nb Bridge Street

Friday 29 th March 2019 Taking the dog out first thing, we had an attempted stowaway. I walked the dog around Hopwas village before we left. It is a very small place but full of character with a lot of charming old cottages.                                                                                             Our attempted Stowaway                                                           ...

Thursday 28 th March 2019 We caught a bus into Tamworth and had a wander around the town centre and in and out of shops. And both enjoyed being off the boat with no itinerary or time scale. We have both enjoyed Tamworth. Since we were last here the Primula’s in the Castle Gardens have all flowered giving a vibrant display. Castle Gardens is a lovely green oasis just a stone’s throw from the town centre. There are green open spaces, bowling greens, pavilion buildings and a childrens play park. We sat here and had an ice cream while watching the world go around.                                                              Castle Gardens, Tamworth Returning to Hopwas, we had a pint in the Tame Otter and then crossed the canal and had one in the...

Wednesday 27 th March 2019 We hung on at the moorings to time our arrival at Streethay Wharf in time for their postal delivery, and hopefully the TV cable would arrive. We have been binge watching the TV series “Vikings” after having finished “The Last Kingdom” series prior to this. Pretty apt we feel, considering how much this period of history had impacted in the area around Lichfield and Tamworth. We watched another episode and then left at 11:30. We arrived at Streethay at the same time as the postie and the cable was delivered and is the correct one. That’s good. Now we can start moving again. We bought oil and parts for the engine service due in about …… hours. Oil, oil filter, a fuel filter and a spare. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an air filter. We spoke with Gareth and the boat has been booked in to have the roof repaint on 9 th September. The job will take about 2 weeks but it is OK if we drop the boat off the week before. This means now, that we can b...

Tuesday 26 th March 2019 Firstly, well done to Barbara for working out the acronym on the bench in the Swan:                          “Would You Buy Me A Pint If I Told You” It’s a shame she wasn’t with us on the day, we could have been drinking for free! We walked to the boatyard at Streethay Wharf. It’s over 1 ½ miles along the canal, but a nice walk except for the last few hundred yards when you have to cross the canal and walk on the inside of the crash barriers of the A38 with traffic thundering by just a few yards away. The post does not get delivered to the yard until the afternoon so it was a wasted walk. We had come across a stone mile-marker for the canal with 2 ½ chiselled into one side and 3 into the other. These are the miles from Fradley Junction and the village of Whittington where the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal is joined befor...

Monday 25 th March 2019 Brenda walked into Alrewas to the butcher we had been hearing good things about. She came back with loads of lovely looking meat. And far too much in weight to be carrying back that distance. I eventually got the printer working so now can continue with the family history files. Then checked the engine bay. There is a little water under the engine but it is possible this was a bit that had been missed when it was wiped up the other day. It is very difficult to properly reach under the engine. I took the dog for a walk and on the way back there was a boat that had attempted to wind in the junction and had got himself firmly wedged between each side of the canal. With a lot of tugging and pushing between us, we managed to get him free ……. only for him to do exactly the same. I left him to it. We started a wash and had another delivery from Asda. So efficient. Once the wash was finished we moved across to the water point. There was a time-share bo...

Sunday 24 th March 2019 We had a real quiet day today. I worked on our itinerary for the next few weeks to arrange having the kids, Aaron and Sarah visiting in Stratford and Phil and Michelle visiting in May. Everything works in nicely despite having been at Fradley for so long. Dinner was prepared with a nice piece of brisket simmering on the stove. We then went for a walk and called into the Swan again, the last time before we leave.                                         Acronym on the back of a bench in The Swan at Fradley.                                                                 What does it mean? We returned to the boat and sat in the front cratch watching the world go by. Frad...

Saturday 23 rd March 2019 We had left Fradley Junction last Sunday and were excited because we saw this as the start of this years’ cruising. However, we only got as far as Fradley village 1 ½ miles away, worked on the boat, and today have returned to the junction. It is beginning to seem we will never get away. Our water was getting low and there is no water point beyond Fradley until Fazeley Junction. Brenda is waiting on a prescription that is not due to arrive until Monday and the power lead on the TV failed on us. We have ordered a new one but that is not being delivered until Tuesday or Wednesday. So here we remain. While there are worse places, we are becoming a bit stare crazy and looking forward to moving on. Both the prescription and the cable are being delivered to the boatyard at Streethay Wharf just over 3 miles down the canal. Once they have been received we will then move on. We were a bit concerned that this would mean us overstaying as once you hav...

Friday 22 nd March 2019 We had planned a visit to the National Arboretum outside Alrewas. The visit would have meant a bus then a 1 ½ mile walk. However, the day was quite cold, cloudy and spotting with rain so we decided instead, to stay on board and have a quiet day. Our immediate plans are to time our arrival in Birmingham to coincide with having the kids, then travel to Stratford-on-Avon to meet up with Aaron and Sarah, so we have days to kill. I spent my day catching up with the blog and cataloguing photographs. Then, at last, finished and framed our family tree. Brenda spent her day quietly resting in the bedroom, her favourite place on the boat, next to prosecco in the front cratch. Weather: a dry day, but cloudy and cooler.

Thursday 21 st March 2019 We had clear skies last night for the first time in a few weeks it seems. The full “wolf” moon was glorious and it was almost like daylight. Brenda walked to Streethay Wharf for masking tape while I spent the morning in the engine hole. The bottom plates were thoroughly cleaned and wiped as was the bay under the engine itself. I had been meaning to getting around to doing this for ages. The batteries were also checked; a job I had ashamedly been putting off. It was impossible to properly check them in place so in the end I bit the bullet and removed them all. An awkward, heavy job. However, none of the cells required topping up but the hydrometer indicated that the specific gravity of all the cells were well down. This cannot be the case, but with the batteries being continuously in use, not unexpected. The sg would start to drop immediately charging stopped. While it felt reassuring to have checked the batteries and found them all in order, they...

Wednesday 20 th March 2019 We have 11 or 12 days to kill before starting our run through Birmingham to Stratford-on-Avon so decided to stay here after winding and paint the starboard gunwhale. We have also decided to look into having the roof repainted as micro-blistering is appearing, the non-slip paint attracts mould that we have found impossible to remove and the roof is beginning to spoil the look of the boat. We therefore cruised the two miles to Streethay Wharf. The boatyard there is a hive of industry with a friendly lot of staff. They cannot fit us in until September so we will use the opportunity for a holiday. We winded just after the wharf at the entrance to the new Kings Orchard marina and returned to the mooring at Fradley village. Here we washed the hullside, touched up the blackening and painted the gunwhale but ran out of masking tape 10 feet from the end. What a difference this makes.   Weather: a lovely, warm day. Day Total: 0 locks; 4...

Tuesday 19 th March 2019 We left Harvey on his own today and took the bus into Lichfiled. The bus passed through South Fradley. Although classed as a village, this is in effect a small town, built on the site of the RAF Lichfield airfield. Our 12-year-old guide doesn’t even show it. The place is huge and is still being added to. A guy we spoke to went to school with the person who designed the place and has known him ever since. He said he has always been a prat but until we went through the village we didn’t really know what he meant. While the houses are nice the roads twist and turn as a traffic calming measure and are so narrow that two cars can barely pass each other and the bus had to swing right over onto the wrong side of the road and kept mounting the kerbs. It seemed as though the roads were designed for nothing bigger than an old Mini. It didn’t make for a comfortable ride. There is a small arcade of shops with a Co-op, a gym, chippy and an Indian restaurant...