Onward and upward.

Hello friends and followers.

After a brilliant nights sleep, I was up at 6.45am putting the kettle on the gas for the first brew of the day. Tapping on the side of the boat, were Mr and Mrs Swan and their five cygnets. I fed them yesterday, so they obviously thought they should come and ask for breakfast and it would have been rude to refuse them. So having fed them, I crept back to bed with my cuppa in hand.
Once up, Paddy got his walk and it was then time to get the boat ready for the off. We did not set off until almost 8.30am, which is late for us. It was a beautiful morning and for the time of year very mild. We chugged past Silver Sun and headed for the junction on to the Stratford Canal.

We soon realised we could not go up through Lock 20 due to damage it was was closed. So we made a detour through lock No.21 instead, first time through No.21.

There is nothing like a detour to brighten the day. It was so pleasant, that I do not think anything would have annoyed me, but that was to change come lock 5.

All the way up the flight, we were following C&RT volunteers moving a workboat up the locks. Lovely gentlemen, great fun to chat to. I was having a lovely time nattering and helping them through the locks.

We got to lock 5, where I helped the C&RT volunteers through with the workboat and yay there was a boat coming down. I thought what joy to have a boat finally coming down, but then the gentleman opened his mouth and I through oh bugger. He did nothing but moan and rant. Firstly about the volunteers working the boat, and then he went on to moan about all things canal. I do sometimes wonder why people are on the canal grrrr.

Anyway I was not about to let him spoil my day. So I smiled sweetly and wished him a good day.

We are moored below Lapworth lock No.2 on the northern Stratford canal. We will be visiting a friend whilst here and will probably stay here for the weekend.

Pop back soon xxx