An afternoon by the Rufford Branch

Yesterday aftenoon we invited ourselves over to Takey Tezey for a cup of tea, to claim the promise Heather made after the last time we visited (last summer). It was a lovely day - sunny and warm - and the sat nav got us there quickly and efficiently. As we walked towards the jetty Heather saw us and came to open the gate. On board we got our Tetley (an upgrade from Tesco's Finest, apparently) and accepted Heather's invitation to stay for tea, which we could smell cooking. Thanks Heather and Dave - it was very good. We chatted about lots of stuff, took a couple of photos, and then said goodbye and walked down the towpath towards the swing bridge. On the way we saw two boats displaying BCF (Boaters Christian Fellowship) stickers so we told ourselves we'd say hello to them on the way back. Gabriel, nearest the bridge, had an unmissable BCF banner on the roof. James and Hazel were in the bow, so we introduced ourselves and were immediately offered a cup of tea. How could we refuse? We sat down and chatted to them for a while, and then walked down with them to the other BCF boat (of which James and Hazel had been unaware) to say more hellos. This was California, owned by an American couple. Both boats - and one more in the convoy - were on their way to do the Ribble Link.

And, since you ask, yes, the wedding went very well, thank you. The dry cleaning wipe had rendered the tea stain on the wedding dress all but invisible; the sun shone; the best man proved to be a brilliant organiser; the speeches went down a storm; and everyone had a thoroughly good time. Our daughter and new son-in-law are now on honeymoon.

Apologies for the lack of pictures: I'm having trouble loading them onto the laptop. I plug the card reader (with memory card) in; it recognises that some hardware has been added; but it says "insert disk". Grrr. I'll try again later.