Bartimaeus

After the excitement of achieving the Hatton flight swiftly, and avoiding wasps, in the morning, it might seem tame to return to ordinary boating. It seems like there was little left to be done. Shane was very glad to be back on plan A. We had had a walk along the first stretch the evening before when we had walked up to the top of the locks and beyond. We had seen the fender boat at the bridge and turned back there. Today we sailed on past and on through tranquil waters with no more locks today.

Shane pointed out some water lilies . They were like ones I had seen before but not got close enough, with pale yellow flowers.

Bryn was no doubt relaxing after a very lockdown heavy holiday, ones that are pretty hard going too. There was one more navigational excitement for Bryn - a tunnel. There hadn't  been any of those, just lots of locks of different kinds including a staircase lock. I was glad to drive then, as Bryn is unfazed by the physics.

Shane was remembering what had happened along this stretch before. I had got chased by a dog returning from a shop, but they had nice pasties, so no wonder the dog was jumping at me. It was near this tunnel that I took a path in the woods to find the shop.

After all the drought warnings, it was a surprise to find jets of water coming out the side and a few unavoidable drips down the middle. Still it was drier than some and nobody squealed. I hid inside a bit.

The odd drip was hard to avoid and the seats were wet after. The green mosses near the exit were interesting to me and Bryn. Shane warned us about the trailing plants ahead, as we were busy looking at the moss. Sometimes they are brambles and that would be an unpleasant surprise if it brushed your face. We avoided them but they were in fact an innocent plant without thorns.

As we approached the mooring spot, Shane pointed out the field that had goats. Shane couldn't see them and wondered if they were gone but they were in their shed. I remembered a boat called Smoke On The Water, and could see it through a bridge, but it was in fact called Smoke, though it is of course, on the water. I had remembered the song it triggers, not the actual name. 

As we reached the place where Shane wanted to stop we had the excitement of seeing a kingfisher. At least Shane and Bryn did - I missed it.

I hopped off to check the mooring signs at the junction. Some moorings were only for 48 hours but we found a place for a longer stay. We had a snack, then off on a walk that took us to the Lapworth village shop. We weren't stocking up today, but remebered they had tasty spicy treats. We saw they had samosas and Shane checked their opening hours, so that when we come back we could shop there rather than lugging groceries from Birmingham. I thought samosas might save me cooking too. This time we just had an ice cream lolly and continued our walk to look at the Stratford canal. I found even prettier deep pink waterlilies at a side, fishing pond beside the locks.

As we looked at the basin where the Grand Union meets the Stratford we watched others preparing the locks that looked tiny compared to those we had been operating. There was a narrow boat approaching but beside it was a yacht, which looked tiny beside the narrow boat as it was remote controlled, by a man on a bench beside the basin. He was steering his little boat away to keep it safe.

We walked along the canal for a bit back towards the goat field. We heard some loud and low bleating and some lambs, higher pitched, came with the ewes to take of the water.

We reached round to the canal we were moored on. The goats were out of their own. Sadly the Idle Women poem machine was no longer working there, but when we got back to the junction there was another machine and it was playing a poem. The handle was a bit small and harder to turn but we took turns and got the story of a women and her husband working on the canals. She was pleased she also got a wage since she shared the work, and stayed faithfully in canal employment all her days. 

For the evening meal I was trying use up left overs, as it was the last day aboard. I had been delayed getting the parsley used up that I had got in the community herb bed at Hillmorton locks, by the pub dinner and surprise delicious Indian carry out. I had managed to get the parsley into a garlicky pasta dish. It is supposed to be good for reducing garlic breath. I had used up the excess salad that comes with Indian takeaways in a sweet chilli veggie stir fry along with some sweet potatoes, root ginger and egg, and now I wanted to use up the windfall apples from a bucket by some locks, and some of the older veggies. I found a recipe for wood pigeon with mushroom stew in the canal boater recipe book. I had no plans to include pigeon, but had plenty mushrooms and it did call for apple. Bryn enjoyed it, and the dumplings, but wasn't  so keen on my accompanying leeks in cheese sauce (another thing from the boaters' recipe book). He has been extending his range enormously and I hadn't thought that would be unsuitable. The tamarind had gone down well in the take away and he has eaten leeks in other things. Still he liked the stew and he didn't used to like cooked apple, so he is carrying on being open to new opportunities and he has not been afraid of the Hatton flight nor the large moth that arrived in the boat. It was a beauty, though Shane was less keen to be one acquainted. We were all happy with the multiple kingfisher sightings we had in this stretch. It wasn't dull or boring at all.