Back to Boating, 27th July

Tuesday morning, and I had jobs to do.. cleaning mostly, and obviously seasoned with some sudoku. Andrew arrived back safely but tired, wanting a siesta  I left him to it, to check out the R. Severn 's head of navigation from the bank.

So back into town, passing a workboat and crew repairing a foot bridge over the canal:

At the riverbank turning upstream. A terrific children's playground, followed by a spacious park / ball games / picnic area, with a shady avenue along the riverbank 

The river is really quiet now, only fisherfolk and walkers on the bank. Until this came buzzing by:

I found the back of a sign at the right point.. how on earth boats are supposed to see it I've no idea 

Well beyond this point a couple of RIBs skimmed by.  Despite the width of the river and the fact they barely draw 12 inches, their wash made a lot of fuss at the bank, showing just how shallow the water is 

The valley is lovely though:

At this point I turned inland to cut back to Stourport, via the wonderful Memorial Park, in honour of those who lost their lives in WW1:

Back at base and Andrew was ready for dinner. We had a pint at the Bird in Hand, since we were directly outside, but the menu was uninspiring so we moved on to the next pub, the Bay Horse: much better. Final mission: a trip to Lidl for Baked Goods for Andrew.

Thursday 27th, and we slipped away just before 9am. The weather was just lovely for boating, mild, calm, cloudy periods to cut down the glare.. All but one of the locks were in our favour:happy days indeed.

It was very good to be on the move again 

on such a beautiful waterway. Here's the lock at Kidderminster:so pretty.

We arrived at Kinver at 2pm and moored up. This is tonight's view:

On the other side is the river valley and a lovely picnic area:

and then some herb and fruit beds maintained by the community:

The village centre is half a mile from the canal up another sandstone escarpment and looks a pretty place.

Thursday, and up the lock to the service point: empty one tank and fill another. More gorgeous countryside although Dudley is only a few miles east of us.

Weather as before: mild, still, grey. We saw acres of this stuff:

It's Himalayan Balsam and if you see any, pick as many flowers as you want and bash the rest of the plant to the ground. It grows in tall, dense clumps, crowding out everything else, ejects millions of seeds, which float, and then dies back completely, leaving nothing but mud behind. Which then erodes. Terrible stuff.

Lots of boats on the move. This and the Shropshire Union is the only north - south route for now; the Trent and Mersey is closed all the way from Middlewich to Stoke due to water supply problems. We are in no big hurry so stopped at Swindon (the other one) for the afternoon. 

We're the 2nd on the left

I mopped the boat which was looking really filthy, and felt I had earned dinner at a well reviewed pub, the Hinksford Arms. And very good it was too!

On Friday we walked into Kingswinford for a few groceries,  it's not far, he said..

And then lurked around the boat for the rest of the day. On Saturday we were on our way promptly with 12 locks to get through, up to Wightwick (pron. Wittick) to visit the Manor house there.

We passed through Bratch locks which is nearly (but not quite) a triple staircase. It's actually 3 separate locks but with only a few metres gap between them. There are 2 side pounds which act as buffers for the water. You have to be careful to open the paddles in the right order and they are colour-coded to make this easier. 

Half way up:

and nearly done (note the red paint which means open last) :

This was a pretty bridge:

Wightwick Manor is a Victorian Tudor Revival building, crammed with arts and crafts movement and pre raphaelite stuff.. ceramics, textiles, pictures, wallpaper, panelling.. the detailing is extraordinary. There were books everywhere. There were intricate ceilings covered in pargetting. There were cosy nooks in all the rooms , even the enormous Great Hall, so they weren't overwhelming. It was delightful.

The building on the left is an old malthouse converted into an art gallery with a permanent collection of pre Raphaelite art by Evelyn de Morganand ceramics by her husband William.

Was impressed by the very realistic feet!

Rain stopped play as far as exploring the grounds was concerned: back to the boat for showers and for dinner at the pub nearby, The Mermaid. Why she has the Latin tag 'In Te Domine Speravi' I am unsure, who/what does a mermaid acknowledge as Lord?

Also, possibly, a shade vain? So many questions..