Re: Roberts Rambles 2
Thanks Surfermom, it's always good to hear your comments, especially because you can see and feel the same things that I can see and feel....
Yes, it was looking a little bit brown from a very dry spring (it's becoming a regular thing just lately) until about three weeks ago when the prevailing Westerlies blew in several depressions and it's hardly stopped raining since. Although my lawns are looking good...
A lot of the canals have towpaths down one side, because in the old days the barges were horse drawn, I can't remember the horses, but I do remember when canal traffic was at it's height and it was full of coal laden barges and * 'Tom Puddings' * distributing coal the length and breadth of the England. A lot would end up at Hull, a major port, to be shipped abroad. Some canals have been restored but it's mainly pleasure craft that uses them now. I actually learnt to swim in the local canal when there would be a villate fete once a year with greasy pole walking and swimming races along the canal.
*Tom Puddings were like the waggons on a train, massive square floating containers being towed by the barges. They would sometimes stretch for hundreds of yards behind the barge. The village where I lived had a coal mine where all the locals worked. There was a sort of cable car arrangement from the pit to the canal side where the Tom puddings would be filled from the endless chain of buckets from the coal wash plant.
when I stayed at grandma's house I could see them from my bedroom window, and spent hours watching them transporting their load of coal to the dock. Fascinating to watch.