Previously …

Previously the month of December had whizzed by.

Post the California trip there was, it seemed, only a short time to prepare for the festive season: a 25th Christmas tree festival to attend,

*Christmas Tree Festival in St Paul’s Church, Bedford*

a Christmas tree to buy,

*Turn left down the track past Stevington Windmill to shop for your trees…*

Christmas present shopping, Amazon deliveries to receive, turkey lunches to eat, `internal and external seasonal decorations to arrange, friends and neighbours to visit, then motorways to be endured when travelling to Cheshire for Christmas…

Either side of Christmas Day there were canal sightings, first between Adlington and Bollington,

(to walk past Clarence Mill’s Waterside Café and not pause for a festive hot drink would have been a shame…)

Then, up over the ridgeline Techo Son-in-Law drove, to view the hills above Tegg’s Nose

and the view towards Shutlingsloe, the hill regarded as Cheshire’s very own ’Matterhorn’.

On Boxing Day a stroll down Bosley locks provided another injection of Macc Canal nostalgia; was it at Lock 3 that the ladies of Buglawton (?) WI had once hi-jacked Cleddau for a photograph for their annual calendar?

Here was Lock 5, centre of operations during a HALOUS weekend (the annual Have A Lock On Us weekend run by Macclesfield Canal Society).

Then there was Lock 9. Oh, fond memories indeed of HALOUS weekends… Here a gazebo for the weekend was lugged up the hill from the moorings below Lock 12 to provide shade (on hot weekends) and shelter (when it was wet!)

From here Cheshire Mum gazed down over Lock 10. She and the Cheshire One had been in charge there…

Water levels were low between locks 11 and 12, the area carved into the Cleddau crew’s collective memory; here Techno Son-in-Law once clambered through the bushes and trees to rescue and take control of a panicking novice hire boat crew

*Shallow water level at the winding hole between Locks 11 and 12*

*Empty mooring stretch below the Bosley Lock Flight*

Wow - December flew by!

January: There was further canal spotting. The bad habit /tradition of spending time in Stratford-upon-Avon in January (something to do with an early January wedding anniversary) allowed for a short stroll by the Stratford Canal. Mostly frozen it was above Stratford’s Top Lock.

A swan pair had a much reduced swimming area - and down in Bancroft Basin a single swan looked disconsolate as it waded upon an ice floe…

Careful planning had allowed for three separate theatre productions to be seen. Anyone above the age of ten in the 1960s will have heard of TV’s long-running The Forsyte Saga. In the Swan Theatre (the smaller auditorium) 2 productions were running based on the Saga.

In the first one, Irene, Soames’s young bride, the beautiful Irene, struggles within a marriage stifled by Victorian views of property rights. The heavily draped stage reflects the socially oppressive Victorian times.

Part 2, titled Fleur, is set in the 1920s. Fleur, Soames’s daughter from his second marriage, is determined to discover the cause of the fierce Forsyte family feud… Both Forsyte shows were fast-moving productions in which Fleur appeared as narrator as well as a key character and scenes rolled smoothly from one to another. Part I especially proved unforgettable.

Dominant on the Stratford skyline is the RSC Tower.

WELCOME TO GIANT COUNTRY was being beamed out to theatre goers who could follow giant footprints inside.

A real human bean’s’ foot in relation to a giant’s footprint!

There in the larger RSC auditorium was the land where plucky 10 year old orphan Sophie solves the crisis of human-eating giants. How spectacularly Roald Dahl’s much loved children’s book, The BFG, has been adapted for the stage.

Sophie (played in rotation by three different young actors) is first seen as an orphan in a dormitory; in her encounters with the Big Friendly Giant she is played by a 30 inch (about 75 cm) puppet but when in scenes with Bloodbottler and the other giants she is a puppet of about 18” height. Scale is all. The giants are portrayed as huge puppet heads, operated by actors, with further actors deployed to operate each arm and each leg. Yet despite the stage area seeming crowded with human figures the massive contrasts in size between the characters of Sophie, of the BFG (a relatively small giant) and of the huge Bloodbottler are very convincingly conveyed. Very young audience members looked alarmed at interval time but humour, resilience, ingenuity and courage combine to bring the show to a stormingly triumphant end. Huge admiration goes to all involved in creating this show.

…..

Onwards, westwards after Stratford, despite icy roads in Warwickshire, via the mid-Wales route along the A40, defying misty valley conditions, southwest to the sea -and to see various family members.

Daylight and interesting views are precious commodities in early January. There was the Irish Ferry, wild weather causing a 24 hour overstay at Pembroke Port,

though the next day her bow and stern thrusters showed how manoeuvrable a vessel she is…

There was a high tide at Freshwater East, the usual boar’s head shape of the Trewent Point hidden by the high water.

Sunlight glinting on the sea further out and waves rolling in brought back memories of teenage years spent on a blue balsa wood body board…

The tide was high too at Freshwater West. Waves were cresting some distance from the beach with spray being blown back offshore.

Had seasonal storms left their mark? The pebble bank at the top of the beach seemed deeper, higher and more extensive than previously.

Three strandings caught the eye. A hefty tree trunk. A jelly fish. A coil of rope.

“Stranded” as well, you might say, is this crocodile, a long way from its natural territory, spotted in Stackpole Walled Garden.

Family visited, the Cleddau Bridge sighted, sea air inhaled, the Cleddau crew drove back east to Bedfordshire.

Cleddau herself had been checked as safe and dry in mid-December - the next project must be to see how she fared during New Year celebrations and the recent cold snap…

Threes: the Cheshire Three, 3 theatre productions, 3 canal-side walks, 3 actors playing Sophie, 3 Sophies in different scales, 3 actors playing Kimberley. 3 sisters, 3 lunchtime viewpoints, 3 stranded items on Freshwater West beach

Other numbers: 10 puppeteers, 2 brothers-in-law, 2 nieces, 1 nephew, 2 other family members, 1 colourful crocodile and a 526¼ miles round road trip.

Threes - and other numbers

Snapped at N33° W116°