery looking hat and the horse looks a bit faded and strained, but that might be the light at the end of the day.

We saw a tandem stored on the side of a boat, but while it looks handily placed ready for action on the gunwale, its handlebars are turned, there are no pedals and the chain rusty, and might now be merely decorative. Shane's main criterion when deciding to buy a boat was whether we could fit a tandem inside it. That way it has remained rideable.

In the morning, I  came across a couple of messages from friends remarking on the American mid-term results. One had illustrated it with a blue wave. Many changes may be afoot.

I had more local things on my mind today. When we were planning where to go I decided, while I remembered, to post that card. I knew the plan was to set off soon so I said I wasn't delaying the departure, they could go and I would catch them up. On the way back I wondered if they had set off yet. I looked up at the aqueduct from the road.

They had set off, but I did catch up. They didn't stop for me to get on, so keeping me at my word that I wouldn't hold them up, Shane steered towards the bank and I  kept walking alongside and pulled myself on the gunwale as it moved along. We move slowly but it doesn't feel slow when you are making the leap. 

It was a sunny day and there was a bird tweeting from the top of a bush. We didn't manage a strong positive identification and when I went to look up, it didn't  sound like what I had heard before. Shane's app mentioned a coal tit which was possible but it didn't seem their normal habitat and the app was only 35% confident. We need better than that, to feel sure. My book had black cap (quite like it's behaviour but not sure the head marking was right) coal tit, marsh tit and willow tit all on one page as ones that are all very similar. My photo didn't help.

We were more laid back about just identifying a sheep as a sheep and didn't try to discuss the exact breed, though I would say there is more than one here.

Over lunch we were opposite a different field of sheep and there was a ram checking out several ewes, following them and looking at their rear. He had been inked on his front so we could see that he had already shown serious interest in those two ewes before. He was still following then when I presume he'd be doing his job better, by moving on to the others.

In the afternoon we were all interested to see a flock of unfamiliar birds. Between our guesses and Merlin we were better able to say they were fieldfares, lots of them. We had no difficulty recognising a red kite and a kestrel, which hovered which we passed by and we got a great view of it. We also got a better view than usual of canada geese flying overhead.

We all took turns driving during the day and saw a heron fly off ahead over the canal and plenty ducks. Heather was hoping for a kingfisher and we have seen them very recently, but not this time, but we were very happy with the flock of fieldfares, a seasonal special. 

We had an evening walk past fields of mixed geese and saw some pied wagtails in a muddy field. The path was pretty muddy but we did get a sunset. 

We have had a good first day's cruising with Heather, with two locks to ease her in to it, along with other boaters who all seemed to come at once. We have had some lovely bird encounters and a sunset. There are more locks ahead, will there be even better wildlife too?