Off at Last!

Wednesday 31st May, 2017 at Weston.
Finally! At long last! And we did manage to set off before the end of May - just!
We started the day with an excellent breakfast in No.26.

R nipped into Stone for a few last minute bits, we said goodbye to Sam in the Marina Office and just after 1:00pm we "let go" (as the old boat people used to say) and cruised towards the exit of the Marina.

All of a sudden, peace and tranquillity reigned as we cheerily waved to other boaters in the Marina saying "see you in October!".
Not long after leaving the Marina, we saw a heron playing "I'm the King of the Castle" overlooking the canal. Perhaps he thought he was a dragon?

Only one lock today. When we go south, our first and last lock is always Sandon, with its tiny abandonned lime kiln next to it, totally overgrown now with vegetation.

By 3:30, we were tying up at our favourite mooring outside Jubilee Cottage, the home of our good friends Bridgett and Peter.

Bridgett came out to greet us and invite us in for tea and to look around their lovely garden. Three hours later, we were back in their house for dinner! As ever, we had a super evening with them and retrned to MM at midnight under a starry sky.
A lovely day and a marvellous start to our summer cruise.
Since MM was launched:  2,591 miles, 1,778 locks and 2015.0 hours.
Today: 5 miles, 1 lock and 1.7 hours.

Visitors and some very special Pork Pies.

Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th May, 2017 at Aston Marina.
Monday's return drive to the Marina was "interesting"! We needed to be back at Aston by 2:00pm as we had arranged to meet Donna and Bethan, from the "Secret Tea Room" in Stone, and take them out for a trip on MM. Normally, not a problem but this is Bank Holiday Monday with the attendant likelihood of traffic problems and, to make matters worse, R had left his mobile phone in a coffee shop in Redhill yesterday and we needed to pick it up as soon as the shop opened at 10:30.
To our astonishment, we had the fastest run ever, doing the journey in two and three-quarter hours - half an hour faster than normal! We even had time to visit the new restaurant, No.26, at the marina for coffee and cake (R) and a bowl of chips (M).
Donna and Bethan arrived on time.

After a guided tour of MM, we were on our way up to Stone through Lock 26 (after which the restaurant is named). A brief shower in no way lessened their enjoyment of the afternoon and they were fascinated by the workings of the lock.

We all enjoyed the little outing to Stone and back. It was good to have made two new friends.
Dinner was at No.26 - an excellent meal for our penultimate evening.
On Tuesday morning, R finished varnishing our beautiful new gangplank, which we had picked up from Richie on Saturday. R had given it a couple of coats back at home on Sunday and now it looked really lovely, with the grain of the wood clearly showing through.

Rather rashly, M had promised our friend Peter one of the wonderful pork pies from the honesty stand at Adderley Locks (mainly because it meant that she could get another one herself!). It is a forty mile round trip, so we set off at 10:00am only to find that there were no pork pies on the stand. Calamity!! The farm is nearby, so R suggested that M knock on the door to ask when they might have some. M was greeted by a charming, smiling lady called Alison, who said that 100 pies were "work in progress" and they would be ready about 3:00pm. She makes the filling and her friend Joanne makes the pastry crust. So we said that we would return later in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, we did a big shop to stock up MM for the week ahead and called in to the "Secret Tea Room" to say hello to Donna ( Bethan was not there).
At 3:00pm, we drove all the way back to Adderley, where we purchased three delicious pork pies and had a long chat with Alison on the realities of running a farm and renovating a farm house.

Triumphantly bearing our pork pies, we drove back to Aston to await the arrival of Mike and Belinda, a lovely couple that we befriended in No.26 on the restaurant's opening night.

They had never been on a narrowboat and we had promised them a trip to Stone and back. We set off on a lovely summery evening and had a great time together.

Again, it was good to have made two more friends.
Two days: 6 miles, 4 locks and 3 hours.

Spring Cleaning Week.

Sunday 21st May to Friday 26th May, 2017 at Aston Marina.
Finally! At long last! We are late starting this year due to demands on our time at home. We did come up to MM twice recently to do some cleaning, but R was not well, so the outside hadn't yet been touched. We arrived at teatime on Sunday; at last we are back on board and very happy to be here!
On the way up, we stopped at "Farmer Ted's Shed" at Obelisk Farm next to the junction of the M40 and M42 because the farm sells untreated milk fresh from the cow. It tastes delicious! As the container declares - "Milk like no Udder"!!!

In the evening, we walked up to the lock beside the Marina; it was a joy to be out in the country on such a beautiful evening. R surveyed the canal below the bridge....

Monday morning dawned bright and fair. The first job was to do a big shop to provision MM for the week ahead and for the start of our cruise.
Back at MM, we were amused to see a heron patrolling the pontoon.

