This was a bit of a surprise coming around the corner ! If only the "ugly sisters" had worn a pom-pom hat for The Wedding, like this. !!! Does anyone know what sort of bird this is?

Recognise any of these, Sue ???

A lovely mooring after Tardebigge.

Tardebigge flight of 31 locks was brilliant, once Mick and I had sorted out our rhythm.! It always starts off with a load of shouting and being rude to each other, but eventually we each take a job. E.g.Micmk closes down the lock whilst I am opening the next etc. and to top it all, we had a pub at the bottom.

Sunday we stayed at the bottom of Stoke locks, and went for a pint and a baguette, beer was soooo good we had another pint.! Especially as the bloke undercharged Mick for the first pint. It took him all of 3 seconds to decide as to whether he was going to tell him or not. ! tch tch.

Has anyone ever seen the Mr Bean goes on holiday film? Where he is trying to get down a staircase and keeps coming across an elderly lady in front of him ?

We had the same situation at the next set of locks..

On Monday, we were preparing to leave, the lady on the hire boat in front of us was also preparing to leave, she took one look at us and started flying about untying her ropes, shouting at her husband to “get off the phone and phone later, come one lets get going”. Away they went, we leisurely got ourselves sorted and away we went to the lock. The Hire boat still in there, and the lady was walking very , very slowly. In fact, I thought it was a different boat, as this lady seemed to be very frail & elderley in deed.

So to give them some breathing space, we decided to stay in the lock above and have breakfast = 20 mins, also I started my washing, and then we moored up and topped up the water another 20 mins. When we arrived at the next lock………………………they were just leaving. So we had this all the way down, and when we eventually passed them,( they got the last good mooring at a pub> Ghrrrr) she was neither elderly or doddery, had a bit of a jaunt in her step. Well I can understand folks working carefully around locks, but that was painful, and with more locks coming up, we got in front and moored up in the countryside to get ahead. Didn’t want to try that pub, anyway. Na na nee na na.

Dennis phoned to say that they were watching Julia Bradbury’s Canal Walks, and it was the stretch that we had just done. Cor, if we were there earlier in the year, we could have had our mugs on the tv. !!!

By the way,dropped me windlass into the lock. After I had nearly fallen off the balance beam. The lock paddle was VERRY stiff. So got the sea search magnet from the boat, and did the very same thing that we did the last time we went trawling for a windlass. Started yelling that I had retrieved it, only to find that I had caught myself a whole paddle mechanism, and then the magnetic was stuck solid. So a bit of jiggling, tugging, pulling and it came free, and I left it to Mick to get the windlass, which he did. He likes searching for lost things, and seems to have a knack of finding them. And No Comments about wallets…………Scooby !

Wednesday we met up with Sue Saunders’ mum and Dad, May and Derek. They bought me some more bizzy Lizzies as mine had caught the frost and died on me, and came and sat on the boat( well done, May !.... she was a bit nervous) and had coffee and biccies.

We also has some over-enthusiastic ducks hanging around looking for bread etc, and as we left to go into Worcester, they were flying all around May’s head. Looked like a scene from The Birds. !
we went off into Worcester and had lunch and a good catch-up. What a lovely couple they are. And thank you for looking after us in your lovely city. I know Sue will pass on the message. Diglis Basin and Worcester, are great places to stay and visit. If only I had been able to find Mick’s wallet. ! The cathedral was magnificent. I am sure we will return.

So Thursday onto the River Severn and upto Stourport and onto the Wonderful Staffs and Worcs Canal.