Fish

Today I chatted with a boater about the flag on his boat, to find it was the Black Country one. Wikipedia says it was introduced in 2012, part of a national initiative to develop new local flags.

We've seen boats with flags from various countries as well – New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Norway and so on. Some boats fly the Red Ensign. Everybody very proud to show off their identity.

The Boaters' Christian Fellowship doesn't have a flag, but it does have a badge that you can buy as a plaque or a plastic sticker for your window.

Now I have never, unlike some, wanted to put a Christian fish on my car. It strikes me as asking for trouble. You might be driving perfectly but, at some point, someone is bound to think you're going too slow or too fast, or that you cut them up. Or, as happened to me in Stafford a few months ago, you find you're by mistake in the wrong lane, trying to get into the right one, and a driver takes enormous exception to the fact that you are now in front of him. I tend to think that a fish would have led to a load of invective directed at Christians in general and this one in particular.

Boat rage is not quite in the same category as road rage, but it does occur, and that's one of the reasons I resisted putting a BCF sticker in Erin Mae's window. I may try to make my boating behaviour a model of perfection but at some point I will fail, and I didn't want to be the cause of some other boater cursing all Christians or having reason to draw noisy attention to my hypocrisy. However, two weeks ago we decided to put our stickers in the window, so there they are.

Today, coming down the Staffs and Worcs, we were approaching a bridge when we saw a boat also approaching from the other side. It's quite hard sometimes to judge distances and I thought we were nearer, so I speeded up a bit to get through and be clear by the time they got there. Next it became apparent that they were nearer than I thought, so I slowed done to see what they were going to do. It looked to me as though they were stopping on their side, so I nosed towards the bridge-hole. But no, they were coming straight through. I went into reverse and stopped Erin Mae but we were still just into the hole. The oncoming boat came on through, knocking us slightly in the process, with the driver making some choice comments as they passed. I buttoned my lip – (a) I was at least partly to blame for the incident; (b) I was busy admonishing myself that my inner attempts at self-justification were extremely unworthy; (c) in the event that they had noticed the BCF sticker I didn't want to add fuel to the flames.

Fish or no fish – that is the question. Not, of course, the ultimate question!

Marsh Harrier

This bridge, just south west of Great Haywood, always makes me laugh.

It's hard to imagine anything less likely to swivel!

Ah well, perhaps there was a swing bridge here as some point. We're glad not to have the extra obstacle on the way to Tixall Wide, today or any day. Having delayed our departure until the rain stopped, we found that we were on our own wanting to come up Great Haywood lock – unlike the eight boats that were waiting above to come down. I dread to think what was happening at Colwich lock back down the cut – it's slower than Great Haywood, and it wouldn't have been surprising to find a dozen boats queueing.

We, however, after filling the water tank, turned down the Staffs and Worcs canal on our way to Autherley Junction for a service appointment on Monday. We put in a slightly longer shift than usual on this stretch, and have moored up just above Deptmore Lock, opposite what we think of as the Marsh Harrier field.

Whether they actually were Marsh Harriers we saw on a previous occasion we're not completely certain, but we have had no reason to think of them as anything else. Whatever, here's the view through the side-hatch this late afternoon.

Complaint and contentment

We've eaten occasionally at the Ash Tree between Rugeley and Armitage. The food has generally been perfectly fine and, with their permanent 2-for-1 deal on all main courses, extremely good value. Last night's was the exception and was memorable for all the wrong reasons. I find it frustrating when food I am paying someone else to prepare isn't half as good as what I could do in my own (or Erin Mae's) kitchen. So when the waitress came to clear the plates and asked, rather perfunctorily, if everything had been OK, I asked her if she was willing to hear an honest critique. She looked a bit startled but agreed. I told her what had been good and what had been, shall we say, less good. She said she would tell her manager, and I thought that would be that. But she came back with (a) an apology, (b) £5 off the bill, (c) free puddings! And the offer that if I didn't think that was sufficient compensation, the manager was very open to a conversation about it. All in all, we shan't be put off patronising the Ash Tree again.

Today we came, via a stop for shopping in Rugeley, to moor up between Colwich and Great Haywood locks. It's a popular spot, with an excellent view across the Shugborough grounds.

All very pastoral and idyllic. A boater enjoying the scene as he relaxed in a folding chair let out a long sigh as we approached along the towpath. My best beloved commented on the size of the sigh. "A sigh of contentment" he said.

