Saturday 6th August, 2016 at Barlaston.
Another lovely morning. We could hardly believe that there was only one other boat on the moorings, normally all these moorings would be full!
The charming little town of Stone has a renowned Saturday Farmers' Market and, since we had ordered "middle-cut" bacon from Nick Griffin's marvellous butcher's shop, we decided to spend the morning in the town.
Having eaten well (and FAR too much!) over the past three days, we opted to skip breakfast; however, a delightful establishment by the name of "The Secret Tea Room", next to Nick's shop, beckoned, so we had a light snack of toast and coffee. Very good it was too, served by smiling, cheerful ladies. We shall certainly go there again - Costa had better watch out! ("Oh No!" says R).
The street market was first class. The sun shone and people turned out in droves. Not surprisingly, we bumped into Geraldine and Rob who were also enjoying the delights on offer.
The local artisan baker had a superb display, manned by a lovely young man called Will (M knows because she couldn't resist chatting him up).
Nick the butcher also had a stall, which included a hog roast in progress.
The mushroom stall was astonishing - dozens of varieties, most of which we never knew existed, but they all looked delicious.
The wooden toy jigsaw stall was irresistible; all the items were designed, hand made and painted by the owner and her family. M fell in love with the jigsaw of all the counties of England, Scotland and Wales - and had to buy it, of course.
The garden and flower stall was beautiful. Very original, it was a garden shed on wheels.
Finally, we called into Nick's shop to collect the "middle-cut" bacon that he had prepared and frozen for us.
We are so pleased that Nick is making such a success of the shop - although we are not surprised, as he is always so welcoming to every customer and greets each one by name. Sadly, we said that it would be eight weeks before we would be back.
This very old and large warehouse building, in the same narrow alley as Nick's shop and The Secret Tea Room, has recently been sold at auction. It is listed, so it will be interesting to see what becomes of it.
About mid-day, we finally set off. As we were facing the wrong way after our cruise yesterday, we had to go down through the Star Inn Lock, turn at the winding hole just below the lock and then come back up through the lock, now facing north. By this time, there were quite a few boats moving in both directions, so we had to queue to go down through the lock.
As R took MM out from the lock, something got caught round the propellor, so he had to moor up to remove it. It turned out to be a cushion complete with stuffing! Having removed it, R was then able to turn MM and join the queue to go back up the lock.
There are no photographs of this hour long farrago as R had his hands full and M was helping one narrowboat after another through the lock!
It was a relief finally to get out into the country again at Meaford Locks.
R admired again his dream house - with its own mooring arm, lock gates and plastic sheep (the best kind - they're no trouble!).
We moored up at Barlaston, just before the Wedgwood factory, for the evening, and spent a happy hour talking to Josie and Mac (Iain) on nb "Golden Dolphin" who are doing the Four Counties Ring. They were a delightful couple and we hope to meet them again one day.
Today: 3 miles, 9 locks and 3.3 hours.
Trip: 218 miles, 153 locks and 160.4 hours.
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