These are the adventures of Andy and Sally Rawnsley on their narrowboat "The Puzzler". We have been living on the boat for over nine years now and are still loving it. Our Ulster born Shih Tzu, Shannon, has grown up, and has taken over the boat! After three wonderful years in Ireland, we transported The Puzzler to The Netherlands, and spent a year there. In 2015 we went southwards, to reach the north of France by June. After glorious weather throughout the summer, we arrived in Roanne in late October, and enjoyed our winter in this friendly port. We cruised extensively in France in 2016, 2017 and 2018, returning to Roanne each winter.


Friday 1 February 2013

13th - 31st Jan. Inter Zone bowls. Devenish Cup. Wood collecting.


When the seagulls and the pigeons are about, the ducks have to move quickly, to get any bread at all!
We went to watch the Irish Indoor Bowling Ladies Inter Zone Shield semi-final between Western, which is this area, and Northern. Western had a terrific win, with 77 shots to Northern's 41. This quote is from our local paper, The Impartial Reporter:- " What can only be described as possibly the best ever performance by a Western Ladies team took place in the Unionist Hall, Enniskillen last Saturday. - - Janet Brown's rink was never overawed by being drawn against the Irish International and TV personality Margaret Johnston and really cruised to a very easy win by 13 shots to 4." In this picture, Janet can be seen, showing her next player exactly where to put their bowl.


Other boats come and go at the Round "O". Beyond the mooring a Waterways Ireland working barge is going past.
We attend The Devenish Bridge Club at Irvinestown every Wednesday and our performance week by week has been adequate. However, on 16th January, everything went right for us and we won The Devenish Cup, with Mollie and Renee coming second.
Having heard a chain saw working, we made our way across the River Erne, and managed to tie to two of the fishing jetties there. We were given permission to take a lot of wood, as the undergrowth was being cleared.
All three Police boats were out today. This one seemed to be quite heavily laden! The bigger police boat followed ten minutes later, and certainly exceeded the speed limit. He really threw The Puzzler about with his wash!
It was quite tricky loading the wood on top of The Puzzler, as our only access was along the gunwhale from the fishing jetty at the bows. Tidy stacking can come later!



Last December there was a lot of undergrowth in this area where we have been collecting wood.



Look at it now. What a difference!





Meanwhile we have been chainsawing and chopping our wood to make The Puzzler tidy again.




It is a good thing that we are not going sailing in rough waters, when the logs are stacked as high as this inside the cratch!

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