Shackerstone.

Hi,

OK,here we are again and we are still moored just before Congerstone Bridge on the Ashby Canal,the same as we were last Monday.Since then we’ve had a great time at the Shackerstone Family Festival which was held about twenty minutes walk along the towpath from here.There have been lots of boats at the festival,as well as Traction Engines,vintage cars and tractors,stalls selling all sorts of goods.The nearby Battlefield Line Steam Railway has been in operation and we’ve had the highlight of the weekend,the Red Arrows.There’s been Llama racing,Lawnmower racing,Jousting and other activities in the main arena,as well as entertainment around the site.We’ve had a great Beer Tent selling over twenty Real Ales as well as a dozen or more Ciders.You can take my word for it that a lot of the ales and ciders were very nice,thank you very much.Lisa and I,together with Son in Law Robin,managed to sample quite a few over the weekend,purely in the interests of research of course.

 

The Llama racing and the Jousting in the main arena at the festival.

 

A steam roller and a little traction engine,the exhibits came in all sizes.

 

Lisa wondering which tractor she would like and one of the Funny Cars.

The weather has been very kind to us as well.At times last week the weather forecast looked decidedly unpleasant for the coming weekend but,after Friday lunch,things brightened up and all we had was a sharp shower after the events closed on Saturday.Unfortunately,we had the misfortune to have to take refuge in the Beer Tent on that occasion.The only downside for me over the weekend was the absence of the Dakota from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight,it should have been here on Saturday,but,due to a technical fault,was unable to fly.Still,that was more than made up for by the Red Arrows display and the BBMF Spitfire on Sunday.

 

A short sharp shower on Saturday evening,as you can see it cleared the grounds,I took this from the safety of the Beer Tent, and then,barely a cloud in the sky for the Red Arrows on Sunday.

 

                             Another couple of shots of the Red Arrows.

 

A couple of pic’s of the Spitfire.This version is a “ Clipped Wing “ Spitfire that was apparently developed to enhance it’s maneuverability and close the performance gap with the German Focke-Wulf Fw190.

Most of the rest of our time here has been spent doing little odd jobs for our daughter who lives about fifteen minutes away.It’s made a change to do house jobs instead of boat jobs but I don’t think it’s made us want to go back on the land,there’s no lawns on boats for one thing.

That’s all for this week I’m afraid,it’s been a quiet week leading up to a great weekend so I don’t have a lot more of interest to tell you.Since last week we’ve done no Locks and no Miles so our grand total remains unchanged at 480 Locks and 683 Miles since October.Take care everyone.