Late Late Late

 Apologies and all that for my tardiness, but there is a good reason.  My poor mother.

Easter was planned, we'd even been shopping!  Then at about 8pm one evening before Easter a phone call because my mother had pressed her personal alarm.

Off we went, David already in his JimJams, to rescue my mum who we both expected to have fallen, but no, with chest pain, blue fingers, white as a sheet myself and the ambulance crew thought heart, a scan or two and a night or three in A&E it proved to be gall stones, two of them.

Nine nights in all and my mother is now the self appointed ambassador for our new hospital, the food, all the staff and the NHS in general.  When I was visiting all staff be them doctors nurses or porters waved to her and she back to them.

She came to ours for a couple of nights and then back to hers, she lives alone and she's 95.

I'm pretty proud.

So as I have hinted in a previous post we were to have met up with NB Caxton and NB Hogarth for a jaunt right the way down to Tewkesbury but this has had to be abandoned for this year.  

David and I are now shorter on time, I didn't really want to be on the river as keeping the car handy is far more problematic in case I have to be home again for my mum.

So as the other two boats decided to wait for us, Caxton's crew have delayed their return from France and Hogarth's crew are enjoying spring at home in their garden, David and I have a quick fortnight now to go, well wherever we wanted, then home to check on my mum (golf will be in that mix), then fingers crossed for a rendezvous with the two boats.

The Staffs and Worcester canal to Stourport, the Caldon canal, the Coventry canal and the Trent and Mersey canal were all in the discussions and the Trent and Mersey won.

It's a nice case of a week out, see how far we get and a week back.  That is the limit of the deadline, just how I like it.

Looking fabulous but overall I prefer the white blossom.

Glorious morning when we left our mooring.

Approaching the entrance to the left.

A swan who usually nests thereabouts giving two poxy Canadian Geese what for, but they came back for more.David coming into Great Haywood lock.

David coming into Great Haywood lock.

And here he is leaving.  I walked down to Colwich lock.

Is this a wee violet growing on the lock gates?  Too pretty to be pulled out.

Yellow pretties

Purple pretties.

and pink pretties

Gorgeous cottages almost at Colwich lock.

The beginnings of Cannock Chase, a signal to me of leaving properly.

Going over the River Trent at Rugeley

Best name for a long time I've seen.

So that was our first day out, 4 or 5 hours to get past Rugeley.

Supper was that salmon pasta dish at 500 calories that has become a firm favourite.  Actually left overs we brought up with us but I forgot to bring the Christmas turkey curry that's still in the freezer...... from 2024.

Off home again.

So after a couple of nights here we set off to Sandon Lock, this is only the third lock north of Great Haywood.  

As all Boaters in the UK will know there are precious few  boats that are red, but would you Adan and Eve it, here was another directly behind us.  

The two men chatted paints, cleaners and cratch cleaners too.  

Two shiny red boats moored together.

Sandon Lock

Winding or turning just above Sandon Lock.

A lady on a boat we passed said she thought this place may have silted up but we managed it when I took the stern rope and yanked her around to speed up the process.

The last day we were joined by the lovely John and Louise lately of NB Ploddin' On.  Frequent Flyers to this blog may remember that our two boats down the Grand Union canal in May 2021.   HERE 

We all had lunch at The Saracens Head in Weston and jolly good chinwag we had too, lots to catch up on in over a year.    

I'm so silly for not taking a photo of us all. 

Hoo Mill lock, almost back at Great Haywood marina.

Packed up pretty quickly after this trip, just over an hour but there was precious little food in the fridge and unworn clothing was left on the boat.

We will be back just after Easter for The Grand Summer Cruise.

It's been a while but here we are...

Dearest Reader, 

Hello and how are you?   Haven't the last five months flown by?

Well it has for us, but that could be to do with being in New Zealand for a month when you all were here enjoying storms and rain.

We caught up with Marilyn and David   HERE  at their home in Waikanae on North Island.

