Canal Knowledge

Get the beers in, lads, the entertainment's arrived!  The owner of the barge opposite shouted when the four of us rolled up to erect our marquee in a ten force gale on Friday night.

 Poor bloke, what a let down, at his age he should have learnt never to be fooled by appearances. 

 Despite our impractical attire, little did he know he was looking at a former sea scout, ex-girl guide and a pair of seasoned campers so our pitch was up and anchored down without a tantrum, swear word or You've Been Framed type mishap.

Photo courtesy of old school mate, Kate

 This weekend marked the biennial Canal Festival and as Liz and Al's former toll-keeper's cottage is slap bang in the middle of the event it would have been madness not to have a stall despite us knowing bugger all about barges.

Here's our combined pitch up and ready for business.

Kinky Melon's half of the marquee.

The bargain box is always a draw.

We managed to shift all that we took of Mum's hoard of books, only another three-quarters to go.

Liz's bespoke bags got lots of love.

The contents of Liz's mum's garage.

 Scenes from Saturday (aka Day one).

The waterways were filled with over 150 boats from all over the country.

Saturday's weather was positively schizophrenic - from glorious sunshine and mild temperatures one minute to gale force winds and rain of biblical proportions the next . At one point five of us held on to the marquee to prevent it being swept away. 

  

As festivals go it wasn't exactly up there with Glastonbury but good fun anyway.

Some people did make a real effort to dress up. How cool do this couple look?

Lots of mates popped by for a chat which made a pleasant diversion from to listening to monologues on dredging, Lister diesel engines and rising water levels by some of the weirder visitors to our stand. 

A sneaky snap courtesy of Brownhills Bob. Montego Bay maxi dress found by my friend, Vicky.

After 11 hours we packed away our stock in the van and chilled in the pub for a couple of hours gearing up for another 8am start.

Lagos-made 1960s maxi (darling Curtise), Frida pendant (fabulous Tamera)

And so to Day 2.
9am, set up and fuelled by Jon's magical flask of coffee and a bag of reduced-to-clear Co-Op doughnuts. 

The boys having a moment. That sky looks a tad ominous.

Doggie madness! There were 6 of these cute Poms aboard this boat.

At 5pm we packed away, parked up, went to the pub and got sloshed. I've a billion blog posts and emails to catch up on and a van on the drive waiting to be unpacked (fortunately a lot lighter than it was on Friday) so I'd better get cracking. 

See you soon!

Although I don't think I'm fit to be seen today I'm linking to Visible Monday anyway.