Sunday 9th August A late start today as we'd planned tomorrows timing to suit a slow cooked "Basingstoke Airfreshener" curry for when we arrive at Minworth for a pre-arranged pre-BCN Explorer mini-GiG. Past Kings Bromley marina and then joined a queue of three for Wood End lock. On down the next two and turned right at Fradley junction onto the Coventry where we immediately moored up for lunch, to skip the rubbish and a walk around the nature reserve before continuing our journey south. We stopped for the night in Hopwas (Hooty Wol - see <http://website.lineone.net/~familykeens/trip23.htm> previous trip on website) Woods and then went for a walk around Hopwas where we discovered St. Chads church.This is one of the more unusual and most pretty churches we've seen. Dedicated in 1893 it's, as far as Brenda's limited brain power can deduce, mock Tudor or Arts & Crafts - possibly both.It looks like a cross between a church and an olde worlde village hall. We'd have loved to have a look inside.
As for the title of this blog, as we walked down the towpath into Hopwas we heard the strains of a fairground organ. Round the bend came nb Marden. It was the source of music to make you smile. The steerer was about 80 years old and sprightly. He had an organ mounted in the foredeck of his boat. The music may have been from a cassette or CD but it doesn't matter a jot. There was an organ and there was music, smiles all round. (I'll try and add a picture when we're not on GPRS) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