To our consternation, MM was dirtier than she has ever been. There are many boats in the Marina with coal and wood stoves and they produce black smuts that get ingrained in the non-slip surfaces,  on the roof in particular. The only remedy is to scrub the roof with bathroom cream cleaner - but gently, so as not to scratch the paintwork!

The whole roof has to be washed with the cream cleaner, but this leaves a residue that has to be washed off - so that is a second wash. Then a thorough rinse with the hose. This photo is not what it appears!

If you leave it to dry, you get water spots - so it has to be dried with a chamois cloth before finally spreading a layer of wax polish, letting it dry and then buffing it with a soft cloth. In all, the roof and both sides took three days!
On Tuesday, our friends Mel and Peter, narrowboaters who live close by, dropped in for tea - much to R's relief as it meant that he could stop for a while!
M worked on storing all the provisions, cleaning the inside of MM, helping R with the polishing and getting the geraniums all ready to come aboard. She has to replant the troughs and tubs afresh every spring.A labour of love, she says!

Early on Wednesday morning, M was fascinated to see a hot air baloon fly directly overhead and she was able to see straight up the inside. The registration of this one was G-TUTU - there must be a story to that!

On Wednesday, we were also visited by Cally, the cat from our neighbouring boat nb "Zenith".

The solar panels on MM have not been a huge success as they don't provide very much power. They have also adversely affected the paint around them, so R cut the paint back to bare metal all round them and then primed it and finally put on two top coats of the yellow paint. Now they look as good as new.

After five years, the gangplank was looking a bit the worse for wear, as were the long pole and the hook. On a closer examination, R found that the gangplank had dry rot and was in danger of disintegrating! We called our friend Richie, who used to work for Kingsground and who is a brilliant cabinetmaker, and he promised to make a new one for us to pick up on our way home on Saturday.
In the meantime, R stripped off the long pole and the hook, and painted them with primer before giving them a couple of coats of green paint. The rather rotten gangplank can be seen at the back.

In the past, we have often dined in the Bistro in the Marina, but a couple of months ago it closed for a major refurbishment. Talking to Nick in the Marina office, we discovered that the new expanded restaurant, called "No.26" after the lock next to the Marina, will re-open on Friday evening - so, of course, we booked a table. We dined in the Bistro on its last night and it was only fitting that we are at the opening of the new restaurant. Final preparations for the opening included re-tarmacing the car park.

R also fitted additional sound insulation in the engine compartment, so that MM is now even quieter. M is delighted as it means she can hear the birdsong even better.
By Friday lunchtime, we were running out of things to clean, polish and paint - just a few last minute touch-ups and MM looked almost new.

So we took the afternoon off and went to the Monkey Forest in nearby Trentham. Trentham is a huge local estate where sixty acres of mature beech and oak wood has been fenced off to make the Monkey Forest. Just walking through this forest was a delight.

Running free in the sixty acres are 140 Barbary Macaques that are native to North Africa. Sadly, there are estimated to be less than 8,000 left in the wild. This fellow thinks that his cousins are seriously in danger in the wild.

The Forest works together with two similar parks, one in Germany and one in France, and together they have re-introduced over 600 monkeys back into the wild. This helps to bolster local populations and make up for the many young monkeys that are trapped and sold as (very unsuitable) pets. The young are very cute but as a very social animal, they don't take well to captivity and isolation.

Happily, in the Monkey Forest, the humans are very restricted and have to keep strictly to the paths, but the monkeys run free. - just as it should be! The monkeys live in two separate groups each of about 70, and there is a clear social hierarchy, which is reinforced by mutual grooming.

Interestingly, the "Alpha" male is not necessarily the strongest or the oldest but the one with the most social contacts and who is the most popular in the group.
In the evening, we met up with our friends Peter and Bridgett from nearby Weston and went for dinner at the new "No.26" restaurant on its opening night. The whole building has had a make-over.

The interior is quite modern, but looks extremely smart and stylish.

This opening night was a "soft" launch as there was no publicity. With 30 new staff, they wanted to have time to iron out any glitches. Despite that, they had over 75 covers on the first night. The food was absolutely excellent and we had a warm welcome from many of the original staff, who are still there.

We wish them all the best in the future.
That was the end of a week of spring cleaning. While MM was very dirty to start with, by the end of the week she was gleaming and ready to go - as were we.
But we have to go home tomorrow for the weekend for a memorial musical evening in honour of our great friend David Ord who sadly died last month. This Saturday would have been his 64th birthday and all his musician friends are getting together for a concert in his honour, and there is no way that we would miss that.
We will be back on Monday and getting ready to start our summer cruise at last.