Skip, Skip, Skip to Skipton

It was with some reluctance that we left our rural mooring outside of Gargrave.

View from our bedroom porthole.

Sun setting across the Dales.

But we were up sharp on Saturday morning to cruise into Skipton.  It was a glorious day, warm and with a large golden orb in the sky - just perfect :)

The cruise was uneventful but intensely enjoyable - we even managed to time it right that we only did a couple of the swing bridges, the others were all opened for us by other boats coming the other way. 
 

Gorgeous weather, gorgeous boat, gorgeous scenery - simply gorgeous!!

We arrived in Skipton late morning, just in time for a milky coffee and Mr Kipling's Bakewell tart - our current morning snack of choice.  The moorings were busy, but there was one, and as I began manouevering into it, a boat further down pulled out so we went a little bit closer to the centre.  We spent the rest of the day checking out Skipton and enjoying some chips from Bizzie Lizzie's.

The next day we went to Skipton Castle.  This is a delightful little castle, well restored and a good tour on the sheets provided.

View from the Castle.

The Yew Tree planted in the 1600s in the central courtyard.

 We then made use of the Morrison's and Majestic wine shops that were within a five minute walk of the boat :)

Monday (after my run, 4.5 miles in 34.49 mins - ya beauty!!!) saw us preparing for the arrival of the Birthday Girl - Vicki Robertson and family, and friends, James and Sue.  We put balloons and banners on the boat, had champagne and snacks and of course birthday cake that Vicki's daughter Caitlin had made (and transported from York in one piece!!). 

It was a lovely day, windy but sunny and all the boaters and gongoozlers wished Vicki many happy returns as they passed.

Caitlin and her twin Oliver, took the kayak out for sail and triumphantly outran the swan who was fairly aggressively protecting her large cygnets.

How many men does it take to work out which way round the seats go??

Ollie and Caitlin escape the wrath of the swan.

On Tuesday, it was an early start for Mike who headed off to work on the 7.18am train.  It was an early start for me too, til I fell asleep and woke up again at 10....... oooops :)  It was quite cool, but I had a jaunt round the shops, read magazines and well, just pootered about really.  Same on Wednesday, except I did a water run.  I knew I should be doing something like waxing the bathroom, or varnishing the windows, but - well, I couldnae be ersed - as we say in Fife ;)  It was lovely and sunny so I sat outside and read, in between some errands and doing the laundry.  Oh the life of a Work Widow.......
Thursday, similar to Wednesday - EXCEPT - I got the piano out for the first time since leaving Weedon.  Sat for three hours trying to learn a song.....and I started waxing the bathroom - not at the same time as playing the piano of course, my multitasking has its limitations.   I then sat down to do this blog and couldn't find it - was logging in with the wrong account - Google - too confusing!!!  And I think that's about it.  I've probably missed off some eureka piece of information that would have made this worth you tuning in, but hey ho..... there's always next week!