A damp morning in Waikanae but we went visiting Open Gardens which was one of my favourite things to do

We did a short trip to South Island...

Picton, looking awfully like Lake Garda where we went frequently. 

Then went to the Winterless Sun of the north of North Island.

Verity and toddler Xanthe

This is the sort of beaches common in NZ, Mitchell was speechless when he first arrived and was introduced to our pebbles....

Another great thing about NZ is that there are no potholes on their roads!  

Now just think about that for a minute.....

Anyway the big news from there is that Fliss and Leon (Eldest daughter and in the UK) are expecting their third baby in June and  Verity&Mitchell are expecting their second baby in July so I will be returning to NZ to "Lindahand", David will stay here to have care and control of my mother and play golf.  

I'm booking flights today via Canada, thank you Marilyn for that gem of information.  I haven't told my mother yet so don't let on if you see her.

We had WaL serviced the other day and came up a day or so earlier but an issue with the batteries kept us in dock, but here we are out in GLORIOUS sunshine and zero wind.

A lot of discussion about where will we go, finally deciding that we will just do a jaunt north of Great Haywood, it's my birthday month so we can visit the nice pubs along the way.  I have made the mistake of bringing the remainder of the roast lamb we had a Sunday or two ago, so I fished out of the larder the ingredients for Delia Smith's Xacuti Lamb curry, with coconut it was delicious but this morning the entire boat smells of it.

I went off marching to get my steps in and came across this previously unknown to me view of the wonderful Essex Bridge

Built in the late 1500's by the Earl of Essex who was Queen Elizabeth the First's beau.  He had a Castle or Manor House in the vicinity.

Finally away after the service.  This is WaL arriving at Hoo Lock

Hoo Lock, site of the by wash collapse previously. 

The sight of these really does lift ones heart.  My first of the year.

                                              ( For my Reader in Alaska these are Primroses)

Weston Lock, this is the CART maintenance that we can expect, sandbags.

White violets, oh so romantic.  I've seen them here before.  

So we trundled to just north of Weston and quickly got the Lockgate stove fired up.  We are in credit on electricity in the marina so used our wee electric heaters for a couple of nights.  Probably cheaper than diseasel at the moment.

David is watching the football just now and then we are going to walk to the Holly Bush here at Salt.  It's evidently changed hands.... again.... We must use it or lose it.  

This also applies to banks and post offices.

So on reflection we have decided to stop here today and not move on, owning mostly to the football (Both David's teams are playing each other) and the sunshine.  We will move on tomorrow and turn.

The last leg.

This is an example of why I am not a lover of this canal,  endless trees, long straight sections and no views or anything of interest to look at.

Endless trees. 

More trees

On the plus side there has been a good section of cutting back thats has happened recently.

 

Next day we set off and sometime later David blurted out Oh blimey we didn't get fuel,  I helmed while David dipped the tank and he said that we had enough to get to Wheaton Aston where an ancient garage has an extra long hose that pops over the wall down to the canal and sells cheaper diesel.

Then 20 minutes later the engine coughs and splutters and dies a death.  We drift but without any power to get us to the tow path.  Five minutes later a boat hove into view and we signalled to them, it was Kevin and Carol off of NB Eleanor.

Well they rescued us, it took a while of abortive rope throwing, but we ended up with Kevin on our boat and his wife alone on her boat.   Not seeing anything obvious we wondered if it was indeed a fuel problem.

Well WaL started up again and Kevin said that they would follow us incase it happened again.

We got to the outskirts of Gnosall, embarrassingly Kevin had had to walk as their boat couldn't get in to pick him up...

WaL had completely cut out again here and Kevin helped us pull her onto the visitor moorings.  I'd already checked Google and there is a garage 4 minutes away on a bike.  We thanked them both and they chugged on.  If it wasn't he fuel then at least we had road access to call Canal And River Rescue.  Thank you Kevin and Carol for your help. 

