Sitting in the sun, cruising in the rain.

We had a good long weekend up at Shadehouse. Warm sunny weather meant plenty of opportunity for sitting on the bank watching the boats coming and going. In fact, there was one particular hire boat that came, went, came back again and then left before us this morning!
There were only a couple of showers on Saturday morning to dampen things a little.

Meg and I had some very pleasant walks around the area.

Fradley Pool Nature Reserve
Odd spelling of “Office” on the post box at Fradley Junction…
Yesterday I “vegged out” in front of the TV. First it was coverage of the London Marathon, then the Bahrain Grand Prix.

I really enjoyed both, in fact watching the marathon has finally pushed me into entering myself next year. I’m entering through the ballot, so have only a 1 in 3 chance of getting a place anyway. I could probably secure a place through Cancer Research UK, but doing so would require me to guarantee raising a “Golden Bond” of £2000. I reckon I’d be struggling to do that.

And I bet that Ross Brawn and Jensen Button cracked a few bottles of champagne last night. 3 wins out of 4 races is an impressive record so far.

Anyway, we decided to move on today. After all, we’ve got to be in Oxford in 3 weeks time! Of course, after a mainly dry couple of weeks, it had to be raining this morning.
So we hung on till mid afternoon to catch a break in the showers. The sun was shining and there were patches of blue sky as we dropped down Shadehouse Lock, but the respite was short lived, and we were filling the water tank at the tap at the top of the Coventry in a heavy shower.

Below Shadehouse Lock
We pushed on with the rain easing, and by the time we pulled over soon after Streethay Wharf the sun was shining again.

It’s a lot quieter on the Coventry than on the Trent and Mersey. We’ve not seen a boat moving in the last 3 miles, but we saw a good half dozen in the first mile.

Locks 2, miles 4.