Oops

Wednesday 26^th May; Astwood locks to Tardebigge lock 33

It was sooo cold overnight!  Just like winter.  But the sun popped out now and then to cheer us up and we tootled off soon after 9.  We didn’t see a single boat as we went up the Astwood flight, just a few pedestrians and a couple of gnomes we hadn’t noticed before.

The cottage there at the second lock keeps hens and doves – we could hear one and see the other.

It was very quiet boat-wise.  We saw our first cygnets of the year, followed a safe distance away by a bigger clutch.

On the approach to Stoke Works I noticed how the planting on the long wall of a garage has grown over the years.  Once just a framework, years of careful pruning and training has resulted in some lovely stripes.  I have no idea what the plants are, pyracantha maybe.

We moored above the bridge so I could nip up to the shop in Ryefields Road, about 10 minutes walk away if you stride out.  We would run out of bread tomorrow and milk the day after, and while I was there I though Dave might like a treat – he is a great Magnum fan.  But in spite of buying some frozen peas, and then wrapping up the peas and the Magnum in the newspaper (like in the old pre-fridge days, which I just remember) I couldn’t quite manage to keep it frozen.  So it was a bit bendy, but still, I’m told, delicious!

There was time before lunch to try and remove some of the green fur that had developed over the long periods without moving over the last year.  

It was remarkably hard to dislodge, then when I found the right tool it was hard to remove it from that too.

We moved on again straight after lunch, as we wanted to be sure of a mooring in Stoke Pound below the Tardebigge flight.  As we pulled out past the industrial units on the offside, we saw the counterpoint to the Armitage toilet factory somewhere up country, I can’t remember which canal for the moment – Shroppie maybe, or T&M? It's the T&M, thanks Pip.

 

As many bog rolls as you cold ever want

Then, outside Crafted Boats, we saw NB Tentatrice where Jenny and Chris had left her to have some work done.

In Stoke Pound, the Queen’s Head pub garden now has a huge clear-sided marquee taking up half the garden, and we were so busy looking at the customers that we failed to notice that we had passed all the remaining mooring spots before the lock mooring.  Oh dear.  Should we reverse back and moor in the stink of the chip fat opposite all those diners?  Well, no contest.  Fingers crossed, we started up the flight and straight away met 3 boats together, who had been held up at lock 47 – some wood jammed behind the bottom gate apparently.  So we were up 4 locks in the blink of an eye, up the 5^th after a couple more, and moored up in the pound between locks 33 and 34. Much quieter and with a hugely better outlook.

There is just room for 2 boats on the Armco, but we wouldn’t stop here in the middle of the day as we would be in the way if boats wanted to pass each other.  But it was quite late, and quiet, and before we went to bed we double-checked that lock 33 was firmly closed, and we slackened our ropes in case the water level dropped overnight.

17 locks, 3 miles