Two days blogger spotting

6th & 7th April

Yesterday morning was cool, but still sunny. The building site had started work at eight, so I didn't fancy the old route past the Simpson's warehouse, which involved cutting across the corner of the working site. Instead, I went onto the road at Sutton Road Bridge, walked down it to the entrance to the Jolly Sailor retail park, and so to Sainsbury's to get a paper and a loaf of bread.

I don't think it was any longer than our previous route, and had the advantage that it didn't involve a close encounter with the hedge, quite apart from dodging amorous earth moving equipment.

We then headed out, firstly for a call at the services point at Peel's Wharf, then to Fazeley Mill Marina for pump out and diesel. There was a boat on the water point at Peel's, so we stopped on the other side of the entrance to the little basin. I got off, carrying our bags of recycling, but was accosted by a woman whose aim in life seemed to be to prove that Norah Batty figures are not confined to Yorkshire. She didn't actually hit me with her broom shouting "Get off me step!", but informed me in no uncertain terms that this was private land, and that I couldn't get through to the BW office and service area.

Right enough, there's a substantial gate in the way, so I retreated to Sanity (and folk wonder why we named our boat what we did). By now, the other boat was finishing up, so we do-si-do'ed with them and unloaded our rubbish. I note that the Elsan point there now says "No self pump out". I'd always thought it was a marginal case, and now we know.

At Fazeley Mill we had our usual long natter with Corinne about boating, Purple Salute and the joys of having relatives in the Armed Forces (Graeme's on deployment at the moment).

Having got Sanity all filled up and ready to go, we headed back to the junction and turned right. We've decided to use the extra week we need to fill in before going to Norton Canes by taking a run up to Hartshill. The official excuse is that we can't find the right size watering can for Sheila to use on the flower pots, so we'll visit Dobbies Garden World at Hartshill to look for one.

We had a good run to Alvecote. Some kids turned up as we approached Glascote, but were extremely helpful both to us and the boat which followed us up the locks. On the way through Amington, we crossed with Gypsy Rover, then, just outside, who should heave into view but Andrew Denny on Granny Buttons.

There was only time for shouted greetings in both cases, but it's always good to see fellow bloggers out and about.

Today we had a relaxed start. It had rained hard overnight, but was now a bright if rather breezy morning. We made a water point stop at the foot of Atherstone, then as usual worked up the first six locks to tie between numbers six and five. It was perfect conditions for this lovely flight: sunny, just a bit of breeze, cumulus clouds drifting about against the cerulean arch above.

After we'd tied, I nipped off to the Co-op for a paper and some onions, and when I came back, there was Sheila chatting up some bloke on the towpath.

Typical, thought I, can't leave her alone for quarter of an hour without she's off. It turned out to be Andy off Khayamanzi, so this has been a couple of days of blogger spotting. He couldn't stop long, but it made another face to put to a blog.

After lunch we had another go at finding the elusive Twining's Micro cache. Between less cover in the absence of leaves on the trees, and my improving skill with the GPS, we went straight to it this time.

Very satisfying to locate one that's been eluding you.

Back at the boat we had a quiet afternoon, reading and doing internet stuff. We've downloaded a few more books from Project Gutenberg, some familiar, others just names we know. The great thing about doing your reading this way is that you can experiment with authors. All you risk is wasting a few minutes download and transfer time.

I've had a go at reading The Last of the Mohicans, for example, but Fennimore Cooper's prose is just too convoluted and flowery for me, so I've abandoned it in favour of one by Josephine Tey, an author I'd never come across until we started reading ebooks. Her style is very similar to Dorothy L Sayers, or the detective novels of Georgette Heyer.

Tomorrow we'll do the last five locks in the Atherstone flight, and toddle on to Hartshill for the night.