Hedgerow Jottings: Stowaways, Invalids and Sad Goodbyes

Coming Up Wychnor Lock

Morning All,

This week we've had a slow cruise from Stafford to Branston with lots of time for sight seeing and ambling. We had a very enjoyable day out in Stafford on Tuesday, catching the bus from Great Hayward, and joining the other grey haired warriors enjoying the thrills of the 'Cannock Chase special' driven by a failed graduate of the Nakajima School of Kamikaze Drivers. Fortunately for us, the bus stops right outside a really interesting branch of Weatherspoons, a converted cinema, so we popped in for alcoholic refreshments and a gander at the fabulous ceiling. The 'Picture House' is still a most beautiful building and well worth the price of a pint of 'Piston Broke' and a 'Mushroom Beefburger' (there's an oxymoron if ever there was one!) Stafford has a very attractive High Street, including the Ancient High House Museum(free entry) and another lovely old pub called the Swan. I could have lingered much longer, but Tricky was home alone and Carl was anxious to fill his rucksack with more rust busting supplies, so we ended up in Wilko's. Insert Disappointed face emoji here.

Beautiful Ceiling

Did anyone else notice that the weather forecast was wrong every day this week? The thunder storms never came, for which Tricky was truly thankful. There were spells of mizzle - the nuisance rain that requires us to rush out and roll down the covers and close all the hatches but as soon as you've shut everything up, then out comes the sun and you're sweltering! Most days this week the sun stubbornly refused to shine, peeking out from the grey and cloudy sky just long enough to tease us into shedding our jumpers, then slipping behind the next large clump of Nimble Stratocaster.

Jumpers on for a Cool Cruise

The Staffs and Worcester Canal from Radford Bank to Tixall is a nice chug on a sunny morning. We followed a converted Thames inspection launch - the second one we've seen on this trip. This one had gleaming white paintwork and the crew were determined to keep it that way. They approached each bridge at tickover and sometimes had to reverse up and have another go if they misjudged the angle. We damped down our own speed and pottered along behind them, content with our life and in no hurry to get anywhere. I saw a young man tied to a railway bridge and called out to ask him if his wife would be back to collect him later. He smiled and replied that it wasn't him that was tied to the bridge but his magnet and he resumed his slow trawling backwards and forwards as soon as we'd passed by. I will never understand magnet fishing - he seemed like a nice young man, what could he possibly find, of any interest, under a railway bridge? I've yet to hear of a Saxon Hoard being pulled from a canal, it's mostly old bed springs and stolen bicycles.

Sunny Morning

As we slipped our moorings on Wednesday morning, I looked back to see Carl deep in conversation with a scantily clad lady jogger. We were supposed to be casting off - this was no time to be chatting, I thought. Then I saw that we had a stowaway - a very cute Westie had seized her chance and leapt on the stern, just as Carl was pushing off at the front. She was quite happy to stay there too, completely ignoring her owner and woofing delightedly as Carl pulled the boat back in, so she could be put ashore (the Westie, not the jogging lady). Later that day, we were chugging past the moorings at Spode Hall when we saw the most sorry of sights. A poor little pigeon, floating in the water, a horrid bald patch on her back and the remaining feathers completely waterlogged – she just floated there, winking and blinking at me. We went hard astern and Carl gently scooped the poor thing out of the water and set it down on the stern to let her drain off. I found a paper carrier bag - it was a Hotter bag (I don't suppose that detail adds anything to the story but it does say a lot about me a) I've succumbed to the temptation of 'comfortable shoes' and b) I've reached the age where I save paper bags!) I found an old towel and made her as comfortable as I could and left her in the shady bows to recover. We thought that she would probably be dead by the time we moored up, but as the day wore on, Penelope (of course we gave her a name, that's completely normal, isn't it?)perked up and began to preen and we googled 'pigeon rescue' to see how to care for her. Apparently, pigeons drink water through their beaks by dipping them in water and using them like a straw. Every time I peeped into the bag, she had her beak in the little pot of water, but I couldn't work out if she was drinking or was just too weak to lift her head up. Anyway, she was still alive and flapping happily the next morning, perching on the side of the log box and looking as fresh as a daisy. I can't tell you how happy we were to see her recovered and we set off with her in the bag, to find a safe spot to let her go. There was a bit of a false start when she flapped along and head-beaked the ground, but then Carl picked her up and sort of threw her up into the air and she was off! She circled around us and then raced off over the fields, back towards Spode. Goodbye Penelope Pitstop - hope you find your way home.

Penelope Pit Stop

We had one last night of carousing with Pat and Malc on Thursday before they chugged off the next day, leaving us feeling very lonely and quiet without them. They have been the best of company for our trip up the Shroppie and no-one will miss them more than our Tricky, who is even more depressed than usual. Our evenings have been full of laughter and boating stories of the old days - we never tire of hearing about their pioneering adventures. If they wrote a blog it would be far more exciting than ours! Goodbye to the Naga Queen for now, I hope we meet up again soon.

Happy Days

That's all from us for this week, the boat will be in the paint dock for a week and after that we'll be mooring our boat and heading off in the car for a little holiday. I'll write again when we're back afloat. Take care and if you get a minute, pop over to the blog and have a look at the photo's.

Love from
The Floating Chandlers.

Ps The nights have been a bit warmer this week so I've pinched the dog's cooling mat and popped it at the bottom of my bed to keep my feet cool. Obviously, the dog hasn't used it!

Tricky is sad.

Pps I met up with the Wool Boat here in Branston – so nice to meet Carole and Captain Colin and don't tell Carl will you, but I bought more wool (Sheep emoji)