Bartimaeus

We have stayed a few days near Kinver feeling it too hot to drive in the sun. The man building his steps has worked steadily through the heat. His son has been helping him during the day. In the evenings, when they down tools, they are sometimes joined by the son, a woman and young toddler, with blond curls. Grandad is obviously very besotted with his grandson. He's a chatty man with a local accent and we could hear him calling on "the babbie" often and playing games and singing. He and his wife exchange jolly pleasantries when they go for a cool, relaxing evening cruise. Both the gardens we were near had residents who greeted us warmly and even though they were not narrow boaters, they did both have little boats moored at the end of their gardens. It felt like we were part of their in-crowd, rather than outsiders.

On Friday afternoon Shane had a GITS virtual chat (they are all ex Geosciences IT Support). I went into town to the shops while he was occupied. On the way to Kinver I saw a tiny moorchick very near. This is unusual as they normally lurk in the plant shade on the far bank, rather than the towpath.

Then I saw another and another and a mother, then another. They were now heading for the other bank following mum.

When I went into one of the shops in Kinver the lady serving chatted about being annoyed she hadn't tied her hair up. I replied that tying it up certainly helps keep the neck cool and it was good she had a fan. She said she needed the fan but it was blowing her hair about. Everyone is certainly talking about the weather just now. I was surprised when she finished the transaction by thanking me for returning to her shop! 

On the towpath one of the boats had a happy birthday banner and balloons saying 16 on them tied to the boat and a number of people eating cake on the towpath, the bow, the roof. I wasn't  sure exactly whose birthday it was.

I came back to see Shane's chat was still going on and he was obviously enjoying it, even though the connection was a bit flakey. 

When we were young we hadn't really heard of computing officers, or IT guys, as a career. What an explosion in the job market that was! By the time Bryn went to school they did have computers in the classroom, even in the nursery. The nursery had assessed his computer ability, which was a surprise. The nursery thought it was a worthwhile skill, but when I  mentioned computers at parents night at the end of his first year of primary school, where he struggled with handwriting and concentrating, I was told  that "unfortunately he  has never been on the computer." It was only used as a reward in choosing time - you had to finish your work sheets first and he never did. 

I went to sit in a shady spot not far from the bow of the boat and did knitting  (they don't teach that in school now - but you can always ask the internet). I was also entertained by a robin regularly flying forward, pecking quickly at something and flying immediately away. It hopped close to my chair at one point. I had seen it a few days ago flitting back and forth.

The next day we set off to get water and to empty the waste tank. Before setting off it was important to pay attention to the family of ducklings that had arrived.

Getting to the water and pumpout service point involved working through the novice canoeists and a lock. When we reached the lock the canoe hire staff member asked if they were getting out of the way for us and we said this group had done so.

The pump out equipment at this place does not reach unless we are facing the other way. So we got water, and carried on through the next lock to where we could turn around. As Shane worked through the lock, three women came past carrying paddle boards. Two were noticeably younger than the other one, behind them. She was finding carrying her paddle board a bit awkward. It might be her age, or it might be her experience handling it, or it might be that she was additionally dealing with a bobbing balloon tied to her paddle board with 60 on it. We decided to wait and not exit the lock until they had gone as we needed to turn and that could take a while. It wasn't the easiest winding spot and I found the progress so painfully slow that I asked Shane to board and take over.  

The pump out, having turned, was much quicker and more straightforward, but as we were driving away, I realised that  we hadn't closed the door to the shed. When we reached Kinver lock, Shane let me off and I went back to close up the sanitary station. Shane went to get the lock ready, so when I  got back I cast off and started to drive in. A little boy on a bike came and started to ask if I was moving, if I  could go faster, if we were going through the other gate, if I had an engine, how fast it could go... All this while trying to line up and drive in the lock. He started shouting to his companions to come and see. I was just driving in when Shane asked if I could fetch scissors. I got a bit further in and ran in for scissors - they couldn't get the birthday balloon detached from the paddle board... then he handed back the scissors and went to work the paddles. Two dads and another little boy on a bike came and the boys and one dad watched Shane and the other dad chatted to me. He apologised for his son being so inquisitive, but I said we liked children being interested. Shane duly encouraged them to help with opening the gates.

I drove out and the little boys came down the other side of the bridge. The inquisitive one asked why I had stopped. I said I was waiting so my husband could get on. He asked if I had brakes. I told him there was no brake I just had forwards and backwards and to stop going forwards, you put it into backwards. Shane jumped on. Next was a gaggle of novice canoeists. One was not remembering the instructions to go to the side and kept straight on. After a while you actually can't see the place where they are if they are straight in front. I was just doing dead slow and stop until I knew where they were and a man at the side called them over, and grabbed their paddle to get them to the side, so we could proceed. There were more to come and Shane was looking out. He was also worried about a protruding rock. 

Today we started off by going on to a slightly easier winding hole, turning again and heading to Kinver lock again. As we cast off we saw the wife of our chatty neighbour standing on the edge of the boat on the side over the water, holding a roof rail with one hand and cleaning the windows with the other. It looked precarious, but she didn't look nervous. She laughed and explained her nephews were coming later for a visit and she wanted them to be able to see out of the windows.

Shane thought he had allowed all the canoes to pass but there were more than he thought and we met them in both directions. We passed the rock he had been worried about last time, but this time it was less ominous with cute moorchicks standing on it.

Having navigated the canoes he went to work Kinver lock. We continued on through to the next lock, Hyde Lock, where some boys on little electric motorbikes with large helmets approached. The boys I had seen the day before had the same motorbike style helmets, so I wondered if they were the same, but then I saw they had different bikes. More appeared and all six of them lined up at the side of the lock to watch, astride their bikes and six adults came and stood behind them while I worked the lock. They were interested to see how it worked. I haven't seen a gang of mini motorbikers gongoozling before.