Bartimaeus

We had moored a short distance from where we had seen the heron gulp a fish. He was there again and duly grabbed a fish just as we were passing. It was a smaller specimen and he made short work of it and stalked off looking pleased with himself.

The next day we set off through Stewponey Lock and Bridge. We stopped for lunch and another hungry bird came over to see us. Shane got some brown bread and it ate it up.

We are around the boundary of several counties. The flag by the lock and canal and river trust building was for "The Black Country" which has no specific geographical boundary but quite a few boats are flying this flag.

After lunch we continued towards the junction. We had been here before with Tracey and Richard, but somehow I hadn't noticed this tree growing on the fender of the boat, perhaps we were too busy chatting. 

It won't have much soil but should be well watered. The clean looking water cans made the boat look inhabited, not abandoned, but perhaps on its private jetty, it doesn't travel much. It would be a bit of a hindrance to steering. A wide sweep to port would be tricky and visibility is surely affected, sitting under a tree all the time. I wouldn't want to try steer round the junction that was coming up. We hadn't intended going that way, as Birmingham is hard to navigate right now and Stourbridge has suffered a serious fire with 19 houses burnt to the ground and 15 more badly damaged.

Some pretty parts were ahead and we found ourselves on a winding tree-lined part, looking rather lush. Ahead I saw a bare dead branch in the water with a few small sub-branches sticking up. Then just as I spotted what the blue blob was and shouted 'kingfisher', it dropped down, dipped into the water and flew off straight ahead. I couldn't see if it caught anything. A few moments later we got a message from Bryn saying "KINGFISHER!" He and Nye were in Lille. How odd they should see one at the same time. We were keeping a look out but the bare branch has been the more exposed. Kingfishers like to sit on a low perch near the edge and lower branches of trees overhanging the water. In the shade the fish might not see the bird's shadow, or perhaps they are too fast for the fish to avoid them anyway. I did spot another one (or the same one) a little later. It didn't fly off as we went past.

To our surprise, we received another message from Bryn saying they had just had a second kingfisher sighting and again I replied saying, so had we. 

While the route was pretty, the tree-lined canal was more of a challenge in finding an optimal mooring for our solar panels. We found a spot that still had trees, but not overshadowing the panels. Shane had also found a place to visit a cycle ride away so we could leave them soaking up the sun and replenishing batteries while we went to a National Trust property. The cafe has plenty of outdoor seating among the apple trees and Shane was pleased to see they had backs on the seats rather than picnic tables, so although slightly breezy, we opted for outdoor seating and sat under an apple tree. There were plenty of children around and I heard a passing woman talk about a child counting all the apples. I looked up and around and could see the trees were pretty heavily laden and there were a few on the ground. As they were mainly green apples they hadn't been too noticeable on arrival.

As we were finishing lunch and discussing next steps, we heard a surprised shout and sounds of mild concern nearby, about a near miss, and then heard a hard thump very near and saw an apple had fallen by our table, slightly behind me. We decided it was time to move off before we got bonked on the head.

We found that as well as the house to see, there was an imminent garden tour so decided to go along. We read about the statues by modern artists scattered round the garden while we waited for the guide. There was one that was visible from our lunch spot but we hadn't noticed as the red dinosaur, colourful lanterns, and wall of fig tree were all more eye-catching. To be fair it was the smallest of all the pieces, and it's title didn't help you towards an interpretation: "Abstract Form" by Anthony Twentyman.

On the walk we stopped at various points of horticultural, historical or artistic interest as he explained how the landscaping of the gardens had changed over the years and what were the show pieces of the estate. Regularly he remarked on the damage suffered by the plants as a result of this summer's drought and high temperatures. However one plant was exhibiting extra growth, the wisteria was having a second blooming among surprisingly lush leaves.

We heard a story of James I, who loved his fine clothes, hearing that silk was made by worms that lived on the mulberry tree, ordered hundreds  from Asia, to be planted in Britain. It was many years before they matured, but the climate wasn't the problem in his plan. There were two kinds of mulberry bush and he had ordered the black mulberry, while the worms liked to live on the white variety so no silk worm factory for him. 

An added interest to the tour was that one woman had borrowed a National Trust motorised buggy to join the tour. She had never driven one before so was taking care not to terrorise us with her driving, by giving us a wide berth when on the move. I thought she did very well over some bumpy and steep slopes. It is good that they have them available - it was clear to any visitors that they were not personally owned with the oak leaf logo on the front.

At the "American Garden" we were told all the trees were from the Americas, with the exception of the cherry trees, from Japan. It included a particularly old variety of cherry and it always flowered a clear week ahead of the others. 

Some trees were even more ancient varieties, and looked like plants found in fossils. As if to reinforce this there were some dinosaurs underneath it's branches. 

We were pleased to have agreed to the tour, and heard of a couple of trees that had been thought extinct but found by botanists who revived their population. The trees outlive the people by a long way and it is good to see them being looked after rather than destroyed and seeing them mange to adapt and survive when they can't move. At the last point in the tour he said this year was the first year they had noticed large magnolia fruits on the tree. May be this is the first time it has been hot enough.