Fizz and cake

Quite a nice sunny day this morning, and while Adrian had a call to do, I went to do my steps along the towpath.  He then joined me to do a few more.  This afternoon, we drove down to the Tidy’s where Helen was having cake and bubbles to celebrate her birthday.  A very nice relaxed afternoon meeting some of their other friends.  And I haven’t taken a photo all day!

The Red Carpet

A few domestic tasks first thing, like filling the water tank, and then we got in the car and headed off to Barton Marina.  We’d booked with the little cinema there for a lunchtime viewing of I Swear, a fantastic film about a man with Tourette Syndrome, who did a lot to educate people about it.  The cinema itself is really cute; we were in the little screen, but I can’t imagine the big one is much bigger.

There’s also a cafe bar there which looks pretty good.  The marina itself is a rather soulless place, with the noise of the A38 being very intrusive.

After the film we headed straight down the A38 to Lichfield for a top up shop at the big Tesco, then back at the marina we popped out for a walk down the towpath.  There were boats moving, something that seems like a rarity at the moment.

November Braidbar visit

We drove up to Braidbar today for the last visit before we take possession on Kingley Vale later this month.  There’s a full update over on the KV blog.  The boat is looking great, inside and out.  Lots more photos on the other blog.

It was late afternoon when we got back, but I was seriously short of steps so went out to stride the towpath until it was dark!

Stoke

We drove the hour or so to Stoke this morning, stopping first at a fabric place to see what they had.  Not what we wanted, was the answer.  A cup of tea in the M&S Cafe was next on the agenda, followed by a bit of shopping for things for the new boat.  Then we went down to Trentham Shopping Village, as Adrian wanted to visit the Tog 24 shop, to see what ski jackets they had.  We had lunch of Staffordshire oatcakes in a cafe there.

This afternoon, I’ve baked for tomorrow, and been out for a long walk as my steps were way behind.

Huddlesford Junction

A pretty dull and slightly rainy day.  This morning we drove into Lichfield to the big Tesco for a shop.  After lunch, Adrian went off for an appointment about his painful foot, while I had a walk down the towpath to get my steps in.  I went down to Huddlesford Junction, where the Lichfield Canal used to go off (and may again one day).  It’s currently moorings for a boat club.

There has been lots more movement of hire boats round the marina.  One has gone into the shed for work, and two have been put over the far side, presumably because they’re not needed at the moment.

Car retrieval

Having checked out the route yesterday, this morning we walked to Lichfield Trent Valley station to get a train first to Crewe and then on to Nantwich to get the car. 

The car has been looked after by our friends Billy and Sheila near Hurleston Junction. We walked up the towpath to their house and had a very nice lunch with them. 

While we were there, we had a call about the fabric we chose months ago for the new boat. It seems the upholstery people are having trouble getting it. Bill and Sheila suggested going to a big fabric place in Chester to see what they had — so we ended up heading off up there, the opposite direction to where we really wanted to be going. Anyway we found a couple of possible choices, and then headed back south to Kings Orchard. 

Settling in

We’ll be here for a while now, but I still plan to blog each day — partly because this blog is a record of every night one or both of us has spent on board, and for completeness I’ll carry on!  This morning was really sunny and not windy, so after breakfast we wanted to sort out the bow rope.  The pontoon is shorter than the boat, so to make the bow line reach back to the T-stud, we used a chain through the ring on the pontoon.  It was also clear than this pontoon is often unused, as it was covered in duck, goose, and swan poo — so I got the mop and cleaned it all off so at least we can walk down it ok.

We went out for a walk to explore the local area.  There’s a gate from the marina out onto the towpath, and as we went out, a boat also emerged from the entrance.

We’d looked up the walking route to the nearest station, Lichfield Trent Valley, but I’d been looking at the maps and thought there might be a better way than Google was suggesting.  So we walked down to Bridge 84, went across it, and took a path through a couple of gates.  The path then cuts across a big HS2 site.  This part is apparently still being built, as it’s near where the line re-joins the West Coast Mainline, although there doesn’t appear to be much going on.  Maybe it’s different on a weekday.

Once across the site, the path goes under the A38.

Then there’s a level crossing over a railway line, which seems to have almost no traffic on it.  It’s just a link between two busy lines.

Once we had crossed the railway, we went out onto Burton Road and followed it to the station, about 35 minutes walk in all.

On the way back, we were almost at the marina gate when we could hear an engine that was either a very rough boat or something else.  It turned out to be a diesel train, pulling a London Northwestern train along the rarely used track.  It had most likely been off for maintenance, and was on its way back to the main line.  This afternoon we have done very little, although Adrian has given me a haircut.  Oh, and last night the sign writer, Andy Russel, put some photos on Facebook of what he’s done on Kingley Vale, so I’ve done a post on that blog.

It’s quite a nice marina, although there is a bit of background noise from the A38 and you can hear the trains on the West Coast Mainline, which crosses the canal down by Huddlesford Junction.  There are a lot of hire and share boats here too, so there’s quite a bit of moving around of boats, usually at high revs!