Bartimaeus

It's only natural to welcome seeing your offspring. Bryn has come aboard often, partly because he has holiday and time off forced upon him at short notice and sometimes without accommodation, by his workplace. We were pleased Nye wanted to come aboard, but it turned out locks were not going to be a treat in store for him with water shortages we planned to head away from the locks and towards Coventry. We hoped there would be plenty to entertain him as we knew he liked waterbirds. In Atherstone there was a family with cygnets that swam by regularly. Nye was as entertained by the swans habit of holding a foot aloft as I was.

Swifts were flying around the boat on the evening we arrived back and a house nearby had a cluster of white doves on the roof, an excellent start for his first hour. The swan family visited again in the morning.

Nye had a keen eye himself, so while we pointed out lots of birds to him, he also spotted something as we went along that we rarely see swimming in the water, a frog. It came towards us and then at the back of the boat it turned away and I got a good view of the head above water and pale legs kicking behind just below the surface. Good spot!

Later on though when we saw a cygnet wrestling with something large, we hoped it wasn't the frog! Nature is beautiful but it's a duck eat frog world out there! I managed to feed some crumbs to ducklings and also saw them nibbling at the accumulated green weed on the edge of the moored boat opposite. 

As we emerged from a bridge I saw a woman walking towards us, on the towpath, with two dogs on leads and a white stick. Neither dog was in harness so she was mainly using the stick as her guide. She must have had some residual vision as she looked at the foot high lettering as we went past and said, "That should be my boat, Blind Bartimaeus!" Her vision might be dull, but her wit was sharp!

As I made my way though the many moored boats by Boot warf in Nuneaton, we met Hargreaves II, the all electric Ortomarine boat, waiting for me by the bridge. I urged Shane to get a photo from the front where he was standing, so I could share it with the Ortomarine group. He wasn't satisfied with his photo quality. It was of course going to charge overnight on the other side of the bridge. The next morning it came to moor right beside us so I was able to share a picture of us side by side.

On his first day out, Nye had caught the sun, so he availed himself of my suncream before we went out. I was glad we had good weather. We headed towards the museum, in a park, a pleasant walk. Just as we were nearing it Nye stopped on the path. He had seen a little grasshopper. It was bright green which would have been excellent camouflage if it hadn't been crawling across tarmac at the time.  It wasn't hopping at all. With a good view of it we were able to look it up in my book and Nye concluded it was a male oak bush-cricket, another good spot by Nye.

The small museum focussed on George Elliot and Larry Grayson, famous for his catchphrases: 'shut that door', 'look at the muck in here' and 'ooh I could crush a grape!' There were videos of locals who knew him talking about what a nice man he was. It seems his on screen persona was little different to his own nature, engaging in long chats with people and story telling.

Upstairs there was an art gallery with pictures for sale. There were several artists, but I particularly liked some drawings. This one, of a Norfolk scene, I wanted to show to Bryn. Despite being a mainly pencil drawing, a little wash of pink was included for the sky. As well as living by the Norfolk coast, the pink sky reminds us of Bryn, as a toddler, seeing a sunset and saying "the sky's on fire!"

My other favourites were drawings of animals from the majestic stag to the humble pigeon.

We enjoyed an ice-cream from the cafe. I had one shaped like a watermelon slice with chocolate drops for seeds. I didn't find the flavour was based on natural watermelon juice, more like bubblegum, but it was nice and cool anyway. While he was glad of the ice-cream opportunities, Nye also enjoyed getting Indian spicy snacks from the local Nuneaton shops. The went well with cool dips like hummus and yogurt. It compensated for the disappointment that the tasty takeaway we had been to three years earlier was no longer there.

We moved on from Nuneaton in the afternoon having stocked up at the shops there. We had a rural mooring this time. Nye was sitting opposite the open hatch and suddenly called that he could see an animal running along. At first I thought it likely to be a rat but they are more often seen near cities. It scampered and swam at the waters edge and I thought its tail was too short for a rat and it might be a water vole. They are such a rare sight, I began to doubt it and I wondered if it was just a young rat, but then I would expect to see a family and this creature had disappeared underwater, rather than up the bank. A little later it reappeared and started nibbling at the reeds, adopting the classic water vole pose. An excellent spot!

In the morning I was keeping a lookout for the water vole over breakfast but it didn't reappear. I got a different surprise - a message from Lesley with whom I used to work closely fo many years. She said she was not far away visiting her husband's brother. They were about to leave and had spotted from where is bartimaeus we were within easy reach on their way home. Or at least we would be if we moved a bit as we were in the middle of nowhere. I told her that there was a pub, The Greyhound, at the junction where they could probably park easily and we could be there in an hour.

On the way Nye enjoyed seeing waterlilies out. He saw two different kinds. We got moored and walked towards the pub and met Lesley and Ian walking towards us, perfect timing. 

It was a brief visit for a swift cuppa and a tour of the boat but we thought it was great she had got in touch. We gave them a very short cruise back to the car park and I have set a coffee date with Lesley for next time I am in Edinburgh. You really never know what delight you will see as you go along the canal.