A Weekend Away for M.

Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th July, between Wilmcote and Wootton Wawen.
Every two hours or so, there is a direct train from Wilmcote to London Marylebone and M caught the morning train on Thursday to go home for the weekend to baby-sit for Eva and Tilly.

R spent the day at Mary Arden's house (Shakespeare's mother), which was fascinating - but as the plan is for both of us to go back together on Monday, we will save that until then.
On Friday, R sailed back up to Wootton Wawen and moored up behind nb "Cider With Rosie" whose owner was washing the back deck. He said that a 1ft long roach had jumped on to the back deck and then flopped down the back stairs into his boat! Weird!
Friday and Saturday were spent at Wootton Wawen accompanied by some massive thunder storms with lightning and thunder very close and torrential rain. At least R didn't have to water the plants!
On Sunday, R sailed back down to Wilmcote to meet M from the train.
We both walked round to Mary Arden's for some tea (our tickets are valid for 12 months, so we can go in and out as many times as we like).
Although we will spend all day at the site tomorrow, it was nice for M to have a glimpse of what is "on offer". The "Mistress of the House", Dorothea, was giving a falconry display with "Millie (the Misfit)", a barn owl. The display was inside one of the barns as it was too hot for Millie outdoors.

In the evening, we rang Christine at Hope Farm and sang "Happy Birthday" to her (badly!). This is the first year for some time that we have not been with her on her birthday and we missed being up there at Hope Farm with her today.
Four Days: 8 miles, 2 locks and 12.7 hours.
Trip: 86 miles, 68 locks and 65.5 hours.