June 12th '12

I don’t seem to be able to open up anything as the internet connection is a bit dodgy here so am hoping that I’ll be able to cut and paste this tomorrow! Finally got on-line so here we are!

We went and had a look over Shugborough Hall this morning. It’s the ancestral home of Lord Lichfield and was really interesting. There were the normal state type rooms and then there were the apartments that he lived in once the NT took over the building. Lots of pictures of royalty and friends from the 60’s and 70’s. Found John drooling over a young Joanna Lumley! Bless....

We had a lunch there – means I don’t have to cook tonight – result! And then we went around the gardens. There’s a whole other bit you can see but it’s not NT so we thought we might do that another time as we wanted to get back to the boat to move on a bit.

Fairly uneventful journey of only 4 miles and 3 locks, but we also filled with water and emptied the cassette, plus we went into Haywood Marina for a pumpout. I have to say that it was the best service we have ever had and would most sincerely recommend it to any boaters passing! Unfortunately John caught the edge of the exhaust outlet against something on the way in and we now have a bit of a gash in it but hopefully it won’t be too difficult to sort out at some point.

As some of you may know we had a pram cover fitted to the back of the boat last autumn and we are now very adept at getting it up and down at speed. We put the canvas in the boat while we are cruising so that we don’t damage it and now that we have done it 4 times we are ready for the Olympics if they decide to add such an event!

We have got as far as Weston on Trent. Not much further NE than we were yesterday but we just didn’t feel like continuing onto Stone tonight which had been our aim. We are trying to pace ourselves to avoid mooring in Stoke! It looks as if we are doing OK. One day to get as close to Stoke as possible and then one day to motor through it at speed (well possibly up to 3.5mph if we push it).

I really need to get some groceries so we shall have to stop on our way through Stone as we know we can shop there. Here at Weston it shows a shop on the map, but we tried it last time and it had 2 tins of baked beans on the shelf and not a lot else. I think I’d wanted something exotic like tin-foil so was completely out of luck. I dare say it may have changed in a year but it doesn’t seem to be that kind of place!

Prize of best swan parents has been awarded to a family with 9, yes NINE, cygnets seen on the canal. Wow.

We are moored on a bit of very poorly maintained tow-path and because of this no-one seems to use it so we were able to let Paddy off the lead and he ran back and forward between us like a maniac, I’d swear he was smiling!

I’m on a mission to use up lots of my knitting wool stash while we are out, so Nellie, beware, you are the proud recipient of the items made so far. If I find some blue then Halden you’ll  get something but whatever happens I’m going to reduce the stock so that I can start again next winter.

I’d also started lacemaking just before we set sail so I shall be doing some of that so everyone expect a bookmark for Christmas!

Due to lack of TV signal yesterday we played games last night, John totally thrashed me at Trivial Pursuit and then on the next game I beat him by literally one place, phew. How come he gets all the easy questions though to say nothing about the roll of the dice. I’m not bitter and twisted or anything but I feel my victory was far more deserved than his. I mean, On what moor will you find Brown Willy, and which Cathedral city is closest to the Glastonbury Festival site. He used to LIVE there for goodness sake!!!

I can hear the TV is on tonight (opposite of last night) and joy of joys he’s watching the football. On to the knitting.......

Approaching Shugborough from the canal.

The back garden! These give you none of the perspective of how HUGE the place really is.

Lichfield used this as a backdrop to many of his photos - so what's good enough for him is OK for me!

Here's the sign and ......

This is how far back I had to go to try to get it all into the photo - quite impressive I thought.

This is the pack-horse bridge that joins the estate to the village. I may well have put a picture of this on last year but I just think it's such a lovely structure that I couldn't resist. It's so narrow that you can easily touch both sides. The river is the Trent which flows parallel to the canal for much of it's length. As you can see it's in full flow - good news for boaters!