Tixel Lock to Penkridge.

Hi Friends.

The morning began well, with the sun shining and the birds singing. As I took Paddy for his walk, I could hear a Reed Warbler (CLICK) singing away and then in the background a Buzzard (CLICK) was calling. It is morning's like this morning that puts a smile on my face, which is not difficult to do really.

We left the Tixel Lock overnight mooring and headed off past a field of Jersey Cows. Of all the breeds I think that Jersey's are the prettiest. I am not a cow person despite being bought up on a farm with cows. Even though I am a country girl through and through, I am a horse person, not a cow person. But Jersey cows do make me go awwwww, because they have such lovely faces.
On the way we cruised passed Monarch and Grimsby, which belong to Viv and Simon. Poor Simon is nursing some broken ribs after an accident in a lock, where someone opened a paddle to fast and he was knocked off of the back of the boat. Thankfully he is recovering slowly, but there was a tragic accident waiting to happen. It is important to watch how others not connected with your boat open paddles. I try to make sure I only do them myself, or ask the other person to only do half a paddle, because accidents can so easily happen.All along the canal it was very noticeable that the BW staff have been out sand bagging the banks to shore them up. I know that from speaking to a BW man the other day, he said they had been at it for six weeks and still had not covered the whole of his area, as it is becoming an up hill struggle.

All morning we had a mixed bag of sunshine, showers and hailstones!

As we were waiting for Longford lock behind a hire boat, it started to rain again which turned into hailstones, but only tiny ones, and not for long, what is up with our weather?

Hail in June?

It will be snowing next month!.

I want to say a "Hi" to Bev & Roland on narrowboat Klara who we met at Longford lock. They are on their way back to Aston Marina, apparently they read our Hadar blog, so hi to the both of you and best wishes.

There were two hire boats from the Alvechurch company one in front of us and one behind us, so we were in a hire boat sandwich, which was fine, because these two boats were occupied by thirteen people from the same family who were over here on holiday from Sweden. They were really lovely and chatty. They were enjoying their holiday and the weather. The mother told me it was so wonderful to have all of her family together for a change. The youngest member was only a few months old. We came up through Penkridge lock and whilst we came up, I emptied the toilet cassette and got rid of rubbish, because the sanitary station moorings were already busy with people filling up with water and other boats queuing. As we came out of the lock I wished the Swedish family a happy holiday and we pulled away to find a mooring.

After some lunch, we locked up the boat and walked off into Penkridge to see if the market was still open.

On our way to the market we walked past an antique shop and a blast from the past was sitting outside. This old school desk could have been mine for £45. It bought back a lot of memories from my school days. The ink well holes still had their sliding lids still on them. When I was small the desk looked way to large, but now as an adult it looks absolutely tiny. At the market Keith bought me a lovely dress for the Summer (if we get one). Although it was a large market for a Wednesday, there was nothing else we really wanted, so we walked back through Penkridge and back to the boat.

I am now cooking Lemon Chicken for tonight's dinner and the Deal or No Deal is on the TV.

I have had a lovely day today. It was an absolute pleasure chatting to all sorts of wonderful people.

I have seen and smelt Wild Honeysuckle, ancient Oaks and tall Pines. Goldfinches and Reed Bunting have filled the air with their wonderful song, so this has been a wonderful day.

Chat soon xx