Yet another good day

It's been quite a lot like yesterday, though it started off much cloudier. Indeed, as we walked to the Farm Shop it actually rained a little bit, though not enough to make us wish we'd worn waterproofs.

At the shop it was the usual story. We'd only gone to get a cabbage and some greens, but the butchery counter was open and all the usual tempting stuff was on display, so a fair bit of purchasing occurred. This included some home grown asparagus, yum, which we'll have tonight as a starter before our pork loin steaks with broccoli and mashed spud.

Back at the boat we had an early coffee then made a start on the polishing, it now being not just dry but trying to be sunny. We did this side in easy stages, breaking for lunch after the first third and for another break halfway through the remainder. In addition, Sheila did the wax on, as a result of which we've achieved a much better finish.

As may be imagined, we've been taking it easy since.

Tomorrow, we'll set off again, back the way we came. We'll probably stop at the pig farm, sorry, Taft Wharf, for the night, then back through Rugeley on Tuesday.

Vigour and Sloth in the Sun

It's been a day of two halves. With no plans to move on until at least Monday, we had a relaxed start this morning. It had been very chilly indeed overnight; indeed there was a bit of frozen condensation under the galley Houdini when I took the bung out. Fortunately, we'd dropped the cratch cover last evening, so the frost had not reached the plants stowed in there.

It was also very sunny, and by the time we'd finished breakfast, it was warmer under the cratch cover in the well deck than inside the cabin. We rolled the cover back up and I gave Sheila a hand to pot up yesterday's plant purchases in the troughs.

It was now very pleasant in the sun, so we took advantage of the situation by turning to and washing,rinsing and drying the port side (no one except Sheila seems to have noticed my "deliberately" mistaken reference to the starboard side yesterday...)

The sun was already strong enough to make this a little challenging. We had to work in short sections, especially between rinsing and drying to avoid the moisture steaming off before we'd finished. We'd thought of polishing the side after lunch, but a mixture of fatigue and the warmth of the steel made it inadvisable.

Instead, some constructive loafing in the sun was undertaken. There was a very chill wind blowing by now, but by placing the folding chairs on the towpath in the lee of the boat we escaped its malign impact.

In the meantime,the solar panel did its bit by recharging the battery bank from 85% to 100% by mid afternoon.

Tomorrow is expected to be cloudier but still dry, so the rejuvenated team should be able to get the polishing done then.

Serious boating

Well, by our standards, anyway. We set off at half seven this morning and by nine were tying in Rugeley. Loads of room on the 48hr VMs at that time, indeed loads of room on all the moorings we passed pretty well.

The new Tesco is enormous and has a pedestrianised route to it from the towpath, would you believe. Morrison's is going to have to work hard to compete, though things like their pasties are still much better. We stocked up on perishables like fruit, veg and bread, then set out again.

We'd normally only go as far as the pig farm at Bridge 69, sorry Taft Wharf, but today we wanted to get to Great Haywood to get a good choice of bedding plants before they all sell out this weekend. As a result, it was gone one o'clock before we'd tied on Tixall.

Loads of room here, too, which is odd. On a BH weekend, it would be packed out by now in previous years. Where is everybody?

We have indeed got exactly the plants Sheila wanted. We got them at £1.15 each rather than £1.25 because we were buying nine. 

We plan to stay here for the weekend, planting up the troughs, washing and polishing the starboard side of the boat and generally watching the world go by.

Then it'll be heigh ho for Crick, boating in easy stages as usual; all this dashing about doing five hours a day can't be good for you.

:)

Sitting tight at Tixall

It makes a change from getting tight at Tixall, I guess, though it may come to that later tonight…

/blur

We made it into the village for shopping this morning, dodging the first showers and the early gusts. Since then we've been hunkered down in the boat doing bits and pieces. I've relit the Squirrel to keep the damp out and to help dry the wash load that Sheila's got running.

I've been investigating Google Groups as a possible alternate to Yahoo for the Braidbar Owners' Group – it would be a bit of a hassle to swap them over, but with continuing concerns about Yahoo's security it might come to it and I want to spend a bit of time exploring the options.

Sheila's been sorting the banking; I'm so glad she looks after that stuff. Meanwhile our Fire Angel optical smoke alarm has started crackling at us; it looks like this is a problem with the Thermoptek alarms. The beast is still working but it's very irritating. I'll give them a ring tomorrow to see what they say; vacuuming it helped for a little, but now it's off again.

