Not our salad days, then...

"If I start looking behind me 

or begin retracing my track 

I'll remind you to remind me 

We said we wouldn't look back."

(Reynolds and Slade)

Retracing our track is exactly what we've been doing, though at our age we certainly can't claim to be in our Salad Days anyway. We're back in Hillmorton, on almost exactly the mooring we used on our way to Crick. It took a bit longer coming back, as there are now loads of boats tied on the towpath at various locations between here and there, it being a fine weekend in June.

The day started reasonably well with an early move to the water point by the Stop House. Whilst Sheila supervised the tank filling and took the opportunity to rinse the dust and muck off the side with the aid of a bucket of water and the Washmatik, I walked up the hill to get a paper and some top up supplies of ale.

The paper was no problem, the beer more so. The shop had Bass in cans at £4.96 for 4, not bad for a local shop, but couldn't sell them to me as it wasn't yet eight o'clock, the hour at which the Law says alcohol may be sold off licence on a Saturday.

/floor

Heigh ho, it made an excuse for a walk after lunch, when we went back up the flight and along the towpath to the Canal Shop behind the Old Royal Oak, where I got four cans of John Smith's Original for £5.16.

We'd run a washload on the way and it's now drying on the rack in the well deck, there being too much wind to risk the whirligig.

There's a lot of traffic to and fro, some of it struggling with aforesaid wind,  which can indeed be a problem around here.

Tonight, pork chops; tomorrow, so much more.

Well, a run to Newbold to do a bit more shopping (the Tesco won't be open when we go through Brownsover, it being Sunday) and then on towards Ansty. We'll stop when we feel like it, but are now committed to getting to Springwood Haven on Monday to meet up with Chris and Anne Blaydon off Thomas Tallis that evening. We owe them a hangover from the last time we saw them in Poynton…

/wahaha