The Woods throw 'down' surprises around Hopwas!

Hopwas to Brookhay Bridge, Coventry Canal, 5 miles 0 locks

Awwww, here is the narrowboat I have been looking out for over the last 3 years..

..and as I went off for a walk with Lucy yesterday she came under the bridge.. Shalamar.  What a beauty.  We nearly bought her you know back in 2002.  It was a toss up between NP and Shalamar.  But we had only had experience of hire boats before then, this was something very different.  All wheels and sticks for making her go back and forth instead of just a simple throttle!

Lots of reasons why she didn’t become our home though.. that was one of them.  A very old engine, can’t remember what it was now, in it’s own engine room and the fact that the advertising bumph said 72ft.. The guy was half right when I called to him that we very nearly bought her “Ah you missed out” he called back with a wry smile.

The overwhelming reason for us to pass her by and decide on NP was the length.  For sure we would not have visited the Leeds and Liverpool last year, nor of course the Rivers of East Anglia this year.. but I did watch and ponder as she disappeared from my view with a beautiful “De Dump, De Dump” sound from that engine.

Anyway walking yesterday, hey look what I saw..

I didn’t remove the bits of dried grass from this before i took the pic because I wasn’t sure if the fairies had put it there for a reason, but I stopped a while and imagined ..

And this morning while we were having breakfast this happened..

I was very lucky over the weekend, no flags flying then!

Pins were pulled late morning to try find a place for Mr Tesco to come deliver us an order.  I have been along this canal many times, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember exactly what was where, so the plan was to travel until we found an appropriate place near a road, moor and then get on the internet and find post code, book a delivery slot for tomorrow then do the order.

You would not believe what happened today.. most odd!  We were just ambling along, as we do, when suddenly there was a thump on the roof.  I thought a small log type branch had fallen on the roof along with some leaves, well it was a bit windy you see.  Anyway the next minute, this ‘log’ scuttled along NP’s roof!  Then it rolled off the side into the water and swam to the shore!!.. It was a squirrel!!  You know, I had no idea that squirrels could swim.. I didn’t even have time to think about a rescue plan before it was out of the water over the towpath and up the nearest tree, no worse for its fall out of the trees above us!

I am off in the morning to find the farmer who owns the field just up from here.. he has some lovely wood that would do us just nicely to top up our supplies on the roof… Vic has sharpened the chainsaw in readiness!