Pitter patter

On Saturday we pitter-pattered back to the head of the Atherstone flight from whence it is a straightforward walk down to the town's Aldi. Since I always buy more than intended, I was glad of the Ikea wheelie shopping basket / trolley for the slight hill back to Erin Mae. I laughed at my best beloved when she bought it, but I haven't laughed since! We winded and went back to our marina, ready for the party.

It turned out not to be for the jubilee, but a big-0 birthday celebration for Kat, the manager, who is a big hit with the marina's clients. Everybody took their own food and we had a good natter with people we hadn't met before. Sunday we joined our church on-line (shades of Covid lockdown!), and in the afternoon did a good clean of Erin Mae's roof – with particular attention to what the pigeons had blessed us with from the tree overhead on Thursday night. So Monday we were ready to move by gentle stages, dodging the showers, and stopped again in what's becoming a favourite spot just short of Springwood Haven. We were having a nice cuppa on the towpath when NB 10,000 Reasons came by, with our BCF friends Andy & Sue Smith who'd been helping Paul, another BCF-er, up the Atherstone flight. They were followed by Chris Buck on NB Kairos, so we all had a jolly chat on the towpath for a while, until they pushed on to Nuneaton for the night.

Looking at the weather forecast, I wasn't sure about moving today at all. But the conversation with Andy and Chris had suggested that Springwood Haven's price for blacking Erin Mae's hull is not actually exorbitant but pretty normal, and they are, after all, very nice people! I knew they had just a couple of slots left in the Autumn, and decided to bite the bullet. So we headed on down, called in, and made the arrangements with Liz.

In view of the weather website, we pulled in for the night pretty soon after, and it wasn't long before the familiar pitter-patter started on the canopy. Then sunshine. Then pitter patter. Then sunshine. Then the most almighty rainstorm, lashing down. Then thunder. Overall, I was glad we hadn't been beguiled by the very pleasant, occasional sunny spells into going any further.

Try again tomorrow.