Rain, rain, rain!,

'To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells with a sweet kernel; to set budding more, and still more, later flowers for the bees,  until they think warm days will never cease;'


Back in our waterproofs we worked our way through the 11 Cudworth locks in a miserable drizzle. After seeing so few boats on the past few days it was good to encounter more canal folk today, despite the inclement weather. The journey went well with most locks in our favour until we arrived at Lock 9. Here we were joined by a very excited black and white sherpdog. He seemed to just appear from nowhere!  He obviously had an issue with lock gates. He barked and danced about around the beam and made it very difficult to operate. He seemed totally crazy and no owner seemed to be about. Jenny eventually managed to open the top gate and Sid gingerly drove Hunters Moon into the lock.  We were both conceded for the dogs safety on the lock side. Boat in lock and now the struggle to close the top gate with  the barking, dancing, crazy dog making it rather a challenge!  Where was the owner of this irritating dog who obviously knew the lock procedure because he immediately ran down to the lower gate and started the same performance around that beam. Jenny was getting a bit fed up with this unhelpful dog.

As soon as the bottom gate was opened he ran down the towpath and waited for us to head his way before he made his way to the next lock and the same antics started all over again until Jenny spied another dog viewing the proceedings from the corner of the bridge, across the opposite side of the lock. It was dark brown and black and had the look of a rottweiler.  Jenny, who for those who don't know is not a dog lover,  in fact she is a little bit afraid of unknown dogs! This situation was not to her liking so she made her way slowly back towards Hunters Moon as she slowly approached the lock. As the new dog started to run towards the sheepdog, and Jenny, Jenny started to panic and was rather frightened by the situation and attempted to get on the boat  and out of harms way, which she did once Sid got the boat near the bank. In hindsight the the dogs just wanted to play but due to her fear of dogs reason went out of the window.  At least we were able to make our way through lock 10 without any further trouble as both dogs had disappeared along the towpath.

The rest of our rather damp journey was uneventful and we arrived at a very busy Fazeley Junction and managed to find a mooring amid the long line of moored boats.  So, this is where they have all been hiding!!