Bartimaeus

Having moored in the rushes, we were treated to sightings of sedge warblers, evening and morning. The goldfinches were doing more singing than the warblers though. We moved forward a short distance in the morning to be in an accessible spot for our visitors, near the first of two locks that go to the Severn.

When I emerged from the cabin, Shane told me we had been visited already by a butterfly landing on the boat. He said he had got a picture but when we looked it, he was disappointed to see it was out of focus. We could still tell it was a red admiral though and definitely on our boat. It looked like it was checking out the cabin.

Gillian, Douglas and Piran had a long journey to get to us and had to pitch their caravan first, so they wouldn't be arriving until the afternoon but I wasn't sure how nimble, or willing to cross water, Piran would be, so our spot with gangplank access, while excellent for moorhen and warbler spotting, wasn't ideal for receiving guests. We arrived with loads of space available. The boats we had seen the night before all gone, apart from the work boats.

There was a terrific sound of singing insects, with which Merlin is no help. I also saw a funnel type web with something large inside it. I did some on line web searching and concluded it was a labyrinth spider  web. There were a few tiny insects trapped there but not as many as had made their way into the cabin the night before. They had mostly left or died by morning.

We walked to the space we had checked out as a parking spot. We had seen a vole during our reconnoitre but no mamals today. I liked the delicate spots on this dainty butterfly.

By the time we had walked back to the boat we were all in need of a cold drink. I was impressed by Piran's handling of the steps into the cabin and Gillian was impressed by the size of the interior of Bartimaeus.

It was late afternoon before we cast off but I had Douglas's help on the locks while Gillian and Piran were relaxing on board. Gillian was taking photos. A grey wagtail was flitting around the lock.

The lock gates are very heavy so in the second we tried trying not to open both gates fully as they were very hard to close, but a young boy was watching us at the river lock, putting his can on the grass to have free hands, he came over and offered to help me. His smaller friend appeared later and my helper explained about the lock emptying and the boat coming down.

 It was an unfair advantage for Douglas that I had two helpers and the older boy saw how slow they are to get started and ran round the lock to be a helper there but by the time he got across the lock gates Douglas had completed the manoeuvre.

The boys went back to fishing in the river and as we came round on to the river they waved enthusiastically. We saw some other hopeful fishers, a heron and two egrets. I told Gillian how I found the rivers pretty but the wildlife can be a bit distant. 

Shane asked if anyone else would like to drive. Piran might be interested in what others were doing, but his training didn't cover boat driving. Douglas felt he had done enough driving for the day but Gillian was game.

Piran was relaxing lying on the deck, looking oblivious to what we were doing, but when I said his name, he looked up and turned to the camera obligingly.

It was a very gentle cruise. After Gillian had handed back the tiller, Shane turned round to return. We saw the egrets again but they kept flying off. I went down to the bow to try to get closer.

Shane decided to go backwards through the locks back to our mooring so we would be facing the right way to repeat the journey in the morning. Piran may not be familiar with boats but, like Douglas locking and Gillian driving he seemed quick on the uptake and closely observed  the unusual manoeuvre.

I had done advance preparation of dinner so we managed to have eaten before dark including strawberries raspberries and cream brought by Gillian and Douglas. - they can come again any time! Piran had been fed on the towpath while ours was cooking and fell fast asleep while we chatted. He roused easily ready for the walk back to the car.

It was great to have them visit. It is the first time we've had a dog on board for a cruise (occasionally one has jumped on to the boat to say hello or have a sniff around) but Piran didn't seem nervous. He is the most laid back dog I have met. 

The next day Shane went to do the locks and he got help from the crew of a hire boat that arrived just as I was about to cast off. They were pretty tired from having done all the locks from Droitwich already that morning, but the driver was excited to do his first lock share. 

Once I had driven onto the river I could feel the sun very hot on the back of my legs so went in to get suncream on. When I came back Shane said I had missed the egrets again! Shortly after he shouted 'snake!' It was swimming towards the bank, its head high in the water. We also picked up a 'hitch hopper', which didn't stay long. 

We moored before the next lock and had a peaceful afternoon. We had a walk for ice-cream while the washing machine was on and I tried to get another red admiral in the brambles. It had folded wings though. It fluttered up and landed on my arm, where it sat open but I couldn't snap it. I saw it had a very damaged wing, but it still flew off again very quickly.

As we ate dinner, I saw a kingfisher fly behind Shane. He spent the rest of the meal looking hopefully over his shoulder. Maybe we will see it tomorrow. 

A duck and ducklings visited after dinner and I gave them some scraps from the fruit and vegetable peelings. They liked courgette and the ducklings dived for tiny bits of strawberry, from yesterday's dessert preparation, cut off with the hull - not Bartimaeus' hull, though water birds do go nibbling there too. Later they came back to the shallows behind the jetty, where I could see fish. 

Apart from the traffic on the nearby bridge all was serene and we could still hear the birds. Merlin identified about a dozen. I didn't see most of them though I was surprised to see two long tailed tits spend quite a while pecking at the Himalayan balsam and flitting through the nearby bushes beside the jetty.