Sea Shanty Night at the Baltic Pub

Saturday we enjoyed an evening of Sea Shanty music at the Baltic Pub in Liverpool.  The Baltic is a historic pub that is a Grade II listed building.  Listed buildings cannot be demolished and must be kept original .  The pub was frequented by the seamen who worked on the docks when the many miles of working docks were active.  The pub brews their own ales in their cellar which has a tunnel connected to the building we live in but unfortunately the tunnel is blocked off. The pub looks much like it did during the period time when working dockers frequented it.

Prior to visiting the pub Joan and I were invited to a traditional Scottish dinner with friends.  They served haggis, neap, tatties and a lovely pudding which was topped up with a fine Single Malt Scotch.

It was the first time I tried haggis and I was a little skeptical about trying it but I absolutely loved it.
According to Wikipedia:

Haggis is a kind of savoury pudding containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion,oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach.  

Also according to Wikipedia: 


A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scotspoems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known asRobert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.

I am getting carried away as this blog was actually about our evening of Sea Shanty music so back to the pub.

Sea Shanty night at the Baltic is held the last Saturday of the month and various performers get together to sing traditional sea shanty's. In total there were 6 who sang during the evening.  A video with with photos and excerpts of some of the music is posted above.

Volunteerring at the National Waterways Museum

I made the decision to get involved in volunteer activities this winter as there has not been much to keep me busy while wintering in Liverpool. Just prior to Christmas I contacted the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere port to see if they had any need for volunteers.  I thought that since I like boats, like working with wood and have been interested in the history of the canal system in England that this would offer me something I would enjoy doing.

Last week I was contacted by the museum and invited to join the volunteer staff at the museum.  

On Tuesday I traveled to Ellesmereport for a meeting with two of the volunteers.  I traveled from Liverpool to Ellesmere Port which is a 30 minute train ride for me.  I have a 10 minute walk at each end of my train journey so getting to the museum is easy.

On Tuesday I was given an introduction to the museum and an overview of the various volunteer help that was going on there.  

The volunteer group is divided into various areas such as archives, training, guiding, maintenance of boats, restoration of boats etc.  After spending several hours touring the museum and meeting various members of different volunteer groups it seemed to me that the groups that were of most interest to me would be the boat maintenance and restoration groups.  Since I was new to the museum and knew nothing about traditional boat restoration I thought it would be best for me to start by helping with the boat maintenance and boat movement group and eventually once I become more familiar with the museum try to get involved with boat restoration.

On Thursday I spent the day with the maintenance group.   The head of the group met me and gave me a more in depth tour of the museum where I was shown the various restoration shops and given an overview of the restoration projects taking place.  He also explained some of the maintenance projects that were on his to-do list.  I had a chance to meet some of the volunteers who have been helping on a regular basis.  Most of them are retired like myself.  

On Sunday I am scheduled to work at the museum with what is called the Boat Activities Group.  This team has the responsibility for operating the boats and keeping the restored boats maintained.  I was told I would be receiving training on boat operation and safety on Sunday.  

Marton Mere Wildlife Reservation

I traveled to the Marton Mere Wildlife Reservation today where thousands of migrant wild ducks, geese, waders and swans winter over at the marshland.


The swans that winter at Marton Mere migrate from Iceland where they spend the summer and have their young.













Getting to the reservation was a bit of a challenge as I do not have a car this winter so need to use public transport to get around.  Public transport here is very good which makes getting to most places possible with a little planning.  In order for me to get to the preserve I traveled by train to Southport which is about a 45 minute ride by rail.  I then changed trains where I was able to travel to the New Lane Rail station near the town of Burscough which took another 10 minutes.  

I had to walk on foot for about a mile partly on a country road and a footpath through open farmland leading to the reservation. The footpath was clearly marked although I did have my GPS to back me up. The path was well marked but there were several muddy areas I had to cross caused by the recent rains we have been having.








Shortly before I arrived in the early afternoon it began to sprinkle and as the afternoon went on the rain increased.  Since I arrived about 2 pm I did not get a chance to explore the preserve but plan to return another day to do that now that I am more familiar with travel and the setup at the preserve and realize I need to leave earlier.  The days are short this time of year as we are fairly far north at about the same lattitude as Newfoundland it it is dark by 4 pm.

The primary purpose for visiting the preserve was to observe the thousands of swans that winter there.  Small buildings are constructed along the shore where the swans congregate to allow visitors to view them without disturbing the birds.  there is a long roofed building only about 10 ft wide and maybe s 200 or 300 ft long with small narrow windows.  the windows can be opened for viewing and photography.




I spent some time in the visitor center to warm up and have a cup of coffee and a scone.  It was fairly late by the time I was ready to return to Liverpool and it was starting to get dark.  My return trip to the rail station was along a foot path that traversed several farms and a country road which would have been very dark.  It was also raining fairly heavy by now so I decided to call for a taxi to take me to the rail station for my return trip.  I arrived at the rail station just in time to make the return trip to Southport and then on to Liverpool.