Hungarian goulash tonight, I think; it's back to winter meals in this wind and rain.

Tomorrow we plan to move on as far as the Pig Farm, then go through Rugeley to Kings Bromley on Saturday, where we'll rendezvous with Elanor and Sally.

Recovery day

The weather's not been quite as bad as forecast today, but we're still glad to have had a lazier day on Tixall. I was too tired yesterday to do more than a basic blog, which is a shame, as I could have gone on and on about how idyllic both the boating and the loafing were.

I might even have mentioned the considerate boaters who reopened Shutt Hill lock for us as we approached, thereby saving Sheila a bit of hassle; there were some boats tied right up to the end of the lock landing which would have made dropping me off mildly problematic, and getting back off and into the lock without scraping the nice new blacking even more so.

As his comment yesterday shows, this would have been a really good idea, as said considerate boaters were fellow blogger Nev and the long suffering and saintly Rachel.

/wahaha

My excuse for not recognising them is that they were in their new-to-them boat Percy, and very nice it looks too.

Thanks guys - hopefully we'll get a chance to inspect that superb looking boat next time our paths cross.

We strolled into the village in leisurely fashion this morning, first going to the southern end for a paper and some dental floss, then back to the Farm Shop for meat and bread. Sheila had found she was a bit short of potting compost to finish setting out her new plants in their troughs, so we nipped into the glass house there where we'd bought them to see if they had small bags of potting compost. The smallest they had was a grow bag, which would have been a bit of a lug along the towpath.

When we explained this to the nice lady she made us up a 10 litre bag of compost from her bulk supply and charged us just £1.50 for it. Good service indeed.

This afternoon we planned to rinse off and polish the starboard side of the boat, but it soon became apparent that it needed more than one go. The weed splashed up by the pressure washer had dried hard on, so we settled for an initial rinse and microfibring to get the bulk of that off. (Hint to Nev: if Percy looks like that after the pressure wash, get Lee to swill the hose over the cabin sides to take the worst of it off.)

The cabin side looks a lot better now, but will need the full monty next, that is a wash with detergent, a rinse and dry and then polishing in Karate Kid fashion.

("Wax on, wax off.")

We're still too weary to do that yet but hopefully will get to it either tomorrow or Friday.

Perhaps.

/nobigdeal

Back at Tixall

It's nearly three weeks since we left here to head slowly for Norbury Junction and it's taken us just two days to get back. Mind you, we're both looking forward to a couple of days not going anywhere…

/blur

With Rodbaston Lock to work almost straight away, we couldn't do our usual routine for an early start; instead we both hopped out of bed at ten to six, washed, dressed and breakfasted and by 6.15 were on our way, Sheila steering and your correspondent lockwheeling.

Incidentally, the pound came up of its own accord last night; examination of Rodbaston after we'd emptied it showed that the top cill is leaking like fury, resulting in the lock filling itself up even if left empty. No wonder the water levels were fluctuating.

Rodbaston, Otherton and Filance went by, after which we stopped on the water point in Penkridge to fill up. I even managed to get the one Independent that the nearby newsagent had. Tank full, off we went again down Penkridge, Longford, Park Gate, Shutt Hill and Deptmore. I started a washload after Longford and pottered about doing other chores during the rest of the time.

As we worked round Stafford it was getting near lunchtime, so I took an early one before we reached the last lock of the day, Tixall. We tied on Tixall Wide at half twelve; Sheila got her lunch whilst I rigged the whirligig to dry the wash load.

Since then we've walked on to the junction, dumped some recycling and made a first raid on the Farm Shop and Garden Centre. Sheila has got some plants to fill three of her troughs on the roof – she had nearly enough compost to do them – more will be bought tomorrow, I suspect.

We need to go in there again to get meat and bread in the morning anyway.

The forecast still looks pretty dire for Wednesday and Thursday, and not good for Friday, so it's likely to be the weekend before we move on. It's been a great couple of days boating in beautiful weather; it's just a shame it's not going to last.

