Wet again

A bit of an understatement, that title; the weather has been so severe that they've closed the Trent and Mersey between Middlewich and Preston Brook. The embankment at a couple of sites is threatening to collapse, what with the saturated ground and the continuing downpour, so they've closed the flood gates at Marbury and put stop planks in around the danger sites.

That section of canal does have a bit of a history of breaches, so I can't blame C&RT for being careful. Hopefully they'll be able to check things out tomorrow and reopen, but it's bad luck on anyone bustling round the Cheshire Ring this week.

Meanwhile, the term for the Sutton Hall pub is excellent. Our only complaint was a bit of a delay before our food arrived, but we had skipped starters and gone straight to main courses, and everything is cooked to order. We were just at the stage of saying to one another "Where's our food, then?" when it arrived. It was all delicious, and although not the cheapest available, it wasn't extortionate at about £20 a head without drinks.

I summed up my entry in the Braidbar Owners' Pub guide as follows:

This is a remarkable pub, a conversion of a longstanding medieval manor house, with loads of separate rooms. It would have to be very busy indeed before you needed to book, unless they had an event on.

The staff were very friendly and helpful and the food is excellent, Michelin star worthy stuff without being too trendy.

The website is full of interesting bits about the previous owners, who were the Earls of Lucan (the third Earl was the guy who slightly mismanaged his light cavalry at Balaclava, and if anyone has seen the sixth Earl recently the police would really, really like to know about it).

Definitely a pub to go to for a special occasion

 Today, we've made a brisk excursion to the Co-op for immediately necessary provisions like bread, but otherwise have sat tight again. Not only is it raining and blowing a hooly*, the rain is quite icy when it lands on your face. I feel sorry for anyone who has to be out in it.

I did take a bit of time to cut up some blocks of firewood, and I think a substantial goulash is indicated tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll go into Macc, and probably do a bit of shopping in the retail park here at Lyme Green as well. Then on Thursday we'll do some serious boating – we want to be at Heritage for a pump out on Friday, so by our standards we'll have to get our skates on.

*hooly: a very strong wind. This word is included to make Anne Blaydon and her fellow Scots feel at home.

/wahaha