Just a little canal walk

This weekend although it had been raining during Friday night and into the early morning it brightened up enough for us to have a walk along some of the Leeds – Liverpool canal on Saturday.

We started our walk in Burscough, we regularly visit this canal at Burscough and walk locally as this is where we take the dogs to be groomed and we will often walk some of the canal but this weekend we decided to walk a little further than normal and turn along the Rufford branch of the Leeds- Liverpool canal.

Taken from the Canal and River Trust website

Starting off in the car park behind Burscough Wharf and then up the little steps and onto the Burscough canal.

It is always great to see the wool boat and to see canals being used.

Wool boat

It is great to see the buildings and how some have changed from being warehouses to become flats.

You get to see some fabulous reflections on the water. It’s hard to tell where the buildings finish and the water actually starts.

Time to walk further along before we get to the turning for the Rufford branch of the canal.

Just love this bridge with the blossoms framing it. This is the bridge that starts the Rufford branch and where we will start to walk along a section that we have never walked before.

You always get such a fabulous view from the top of the bridge of the Rufford top locks. Just to the right of the locks just out of sight behind the little cottages that you can see is a really nice public house that is well worth a visit if you are in the area,

The public house is called The Ship Inn at Lathom, this is always popular due to fabulous food and drink. It is always nice in the summer to sit outside in their beer garden. We always enjoy a visit there after a long walk along the canal, and this weekend was no exception although we did it on the way back.

So we continue along the Rufford branch.

We made our way along until we got to bridge 3 and it was time to take a picture of the view from there and a little video of the scenery.

We finished our walk at bridge 3 of the Rufford branch, as we had walked nearly 2 miles at that point we decided to turn around and start our walk back and continue our walking of the Leeds-Liverpool canal on another day.

If you have enjoyed my day, why not have a little look at Mr H’s vlog on youtube and if you like it why not look at some of his other videos and maybe even subscribe to his channel.

Renewing an interest

Things seem to have been so busy this week with work and looking after the animals I didn’t even realise that we were already in May and it was time for some more squares. I have decided to RENEW my research into my family tree after so long as I had an email about a new DNA match I have.

CFFC: Rough

This week for Cee’s fun photo challenge this week we are looking for things that are rough. I couldn’t think of any more than what I have here.

Wall

Ruins

Tree bark

Time for some more pre-histroic fun – part 2

As we didn’t finish our search for all of the dinosaurs last weekend the hope is to find the rest of them this weekend. These are some of the dinosaurs that where in the shops in Southport that we were unable to see the first day as it was a bank holiday.

Diplocaulus

The diplocaulus took 2 builders 87 hours to complete and is made out of 22,729 bricks. It weighs 86.5kg and is 30cm in height and 103cm in length.

Archaeoceratops

The archaeoceratops took 1 builder 80 hours to complete and is made out of 6,301 bricks. It weighs 101.1kg and is 41cm in height and 90cm in length.

Ankylosaur

The ankylosaur took 3 builders 263 hours to complete and is made out of 42,462 bricks. It weighs 209kg and is 113cm in height and 146cm in length.

Tethyshadros

The tethyshadros took 3 builders 368 hours to complete and is made out of 63,057 bricks. It weighs 336kg and is 160cm in height and 274cm in length.

Archaeoceratops

This archaeoceratops took 1 builder 104 hours to complete and is made out of 8,554 bricks. It weighs 101.1kg and is 61cm in height and 95cm in length.

Mochlodon

The mochlodon took 2 builders 45 hours to complete and is made out of 22,518 bricks. It weighs 137kg and is 64cm in height and 140cm in length.

Archaeoceratops

This archaeoceratops took 1 builder 66 hours to complete and is made out of 6,993 bricks. It weighs 101.1kg and is 38cm in height and 98cm in length.

We even managed to find one of the five giant chocolate eggs, I wish we had managed to find some more but the weather was not in our favour, we also didn’t manage to get to one of the selfie zones to get a selfie but it was the dinosaurs that I wanted to see the most.

A walk around Astley Hall

Today we took a trip to Astley Hall in Chorley, we were going to visit the other day and just go to the park and gardens with the dogs but as we have never been into the hall itself and Mr H does love to visit historic buildings.

Astley Hall is a grade I listed building. The original building was built circa 1575, with additions being built circa 1650, circa 1825, and circa 1875. The stable block is a grade II listed building and was built c1725. The house has undergone extensive restoration in more recent years but has been open to the public as a museum this year for 100 years.

It cost us £5 (adult entrance fee) each to go around the hall but we could have walked around the ground for free.

As we didn’t have the dogs with us we were able to go around the house itself as dogs are not allowed in there but they are allowed to walk around the grounds and also go into the coffee shop.

When we first went in we walked passed a memorial to World War 1 and then we walked around the walled garden which was extremely well kept.

