Not all good, then, but pretty good...

Last night at Lowsonford (sounds like an arty film) there was very little Vodafone signal, and nothing at all of either 3 or O₂, thus no blog. I was able to tether the mobile to the Mac via Bluetooth and get email and stuff, but blogging would have been a step too far.

Also, we met Adam and Adrian, who have not long bought Briar Rose, Braidbar number 76. They invited us in for a celebratory glass of wine in the late afternoon, and it turned into a very pleasant evening. Adam cooked chilli, which he served with home baked bread rolls (scrummy), and we sat, gossiped and swapped scandal until quite late.

During the day, we'd had a very pleasant run to Kingswood Junction, then down ten locks to Lowsonford. I took some photos on the way:

Lets just tie on the lock landing, why not?

Stratford Lock cottage

Steerer's eye view of a Stratford Lock

The visitor mooring at Lowsonford is quite limited, so turning up in good time is wise. Adam and Adrian ended up locking down and finding an unused long term mooring almost at the next lock.

This morning, we did another nine locks, ending up at Wooton Wawen. There's a substantial farm shop complex here, but don't let it stop you from visiting the equally useful village shop. On the way, we passed Braidbar 70, Phoebe, going the other way, the second time this year, the last being on the way up to Crick; it just shows how we get about.

Here at Wooton Wawen, we found The Briar Rose, crewed by Geoff and Helen, fellow workers at the IWA Festival. Adam and Adrian caught up in due course, so we had the two Roses in view.

The bad news is that at lock 36 my nice new PMR radio somehow slipped off its temporary lanyard and fell into the lock. We fished about with the Sea Searcher magnet for a bit, as testing the other one showed that it would just grip the radio, but it was really  a case of satisfying ourselves that we'd done all we could.

We're so pleased with them, I've ordered another pair, so we'll end up with three altogether. But this time, proper lanyards will be made before we deploy them...