David cycled off to purchase two cans and fuel, it was a messy business with diesel ending up on the rear deck of Wal, David's shorts and hands and all over the outside of the cans.  That done I highly recommended that he repeat the process.  So and hour later,   WaL started up and we gingerly set off.  

It would appear to have been some muck in the fuel that had caused a blockage but then cleared itself, it was an error to have let the level get so low, normally D knows in his head with mileage and litres.

I called ahead to the garage at Wheaton Aston, the chap said I've already closed, I've just come back to answer the phone...

So we were faced with the only place in striking distance for diesel was closed until Monday morning, this was Saturday at 2pm.  David didn't want to do that so I called up the Napton Narrowboat base at Autherley Junction, they only had enough for their own boats as they were due a delivery midweek.  I called the wee wharf Oxley Marine which is also just at the junction,  no answer, not many options.

I had the wizardly wheeze to ask a liveaboard if they had any spare fuel to sell.

Okay said David, give it a go.

Five minutes later we came across a line of boats and I called out to a person with his back to me, he turned and I was a tad surprised...

A very kind pair.

Quite a sight.  

But these two as you can see were happy and laughing.  He leapt over and emptied the jerry can into WaL, 21 litres, they ABSOLUTELY refused all offers of payment.  

A gift. 

From boaters to boaters in need.

That will teach me to make snap judgements about appearances.

Well in the event we did stay in the shade, falling leaves, drizzle and gloom of Wheaton Aston until Monday morning.  We went to the pub for Sunday Lunch and were on the deck for the fuel to open at 08:45.

Oh flip I forgot what this hill is called, but here it is.

Here's the garage, it only sells diesel, I would imagine safety standards may have changed a bit now.

This was outside the garage Sunday.

Lots of yellow in the trees now.  Not much red.

Aylesbury ducks, my favourites, I used to keep these ducks.

Rosehips.

I carefully went down the steps to get this shot.  David has wanted me to do this each trip on this canal.  But the tree has ruined the shot.  I would have stepped into the middle of the road but Watling Street (or the A5) is so busy I feared being sucked under the wheels of a lorry.  I fell up the wooden steps going back and bruised my shin.

Autherley Junction this morning was a bit tricky as another boat was exiting the lock when we arrived?

Meeting this on a bend with a bridge was a bit of a surprise, but the crew leapt to his bow and pushed us off, he then jumped off and guided his boat around that bridge.

One of the worst blind bends on the Staffs to Worcester canal.

Unbelievably we have seen 4 Kingfishers, here is the last one who DIDN'T fly away, you will have to squint, I didn't have time to zoom in.

We tried something different for packing up.  We arrived at the marina in the early afternoon.  I had packed our clothes on the last stretch, so we felt it would be a quick get away the next morning, was it heck.  I reckon we took 3 hours, but included in that was the overwintering of the boat.  One of the last things I remembered to run the taps, now the water was on zero but it still took over 20 minutes...  But we did remember to turn off the gas, this time.

Well that's us done for this summer.  It was a drab last week not least due to the non stop grey skies, chilly temperatures and too many trees.

We may come back to WaL if the weather is dry, when she gets her annual service, we'll see.  Got to nip over to New Zealand in January to see those angels and got to tell my mother we are going.  

So Abyssinia  

TTFN.

Shortbread and good udders.

The two Lovelies George and Carol who had volunteered to help us here at the Audlem Locks, a flight of 13 or so were arriving at about 10am.  

We were moored up at the very bottom and here the first two or three are spaced out, so at about 9:30 we set off and started those ones. 

The first one we met a boat coming down, the husband was winding down the paddles with great gusto , when he finished he leapt onto the roof, jogged along the roof and jumped down to drive out.... He's lively I said to his wife, 

Oh yes he is, he drives me mad, never sits still for five minutes, 

You can get treatment for that these days, says I

Yes I know and together we both said "A bang on the head" I did tell her that my husband does not have that problem.

