Hedgerow Jottings: Whirlwinds and Snow Showers

Blue Skies on the Ashby

Morning Jotters

This week we have travelled from Kings Orchard Marina on the Coventry Canal to the delightful Ashby Canal. Tonight we are moored by bridge 38 (What3Words location organist.mash.stew) in a very quiet location by a farm with interesting gables and chimneys.

Peaceful Mooring

Carl has been outside all afternoon polishing his sliders and repairing the solar panels. Remember the last day of March? It was the day I was due to catch the bus/train from Hinckley to Leicester to continue my love/hate relationship with my dentist. (I’m sure I am single handedly putting his sons through university!). We opened the curtains to find thick frost on the hedges and snow flurries beginning to throw a chilly coat over the nodding daffodils. I stepped out into the icy wind, loaded down with my rucksack and dressed for the arctic in boots, gloves and woolly hat. The bus was late, and I was very glad to climb aboard, with the other masked ranks of card carrying pensioners. and sit on the sunny side of the bus for the hour long journey to Leicester City Centre. I struck off towards the next bus stop and the short ride to Birstall and I was very happy to see our friend Keith waiting for me at the bus stop. He whisked me back to their house for hot coffee and a sandwich and a catch up with Jan before running me down to the surgery for my appointment. I did apologise to Dr Ghadiali for breathing fishy fumes at him while reclining in his chair, just in case that tuna fought its way through the minty toothpaste I use. He was charm personified as always although it's slightly worrying when the instructions are and I quote ‘ If I drop anything in your mouth, whatever you do, don’t swallow’(surprised face emoji) Anyway, it was soon over and I skipped out of the door with a light heart and caught the Airport Flyer back to town and eventually, the Hinckley bus arrived and I shuddered and jolted back to Hinckley. Carl and Tricky came to meet me and the icy wind was blowing hard as we trooped back to the boat. That was the cause of the small disaster that happened while I was out. A gust of wind suddenly sprang up out of nowhere and it was so strong it picked up our solar panels and tried to hurl them into the water, they hung over the side flapping in the breeze until Carl managed to rescue them. Thank goodness they didn’t break, although the metal frame gouged (that word popped up in Quordle and flummoxed me - what a ridiculous word!) a big chunk out of the handrail. I was soon smouldering in the heat from the stove and drinking copious amounts of tea while Tricky ignored me, to punish me for going out without her.

Tricky Sulking

The rest of the week has been quite relaxing compared with that eventful Thursday, we had a couple of long days chugging through Tamworth and Atherstone. We did the first two locks of the Atherstone flight, then moored for the night ready to tackle the remaining 9 the next day. We set off in the early morning mist, chilly and overcast and made good time through the first 4 locks and stopped there so we could wander into town for provisions. First stop Aldi - the green light was on over the door so we approached the door but it refused to open. After a few minutes of waving my hands trying to wake up the sensor and ramming my trolley at the glass doors without any luck, I hammered on the door until a tall person arrived, with some sort of magic wand and hey presto! We were in. I whizzed round with the trolley and then we played a game of ‘hunt the cashier’. I’ve been caught out like this before, you join the queue and then you hear ‘ we are opening till number 3’ and everyone does a mad dash to the (as yet) unmanned till. We unload our shopping and wait - no cashier arrives. The queue we were in clears but we are still waiting for a cashier number 3! I am tempted to leave my shopping on the belt but just as we decide to do that, she arrives and swipes it all through as if she’s going for the Guinness Book of Records. We load up the rucksacks with lots of pensionerish grumbling and moaning and wander off into town in search of more bargains. Atherstone is busy in the bright sunshine and we wander around with our shopping list looking for oddments and find a cute little coffee shop in a side street. We came out loaded down with goodies - home made bread pudding (Carl’s favourite) and a Chicken and Leek pie for tea. I was looking forward to that pie all the rest of the day - I popped it in the oven after we moored up that evening and it smelled divine as I prepared the veg and gravy to go with it, Imagine my dismay when I cut into it to serve it up and found it was a steak and mushroom - not something I can eat. Carl managed 2/3rds of the pie and Tricky helped out too but I had to make do with the sausage that I’d saved from yesterday for Tricky’s dinner. Very disappointing after a hard days boating.

The Coffee Shop, Atherstone

We moored overnight at Sutton Wharf and walked up to the Battle of Bosworth site through the woods. Tricky, who has been reluctant to walk for a while now, was suddenly rejuvenated and went bounding ahead, sniffing every tuft of grass and tree trunk in absolute ecstasy. Carl popped into the gift shop and bought a book while Tricky and I wandered around the Exhibition Centre and found the stocks - always good for a joke photo! We returned to the Centre this morning to visit the craft market, full of treasures to tempt the money out of your purse. I succumbed to a pricey packet of wax melts and a burner (for the nights when Tricky’s perfume is less than sweet!) and a ginormous Scotch Egg for Carl. The sun came out and we hurried back to the boat and set off to travel the few miles to this rural mooring and a peaceful afternoon with my book (another Nicci French).

Not putting my head in there!

That’s all from me for this week my friends. I'm looking forward to reaching the end of the Ashby to see if they've reclaimed any more of the old canal. After that, we turn and start making our way back through Hinckley and then it's a steady chug to Market Harborough. Take care everyone.

Love from

The Floating Chandlers

PS Spotted our first Kingfisher of the year this week, always a delight.

PPS Are you boating along with us vicariously? Let me know if you are. I had to look it up! Thanks to my learned friend for that scrumptious word - you know who you are!