A wild night

The wild weather continued all night, with sufficient wind to rock the boat from time to time. Despite that, we both managed to get a decent amount of kip, and were up and about betimes in the morning. The forecast continues to be quite hopeful for tomorrow and the weekend; we're looking forward to some pleasant boating along the Staffs and Worcs.

As I've probably said before, the canal north of Autherley Junction ("Cut End") is thought to be less attractive than the stretch from there to Stourport, but we quite like it. It's a mixed bag of rural and semi urban stuff, with the railway alongside for a time, and some truly beautiful lengths around Calf Heath where the Lichfield and Hatherton will hopefully join again one day.

We've not been idle; in the morning we walked into the village to get a loaf of bread for tomorrow and Saturday from the Spar. After coffee, we had a cleaning session indoors, working up an appetite for lunch.

In the afternoon, I did a bit of work on the quiz for the Braidbar Owners' weekend in September; I know that's a while yet, but I have to take advantage of the inspiration as it occurs.

Just before tea I started the engine and got the Dust Buster mini vacuum out, using it to clean the mats before putting them back down. It's surprising how much power the little vacuum draws; you can hear the engine note change as you switch it on and off.

We'll aim to make a reasonably early start tomorrow, the target being the towpath above Deptmore Lock, about three hours away, I suppose.

Sitting tight

Although it was calm first thing this morning, the wind has increased as the day went on until it was quite fierce again. It's stayed very mild, though, no doubt because the wind continues to blow from the south. Under the circumstances we were very glad to have decided to sit it out here. Tixall makes an excellent place to hang about, with pleasant views, a choice of wildlife to watch and shopping facilities just a healthy walk away.

The mobile signals are mostly OK, though the EE one tends to oscillate between Orange and T-mobile, with the result that things can get confused and hang up from time to time.

After breakfast we walked into the village via the towpath down to the lock, called in at the Post Office to draw some cash and went on to the newsagent and the pharmacy for some bits and bobs. By the time we were back at the boat it was just gone ten.

I'll need a supply of meds before we get to Norbury, so I gave the pharmacy in Brewood a call. They were happy to confirm that I could get a prescription sent direct to them from the surgery. My next task, then, was to print off a cover letter to Willington surgery and an sae addressed to the pharmacy.

This gave us an excuse for another walk after lunch to post it. It's stayed dry, so as long as you are not trying to steer a boat it's perfectly pleasant out. We've seen the occasional near miss with boats going under the junction bridge and making the turn onto the Trent & Mersey; it's a place to be wary of in a wind. The great danger is that the breeze blows you right across the junction onto the bank on the other side, from where it can a quite a struggle to get off.

The forecast is still very windy for tomorrow, so we've got another day to loaf about here; after that we'll probably make steady progress towards Brewood, getting there next Tuesday if all goes well.

Change of plan

Checking the forecast again, we decided last night that this morning was going to be the best least bad chance to boat for the next few days, especially if we set off first thing. So Sheila decreed a prompt start, it being her turn to steer and thus her decision.

We got away before eight in a light wind and frequent sunny spells and did indeed have a good run initially. Colwich Lock was negotiated on the heels of Kharis and another boat came up as we were locking up, thus saving us hassle as her lock wheeler closed the top gate for us.

Kharis had cleared Haywood by the time we got there; I nipped off to get a paper as Sanity Again rose in the lock, getting back just in time to see her leaving. Another boat was waiting to come down, so the level of traffic was just perfect.

Unfortunately the wind was now rising and Sheila had an interesting time negotiating the junction. She had to hover briefly whilst another boat emerged and an Anglo Welsh appeared from up the T&M then elected to stop on the water point. Being an experienced and skilled helmswoman she made the turn without difficulty, only having to go astern once when the wind threatened to blow the bow into the offside of the bridge hole.

I rejoined in the narrows just beyond and we plodded on to Tixall, where there was plenty of room and an on shore wind, making mooring easier than it might have been. We've got a good spot at the Haywood end of the Wide, where we'll stay until Friday, allowing the storm to blow itself out.

This afternoon we made an expedition to the Farm Shop, stopping off to unload rubbish and recycling on the way. Sadly, there's a sunken boat on the VMs between the junction and Swivel Bridge; it's got two patrol notices on it, so presumably CRT will eventually remove it. Mind you, it's obviously been there for a while judging by the silt accumulated on the decks where they are under water.

