Flying visit

Just popped up for the evening. The continuing cold weather makes me a little concerned for the plumbing on board. The Eberspacher central heating is on a frost stat which should protect against any pipes freezing. The problem is that the heater drains the battery in couple of days if the heating comes on frequently.

Iced in

We have brought our two grandchildren Josh(13) and Becca(10) for the weekend. They have been on board before, but not slept. We arrived about 5 o’clock Friday afternoon to find the canal almost frozen over. A very cold night meant that by the morning that canal was completely frozen. We attempted to move as the

Stourport

Just a quick weekend trip to check all is OK and charge the batteries. Arrived about 6 o’clock last night to find the boat a bit cold and damp and the batteries almost flat. Tried to put the Eberspacher central heating on but it wouldn’t start. I lit the fire, had a meal and went

Staying put

We went for a longish walk in the morning. Along the towpath north out of Kidderminster then we went across the river Stour via Puxton’s marsh to just short of Wolverley. I knew that there was a footbridge over the river just above Wolverley Court lock and we were heading for that. The marsh lived

Still going nowhere

We had planned to use the weekend to do a couple of jobs onboard and do a bit of Christmas shopping in Kidderminster. The cold weather and the fact that Heddi wasn’t feeling too good meant we abandoned the jobs on board, and decided instead to just have a bit of a chill out and

Home mooring

The scavenged wood lasted long enough to keep us warm, but we had more or less run out of coal by the time we were back at Kidderminster. We saw the kingfisher again on the same stretch by Wolverley Court lock. This time we had the camera ready. On returning we tried out a new

Cookley

A lazy day today. We didnt get up til after 9 o’clock, had breakfast then went for a walk. We walked along the towpath down to Whittington Horse bridge, then followed the little lane back up into Kinver. After the previous day’s rain the River Stour was running much faster and fuller than I’d ever

Kinver

Not quite so bright and sunny today, but still pleasant later on after the early morning mist cleared. We stopped as Ashwood basin to see if we could get some coal, but no luck. We did manage to get some more fuel by scavanging fallen wood from the wooded areas beside several of the locks.