Sunny and lazy days

(Monday morning: I finished this post in a bit of a hurry last night, owing to hunger, and then couldn't get a fast connection again to tweak it. I've made a few changes to it now.)

Thursday 5 April

We pushed across to the water point at Fradley first thing and filled up on one of the slowest supplies on the system. It wasn't quite as bad as usual today, possibly because the cafe was not yet open.

Water tank full, off we went back down Keeper's, Hunt's and Common Locks before the short cruise to Bagnall Lock and the drop into Alrewas. There was already so much traffic around, we felt reasonably sure that some of it would have left a space there, and so it proved. In the course of the day pretty well the whole of the towpath filled up, though.

In the afternoon, I trotted round to the Chapmans' where Will was working hard on Save Our Waterways stuff. Since I last used his broadband he's put a WiFi hub in, but it wouldn't co-operate with my Airport carded Mac, so we stuck an ethernet cable in the back and all was well. It's not that Macs won't see other WiFi systems, as I had it working well at the Brycelands'. No doubt with time we could have got it going, but when a quicker solution was available, there didn't seem much point.

Managed to do everything I wanted, including bringing the blog up to date, so an afternoon well spent. We did gossip a bit about SOW, the IWA and BW, as well.

Friday 6 April

A quiet day, since we didn't want to move when there was so much traffic around. There seemed to be a continuous stream of boats through the village, about half of them either Canaltime or Shakespeare Classic Line, and the rest privateers. Sheila got her hair cut, but apart from that we spent some time cleaning brass and nattering to passers by on the towpath, and in the afternoon went for a walk to Wychnor.

I made yet another raid on Coates the butcher, and bought a rolled shoulder of lamb with mint and rosemary marinade on it, ready for Sunday.

Saturday 7 April

As the fine weather looked set to last for a bit - amazing for Easter weekend - more lotus eating seemed indicated. What we did do was switch our clothing over. We keep two sets of clothes, winter and summer, the stuff not in use being kept in a big sports bag and some compression sacks under the bed. Twice a year we haul it all out and change round, throwing out or recycling anything that doesn't seem to be being used, or which has come to the end of its useful life.

We did stir ourselves after lunch, and repeated a walk we'd done with the Willy Walkers a couple of weeks back - up to Bagnall Lock, across country to Fradley Village, down to the Coventry canal, and back via Fradley Junction and the Trent and Mersey. I took the opportunity to take some shots of what looks like a badger sett in by the tail wall of Common Lock. We've reported it, as it represents a bit of a threat to the stability of the lock, but it can take a while to sort such things, badgers being a protected species.

As we approached Bagnall Lock again, there was a fellow Braidbar, Shield Maiden with Steve and Mandy Lock. We spent a happy half hour nattering to them, and then wandered back to Sanity to run the engine and cook dinner. Spag bol, since I was feeling well exercised and not in a mood to be more creative.

Sunday 8 April

A day to do some boating! Well, a bit, anyway. We moved down to the water point in Alrewas, and Sheila stayed with the boat while I popped into the village for a quick shop - bread, paper, potatoes. When I got back, the tank was nearly full, and we were soon away down the river section. The boards still say "Proceed with Caution" but in fact the river is now well down on its summer level already, and no trouble to navigate at all.

There was a bit of traffic around, but nothing like as much as yesterday yet. We stopped at Barton Turns marina to dump rubbish at the only rubbish point between Fradley and Willington on the other side of Burton, and then carried on to Branston Water Park.

We got there just before 12, and this was obviously the right timing, as there were a few spaces on the moorings. After a lunch of bacon sarnies using Mr Coates's best smoked back, we finally got to walk around the park. We'd meant to do it last time, but got distracted by the Richrdson's bottle of red wine. It's the same style of thing as Kingsbury, but smaller and busier. This being Easter Sunday, it was being well used, and perhaps as a result, there wasn't a lot of variety in the bird life. All the shyer stuff had presumably pushed off to one of the other gravel pit lakes. We did however see our first mallard chicks of the year.

In addition, I got some shots of tufted duck, a cormorant and a greylag goose but that was about it.

Back to the boat to polish the brass on the side now against the towpath, and to T-cut the red handrail, which is getting dull after three years - reds never do well in the sun.

Put the lamb in the oven, and it's filling the boat with tantalising smells as I type this, so will stop, post this and put the new potatoes on.