What a sad sight

Jo and Wynn James have just passed by in Voyager and moored a bit further on; we've seen several other Mercia boats over the past few days, but they are the first fellow moorers we've actually recognised.

Baking our brains at Tixall

The weather continues warm, though we had a pleasantly cool start to the day, so I was able to give Sally a decent run along the towpath whilst Sheila trekked into the shops. There, as well as settling for an i, she got some stuff from the Farm Shop. She'd either left it too late or gone too soon; the paper shop had sold both the Independents they had had, but the fresh bread and Scotch eggs had yet to be delivered to the Farm Shop.

No matter, the one Scotch egg they had left didn't look very special, apparently, so she got some pork sausages with garlic and black pepper. I'll grill them in advance, and then we can have them cold with salad. Apart from the meat, she also got some nice cherry tomatoes, and some new potatoes. These last are not very special looking, but the only really baby ones in stock had come from Israel, which seems crazy. Why import from the other end of the Med when UK farms are now in full production?

It seems odd in an establishment calling itself a Farm Shop, too, which to me implies locally grown produce.

No matter, the place is still worth a visit, though it's on the pricey side for other groceries. For example, the Cawston Press premium apple juice, which was selling at £2.05 a litre in Rugeley Morrisons the other day, was £2.65.

As may be imagined, since then we have been lurking, either in the boat, or baking our brains on the well deck. When I've posted this, Sheila is going to give me a haircut, then I'll trim my beard and have a very welcome shower.

Tomorrow, we'll move on a bit, through Stafford to above Deptmore Lock, probably, finally going on to Penkridge on Saturday, for our dog collecting rendezvous with Elanor on Sunday.

Onto Tixall

Or should that be "On, to Tixall"?

Oh well, please yourselves, as Mr Howerd used to say.

We judged the start time carefully this morning; there were a lot of boats tied around us by yesterday evening, and Colwich and Haywood Locks can get very busy. On the other hand, we were only going to Tixall, and didn't want to get there too soon, before others had moved on and cleared a space.

In the end, we set off at about half seven, Sheila having made a batch of bread dough in the meantime. This turned out to be exactly right; we didn't have to wait at either lock, though there was a fair bit of traffic the other way, and we found a space quite easily at Tixall, having run a washload en route.

We tied just one boat away from fellow Braidbar Owner John in Nimue, and had a natter with him after we'd got ourselves sorted out; that is, bread baked, wash load set out to dry, coffee drunk.

A wander back to the village meant that we walked Sally and got a paper before it was time for lunch.

It's been quite hot again this afternoon, so we've carried on lurking in the boat. Sal keeps stretching out flat on the floor, but otherwise seems to be coping with the heat; we're not at the stage of pouring buckets of water over her yet.

We'll stay here at least for tomorrow, and possibly the day after too, just depending on mood and weather.

A hard day's boating

...by our standards, anyway. We'd usually take two days to get from Kings Bromley to Tixall, but today we did it in one move. I got up and started boating by half six, whilst Sheila made a more leisurely rise. Once we'd both had breakfast, it was half seven and we were threading through the wilds of Handsacre and Armitage.

By nine we were in Rugeley, and found a mooring just in front of Tony and Sue on Jenny Wren. Seemingly, they originated in that town, and have never had problems overnighting or leaving the boat there. One word of advice to those with longer boats; the visitor mooring is bendy, the uncontrolled stuff is straight.

We had a good shopping trip, visiting the butcher, Wilkinson's, Morrisons and Lowndes the fruiterer. By now it was after ten, and there was a lot more traffic about. It took a while to get going, but once away, steady progress was made. Sheila had to hold back to allow the converted working boat Hawkesbury to wind at the deceptive winding hole beyond Brindley Bank (it looks really good, but is well filled up with mud, as Sally reported the other week) and then we followed him through to Great Haywood.

We had to queue for a little while below Colwich, and for longer below Haywood, but then had no problem finding a mooring on Tixall. We'd been going from 6.30 to 13.30.

After a very belated lunch, we made an expedition to the newly reorganised canalside farm shop. It's a changed place, and well worth a visit, though still rather pricey. There's a serious butchery, and the greengroceries have been expanded and much improved from the rather sad display we saw over the winter.

Call in if you're passing.

