A Day Off and then on to Weston

 Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th October 2023 at Weston-upon-Trent.

On Tuesday, we decided to take a day off as we are not in a hurry to get back to our marina. The day started well with a beautiful sunrise.

Breakfast in the Canalside Café wth Mel and Peter was the first order of the day!

During the day, we did a few jobs on MM but then went back to the Canaside Café for tea and cakes in the afternoon (actually, M had a bowl of their excellent chips!). We both smiled at this notice as we have a similar, if smaller, one at home just inside the front door.

This "Sir Choc-A-Lot" cake looked really delicious but we (i.e. Robin!) managed to resist the temptation and we  just had coffee (R) and green tea (M).

On Wednesday morning, R backed MM through the bridge to fill up with water before we departed. The local farm, and farm shop, grow thousands of pumpkins. This is just one field of them and they advertise "pick your own" and even "ghostly night-time Pick Your Own" in the dark.

This large and attractive garden always intrigues as it is very well cared for and stocked with many specimen trees, but there is absolutely no sign of a house anywhere nearby.

Having moored up outside the house of our friends Peter and Bridgett, we were visited by two of the local natives, peering in our windows, clearly hopeful of swan food.

This is always a lovely mooring although the sycamore tree above did shed an awful lot of seeds on MM's roof.

 In the evening, we joined Peter and Bridgett for dinner. Bridgett produced a wonderfully warming casserole on what was a cold, wet evening, and this, accompanied by an excellent red wine, was a wonderful way to spend time with them, catching up since we were last together in the spring.

Today: 3 miles, 2 locks and 2.6 hours.

Trip: 313 miles, 136 locks and 168.4 hours.