Wildlife and animals along the way

Grey squirrel 

Baby rabbit

Alpaca

Sleeping sheep

Hillside horses

How did he get there?!

Home Again

We seem to be coming home rather a lot thus year! However,  we had a good last few days on board with the sun coming through and warming things up a bit although the persistent wind was still a nuisance.

All Saints Church in the sunshine

We arrived just outside Braunston on Saturday and we're therefore able to go to All Saints on Sunday morning and received the normal warm welcome.  Our good friends Sue and Pete were going to meet us for lunch in The Old Plough, which is just along the road from the church.  It was so good to catch uo with them and we enjoyed an excellent roast lunch followed by a stroll in the warm sunshine back to Hunters Moon.

Sue and Pete feeding the ducks from Hunters Moon

It was so lovely that we decided to move the boat into Braunston together with Sue and Pete so they only had a short walk back to their car. A pleasant little journey .

After saying cheerio to our friends we then had a beautiful evening cruise to another of our favourite moorings where we watched a stunning sunset on a warm, still evening. Summer at last??!!

We moved into Wigwams Turn Marina on Monday morning where we had arranged to moor Hunters Moon for a couple of weeks whilst we settle Jenny's mum into her nursing home, sort out her house and get it fit for putting on the market and also for Sid to get to the dentist, having lost part of a tooth, and investigate further treatment to sort his heart out.

We are not sure  how the rest of our summer will pan out yet so thus may be our last post for a while but we will resume when our travels resume.

Moving into 'high summer'!

Well, as June moves into July we are still wearing our fleeces, the skies are full of rain threatening clouds, the wind is chilly and gusty and for a couple of evenings recently we have had the stove fired up to dry us out and warm us up. I suppose we are past the longest day and soon we will notice the nights drawing in!

Wild Orchids at Hilmorton Locks 

The fields of yellow during May have turned green and some are sprinkled with bright red poppies. Some fields have been taken over by poppies and create a breathtaking  and moving sight.
The blossom, so beautiful and abundant last month, has almost disappeared from the hedgerows now with the exception of the blackberries. elderflowers and wild roses. We should be in for a bumper crop of berries and hips this year.  The green canal side look as though they are waiting to be brushed with summer colour.

                        
                               Double Rainbow over the Oxford Canal

After all the recent heavy rain the towpaths are very, very muddy especially where they are shaded from the small glimpses of sunshine on offer.

Atherstone Flight

Not one of our best journeys!  We climbed the flight in the pouring rain, all the way up the 11 locks behind two single handers. One of these, the one at the front, was very, very slow , nothing wrong with that but in the rain it just gets wearing!  The other chap was poetry in motion the way he stepped off his moving boat whilst entering locks and the way he moved about the lock and stepped back onto his boat as he left each lock. Jenny felt positively slow and plodding in comparison.

However, at one lock the board on the top gate, used for crossing the gate, was missing, which could have caused a bit of a problem for Jenny , her legs are too little to step across the bottom gates when opening them, but Super Sid came to the rescue by stepping from Hunters Moon whilst she was moving into the lock, so he could close one of the lower gates. That too was poetry in motion but we should not be surprised because he has been known to be nimble on his feet in the past!

The flight, which normally takes a couple of hours, took us 4 hours! The final three locks wee manned by volunteers. They were a very welcome sight!

Stopped for lunch, fed up and wet and cold. Flaming June!! Not here!

Decided to call it a day, find a pub and get back in touch with the world!

Rain across Atherstone flight. 

Jenny's Predictions

Whatever happened to the good summer Jenny forecast earlier in our trip. All the signs pointed towards it but so far  it was as useless as the Met Office forecasts!

The past couple of days have bought challenging, cold northwesterly winds with rain threatening.. However, we have managed to stay dry with rain coming in the evening and overnight.

We are pressing on with our return journey having now reached Fazeley Junction, near Tamworth.

We had an unnerving incident with a hire boat yesterday when the helmsman lost control and smashed into us! The lady on board apologised, the bloke steering said he couldn't control the boat and the third person on board said it was all our fault!  When the crash happened Jenny was inside making tea. The jolt sent a shudder right through the boat and the noise was startling.  Plates rattled, glasses chinned and Jenny wondered what on earth was happening! We were both okay as we're the folk on the hire boat which was the most important thing. Then we went on are way shaken but not stirred!

Tuesday 28 June
We left  our mooring at Fazeley early to visit the facilities to dispose of rubbish, empty, cassettes and fill with water. We then managed to get to near the bottom lock at Atherstone before the heavens opened and decided to call it a day.

Back on Board

Saturday morning

We have had an eventful and emotional week back in Chichester and have now returned to Great Haywood Marina to complete are rather curtailed travels by retracing our outward journey.
Whilst back in Chichester we managed to catch up with children and grandchildren, visit the nursing home that we hope Jenny's mum can move into, Sid had his Consultant appointment, which was a little worrying but enabled him to acquire yet another gadget, (recommended by his consultant), and we had a meeting with the manager of the Kings Lodge Nursing Home to assess Jenny's mum's needs when she moves there. Quite emotional!

 Then to end the week the result of the referendum, which stunned everyone but we are lucky enough to live in a democtratic country and it is what it is and I am sure  after a period of challenging adjustment the UK will emerge changed but still a 'Great' country.

We left Great Haywood this morning in bright sunshine and soon found a queue at  the first lock. This was soon worked through by the four women who had gathered there from boats travelling up and down through the lock whilst setting the world and our respective travelling companions to rights!

We have found a pleasant mooring for lunch just outside  of Rugeley and feeling rather jaded still and with rain threatening we have decided to stay put!

As we moored Sid made another friend, Roy, who introduced himself after congratulating Sid on his 'boatman's hitch'. " Your the only other person, apart from me, who I've ever seen doing that". Once again, what can I say?

What's this in the water?

A Good Samaritan had tied this huge tree trunk to the side of the canal to keep it out of fellow boaters way! Too heavy to  pull out of the water!

Tixall Wide

Today we have passed the results of the enormous amount of rain that the Midlands has experienced recently.  Flooded fields after field where it is difficult to distinguish the river amongst all the water!

After a long day, to make up for lost time with trees across the canal etc we arrived at Tixall wide.

View from our Tixall Wide mooring 

This is a remarkable stretch of canal where the water is as wide as the Thames and the surrounding countryside is stunning. We had noted it on our way through earlier in our journey  and thought what a beautiful mooring, away from the motorways and railway, on the edge of the Shugborough estate. But, sadly, although it would have been the perfect place to spread out onto the towpath to enjoy a bbq in long June evening, it is absolutely hammering down with rain and our solar light has illuminated at 4.30 in the afternoon!

So much for the good summer Jenny forecast!

Hunters Moon is going into Great Haywood Marina for a rest whilst we return to Chi.