We've now collapsed on the boat, rather, though Sheila's given the flowers a good seeing to. Another early start tomorrow, and on to Stafford BC for a couple of nights.

Another lazy day at Tixall

It's been really good to have these couple of days doing not very much here at Tixall Wide, even if it leaves me short of things to blog about. We'll be frantic enough for the second half of the month, rigging the IWA Waterways Festival, so it makes sense just to, I was going to say chill, but that's not appropriate in this heat, to kick back and loaf for a bit.

We had a report from Elanor yesterday about Sally's performance at the latest agility demo. This was a Labradoodle Trust fun day and dog show, at which Capable Canines were doing a demo. By the sound of things, this went better as far as Sally was concerned than last time; she still gets a bit excited but was less inclined to abandon the ring to go and visit the rest of the show.

Elanor also entered her for some of the show classes, and took a fifth for longest tail, and another for best rescue dog. Here are some photos I took the other day of her:

Alertdog

Intellidog

Trackerdog

Today, we made a lazy start, then ambled round to the village for a paper and for some new potatoes - it's going to be salad again tonight.

Typically, it looks like the weather is going to break tomorrow, just as we're setting off back to Alrewas.

Heigh ho, can't have everything, I guess.

Quiet Sunday

As expected, it was a merry night last night, though we were comparatively abstemious in the matter of alcohol. Bill and Eileen are always good company, and it was eleven o'clock before they tore themselves away.

With no particular plan in mind, we took our time getting up this morning, though the weather was very tempting, being wall to wall sunshine. We ambled into Great Haywood to get a paper, but were frustrated in this. Neither of the shops had a copy of the Independent on Sunday, though it was still only around nine o'clock.

No matter, the walk had been very pleasant, and it made sure we'd got our two miles in for the day.

For the rest, we've been loafing on the boat, reading and dozing in the sunshine and chatting to passers-by on the towpath.

I have taken some time to tweak the design of the blog pages. Thank you to all those who have commented, especially Davidss, whose comments had a professional ring to them. I've increased the saturation of all the text colours, and changed a couple of the ones used for hyperlinks. I've also increased the size of the body text from 14 to 16 point, since a couple of you said that you found the text a bit small.

Hopefully this has improved readability, but do feel free to comment further folks.

We plan to stay put tomorrow,  then head back towards Alrewas, arriving on Thursday to meet up with Elanor and Sally. I'll see if I can get Sally to do a couple of posts over next weekend, but I'm told that she's feeling very weary after a busy day yesterday at an agility demo.

At Tixall for a few days

Wanting to be at Tixall this weekend gave us a bit of a conundrum with regard to start time. With Colwich and Haywood locks to negotiate, we wanted to be there good and early, but knowing that the Wide will be very popular this weekend, arriving there before ten would probably be a bad idea.

In the end, we made a very early start, and so had no problems with the locks. there wasn't any usable space above Haywood, but as we headed round onto the Wide, we were passed by two boats coming away, and sure enough, there was a nice large space.

Also here is New Dawn, Braidbar 45, with her crew of Bill and Eileen, aka Jack and Vera (sorry, Braidbar Owners' Group in-joke). After we''d tied and waited whilst the washing machine finished doing its thing, we went back and had a couple of cups of coffee with them, not returning to Sanity Again until it was time for lunch.

This afternoon has passed quietly, though I did go and do my Good Samaritan act with a woman who couldn't get her locking diesel cap to open. She's recently widowed,but is continuing to cruise the family narrowboat, in company with a friend, also widowed.

Good luck to them, say I.

Bill and Eileen are coming round for a drink tonight, so a merry evening is in store, hopefully.

Two family members have expressed approval of the new design for this blog, but Mike preferred the old one, which he feels was easier to read. I'd be interested to hear other opinions, especially if there's a way in which I can improve readability by altering the various font and background colours.

Pictures at last

Today, at last, the pictures of Sanity Again on the dock. The main thing to mention from our boating today was the start, which was just a tad delayed by our fascination with the lapwings in the field opposite, one of which had taken exception to a very smart red pheasant sitting in the middle of the field.

The lapwing was buzzing it again and again. Maybe the pheasant was sitting right where the lapwing wanted to nest...

