Agents have been in valuing for rent and mortgage, the services of financial experts have been sought and we have been travelling the country looking at little homes on canals with moorings..... they are few and far between let me tell you. Also because canals were the transport marvel of the industrial revolution most homes on them are small, stone, damp, worker's houses in rather ugly industrial places.... at least the ones we can afford are. There are also magical modern apartments in re-development areas but .... We have no idea yet if this will eventuate into anything more than an exercise but nothing ventured nothing gained.... We will keep you posted via these pages.
One delightful event resultant from these property thinkings was a night spent visiting friends Jon and Kylie in Didsbury Manchester. We had been invited after our Aussie day party as a return of favour if we were ever over that way. We had been over that way looking at Lymm for a possible canal side home...very pricey. J&K were keen to show us the delights of their adopted town but after a sherry, a wine or five and a fantastic, so I am told, meal out.... any thought of touring the town next morning went the way of a late rise from bed and a slow and painful recovery. Many thanks however to both K&J for being supreme hosts. Perhaps a debt not to be repaid in kind...we like them too much to inflict that sort of injury on them.....again.
Another weekend we went looking at more canal properties and ended up at Hebdon Bridge for a fine lunch where we were served by a sweet Sth African lass in a great restaurant where we sat next to an open fire and enjoyed a wonderful repast. Hebdon Bridge is, some say, the origin of the northern industrial revolution, Hebdon having an early steam powered mill. The town was more recently named the most funky place in Europe as it is home to a thriving art industry now. A great town to walk around and we did a lot of that.
This (below) is the Bridge from which Hebdon bridge gets it's name, it's old (not as old as Wetherby's) and gave access to the east for trade.
You will recall Gail is happily working and learning and so is required to attend training, one of her courses took her down South to Warwick this month. I went along for the ride and while she was in the training I went to the British Motor museum which was a mile or two away from her HQ. What an enormous museum, I had a fantastic afternoon looking at British cars of the sort I use to drive, some older and some much more modern, one-off prototypes and heaps of UK mechanical memorabilia.
As there are canals down there too we also went looking around at prices and properties and ended up in Stratford upon Avon. This is a pretty town with beautiful surrounds and villages which we last enjoyed amidst the crowds some 20 years ago and this time, as it was pre-tourist season, we took a canal boat tour of the water ways.
The following snap is of what is purported to be part of Shakespeare's garden 
but it seems the topiary has got out of hand over the years. The next is from the narrowboat and is of the Shakespeare Theatre, currently under a multi million pound refurbishment. 
To finish this entry on a bit of a bird theme, here are some swans that got stuck with us in one of the locks, 
This is a 19th century pigeon roost dedicated to Falstaff and other Shakespearean characters and surmounted by 
a bronze of the writer himself. And finally. a shot of an annual visitor to our back yard on her first visit this year.... We thought we may have had ducklings last year, but this year, who knows... 
Anyway that's it for us for March. April will bring Matt and Ret to us for a weekend over Easter, they are in the UK on business and have managed to house swap a place in Norfolk for their W.A. holiday home and are on their way to Ireland after leaving us.... Such jet setters....
Also April will be a month when we work towards making some future grand decisions, we guess.
Oh, another thing we did in March... We booked a week in Dusseldorf on the Rhine in July.... Quite looking forward to that.... It's in Germany you know. Must learn some of the lingo..... Beer = Bier I think.
