Retirement with No Problem

Today – Moored Teddesley, Staff & Worcs
Weekend – Radford Bank to Teddesley, Staff & Worcs Canal, 4 miles 3 locks

We are not going much further along the Staff & Worcs Canal, and over the weekend we moved south to Acton Trussell and moored by the lock there.  It’s a nice mooring.  We put the pins in the same place before when granddaughters Kiera and Jessica came to visit last year.  I went walking on Saturday, but soon returned.. the wind was just too strong and cold, it was cutting into me.. “Tomorrow” I told the collies much to their annoyance!

But before that on Saturday morning we had a lovely cruise from Radford Road to Acton Trussell, here approaching Deptmore Lock, the only lock to work through on Saturday.  There was some snow on the ground, but the day was lovely and sunny..

Lucy and Meg loved the snow, and had fun running up and down and rolling in the cold stuff…. brrrrrr, still I suppose they have heavy coats on and probably don’t feel the cold!..

On Sunday we decided to move again.. it was rather windy, but we need to be back at Great Haywood by next weekend and wanted to moor at Midland Swindlers Chandlers, which is next door to the Teddesley Boat Centre.  I wasn’t sure if we would be able to turn there, it would depend on how many hire boats were in the basin.. so bearing in mind that we might have to go through another couple of locks to Penkridge to wind (turn) we pulled the pins at Acton Trussell, through the lock by the mooring and along the straight canal by Teddesley Park to the lock by the Boat Centre. 

Handily there we only a few boats in the basin, so I would be able to wind No Problem there.. well try to, as the wind (blowy type!) was high.  I left NP in the lock and walked a little further on to see what I would have to do to turn.. a boat on the far bank I had to consider too.. but with Vic on the towpath once we were almost past the point of half way round, he took the stern rope and pulled the boat the rest of the way round.. much easier than trying to power round yesterday in all that wind..

Because we didn’t have to go all the way to Penkridge and back I decided to take the dogs for a good walk to the west.. going under the M6 and over the railway to hunt for a geocache which I found…

Sat down to breakfast this morning and was well entertained by this narrowboat being craned off a lorry and into the canal.

Here you can see through the window.. the old fashioned crane is just about to put the narrowboat into the boatyard’s basin..

Today was nice as you can see in the pic, although there was a period of rain around lunch time it didn’t stop me walking through Teddesley Park shortly after the rain gave way to sunshine… I love walking through these great old Parks and across the parkland.  I nearly always see deer.. but was totally surprised by seeing this huge herd of deer in the middle of a field of winter wheat…

Bit far away, but I didn’t have my good camera with me today, so took this with the mobile phone.  There are no fences to keep them in this field, it is totally open, but I guess the herd does belong to the Park itself, but it is really nice to see a huge group of them roam virtually free..

Lucy and Meg were tired when we got back.. 6 miles plus this afternoon, loved it I did.. Mind, I was a bit tired too!