A New Crew Member joins at Jude's Ferry Bridge

Today – Jude’s Ferry Bridge to Prickwillow, River Lark, 8 miles 1 lock
Sat ad Sun – Moored Jude’s Ferry Bridge, River Lark

A somewhat damp weekend at Jude’s Ferry Bridge cheered by the arrival of daughter Wendie and grandchildren on Saturday night.  The pair of them left me to babysit granddaughters Kiera and Niamh while they went into the pub for a couple of pints.. I was OK.. I had my own bar here on NP, and saw Chas and Ann of NB Moore2Life online on MSN, so we had a good ol’ chat!

Sunday was a family day.. and of course we all enjoyed each other’s company.. the two youngsters accompanied us for a walk before ‘finding’ the pub playpark which gave Wends and me time to chat while they enjoyed clambering all over the beautifully laid out rustic playpark here at the Jude’s Ferry pub.

Wendie left mid afternoon, leaving the eldest Kiera with me for a week, and when we had waved her off Kiera and I got down to some serious fishing!

Well we caught one!  But it is hard to keep a seven year old’s concentration on something so…. well in her words “This is getting boring grandma”!

Sooooooo I have an extra crew member now and very keen she is too… ah rest for me this week!!.. Ha, I don’t think so somehow! 

Still, she was good at steering I must admit, and soon got the hang of going down the centre of the river.  Earlier we had turned at Jude’s Bridge with no problems at all, and I guess even a 60–65ft narrowboat would be able to turn there..

See what I mean about being keen!  It didn’t take too long for Kiera to learn how to operate this push button guillotine gate “Much better than winding up those heavy lock things Grandma”.. Yep I have to agree with her on that!

We had a busy day today.. so many questions from such a tiny human being.. the one that got me though was “Grandma, you said we can’t pick wild flowers, but we have been picking blackberries, they are wild aren’t they?”  “Yes but they are not a flower Kiera” “They are before they are a blackberry Grandma”…..

She was a bit tired tonight though…. oh but so was somebody else!!