Cains in Trouble

Liverpool brewers Cains are in financial trouble, there last figures showed a loss of £4.6m and they are waiting to hear from their bank. With their future in doubt it is a concern for the pubs they recently took onboard. The Ship or Blood Tub at Burscough is a Cains pub I believe.
Added to the Cains problems is the news that the Running Horses has recently shut and is up for sale.
The rise in petrol prices and the governments continued attacks on public houses must make life hard for landlords, especially those at canal pubs that are more remote from the usual town pub.
The number of pubs on my pub guide could be dropping again...

http://www.towpathtreks.co.uk/LLC/canal_pub_guide.html

In Loving Memory

My sometimes fellow towpath trekker Honey is no longer with us. She holidayed on board the Albatross and found it hard getting on and off but enjoyed the towpaths. She preferred the Ainsdale sand dunes to the canals. We had some nice walks and some slow toddles in the last few years. I will miss her lots.

Canal Visit: Halsall

Yesterday we had hoped to go to the canal for a walk but the weather was so changable we couldnt tell whether it was going to pour down or have a heat wave. We headed towards some blue sky and away from the huge black cloud with mini tornados under it. We parked at Halsall by the Halsall Navvy. It was raining a bit and on the horizon towards Ormskirk the sky was black and it must have been pouring down. We only managed a very short walk but we saw some interesting flowers on the towpath: tufted vetch, hemp-agrimony and the usual yellow flowers that could be any one of many types!
It was a shame we didnt have more time on the towpath but we at least got some fresh air and used my new field guide to flowers. Even with the D SLR its tricky to get the flowers in focus. There were quite a few people on the towpath and the Saracens Head looked busy.