All Systems Go

Well, that’s the intention anyway!
Now that the last of our visitors have been and gone we aim to move every day and get back to Crick by the beginning of November at the latest.
Last weekend our friends Jane and Ron Cole came to find us near Rugeley on the Trent and Mersey.  Our friendship with Jane and Ron goes back to schooldays.  This is THE Ron Cole who featured being interviewed by John Craven on Countryfile a few weeks ago.  Ron was the chap in the O.S. plane so, a ‘celebrity friend’ no less!!
AND …………… we have another!  Our dear friend, Mick, has taught for many years at the now notorious ‘Passmores’ secondary school and appeared in one of the episodes of ‘Educating Essex’.   Fancy that!
 Do you believe in old wives tales?
If the answer is ‘yes’ you need to start preparing for the winter right now!  Replenish wood stocks, procure bags of coal, find those forsaken long-johns, woolly hats and woolly socks because ………….. there are masses of berries on the trees and hedgerows.  I’ve never seen so many holly berries on the branches.  Another really cold winter ahead?


You can always buy some suitable socks!  Enterprising boaters never miss an opportunity!

On our travels today we have seen:-  a very late brood of tiny ducklings(!), moorhens feeding on a high bird table (!), a white hen with feathery feet just like a ptarmigan(!)  and the beginnings of yet another new marina – this one close to Streethay.  A huge hole has been excavated but absolutely nothing else was happening – not a digger in site.  What’s the story there then I wonder?



Travelling between Fradley and Fazeley on the Coventry our mission today was to locate the whereabouts of a boater who makes and sells stainless steel chimneys.  We moored up at Hopwas and then took the girls for a walk along the tow path and by Sutton Bridge – there he was!  Hopefully one of these won’t disintegrate as quickly as the ones we have been using up until now.  We’re collecting it tomorrow as we pass. 

Tomorrow we will move on to either Alvecote or Polesworth.  There are still quite a lot of boats moving around the system - most of them, like us, battling with the windy conditions!