We've made it to Tixall without much drama, taking our usual couple of hours or so.The canal was very shallow past Milford Wharf, where there's a line of offside moorings. We know that some of these boats charge their batteries by running their engines in gear, and reckon that this has blown silt right across the cut.

Anyway, the photos:

Settled on the dock with gangplank rigged

One year's accumulation of muck

The sluice that drains the last of the water from the dock

Remains of the lock tail out the back

Starting to refill by lifting the top plank

Nice shiny bow

...and a shiny side.

The dock is constructed on what was the first of 17 locks leading down the hill at the start of the Newport Branch. If ever they are restored, there'll be a need for an alternative dock, unless the plan for a new inclined plane comes off despite local opposition.

A short trip

As I tweeted, it turned out Sheila didn't need to go to Lincoln after all, so Elanor and Sally came across just to visit this afternoon, and we boated round the corner from Great Haywood to Tixall Wide. This means that the young ladies will walk back to the Farm Shop Car Park in a while, giving Sally a bit of a walk in the process.

Sally was very excited to be boating again, standing on the bow locker lid and bawling insults at any passing ducks. A couple of guys on the towpath wondered if she was the product of a Jack Russell/Doberman cross, which leaves the mind boggling slightly. Maybe they were feeling cheerful for substance related reasons...

Otherwise it's been a pretty quiet day, though we did get the bed changed this morning (gosh...)

The other positive was that Elanor brought the repaired barometer with her, and I've restored it to its rightful place on the galley bulkhead. All in all, excellent service from FCC Precision.

Tomorrow, we'll head on down the Staffs and Worcs, probably to a mooring between Deptmore Lock and Acton Trussell, then on again to Penkridge the next day. We had planned to water at Great Haywood, but the water point was pretty crowded, with Anglo Welsh boats tied on the junction end of it blocking a clear view of just how much length there was to tie on.

We've got between a quarter and half a tank (OK, we've got three eighths of a tank), so we should last until the next water point at Penkridge, the one at Milford Wharf having gone.

Heading back to Rugeley

4th & 5th August

After I'd posted last time, we discovered a down side to the mooring just to the north of Acton Trussell. I don't know whether there was a herd of cows nearby, or whether it was just the consequence of continuing warm, damp weather, but we were plagued by flies that evening, and the fly swat had to be wielded with skill and vigour to keep them under control. It didn't help that the weather took on a pattern of showers with quite pleasant interludes, so that we kept opening the bow doors and side hatches and then closing them again after a new battalion of flies had entered.

We used to use one of those electric tennis racket type high tech fly swats, but in the confines of the boat it seemed quite large and clumsy, and a 50p basic fly swat from Aldi now meets our needs. It helps to know that flies can't see behind them, so the trick is to bring the swat down through that blind spot.

We made a prompt start yesterday morning in pleasant enough weather and were soon working down Deptmore Lock. Out of curiosity, I timed us through the lock, which took ten minutes from start to finish, as opposed to the fifty it had taken coming the other way on a busy Saturday.

Although the water tank was still half full, we decided to water again at Milford Wharf, so as to save complex manoeuvring at Great Haywood. Accordingly, we tied once more on the rather broken bank next to the underpass beneath the West Coast Main Line. Having got Sanity settled, I got the hose out and handed it to Sheila who was standing on the bank. As she turned round, we both realised what was missing from the scene. The water point which we had used just three days before was no longer there; indeed it was hard to tell where it had been, since the area beneath its former location was covered in woodchip.

To be fair, it was always a slightly odd water point, consisting as it did of a tap inside an ammunition box fixed to the stone facing of the railway embankment and secured shut with a length of chain and a BW padlock. There was, however, a sign saying "Mooring for water point only" together with another pleading with dog owners not to let their animals foul the area. Both of these signs have also disappeared, to be replaced by quantities of dog poo.

I'd always assumed that the tap was primarily for the benefit of the Milford Wharf moorers; perhaps they are to have water supplied directly to the moorings in future.

Disappointed and just a little surprised, we plodded on over the Sow aqueduct and down Tixall Lock. Tixall Wide had ample choice of mooring, again in marked contrast to the weekend before. As soon as we'd tied up, Sheila found herself engaged in technical discussions with two women from other boats about her port hole doilies and the TripleFlex synthetic whalebone with which we mount them in the portholes.

