the rest of the Bank Holiday Day Trip

Messing about on the River   (a video of us on the Coronation Channel)

After a couple of technical hitches I can finally finish my Bank Holiday day trip memories. After Pamela and I cruised up and down the river we had a walk round the lovely garden centre.

I was glad I hadn't taken too much money with me they had such lovely things and the temptation might have been to great.

And then it was off the the United Reformed Church  on Pinchbeck Road for our tea and to see their Flower Festival called Festival of Celebrations.

The ladies had prepared varies salads, and cakes.  Not only that but there was a cake stall as well, how could I resist!!

There was also a a stall with bric-a-brac and I brought myself a carved gourd which no one could work out what is was and I had to look up on the internet, I must say I was fascinated I never knew people did such lovely work with the humble pumpkin, melon etc.

I also brought a, erm, well I'll leave it to you to make your own mind up but I couldn't resist and thought it would look rather nice in my garden :)

All in all Pamela and I and all our friends from the Tuesday lunch club had a wonderful day,

Margret certainly worked hard with her planning and preparations to make the day extra special,

Bank Holiday Trip, Part 2

One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post was the fact that we got lost! Not for long though, the driver followed the sat nav and we went up a very narrow path between two fields when he got to the top he realised his mistake. Nowhere to turn, so back we came in reverse many times right on the edge of the ditch! We arrived safely at our destination and as previously mentioned thoroughly enjoyed the flower and craft festival.

Onward then to Spalding we arrived at a shopping centre but as Pamela and I weren't to fussed about going round the shops we headed for the river. There to our delight (well mine anyway) was a water taxi we asked how much and decided that £3 was a fair price and subsequently jumped :) on. It hadn't occurred to either of us to ask how far he was going and how long it was going to take, we had about three hours before the bus was leaving.

It was beautiful, I have never seen so many Herons, (one of my favourites). One came right over the boat and I would have got a lovely shot with my camera had I taken the lens cap off!

The waterway was finished in 1953 and called the Coronation channel ,

only the water taxi is allowed on it as it is part of the nature reserve.

The taxi driver was most informative telling us all about it's beginnings, about the wildlife and some of the interesting buildings along the way, and  bridges of which there was many.

Pamela and I began to panic a little as we had been on the boat for half an hour and could not see as yet anywhere to stop. I did wonder if we were going to end up at the Great Northern Basin in Langley Mill. The journey took forty minutes we decided to come straight back we were much more relaxed on the way back as we knew how long it was going to take.

There was a man-made fish reef,

they had sunken car tyres so the fish had somewhere to hide away from predators

and there was certainly plenty of those.

All in all we had a wonderful, relaxing time on the river, the weather was glorious, the company was lovely and the scenery beautiful. Then we had a little walk around the garden centre and then on the to United Reformed Church in Spalding (more about that later) before heading home.

Bank Holiday trip

The lunch club atSt Mary's Church Eastwood organised a day out for Bank Holiday Monday, it was lovely we went to Spalding in Lincolnshire. the first port of call being the flower and craft festival at the parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Gosberton. The theme was children's storytime, is was wonderful, there was certainly a lot of time and effort put into it.

the building has a rather unique gargoyle  It is and elephant, which unfortunately needs repair

There was also a craft festival and you could purchase all kinds of things from cross stitch to wood-turning, there was much evidence of very talented people

Not only with the flowers and the crafts, but also with the refreshments, you can't beat homemade sandwiches, soups, cakes etc.

There are no photographs of these as I was to  busy eating :)

Pamela (my sister) had a wonderful time. (she used to work in a florist shop)

We then went on to Spalding so there is more to follow in the next blog