Plans for the week on hold as we reach Hopwas and meet the Kirbys

Avecote to Hopwas, Coventry Canal, 6 miles 2 locks

One of those stop start days when the weather dominated our travels.  But a good start this morning as we pulled the pins I decided to walk to Glascote Locks some two miles away with Lucy.  Not gone more than 100 yards when this sight greeted me from the other side of the canal on the Tamworth Golf Course..

I stopped and wondered what the guy was saying to the policeman in the yellow top.. my imagination running wild, and it was a good job there was nobody around as I bust out laughing at the thought of “Errrrrr believe me officer, when I asked the caddy for a driver to fire at the hole, this is not what I had in mind”!!!

Glascote Locks were busy this morning, but we stopped just short because an almighty rain storm came down, and we dived inside for cover and a cuppa while we watched others passing by getting absolutely drenched.. then onward after about half hour, and again I managed to grab the windlass before Vic and disappeared off to the locks leaving him to pull the pins.

The lock cottage here is delightful with its pump outside, and hey look who is watching over the locks to make sure we do it properly…

It’s Rosie and Jim staring out of the window!.. On then to Fazeley Junction, and I can’t remember the last time I was here when it wasn’t raining.. it always rains when I come through this place, and today was no different..

The buildings on the left are being demolished, I wondered what is going up in their place, no doubt it will be housing.. still it will be an improvement on what is there at the moment.  We decided not to moor up this time because of the rain, and just to carry on for a while hoping it would stop.. it did eventually and the sun came out to dry us off again.  The scenery between the junction and Hopwas is very countrified, and it never fails to amaze me how this huge tower was every allowed to be put up in the middle of nowhere…

I suppose Birmingham is over that hill somewhere, but what a dreadful blight on the countryside this is, it can be seen for miles and miles around..

We were cruising through Hopwas when the weather really deteriorated badly and a thunderstorm could be heard to the left of us, so we decided not to get another soaking today and found a mooring just the other side of the village as the rain poured down again.. but fortune was shining down on us even if the sun wasn’t, because just as we moored, around the corner came Barry and Carol Kirby who do narrowboat decorations, roses and castles and the like.. they were also mooring and found a space just up from us… “Don’t leave ‘till I have talked to you” I yelled as we all dived inside our boats to escape a soaking… this was going to be my opportunity to get some painting done on No Problem.

So this evening as the sun came out and the clouds went away Carol did some background work on the roses..

 

The marks above the roses on the back panel are where the name “No Problem” will go eventually.

Waterscape send me emails of stoppages, it is one of the services that you can subscribe to by email, so I am always aware of any stoppages that may be happening around me, but I was most amused today by this one… 

The following advice has been announced:

River Severn

Worcester Bridge to Worcester Cathedral

Date: 11/08/2007 until 11/08/2007

Description:
St Richard's Hospice will be holding a Duck Race involving 500 small ducks,
500 large ducks and 30 fancy dress ducks.

Boaters are asked to follow the instructions of marshals on site

Not mallards nor mandarins and not even Aylesbury ducks, but a plastic variety you see.. but in fancy dress??!! Hahaha!!

This is what goes on…

But these are only small ducks and none are in fancy dress!  To get the ducks to move is the difficult bit, although on the River Severn there will be a flow, but on the Caldon Canal, where this pic was taken back in 2004, there is no flow, so if you look carefully you can see a boat moored tightly under the bridge with its prop running, so pushing the water towards the winning line.  All these ducks had numbers and we could bet on them, winner takes all!.. Unfortunately it wasn’t my duck who won, my duck felt much the same as I do in life.. why hurry?!