It was one of those off and on discussions where people went away and told their friends and the friends then showed up at the side hatches with further questions. It was just about petering out when Jo and then Keith from Hadar showed up for a natter. We'd been discussing whether the boat we could see arriving further back down the wide was Hadar so we were not entirely surprised when they turned up.

Since it kept trying to rain on us, we retreated to the cabin for cups of coffee and a thorough catching up session. They'd had a good Canalway Cavalcade, and told us that they are likely to be trading on the Leicester Section next winter.

After they'd gone I popped into Great Haywood for a newspaper and some pasties to eke out the bread supply from the day before.

Since the weather continued damp, we had another afternoon of lurking in the cabin. Sheila is still producing crochet as fast as she can, and we did some more work on the quiz for the Braidbar Owners' weekend. It's very nearly finished; the main need now is to sort out the images for the picture round.

I've also decided not to use a question I was quite looking forward to, as I couldn't find independent verification of the answer from any of my sources. The question was going to be "If the M in MG stands for Morris, what does the R in PRM stand for?"

I'll leave this one as an exercise for the reader.

We made an early start today as we now needed to water at Great Haywood and then work down Haywood and Colwich locks before they got busy. Sheila steered along the rump of the Staffs and Worcs while I ate breakfast and then took over on the helm. Fortunately, it was a flat calm and since it was not yet seven o'clock there were no gongoozlers about. Under these circumstances I did a perfect reverse turn onto the water point. Sheila ate her breakfast while the tank was filling, and I got rid of the rubbish and recycling.

Then we went merrily on, having Haywood to ourselves and crossing with an Anglo Welsh hire boat at Colwich. We've tied just beyond bridge 69 between Wolseley Bridge and Rugeley and had finished the day's boating just after half nine. The batteries not being fully charged, we ran a wash load straightaway whilst I checked for local geocaches.

There was one back toward Wolseley Bridge, so once the socks were washed we set off to find it. As a result we found a curious brick tunnel with a blind end between the river and the canal. It's not mentioned in any of the guides as far as I know, and it's hard to know what can have been its original purpose.

Having succeeded in finding the cache, we carried on back to Wolseley Bridge and then walked up the road away from the canal and river to the service station which is also a Post Office and general store. There we were able to buy a copy of The Independent before heading back to Sanity to lunch off some baguettes I had baked earlier.

The weather has steadily improved this afternoon and is now very pleasant. It took a real effort of will to come in from dozing on the bow to write this blog post.

Loafing and ambling towards Penkridge

31st July & 1st August

Yesterday was a day to catch up with ourselves after the excitements of the week. We stayed where we were on Tixall Wide, making a leisurely start to the day after a good night's sleep. The weather was fine and bright at first but it soon reverted to this summer's disappointing pattern of gusty wind and cool showers.

I plodded into Great Haywood to post the pension application and to get a paper, but otherwise we spent the rest of the day lurking in the boat.

A fair bit of time was spent on the internet by one, the other or both of us. The most visible evidence of this is a long post on the Building Sanity Again blog describing our meeting with Peter Mason. We were also taking advantage of a fast connection to research such matters as the additional cost of double glazed portholes (£20 a time, more or less).

In the evening Elanor took advantage of our continuing proximity to Burton on Trent to come for dinner and stayed for much of the evening. It was particularly good to see her since she will be away on a wrg camp when we come back through Burton next weekend.

This morning it was raining again. I made yet another trip into Great Haywood for bread and the paper, then we set off for a run to Penkridge over the next couple of days, just for the sake of the boating. The fact that we are doing so demonstrates an important point about the nature of our continuous cruising.

If we lived on the boat solely because it is a cheap lifestyle and so allowed us to retire early, we would have stayed put at Tixall for the next few days. It isn't a restricted mooring and we could always have nipped back to Great Haywood if we needed to fill the water tank. As it is, because we live on the boat in order to do as much boating as possible, we've chosen to move on.

Actually, we must really be dedicated boaters, because conditions today were far from ideal. It rained most of the time, we stopped to water at Milford Wharf and had the usual struggle to tie the boat there, and we got mixed up with a convoy of boats from the Watch House Cruising Club on the Bridgewater Canal.

Furthermore, about half the total length of towpath from Milford, round the south of Stafford, to the Hazelstrine Bridge at Stafford Boat Club was occupied by dedicated anglers.

