Beautiful day in Alrewas

But first, to catch up with yesterday: I forgot to mention that the other thing we did in the afternoon was to swap our seasonal clothes over, putting away the polo shirts and shorts, and getting out the long sleeved stuff. I think that this is probably the earliest we've done it, and inevitably today has been glorious, positively warm.

We had an OK meal in the Swan last night, good value for what it was. The place was quite busy with bikers, even more so than usual – a quick Google revealed that yesterday was the day of the Ride To The Wall, the bikers' charity trip to the National Memorial Arboretum.

The downside of tying at Fradley is the pub's popularity with our two wheeled friends; nothing wrong with that in itself, of course, but the afternoon and early evening was made hideous by the snarl of exhausts, including one with a serious backfire problem, running up and down the access road alongside the towpath.

We had a very lazy start today, and finally set off just a bit before half nine. We found ourselves following two single handers down Keepers and Hunts Locks; the guy in front then tied above Bagnall, but the lady between him and us went down Bagnall, winded and came back up to tie on the last space beyond the road bridge, we having bagged the one nearer the lock whilst she did so. She's busy repainting her boat, and needed access to the other side.

We'd not been settled long when Elanor and Sally turned up with a carful of groceries. I'd have got Sal to do this post, but she's gone off with her Mum to have a charge about on Cannock Chase – she wasn't very amused at the sight of all that food, including yummy cheese and mince, being put away without a chance to snaffle some.

By the time the stuff was all checked off and stowed, it was lunchtime. We avoided the post prandial doziness by taking a stroll round the village and down to the river. The main sight there was a whole bunch of swans messing about just above the quarter mile bridge, doing eskimo rolls in the water and chasing each other around.

It's clearly been a good summer for swans if for no-one else.

Braidbar number 61, Shiraz, has turned up; Roger and Janet are on their way back to Mercia like ourselves. We've had a chance to exchange gossip with them already, and will no doubt see them again over the next few days.