Sunny day, Sunny Valley and Matresses.. what a mix..

Fazeley to Bradley Green, Coventry Canal, 8 miles 2 locks

Lovely day again when we pulled the pins early this morning, bit cool in the breeze, but the sun on the back canopy meant shirt sleeves for Vic.. heh, jumper for me of course!

We didn’t have to go too far ‘till we arrived at our destination to be able to pick up the new mattresses for our bed.  Here the closed down pub, once thriving until the road going past it just stopped because of a new roadway which you can see in the distance that goes around Tamworth…

Actually this is a very nice mooring, very quiet on the offside with rings to tie up to.  Just feel sorry that this huge place has now been forced to shut.

The mattresses got delivered around midday, and the Bed Centre duly took the old ones away, and we pulled the pins straight away to make our way to Polesworth where we were meeting Annie of NB Moore2Life who was coming to stay for a couple of days.. 2.15pm about she was arriving, we just had enough time to get there without breaking too much wash.. ideal!

Up through the pair of locks at Glascote, here No Problem is completely unmanned making her way very slowly into the lock.. she is well trained you know, trickles into the lock and waits there until Vic and I fill the lock to let her out!..

Here at the second of the two locks, Lucy in typical “I am posing mode”.. makes me laugh that does, she always puts on that pose look whenever she sees the camera in my hand.  When the lock is full I will put down that paddle on my side and step aboard, wait for Vic to open the gate then exit the lock stopping just past the gate to pic up Vic after he has shut the gate.  And on a day like this there is nothing as enjoyable as working slowly through a set of locks this way..

And so to Polesworth when I just had time to go get some fresh vegetables, fruit and milk.. and while browsing the veg shop a tap on my shoulder from my very good friend Ann, it was lovely to see her again, and we chatted and caught up with all the news from each other’s boat…

Quick cupper for Ann, then it was away again moving out of Polesworth and onward towards Atherstone.  I was pleasantly surprised to see NB Sunny Valley at Grendon Bridge..

The last time I saw this particular working boat was back in October 2004 when, pulled by motorboat Clover,  it was taking part in the re-enactment of the Jam ‘ole Run along with a load of other working boats.  I happened to be at Clifton at the time, and took pics of all the boats as they came past.  You might enjoy having a look at the special page I did for that.

We eventually put the pins in for the night at Bradley Green, about half a mile or so from the bottom of the Atherstone flight of 11 locks.

A huge disappointment today as we tested out the new mattresses and remade the bed.. Aghast.. too wide.. too tight across the boat.  It was almost as if both of them were a good inch too big.  Together they were too tight to fit snuggly and there is a hard ridge where the two meet.. That is no good at all, and I have had to re-order one again only much smaller.  My fault, I should have allowed ‘spread’.  I have kicked myself up and down the boat for getting it wrong, but it is done, nothing I can do to change that.. Ah well

Tomorrow is another day, and I am looking forward to working through the Atherstone flight..