Phase 2 begins

I'd a had a busy and very enjoyable sojourn back at the homestead. I went to see "War of the Worlds" on the Friday, Birds of a Feather on Saturday, went to London for my granddaughter's birthday on the Sunday/Monday, joined a friend to watch "A song for Marion" on Tuesday, had car MOT'd on Wednesday and Tai Chi session on Thursday before returning to London to see "The Tempest" at The Globe (my first visit to that establishment).

I travelled back on Saturday using public transport. It took 6 hours using bus to Kettering, train to Leicester and then another to Nuneaton before returning to buses: the first to Lichfield and the next to my final destination. I wanted to make the most of my brand new bus pass :-). The next day I went to visit Phil and Jackie on their boat, Longfellow (I love that name). After that I needed to get provisions from the lovely farm shop at Great Haywood junction. I could have spent a fortune there as the produce all looked rather good and there were many unusual items. By the time I got back on board it was raining so I gave up on the day and decided to leave cruising until Monday. I cruised to Stone and booked Olivia in at the boatyard for an engineer to look at the V(fan)belt.It was a reasonable day and I covered 5 locks and about 9 miles. Tuesday I needed to go through the two locks up to the boatyard. They took one look at the belt and showed me how worn out it was. Luckily I always carry a spare one which they fitted in five minutes. That's a relief as I was concerned that it might let me down. The weather remained fine (despite the BBC forecasting gales and persistent rain) so I carried on up to Barlaston through another 6 locks and 3 miles. It started raining shortly after I moored up yesterday and it rained for well over twenty four hours. However, I lit a nice warm fire and could sit safe and snug and moored close to the Wedgewood Centre and muse that I had very little rain while cruising.

Partly due to the wet weather but also part of my loose plan, I visited the Wedgewood Centre today. It was far better than I was expecting with a tour of the factory where you can see all the various processes being carried out, a museum, craft demonstrations, a factory outlet, restaurant and shop.

Giant Wedgwood

The man himself, Josiah Wedgwood

Here are a couple of pictures from my moorings.

This one is a sculpture of Christine Collins which is at one of the Stone locks. She suffered at the hands of a boat crew when she was being transported by boat down to London. Unfortunately the crew got drunk, one thing led to another and she was found in the canal at Rugeley.