Beautiful mooring on the Tixall Wide, opposite 16th century gatehouse, 

with waterlilies, reeds and geese. Feel so lucky that I made it to Daydream again!

Burdock

                                                   Burdock...but no Dandelion

 

Swivel

 Hoo Mill and Swivel. Great canal names......and we didn't even make it to Heartbreak Hill.

Shugborough Folly

 

 

I liked this folly with a broken statue sitting on a decrepit ruin

Shardlow

Original milepost on the Trent & Mersey. We might go to Shardlow on our next trip..............if there's enough water!

 

Road Liable To Flooding

Things we floated past.

 

This Bridge is Insufficient

 Some wordy signage....and some a little more pithy.....

Whatever Happened to British Waterways"

Since our canal  trip, the whole Canal network has closed due to the drought...

 

A Touch of Lycra

As seen at the TOP TOWPATH CAFE, "THE LAUGHING DUCK", Fradley Junction. The sight didn't put me off my very delicious sandwich!!

Bridge Over (Un)Troubled Water

Coventry canal- names not numbers

 

Woodpecker Tree at the mooring

We passed some very tranquil and beautiful private moorings.....

 

Thor

 Thor had some nice canal art items aboard, including this barrel!

Toepath

It's fair to say I 'm not quite firing on all cylinders............

 

Hare Krishna Heron

A heron pulls up to the bumper on Hare Krishna...plus grumpy boater sitting like a gnome atop her barge

 

Rosy (and Jim?)

Prize for the best boat-top garden goes to Rosy.....and top marks to Jim for heaving up the mighty rhubarb tub every time he needs to change the gas bottle!

 

The Vine, Rugeley

The Vine, our top pub in Rugeley - which brews its own lovely beer!  We didn't go in The Crown, but I liked the old sign above the door for a brewery which no longer exists. Google says it was founded in 1833, became Springfield Brewery in 1874 and closed in 1991. The site became part of Wolverhampton University and some bits, like a memorial to brewery workers, went to the Black Country Museum ......

 

My favourite was the Donkey Jacket - I'm the proud owner of a tartan-lined one, although I doubt it was made in Rugeley, where they were invented, for use on the Manchester ship canal, by donkey engine operatives!

 

Rugely Old Trades

I loved this big metal sculpture in Rugeley celebrating the town's former trades.....

 

Towpath Characters

We met some great characters on the towpath........

 

Pacemakers In Rugeley

 

A big thankyou to Duncan of Pacemakers- Rugeley Scooter Club. What a great bunch of blokes! I am the proud owner of a Pacemakers shirt he kindly delivered to the boat. I guess that makes me an honorary member, even though I haven't got a scooter.....

Birds and Hitchhikers

 

Some birds spotted on the canal....plus a couple of insect hitchhikers! 

Moorings

 I loved drawing what I could see at each mooring on the canal banks....

 

Leaving our mooring at Kings Bromley, we saw these two fellas heaving in a rope. Aries seemed to be stuck on a rusty old bollard. Plus another ironically-named boat......

Kath's Narrow Escape

 

 

We missed a week as I wasn't fit enough, but managed a trip up the Trent and Mersey, narrow boating ....and we really did see a boat called "Kath's Narrow Escape".....