A day for some jobs

Wednesday 29^th May; All Oaks Wood to Hawkesbury Junction

It was cold and grey to start with; back to fleece, woolly hat and gloves for me and a thermal base layer for Dave.  But it was dry, so we were on our way and joined the steady stream of boats travelling towards Hawkesbury Junction.  The crew of the boat that had been in front of us opened the swing bridge at Rose Narrowboats (Stretton Stop).  But a boat had just pulled out between us and was so close she felt obliged to let him through …. then us ….. and then the one behind which had caught us up. 

We continued in our convoy under the M6 and then Nettle Hill Bridge which surely must be the highest accommodation bridge on the network.

Gradually the land on either side drops to canal level and the railway is close by.  A stretch of new fencing is being built – in some places it would be easy to moor on the offside and get onto the line.

The heavy boat traffic continued.  We weren’t counting, but the number must have been into double figures within the first hour!  The weather continued heavily overcast but there were still some lovely sights to see.  A beautiful pink horse chestnut –

 

a field of mares and foals, with the older foals chasing each other about

and a hawthorn in full gorgeous bloom.  Quite a few round here have pink flowers, and boats are getting a confetti of pink and white petals if they get too close.

There was a field of barley, but with little wind there were no waves sweeping across the field.  We haven’t seen barley for ages, it always seems to be wheat, maize or oilseed rape these days.

As we neared Hawkesbury Junction the rain started, just intermittently at first, but it was forecast to rain all afternoon so we grabbed a spot beside the wide grassy area before the junction - just as it started in earnest.  We decided to stay for the rest of the day as the grass is great for the dog and the outlook is much more pleasant here than on the other side of the junction.

As we had lunch this moorhen came up and spent some time studying us closely.

She (or he) was collecting insects to feed the family but didn’t want to walk along to the water – instead she popped up on the roof and we could hear her feet pattering gently about.  They have very attractive markings – even having red tops to their yellow socks.

And eventually I got a shot of the babies.  The third little ball of fluff wasn’t playing though.

It rained all afternoon.  Dave did some varnishing and I cleaned all the windows.  It was too wet to bother making a booking at the Greyhound, so it was cauliflower cheese on the boat.

7½ miles, 1 little swing bridge opened for us, and rain.