Wednesday 31 August 2011

Friday 19th August 11

A really good day as we met up with my parents for the first time in ages.

The arrangement was that they'd meet Gill and the boys off the bus in Pocklington, and take them to Swing Bridge Number 6 on the Pocklington Canal, at Melbourne.  As the car only carries 5 people, there was only room to pick up 3 passengers. So I cycled the 10 miles out through Elvington, Sutton on Derwent and on to Melbourne.

I set off at 10.15 and the others got the 10.24 bus. They arrived in Pocklington at 10.54, and I got to Melbourne at 11.05, ten minutes before the car with canoe on top arrived.

The canal has lovely clear water and plenty of fish.  We sat on one of the jetties which boats moor up against when the bridge needs to be moved, and ate our lunch.  I fed the fish crumbs from my sandwiches.

My father first took our eldest out on the canal, and Gill and I chatted with my mother, and we all enjoyed watching the damselflies and fish jumping.

Then I went out with my Dad, with him at the back steering and my youngest son in the middle, me at the front.  We went along the canal towards Pocklington, and the canal gets very blocked with reeds and vegetation.  I picked a load of watercress, which I'll clean up and make into soup.  It's not a good idea to eat wild watercress raw, as there's a chance of getting a parasite, but if cooked it's completely safe.

We got back to the landing area and I took Gill out for a very slow paddle, as she's not used to boats and was a bit nervous.

No-one else wanted to have a go so we stopped there, at about 2pm, and the canoe went back on the car, and Daddy drove it up the muddy track without the other 4 passengers, as the uneven ground meant that the car had 'bottomed out' with the extra weight on the way down.  So we all walked up the track, and then they all got in and turned left to Pocklington and I turned right to York, and cycled fast all the way home. 

I worked for David from 6 til 8, got on well as usual!

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