Lit the stove and the sun came out

Boating was a bit challenging this morning, as the wind had really come up and was pinning us to the towpath. In the end, Sheila backed Sanity Again into the lee of some trees and, with a lot of skill and not a few revs, got us away. The weather stayed cloudy, breezy and cold all morning, to the extent that I decided to relight the stove by half ten.

On arrival at Fradley, we found no usable spaces on the Coventry moorings (there was just one that proved to be 65' long), so we stopped on the water point to top up the tank before dropping down Junction Lock. To our surprise, there were volunteer lockies on duty. One of them explained to Sheila that they worked four days a week "so the the regular guy can do other stuff".

Regular guy? What regular guy? We've been boating through Fradley for at least ten years now, and I've never seen a lock keeper on duty. Bank side workers, sure, there were some about today fixing a fence, but never anyone stood there, windlass in hand, supervising the lock.

We probably wouldn't have moved today, but Graeme and the grandkids are visiting this weekend, and Alrewas makes a good rendezvous for the purpose, since there's a handy play park and all. If he rings tonight to say he's changed his mind, I'm going to cut him off with a shilling.

Ouch!

Just hope we can get tied down there tomorrow; I walked down this afternoon (to buy a paper, naturally), and all the 14 days moorings were pretty full.

Nature notes

Sheila rightly points out that I don't report enough on the joys of being so close to nature as we boat about the place, so two items here to redress the balance:

Firstly, whilst boating past Hopwas Woods on both occasions this week, we've heard a cuckoo giving it some welly. I don't think I've ever heard a cuckoo in that part of the world before, though it's an ideal place for it. Like many MoD locations, one benefit is to encourage wildlife.

Secondly, Sheila spotted her first cygnets of the year this morning. It's a bit hard luck on the poor things, in view of the cold cold wind. Mind you, a) they'll grow up into those nasty great bullies and b) having lit the stove, the sun's come out, of course.

Finally, we note a growing fashion for chainsaw sculpted mushrooms decorating the roofs of boats, mostly those of the hippy hutch persuasion. Is this just a trend, or is it a secret sign of some kind, such as "special herbs available here"?

/hmm