The two treasures arrived and off we set after hugs and kisses.  

George went ahead prepping and Carol and I stayed with WaL and in turn we too each went ahead.

Here is Carol finishing off and George walking.

Action shot of Carol.

We finished two locks short of the top.  We were going to have breakfast together, this was a open spot whereas at the very top you are in dreaded trees.

We had bacon rolls, pink sparkle (Thank you Carol I shall look out for that one again in Morrisons) followed by that porridge cake, this time an odd combination of apricot and pistachios, but thats almost empty larders for you.

They told us before they departed of how the famous Shroppie Fly has been taken over but this time by a couple who've had previous experience in the town with a tapas bar...  

Even though we had supper organised I felt it was important to not only try out but also to support canalside pubs, so after a pleasant afternoon reading we trotted off downhill.

 As we went crunching on carpets of acorns as we went, evidently this is a mast season for acorns, the towpath all along is carpeted with them.

So supper was beef stroganoff with tiramisu.  Good value I thought for very good food and super service too.

Recommended.

The next morning we did the two remaining locks of the  Audlum flight finishing at the farmhouse with the farmerswife bringing out freshly baked pasties (David choice one) and I couldn't resist her shortbread.  Still warm and absolutely not on my regime but oh my word how delicious they are.

Highly recommend!  She even takes card payments.

I happen to mention that we too were farming, yes and dairy farmers... (I use the expression WE lightly) and oh no we sold the cows and brought a boat... The husband's face looked askance at me not exactly a frown, she said oh my husband could never do that!  The lady followed me out again with stocks to go onto her covered stall of cream teas, scones jam and clotted cream.

Tell your husband that he has some fine heifers here says I.  They are good aren't they?  Fine enough for the Dairy Event 

(That's prestigious show for the finest dairy cows in the land) 

I didn't say that David had shown our cows there in the past and won prizes.

So attractive these fallen leaves on the water.  

On the Adderley locks now, a very pleasant run of five, we passed 3 or 4 boats making it a doddle.

So here below and out of sequence is a good quality cow, not one of the heifers as they'd walked away.

 Note the topline, nice and straight, the depth of her chest, not too bony, the good attachment of the udder to her body but we can't see the feet but feet are very important too. A nice Holstein cow.

Periodically there will be tests for you.

Hopelessly out of order. Its taken ages to do these photos and then they are in the wrong order, where I am now trying to upload these photos is driving me bananas.  

Please bear with me until normal service is resumed.

We stopped briefly in Market Drayton to service the boat.  David walked over the bridge to the boatyard there to buy some black rubber tubing and some shackles to adjust the bow fender with.  He was very pleased with the cost, under £5.  I was very irritated that the rubbish receptacle being closed. but we set off soon afterwards to do the last five locks here at Tyrley.  Rubbish point there okay, in fact a local lady resident was using the bins.....

The locks at Tyrley can be problematic after rain due to their fierce by-washes that can bash a boat bandy.  I changed into my wellies for the most attractive walk up to the first lock, I was dazzled by a Kingfisher too.  This walk has always been muddy, everytime, except for today.

The lovely walk up to the first lock.

Beautiful open undulating hills at the top of the Audlem flight.

The charming Farmers wife who even closed the gate for us, buy her shortbread!

So we reached the top of all the locks on the Shroppie, bar one more at Wheaton Ashton, plus we reached the limit of my affection for the Shropshire Union canal, from here on I dislike it.  Too many trees, too many bushes and rubbish interweb.

I went in to have a shower and wash my awful boat hair.  David sailed on with a podcast on on his bluetooth hearing aids, sometimes he puts that on when I am with him and just occasionally says "yes" to keep me quiet...

He moored up at Goldstone Wharf  with the help of two other boaters who kindly adjusted their ropes and we could squash in.

Supper was chicken pasta, its one of those 500 calorie meals per person to make up for the tiramisu last night.

 

Oh I say, one of these charming cottages is for sale, any takers?