Down by the canal

Very long lie in reading this morning it was well after 10!!! Pottered in the garden doing some pruning and cut my first cauliflower, the sun had come out and it was a cloudless sky. I decided I needed to walk down to the canal, with my camera, I haven't been for ages. Walking along the canal was fabulous, I had several conversations, not something I usually do, hi or hello is usually all I say. My first conversation was with a cyclist on the bridge at Crooke. He told me years ago Crooke was the dirtiest place in Wigan see extra: where the gap in the trees is was where coal was tipped by train from a nearby coal mine ready to be moved by canal. he said no one stayed long as it was so awful. look how lovely it is now. The history of Crooke Village (hope it works first time this time !!!) can be found here if you are interested. Am so excited its the first time I've managed to put a link in!!!
The main picture is a woman doing standup paddling down the canal. I was so surprised to see her on this board. she stopped for a chat and tried to convince me to go and learn how to do it, she teaches at the marine lake in Southport. You never know I may give it a go but certainly not on the canal. She explained she was doing a recce for next weeks paddle from Burscough to Wigan. Its a blow up board so she can pack it all up and get the train home, the pack is at the front of the board. More conversations and a wait to get the train underneath the motorway bridge. This was a rubbish shot in the end as the train was late and I was just turning to give up on getting the shot. 
It was a 3 mile walk and took me 2 hours, it had turned cloudy and cool by the time I finished. I watered the garden then of course its rained!