We're actually within a couple of feet of the aqueduct over the River Tame, just onto the Peak Forest Canal, by its junction with the Ashton Canal and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The river is the boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire, so most mornings I walk from Cheshire to Lancashire, and back, to purchase my daily paper ... about a 10-minute walk!
Sad to report; this area appears to be home to the dirtiest people in Europe; as the amounts of garbage and dog-faeces on the sidewalks, streets, hedgerows and open spaces is the most dispiriting it has ever been our misfortune to encounter. Over the past 40 years; the British, as a whole, have become an incredibly rubbish-strewing society. Perhaps it is a symptom of successive governments encouraging the growth of greed; to the detriment of community spirit; ... who can tell?
ENOUGH!!! I must not sign-off the year in such a depressive mode. Whilst I view almost all the news on the national and international scene with something approaching horror; 2016 has been an excellent one for us, personally. With huge good news on the health front and a triumphal musical outcome in prospect (can't say exactly what, at this point ... hopefully, details in the New Year), we sometimes feel that we are surrounded in a comfortable, teflon, bubble!
This will be the last report from Watery Peregrinations, for 2016. We shall be, occasionally, taking Moonstone up the Peak Forest Canal; just for a change of scenery. We're only a few miles, and a few hours from the Derbyshire Peak District; with its beautiful scenery and invigorating walking trails. (Lyn's early Xmas gift is a stout pair of hiking-boots!) However ... beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, it is also where you find it. Just a mile upstream from our mooring, we were walking the towpath, under a low railway bridge, when the sun reflecting off the surface of the water lit up the underside of the structure ... and lo ...
... well ... I think it's beautiful, anyway!
2016 has seen Moonstone - with Lyn and me on board - cruising along 805 miles of canals and rivers, negotiating 653 locks, groping through (about) 9 miles of tunnels, 'flying' more than 100 feet above rivers on 10 occasions ... and enjoying every minute.
Hope to see you next year. Tom (and Lyn).