When we got to Deptmore Lock, there were several boats waiting to go up and several more arrived behind whilst we were queuing. Because Deptmore is very deep, it's slow to turn round and it took us fifty minutes to get through the lock.

We've stopped on the towpath just beyond and have spent the afternoon largely relaxing in the boat, attempting the various quizzes in the Saturday Independent and doing this blog. (Sheila points out that she has been gainfully employed on the current crochet order, which is just as well as she has just had another enquiry. Since Sanity Again with have fourteen portholes, it's clearly going to be a while before she gets a break from making her decorative doilies.)

The afternoon is cold and clammy enough that we've put the central heating on. If the weather doesn't improve soon, I'm going to buy a bag of coal and relight the stove.

Meeting Peter and on to Tixall

29th & 30th July

The plan yesterday was to make an early start, as we'd estimated three hours from our overnight mooring to the shopping mooring in Rugeley, and we wanted to get there at around ten o' clock. Peter Mason planned to be with us at midday, which suited us well as we prefer not to overnight in the centre of that town.

None of this worked out quite as planned, but it all turned out for the best in the end. We had severely overestimated the time needed to get from Handsacre to Rugeley, so we made a halt on the water point between Hawkesyard Hall and the Ash Tree to top up the water tank. We still got to Rugeley in very good time but as usual there was plenty of room on the visitor moorings at that time of day.

We had a relaxed shop in Wilkinson's and Morrison's and were back on the boat by half ten. We put all the shopping away and settled to wait for Peter to show up. A couple of texts from him indicated firstly that he was a little later leaving Braidbar than planned and then that heavy traffic was slowing him down. In the event it was more like half one before he was with us.

We had a most excellent and useful meeting, and I'll try and give the highlights of it on the Building Sanity Again blog tomorrow. Peter didn't leave us until half five, by which time it felt too late to move on. Town centre moorings do not feel as threatening in the middle of the holiday season, when they are very busy. Our only concern was that today's cruising involved those major pinch points of the narrow canals, Colwich and Haywood Locks.

We dealt with this by making a flying start this morning. Sheila washed, dressed and started boating whilst I made a cup of tea, performed my own ablutions and ate breakfast. We then swapped over on the tiller so that Sheila could finish sorting herself out for the day and get her breakfast.

We made steady progress, although it was apparent that we had done well to sit tight last night, as all the places that we would have considered for a rural mooring were completely full. We got to Colwich lock at half seven and followed another boat up. At Great Haywood, once Sanity was rising in the lock, I nipped off to get a paper, there being no lack of assistance for Sheila with the lock since there was now a boat following us and one waiting to come down.

I caught up with Sanity at the junction bridge, and we were able to find a space on Tixall Wide at around ten. In fact we could have afforded to have arrived a little later, as by lunch time many of the other boats had moved off.

We've had a busy day. The engine hours counter was showing 6999, so after a leisurely coffee to allow the engine to cool, Sheila did a major service with my advice, thus reducing the strain on my slowly recovering shoulder. The main difficulty here was the discovery that Shobnall Chandlery had sold us the wrong fuel filter. Fortunately, Sheila had been able to remove the old one without damaging it so we just put it back on, but we still had the joy of bleeding it.

After lunch, we needed to complete an application form for my NHS pension. The only problem with this was that we discovered we needed a witness to my signature, and as a potential beneficiary, Sheila could not perform this office. We had a walk along all the moorings at Tixall and in Great Haywood without finding anyone we knew. This is, of course, about the first time in the last fortnight we've not bumped into an acquaintance.

In the end we went into the Anglo Welsh office where they know us as customers and one of the staff there was kind enough to oblige. The boating community is indeed a wonderful thing.

Back at the boat Sheila took photocopies of everything, sealed the application in its envelope and walked back to Great Haywood yet again to put it in the post. I cleaned up the engine room and put everything tidily away whilst she was gone. She duly came plodding back looking rather grim faced; the Post Office here chooses to have a half day on Thursdays.

No wonder the Royal Mail struggles to match its commercial competitors; none of them would consider for a moment being unavailable in the middle of the working week.

We are now in the happy position of having some time to kill, so we'll stay here tomorrow, I'll do the walk into Great Haywood this time and we'll get this application on its way.