Back at Erin Mae, my best beloved spotted something to harvest, and set about doing so. Meanwhile another pair of boaters behind us were busy preparing something tasty on a barbecue.

Overall, everybody seems very content.

Bricks, plum puddings and ash trees

This shows what I was on about yesterday.

A bridge's brickwork normally (I think) drops down straight into the water on the "off-side", as here. Yesterday's didn't! Ah well, most of the brickwork we've encountered has been better to look at than the back of the Armitage Shanks factory at (you've guessed it) Armitage, where (again, I think) all those toilets are made.

My guess is that prettifying the canal side and replacing the broken windows would add nothing to the bottom line, so is of no interest to the firm. The people passing are probably not their biggest customers. Mind you, their website has a link to their charity, and reads "Over the last two centuries, Armitage Shanks has become part of the very fabric of life in the UK. Our outstanding, innovative products have been welcomed into businesses, schools, stadiums, charities and homes. And now we want to say thanks." So perhaps an email to the board might have an impact.

We encountered some people today who certainly responded positively to need. There was Bob, a CRT volunteer on the top lock at Fradley.

He was not only helping boaters up and down, but also educating Thomas in what it was all about.

Thomas got a lesson or two from my best beloved as well.

There was another CRT volunteer at Wood End lock, a lady, who was also logging the boats coming through. She was very helpful (an absolute brick!), but this time I didn't get a photo and I didn't learn her name. We then came all the way up to Armitage, through the narrows and have tied up outside The Ash Tree.

We stopped briefly outside The Plum Pudding before the narrows, but concluded from their prices that it's a place for a special occasion. Tonight it'll be the 2-for-1 offer at the Ash Tree, and the specials menu looks as good as it ever has!

Retracing steps

The BCF weekend at Fazeley went well. It was good to meet up with some people we've known for a while and others who were new to us. On the Saturday morning I led a couple of sessions on one of BCF's values / aims, which included a fair bit of group discussion about the practicalities.

Saturday afternoon, by which time it had nearly stopped raining, we had a lot of fun and games, including an excellent treasure hunt devised by Halfie, followed by a barbecue, mostly eaten inside in the dry. In the evening there was a great deal of mutual entertainment. Sunday morning, since most of the participants had either come by boat or were staying locally and so were still around, we joined with St Paul's church for "café church" and then had a roast Sunday dinner together at a local pub. All very enjoyable, and it was good to get to know some new faces.

Some folks then pushed off elsewhere, but we stayed overnight, needing to get a pump-out and a new gas bottle from the local marina this morning. Then we turned around and retraced our steps up the Coventry Canal, stopping in the same spot at Fradley. On the way we fell foul of some bridge builder's joke. At a bridge the towpath typically ducks in under it, so the canal naturally narrows on that side, while on the other side the brickwork just drops down onto its footing and the edge of the canal runs close to it. But at Bridge 88, whoever designed or built it decided there should be a platform on that side as well.

The canal goes down to about the width of a lock, or perhaps a little less. On top of that, there's a lot of undergrowth concealing the platform as you approach. Fortunately, as there was a boat moored on the towpath just before the bridge, I was going really slow and was now angling in towards the towpath side. I was most surprised to feel a bump as we entered the bridge, as I was sure I'd left enough clearance from the towpath. It was only as we emerged that I realised I'd actually glance against the off-side platform.

It reminded me of one of those tricks of music publishers, who place a complicated and unexpected passage immediately after a page-turn!

Fazeley

A different sort of day today. We stayed parked up at Fazeley. It's very convenient but for some reason CRT don't feel the need for "48 hour only" notices. Nicholson's take on Fazeley is that the town doesn't quite live up to the attractiveness suggested by the waterfront. Hm… But since our friends David and Mary live in a house just across the cut, with a mooring for their renowned narrowboat Kew, we're not going to say anything further. Anyway, a number of boats have been arriving in preparation for the Boaters' Christian Fellowship bash this weekend.

Actually it really started last night, when eight of us patronised The Ivory Tusk for varying types of curry, and continues tonight with a get-together in St Paul's church hall.

The main event is tomorrow, and I'm running a session in the morning on one of BCF's values. So it's been back into educator mode. I prepared the session and printed off some handouts before we left home, and today I did the bulk of the work on a presentation. All good fun – but not how I normally spend a day on Erin Mae. However, since it was drizzling for a large part of the time, it was a useful way to spend it.

In addition I got out the accordion and the guitar for a bit of fun, and now we'll head out for a sociable evening. The Erin Mae adventure continues apace!

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.