Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Baa Baa Black Sheep.....

We decided to stay where we were on Easter Monday as the weather forecast wasn't good. When we woke up there was snow on the ground but before I could get too excited the rain came....and came....and didn't stop!!
 
This gorgeous little lamb spent most of the day looking in the boat bleating. I did think about picking him up to join us on our travels but thought Scully might not be to happy with that idea.


 The next morning seemed a lot clearer so we decided to set of at 9 and see where we could get to.
                                     
The River Trent was up to the top of its banks..the ducks and Canada geese are having a great time.





This is the dog who was always outside, no matter what the weather-snow rain or sunshine.....She has now decided that at the first spot of rain( and I mean the first one!!) she is going down in the boat on her bed and doesn't come out again until it stops. What a wuss!!

Those rain clouds are gathering again as we go past Shugborourgh Hall...





There was a floating market on over the Easter weekend at Great Haywood but the weather was so bad that they cancelled it on bank holiday Monday because of all the rain and mud.

It took us about an hour to get through Great Haywood lock...I got talking to a guy who was teaching a young woman everything she needed to know about being on a narrow boat. She was only about 25 and had bought the boat to live on and travel around on and was having some lessons. He was telling me that he had a collie/greyhound/whippet cross who was 3 years old that was the great, great, great granddaughter of Alfred who was Greengrasses dog in heartbeat.

This treehouse looked brilliant near Weston . It even had a rope ladder coming down from it.
 









After stopping at Stone for a quick shop we carried on through the locks at Measham before mooring up for the night where the old power station used to be. The land has all been cleared now as they are starting to build industrial units on it.



Happy days.

Sunday, 1 April 2018

Rugeley here we come.....

We waited until it had stopped drizzling before setting off yesterday, only to get a couple of miles down the canal when it started again. This would be a good project for someone....(not you Greg!)
 

I've never seen the water going down this overflow before,,,its usually dry with ducks sitting all along it.

This new housing estate has popped up right next to the canal...it certainly wasn't there last year.


You can just see Pooley Hall through the trees. 








As we left Glascote locks we went over the River Tame .





We carried on towards Fazeley junction , hoping to get near Hopwas village to moor up for the night.







I thought Scully had got off the boat until she appeared behind me....it could have been her twin-just imagine 2 of her!!!



We had an early start today...the sun was shining and it looked lovely. As we left we could see the River Tame had flooded its wide flood plane and lots of farmland around it and was flowing very fast down its main channel. I was glad we were on the canal!





This poor cat was having a lovely drink until we went past and Scully barked.

Guess what Greg found? At this rate we will capsize...

No ..we re not stopping for any more....

There were lots of people out walking near Fradley junction- they were having a family day with easter eggs and hook a duck.


Perfect timing!



We could only just see the windmill in the distance today.

The Armitage shanks factory in Armitage which makes toilets and wash basins sounded like it was in full production even though it was Easter Sunday.


One day I'm going to stop at the Plum Pudding for lunch!


I don't know who these dodgy characters were-they looked like they were going skiing.

Just over the River Trent and we decided to moor up...the sky looks really black over Cannock Chase way-time to get the fire lit again.
Happy days.