Autumn

1st September is, it seems, the official start of autumn. It's always been my favourite time of year, partly because it signalled the start of the hockey season – alas, only a memory now. It's also the time for picking elderberries and blackberries, with a small crop of each on the towpath by last night's mooring. Elderberries go as well as blackberries with Bramley apples.

It was a fine day for cruising, and there were numbers of boats out on the Coventry Canal. After something of a traffic jam at one bridge, we found ourselves behind this one.

They seemed rather nervous boaters, and after a while a queue of about half a dozen had collected behind them.

They finally pulled over at Streethay, and we were able to push on.

Boaters aren't supposed to be in a hurry, of course, but we were on a mission to get to Fazeley. So it was an exercise in patience when we found ourselves behind another slow coach. Fortunately he let us by after half a mile. Rather later than planned, but still enjoying the sunshine, we found ourselves at Fazeley Junction…

and turned right under the Watling Street bridge…

to moor up a couple of hundred yards down on the left. We're here for a Boaters' Christian Fellowship weekend. Some of it serious – a couple of sessions exploring BCF's values. But also some games, a BBQ and some in-house entertainment.

But with all that sun, it doesn't really feel like autumn yet.