More practice required

We had a great time, as usual on our once-yearly visits, at the folk session in the Shroppie Fly in Audlem last night. In addition to the usual range of instruments, one guy had a Celtic harp. A long time ago I'd thought about acquiring one of these, until I found out what it would cost. I took along my guitar and piano accordion, but it wasn't my best performance – what with the other things going on with Erin Mae I've not been doing enough practice. I played Phil Cunningham's Kimberley's Waltz on the accordion, and the hurdy-gurdy player joined in and carried on with a repeat when I'd finished. So I put down the accordion and picked up the guitar to accompany him on that. It worked very well – perhaps we'll do it again when we're next up this way.

Today we got as far north as we shall go this trip. A mile out of Audlem is Overwater Marina, where the chandlery stocks Andy Russell's Gunwhale Black.

Andy is a boat painter in the Manchester area, and his proprietary gunwale paint is excellent even if (IMHO) he should have used his spell-check for the label. I may be short of practice on the instruments, but I've been making up for it on paintbrush and roller. So we needed some more, and Overton Marina is about as far south as it is sold. It was very convenient to get a tin this way – I had to pay for delivery on the first lot when I ordered it on the phone.

So at the marina we turned around and will make our way steadily to Fazeley over the next couple of weeks, getting more painting practice as the weather and the timetable allow.