Bartimaeus

The Bewdley Museum had a display of coracles. They had straps for  carrying them. It reminded me of the portage we had done in Canadian canoes on a camping trip in Algonquin Park with Shane's uncle and cousin. Shane said he thought they were designed to be carried by two people and he and his cousin had carried two between them. I had not carried the canoes as I was guiding his blind uncle through the rocky streams and shallows, which was the physically lighter job as as I was over six months pregnant at the time. I nonetheless felt it was no easy task, but he put his trust in me. The coracles only had one seat and were no doubt single handed. Nobody could help you out if you fell into the water (as I did trying to get into a canoe) or struggled to carry your fish and coracle.

On the way out of the museum I noticed something I hadn't seen earlier - an old rudder. It was so big, I can scarcely see how we both missed it, twice Shane's height. I wondered how big that boat, The Hannah, was and how big a tiller was needed. The Hannah was in service on the Severn,

Bewdley also furnished us with a new bucket. The old bucket wasn't broken but it is a bit too big for easily getting it in and out of the locker or out from under the tap so when he spotted small buckets, Shane pounced on it. Of course no trip to an ironmongers is complete without a long browse for something else you might need so we came away with a few things in our bucket that we are sure will come in handy.

When we got back, we sat in the shade on the jetty and almost immediately the new bucket was baptised as a pigeon landed on the roof, made a mess on the solar panel and strutted around for a bit. Shane was pleased to have a better tool for the job, as he cleaned the panel.

The next day we set off early, for us, and went through the lock to cruise on up to Stourport, picking up another kingfisher sighting or two on the way. Again some we saw one flying with food in their beak. You might need to trust me that there is one in the photo, a little blue smudge on a branch, but we got a good clear view of it.

We were trying to remember our previous visit five years ago. We both remembered the funfair and the lock we were meant to use being unavailable. I remembered an unusual antique shop and a mosaic on the pavement, which I had seen on a solo  hunt for bread. Shane didn't believe I had put the mosaic in the blog, but I knew I had stopped at it and thought it must the sort of thing I would put in. I took a photo anyway.

As we crossed a bridge we saw the canal below but it was hard to see the mooring sign. Shane was looking ahead for the best spot to hide from the sun. I went down a side lane to get a better view, but some greenery still partially obscured it. I convinced myself it could only be the number five, even though it was an unlikely number, Moorings are usually 2 days, 3 days, 7 days or even 14 days.

Next to the bridge was a a bit of attractive garden and a celebration of being twinned with a French town.

I am pretty sure I hadn't reached this end of town before. I had recognised the names of some other pubs, but not the pub decorated with tanks, soldiers, mines and poppies unless this was a new mural. It isn't unusual to see veteran support benches and memorials, but as pub main feature, that was something I feel I would have noticed if I had been there before. Shane was taken with the huge thistles opposite.

We turned around and picked up drinks and breakfast in a cool supermarket then headed back to the wharf area. There seems to be quite a lot of crocheted bunting and decorations around this area and I put down the hot cross buns, telling Shane to remind me if we forgot them - the buns would have got a lot hotter if we left them behind.

It was apparently a novel idea to create a river port here, as opposed to only having sea ports and the wharf was busy with carts being moved between canal and river craft moving goods from one to the other for further distribution.

 Back at the boat I checked and found the previous picture I had taken of the wharf mosaic in the blog, but I had taken a better one this time. It is more memorable if you are the photographer.

I liked the details of street names but the locks are omitted and the scale is artistic license. There is a lot more boat space in the wharfs than the symbolic narrowboat suggests. Shane did the hard hot work of the locks as we went through the various basins. It was hot enough driving.

The route is surprisingly convoluted using the narrow lock, with a lot of right angle turns to get to the service and exit to the canal. Shane has more belief in my ability to drive it than I did. We didn't do this the first time, five years ago, because we used the double lock, but Shane tells me he drove it in the other direction in the November that year. It is more memorable if you are the one driving.

We moored outside the pub. We found it's interior cool and quiet. It was decorated with flags from around the world and had a screen without sound with news footage of paralympians but with the sound off I was none the wiser. We did learn from the breaking news headlines scrolling along that Bonnie Tyler had died. I was surprised to find she had 86 singles released over her 5 decade career, even in her seventies - one each year from 2020 to 2026 inclusive.

I had also heard news the evening before that the baby I was knitting for was now born. The cardigan for Gracie is larger though so I am in less of a rush to get it there promptly. Nonetheless, I was spurred on to take my knitting into the shade. The two July babies I have been knitting for were born in reverse order on each others due dates! Due dates aren't really something you can believe in!