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.