Signs of spring

I meant to mention yesterday that as I drove back through Alvechurch, I passed a big press gaggle outside the school.  There were three sat trucks with their dishes up, lots of people, and a fair few police.  I heard later on the radio about the teacher from the school who'd died in the coach crash in France.

This morning I got up at a reasonable time, found there was just about enough hot water for a shower, had breakfast, and pottered about.  The shower had started dripping again, so I took the whole bar off the wall to have a look inside.  Nothing looks damaged, so I'm not sure what's going on.

The two boats moored in front of me, a shared boat, Jenny Wren, and the coal boat Gosty Hill, both set off heading towards Hawkesbury.  I also got ready to go, and had a visitation from a couple of swans.

There had been a bit of brightness first thing, but now it was cloudy and quite cold.  There had been some lambs in the field next to the mooring, but they were too far away to see properly; as I came past the farm near Bridge 35, there were moor.  This pair and their mum, number 15, were right by the water's edge.  I hope she was teaching them how to get a drink without falling in.

As I approached the marina, there was a brief shower of very sleety rain.  While it hadn't been at all windy this morning, there was the usual breeze blowing across the marina, but at least it was pushing me onto the pontoon rather than away from it, and I was soon moored up.  I made all the usual preparations for leaving the boat, and set off for home at about 11am.

2 miles, 0 locks.  (4 miles, 0 locks)