Market

Market day in Market Drayton, with the usual collection of stalls. The most memorable, for me, was the Adderley Top Lock farm shop – from whose proprietor I'd bought some sausages as we came through the lock yesterday. I accused her of selling them cheaper at the market ;-) but she assured me my pack must have been heavier than the ones on display. I'm sure she was right – but then what I got was what she pulled out of the chiller for me. Anyway, they're cooking at the moment and I'm sure they'll be delicious (if not – we know where to find you!).

After a roast-pork-in-a-bap lunch from one of the stalls while we sheltered from a shower, we ended up in Wetherspoon's, downloading last week's episode of "The Great British Year". Wanted to watch it before the second one screens tonight, and did so over a cuppa this afternoon. I suppose we've all grown used to seeing the stunning quality of the work that goes into nature programmes these days, but it was massively impressive for all that. So was Wetherspoon's! Not that I spend a lot of time there (really), but it was yet another older, larger building (in this case, "The Hippodrome") that they've taken over and remodelled in their own image. Masses of space, coffee with no frills and a minimal price-tag should you want one, and no pressure on you as you use the free WiFi to avoid gobbling up your mobile broadband allowance from Three. So I also downloaded the first of Brian Cox's Science Britannica series, and the latest updates for the MacBook. It's good to see the BBC have finally sorted out the issues with the iPlayer app for the Mac.

The CanalPlan website says it's quite a bit over 5 hours to Norbury Junction from here, so there was never any way we were moving today, especially with some heavy rain this afternoon. So we've stayed put and lit a fire, and are enjoying the fact that our new gizmo charges the batteries in far less engine-running time than the alternator used to do on its own.