There have been a few anniversaries recently that I’ve failed to mention. The 28th was a year since my last day at work, and yesterday was a year since we got rid of the last of our furniture and moved out of our house. Today is the first anniversary of moving aboard, at that time onto Briar Rose of course.
This morning we were in no rush to get going. Macc and I went to find a post box, and together with yesterday evening’s walk we’ve discovered a few things he doesn’t like: bollards, any kind of big looming box on the pavement, changes in the colour of the tarmac, and zebra crossings. He will trot along quite happily but put the brakes on when the colour of the path changes. We got under way a bit after 9 and almost immediately it started raining, which wasn’t really forecast. It didn’t last long though. Above Aston Lock was a swan on her nest. Adrian went to top up the lock and then we could go in and down.
Below the lock there was a load of water pouring over the brickwork. It looked as though the outlet of the bywash was a bit blocked, forcing the water up through the grate and along the wall. I’ve emailed CRT West Midlands about it.
We turned into Aston Marina and had to fight the wind to get tied up on the diesel point. The price here (and it’s normally pretty good here) is currently 141.8p per litre basic. Nick, the manager, said there had been some massive increases in the wholesale price as soon as the bombing of Iran started. It’s always nice to visit Aston and Nick is very chatty so it was a while before we set off again. We continued for another 40 minutes or so, to a spot we like near Burston, between Bridges 85 and 84. It was very windy when we got here and it’s continued ever since, so we’re quite glad we stopped when we did. There have been waves on the canal and passing boats have splashed through them.
I was going to point you to a post by Cheryl from Firecrest, containing photos of those two trees behind us in all different lights, but the blog appears to be down at the moment. When it’s back I’ll add a link. One reason for stopping here is that the towpath is nice and wide so Macc could have a run around. After lunch we took him out on his very long line; he refused to sit next to the mile post though.
A couple of minutes later he was doing something or other (I didn’t actually see it) and slipped into the canal! He did something doggy paddle strokes, Adrian used the lead to yank him out, and he had a good shake and then ran up and down for a bit.
We went straight back to the boat and tried to give him a warm bath in the sink but he was having none of it. Instead he got a good towelling down and a warm up and soon went to his crate exhausted. He seems none the worse for his dip, and at least we now know he can swim. It wasn’t really the introduction to the water we’d planned, but there we are.
3 miles, 1 lock. (37 miles, 28 locks)