Away for the weekend.

One of the joys of living onboard 24/7 is the fact that we can just move when ever we want to. So on Friday at 3.30pm we decided we wanted a change of scenery, so we slipped our mooring and headed off to a mooring near the Wedgwood factory at Barlaston. It seemed that everyone else had also decided to move as well, but they were going in the opposite direction, which was handy for the locks at Meaford. The top lock at Meaford was having paddle problems, the top gate paddle would not close properly, due to a lot of foliage being stuck in the paddle. BW had been cutting the banks and bushes down. What they had cut down was left to float in the canal, which then jammed in the paddles. One of the boats coming down had notified BW and they were going to send someone out to clear it.
It was a really enjoyable cruise up to the weekend mooring, the sun was out, but there was now a chilly breeze blowing. But with the back stove lit and the kettle boiling, we were soon warmed up with a cup of coffee. On approaching the mooring, we noticed that BW had been tree felling, so it was a good time for us to go log collecting over the weekend. The day finished with a lovely sunset over the fields.
Saturday morning we were up early to bright sunshine, there was not a breath of air blowing. it was an ideal time to collect logs and split them with the chainsaw and axe. So we pulled the trolley out of the hold and loaded it up with the tree trunks left by BW. we soon had a nice pile, which Keith cut up using the chainsaw, we then took it in turns to split the logs with the axe. Whilst we were hard at work, people were walking their dogs and cycling past us. One little girl and her father stopped to watch us splitting logs, her father informed us that she had never seen wood being cut with an axe before. I explained to her we were going to burn it on the fire to keep us warm, during the winter. She was bemused by this fact. It makes you realise that there will be future generations growing up only to the knowledge of gas and oil central heating. It is a sad thought that they will never enjoy coal or wood fires.
We took the opportunity to move the coal in the hold forward, to bring the bow down a bit as she is now sitting high out of the water. My worry is that if we have a low bridge, we may not get under. So we shifted all the bags forward and then stacked the bags of logs into the open space. I just love it when we get jobs done in the dry.
The evening was spent watching the TV, before retiring to bed after the X-Factor result.
This morning were got up to a meow from Marmite, and the sound of a boat moving. Whilst I walked Paddy, Keith did us mushrooms on toast for breakfast with a cup of tea. We got to watch the F1 GP, whilst eating. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on his win, lets hope he will be F1 word champion in 2 weeks time. We thought we would make our way back to Stone, as strong winds were being forecast throughout the day. So we set off in lovely sunshine back towards Stone. On the way back to Meaford Locks we saw no other boats moving, so it was just us and Hadar's engine thumping, down the locks. We did meet FMC boat Elk at the bottom lock, so left the gates open ready for her to enter. We once again moored up and I made us another coffee. The wind was gathering and it had turned really chilly. Not long after we had tied up a small boat pulled in for two bags of coal, before moving off. N.B Rossmore then moored behind us and, as we always do with fellow boater, got chatting. It is always a good excuse to stand and put the world to right.
We are going to be in Stone for a couple more days, as Keith has to have his crown fitted and we have some post to pick up. After that we will be heading down South for the winter. Have a good week everyone. if you have time please give me a shout in my shout box and I will reply.