The day started out promising but traditional bank holiday weather prevailed after all, cold wind, then drizzle into wet drizzle and then real rain for the last hour of cruising. When we arrived at the first lock (Wood End) we were eighth in line to descend and at Fradley top lock we were ninth. That soon put paid to a couple of hours spent chatting to some interesting folk, boaters since the 1940s. Mid morning we snacked on Simon's blackberry muffins and we shared with the boat in front in the queue cos we were brought up proper. Our reward was a big bag of plums from the same boaters garden. They made a lovely crumble. Simon decided his new found baking skills so satisfying that Jannock was yet again found in a tree on the offside while we gathered more berries. They are to be holiday gifts to his friends and neighbours in Salford, again in muffin form. We arrived at Glascote locks in the rain and once through, Graham stayed out to complete the journey to Alvecote while Simon and I retreated indoors to avoid the downpour. There were so many boats 'out' but moored bankside that progress was well below 2 MPH for most of the day. After dinner Simon took Graham back to Stafford to collect the car and then continued home to Salford.
Brenda www.jannock.org.uk [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
