Another sunny day, which was a good start for the St Richard’s Canal Festival. Adrian needed to return his hire car to Worcester, so set off about 9. He was also collecting his wedding ring from a jeweller, who’d made it smaller. The train he was intending to get bck was delayed, and I wanted to go to see the well blessing in the park, so Helen popped over to dog sit Macc for a while. He’s not supposed to jump up, but his little face does look cute!
The well blessing is a re-enactment of when St Richard, who was born in these parts and became Bishop of Chichester, came back and helped make the brine spring flow again. The local vicar dresses up, and there’s a little procession from (bizarrely) Waitrose to the well.
I’m doing a podcast about the festival so interviewed the vicar afterwards. As St Richard was Bishop of Chichester, I was also able to tell her about St Richard’s Hospital, and the modern statue of him outside the cathedral. I then found a few other people to talk to, including the main organiser from the Worcester, Birmingham and Droitwich Canals Society, someone from the trust that runs the trip boat, Pamela May 2 which is running boat trips up and down the canal, and someone from the historic boat, Bramble from Stourport.
In the afternoon, Adrian went to Morrison’s for some shopping, and then we went for a walk around the festival (which is pretty small) and had an ice cream. Adrian asked if they did ones for dogs; they didn’t, but the guy put some normal ice cream in a little pot for Macc, and he loved it.
We ended up sitting in the cratch of Briar Rose talking to whichever of Helen or Andy wasn’t serving customers, while Macc played with some plastic bottles. All in all, a very pleasant day.