Good shopping in Stone, and an unexpected load of wood

19th & 20th March

Yesterday was another early start to the day; our body clocks seem to have anticipated the start of Summer Time by around ten days. We go to bed at 9.30, wake before six and are up and about by seven. Very strange.

It had been seriously frosty overnight, with some rime on the inside of the Houdini again, but the day became quite warm as it went on.

We worked down Meaford Locks, and were soon at Stone. We stopped below Newcastle Road Lock (the one above Stone Boat Building) and filled the water tank, before carrying on down Yard and Star Locks to the visitor moorings. These were all but deserted, with only one forlorn GRP cruiser on the further, 5 day section.

We'd planned to arrive before lunch, but in fact were tied by half ten. This led to a rethinking of the cruising plans. If we could fit in two trips to the shops, we need only stay one night in Stone, thus avoiding a Friday night in town.

Accordingly, after a quick coffee, we made a foray to Morrisons to get the stuff we needed for lunch, and a selection of the other items on the list. After lunch, it was back into town, calling first at the little, almost underground, shoe shop by the pedestrian lights nearest the moorings.

Called Footsteps Footwear, I didn't have a lot of hope that they could supply a suitable pair of boots, but things were getting a bit urgent, as the crack in the upper of my right boot had now spread to the point where they were almost unusable. I was pleasantly surprised to find they had an assortment of reasonably priced boots, not so much fancy walking boots as basic site boots.

Included in the range, however, were a pair of leather uppered Hi-Techs at £40, which for a wonder fitted very well. Having made this good start, we went on to find most of the other stuff we were looking for, so returned to Sanity well pleased.

The rest of the afternoon passed quite quietly, if you make an exception for the Thursday evening bell ringing session. These campanologists were at least reasonably proficient, so no complaints.

A fair bit of IT stuff got done, including catching up with responses to blog comments. In that regard, I'm pleased to say that Jane Howarth tells me she's had a reply to her letter to BW West Mids about the 48 hour mooring restriction in Alrewas (see Adam's comments last time).

Chris Thompson told her:

The enforcement office has visited the site and the majority of craft that have been there for a period of time have been granted visitor moorings from October up to the end of March, this location has not been used for winter moorings in previous years and will be reviewed before the winter of 2009 for suitability.

The notices reducing the mooring time to 48 hours will be removed next week due to concerns from local residents, user groups and businesses that the time reduction could impact on the local economy.

The decision regarding changing the mooring limit will be reviewed in the future after consultation with interested parties and a decision made thereafter.

Two immediate thoughts:

1. When, oh when will BW learn to consult before making and implementing the decisions, rather than afterwards?
2. Since BW decided not to respond to requests to provide a rubbish disposal facility in Alrewas (there's nothing between Fradley and the far side of Barton Turns), it's not surprising that issuing winter mooring permits for the place has resulted in a litter problem. I'm not defending my fellow boaters in this regard, whose conduct in the matter of rubbish and fire ash dumping has been frankly lamentable, but the outcome might have been foreseen.

Whilst on the subject of Alrewas, Jane also tells me that the new dentist there, Dr Ehsan Rana, is struggling to fill his list. Admittedly he's private only, but is a good clinician, and does take Denplan patients. I've commented before on how easy it is to get emergency appointments with him. If you need a dentist in a hurry in that neck of the woods, and either have Denplan cover or are in the habit of paying for your treatment, it's well worth giving him a ring on 01283 791 357. He's got a webpage here.

Today was another early waking session, but as I wanted to get a paper before we left, we loafed in bed, making disparaging remarks about Sarah Kennedy, until gone seven. Once I'd been into town, we set off. It was brilliantly sunny weather, but with a piercing cold wind, such that Sheila, who was steering, had to change her fleece for a puffa jacket.

Below Aston Lock they are digging away at the new marina, whilst above Sandon, just as Sanity was descending, I saw a cow, which had been drinking from the offside, jump into the water, swim casually round in a half circle, and climb back out, for all the world like one of those folks you see on the news swimming in the Serpentine or wherever on a ridiculously cold day.

Presumably one of its mates had pushed it in, but it really seemed very casual about it.

Approaching Weston Lock, as we left the village which precedes it, some guys trimming trees on the offside asked us if we wanted any wood. We'd just passed a boat going the other way, and we both started backing up to take advantage of this bounty. It was quite hard to get Sanity in far enough, but by ramming the bow into the trees with the long shaft, Sheila was able to get it close enough for me to deploy the gang plank and make a slightly wobbly trip to shore.

I then tied the bow line to one of the trees, and the other boat (whose name's slipped my mind in all the excitement, except it involved pandas) came alongside us. Anyone else coming along would have had to stop, as we were slewed across the cut, but no one did. I passed quantities of wood across to Sheila, who shoved some on our roof, and gave the other half to the other boat.

When we'd got a sufficiency, we extricated ourselves, leaving the panda boat to go back in and get some more. The roof looked a complete mess, with bits of wood, the long shaft and the plank just heaped up on it, but it wasn't far to the lock landing where we were able to sort it out enough to finish cruising.

Below the lock we went gently on until we came to the first of the visitor moorings that have been created in the middle of nowhere here, complete with interpretation boards about the locale. Here we had lunch, then set to in steadily improving conditions to cut up all the wood we had and stack it tidily.

In the course of this it got warm enough that I actually unzipped my zip offs and worked in shorts. Sheila was wearing normal Regatta trousers, so was unable to do likewise. I think this is the first year ever that I've ended up in shorts before her.

We're having a quiet night, now, and will potter down to Great Haywood and Tixall for the weekend, before finishing our run to Alrewas next week.