I wouldn’t say that the house is exceptionally big but the amount of land that still surrounded it was definitely immense and I can only imagine that there may have been more land at some point. There were plenty of rooms to visit within the house and I can imagine that if we were to visit at another time of the year you would see the house completely different. We got some photographs in the house as they allowed photography just not with a flash. Some of which I will put below.

There was a stained glass window in one of the upstairs windows with what was supposed to be a badger which was the family emblem although it really did not look like a badger but it looked more like a wild boar. What you you think?

We didn’t walk around the grounds as much as we could have and there is also a trail that can be done around some points of interest in the grounds. but we did get some photographs as we came out of the house of the lake and fountain.

On our way back to the car there was a garden called ‘The Evaders Garden’ that had been designed for the RHS Chelsea flower show in 2015, winning a silver guilt award based on John Everiss, the designer’s father’s journey after being shot down over France in World War II.

We will definitely return to Astley Hall and next time we will bring the dogs with us and have a walk around the grounds and maybe even slowly attempt the trail especially if we do that with the boys as they are starting to slow down now.

Why not have a look at Mr H’s youtube video of our visit to Astley Park if you would like to see some more and if you enjoy his video why not subscribe to his channel to see some more of our trips out either on our own or with the dogs.

Weekend challenge – pointless

We are invited by Gerry and Sue at weekly prompts to interpret the word ‘pointless‘ in any way we wish.

Pointless – having little or no sense, use, or purpose.

When I first saw this challenge I did think about what I could post about the word pointless. Then I looked on the internet to see some of the most pointless things or items just to see how many pointless things I do.

One of the first things that came up as one of the most pointless things that people do is putting the television on just for some background noise. This was something that I tend to do when I get home from work even though I will put it on and then walk out of the room to do other things. I have to say that I think that I have gained this pointless habit from my mum as this was something that she would do all the time.

Another one that I know that I do is if I have a bruise I will press it and then say that it hurts even though it is something that we would expect anyway.

Trying food or drink that we know is going to be hot or even cold even if we have been told is hot or cold just in case it actually is alright.

Touching paint or something that I do a lot touching nail varnish that you know that is still going to be wet to see if it is still wet.

Just how many pointless things do you do?

Where has the week gone?

Can you believe that it is Friday already? Our holiday from work is coming to an end and we only have a weekend left before it is time to go back to work.

As the weather was alright this morning and there was no rain we decided to take the dogs somewhere we had never been before.

We chose Cuerden Valley Park as although we have never been there before we had gone past signs for it when we had gone to the Lake District. 

Cuerden Valley Park  is a park in Chorley set in 650 acres of land which was formally the grounds of Cuerden Hall.

We only did a small section with having the dogs with us and they get tired now as they are getting older.

We enjoyed going over the bridge and watching the water flowing underneath. We did see a dog running through the water but our two don’t really like getting wet.

Once over the bridge we walked a circular route and then back up the hill to the cafe. With it being nice we sat outside even though it was dog friendly.

We would definitely go back although I think if we wanted to see a lot more of the park we wouldn’t take the dogs as it is very big and their little old legs wouldn’t really be able to do it all.

Why not have a little look at Mr H’s you tube video below to see some more. If you like his video why not subscribe to his channel and have a look at some of his other videos.

Fundraising for Woodlands Hospice

Today Mr H and me are doing some fundraising for woodlands hospice. This weekend is the Grand national at Aintree and Woodlands are doing bucket collections outside of the racecourse and at some local railway stations that will be used to take race-goers to the racecourse.

We are doing our bucket collection at Liverpool Central Station before the race starts. This is a railway station in the centre of town people will be boarding trains here to go to a train station closer to the race course.

Woodlands T-shirt ready to go in my bag ready to put on when we arrive at the railway station.

A nice little trip on the train heading to the train station where we were collecting.

Change of station to collect at glad it was a sunny 🌞 day as we where now outside but we saw some fabulous outfits.

All the time we where there collecting we had some fabulous entertainment from a great DJ.

Just a little bit of shopping

So yesterday the weather was forecast to be rainy again so Mr H and I thought a little spot of shopping in Southport was ideal. Mr H needed some new steel toe cap boots for work.

The first stop was to Pippins one of our favourite places to have a bite to eat. If you are ever in Southport give it a try. It is nice and quiet in the morning but it does get very busy at lunchtime.

Mr H had a full English breakfast while I had a turkey sandwich with a side salad.

Well, we couldn’t get the boots that Mr H wanted in his size so we will have to try somewhere else.  It was too wet to walk around so we headed back to the caravan but on the way we tried the new Starbucks by the pier.

Wet and windy

So it is our second day and we were hoping to get the dogs out for a good walk but with a flood warning and it still being extremely windy after storm Kathleen we decided it best to have a day in and see what happened later on.

The rain eased a little and we decided to go to the shops to get something to eat tonight and we came back to the caravan to this sight.

They must think that they have got a new pond.