Having now reached Shardlow ,almost the end of the Trent Mersey canal , below the next lock is the last turning place before the river we shall stay here another night before turning tomorrow and back upto Mersia Marina.
Went for a walk today to Shardlow Marina to get a bag of coal as we were running low lucky we have the sack barrow with us as it would have been  a long walk carrying 25k of coal .

                                    There`s always some one peeping through the windows

Just above Shardlow lock for a couple of nights , don`t think the slow sign is for us

Entertainment board at the navigation Pub 

looking forward to Pepper Pig night not to be sneezed at.

Last night was spent in the village of Willington quite a noisy place as it has a main line railway running through high up in the air on an embankment above the houses  we are around twenty yards from it yet the noise became quite relaxing as the trains seem to creep up on you and the noise reaches a peak and then fades slowly away  so it didn`t bother us at all .
Despite yet another poor forecast , this morning is dry and sunny not had a bad day yet.
 Sybil is going into a marina over here  next week and  we are taking a hire car over to Poynton , collecting our car and then back home for a couple of weeks .
Tonight we are at Weston lock , rural no lights roads or railways lovely.
Tomorrow  we might get down onto the river Trent fifty yards wide and even in its low level seemingly fast flowing compared to the canals.


               Here`s an aquaduct we crossed today complete with pill box that will keep em out

Moored tonight in peace and quiet 

Tea last night beef stir fry and garlic bread lovely 

Our neighbor last night but not a train in sight when I wanted to photo one just a mile of empty track in each direction

Tonight we are moored just out side Stoke on Trent near the village of Branston where Branston pickle really did come from invented in 1922  but the company ended up being sold to the Japanese!! in 2012.

                          Branston lake one of many old flooded sand pit workings next to our mooring

   

May blossom

Yet another fantastic day , sunshine all day both of us are glowing!!
Still moored in Alrewas tonight but ready to move on tomorrow , two days in one place seems to be enough.
We made the  walk down to the arboretum this morning  including the rabbit run over the dual carriage way national arboretum,
On the way back up we had to pass the butchers shop or rather failed to pass and had to pop in for a pasty and pie to eat on the way back to Sybil

Sad news tonight about Victoria Wood , she could make  us laugh.


    This is the view from our windows tonight , it does look like a Spanish resort , how many lights do you need in your garden? Fourteen ?

Rabbit run 

just a small part of the arboretum , impossible to get it all in one picture

This is the central part of the arboretum and is inscribed with all the names of fallen soldiers on the walls

 It is a very thought provoking place when you start to read the numbers on some of the plaques

We  are back in Alrewas again  having covered seven locks and two miles today , two years almost to the day since we passed through here on the start of our journey then we visited the national arboretum then it was a bitterly cold day but today is warm and sunny so might do the mile walk again and visit the arboretum again tommorow  national arboretum .
had a walk round the village this afternoon and called at the butchers who supposedly  have been visited by the royal family whilst they were at the aboretum or at least a member of their staff  butchers got stocked up with beef , ham and some pasties as well real monsters they are.

already the fields are starting to fill wih the yellow stuff  sneezing time again ??

Alrewas church a grand entrance for a small church ,yet again another church locked and chained though this time because of building works

this is the lock from the canal down onto the river that we will have to pass through soon , it looks calm now and will be ok as long as we dont have heavy rain

Locking down into Fradley junction earlier today

A gorgeous  day today we have put in a few miles today nine ,with only  four locks ,the country side has opened out with views all around as we travel .
We have now reached Great Haywood our stop for tonight


In Great Haywood the river Trent , right hand side is joined by the river Sow from the left and now starts to look more like the Trent we know

The canal opens out almost like a river , loads of room with grand views

Pack horse bridge over the Trent

Serious job this steering

Despite the weather forecast today has been mild the wind has dropped and the promised wintry showers havn`t happened . We had a walk into Stone usual charity shops with a bit of a market in the street , not much happening , we will stay here for another night and  see what the weather is like tomorrow and maybe move a little further

We are now moving away  down the Trent Mersey canal between the railway and the infant river Trent heading towards Nottingham still  a few days away.
Think an hour in a car equals a weeks boating but then how much more do we see.
Tonight we are moored in Stone , tomorrow is market day so we will go for a look round and see what is on offer .

To whom it may concern here`s  Grandma standing guard on the boat don`t mention the hair !!

Please ignore the paint job down  the side it is the result of two and a half years and many hundreds of locks , this year we are due to have our bottom blacked which will make us look good again although you can also see the damage to the hand rail caused by our journey through the Standedge tunnel not so easily rectified 

A quiet night at Westport lake despite Stokes reputation we have not yet experienced any problem here

Our mooring for tonight out in the country below Stoke

Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel Harecastle that is

Our neighbour  for tonight at one side the railway with Wedgwood pottery factory behind

And in the field next to us some lovely Alpaccas

I know it has been a big gap since the last post but this winter seems to have dragged on so despite that we are now on the move again  first day down to Macclesfield and the superb fish and chips at the Chinese and despite being moored outside a pub a quiet night then onward next day in strong winds to the Bosley flight of locks we stopped for lunch just before the locks when a hire boat that we had given directions  to the water point  earlier in the day appeared but because of the strong wind banged into us twice no harm done so we helped them off the side although the wind seemed to have them glued on  and away they went with us following later but when we reached the top lock we had the same problem it took us ages to get going again with hilary driving and me pushing  the boat out .
Two and three quarter  hours later we reached the bottom of the flight and moored up for the night when the lady from our previous encounter appeared with two pieces of home made flapjack one for each bump  very tasty too .
Another quiet night although we were overlooking the site of an horrific explosion last year at a wood chip factory ! Today  our new friends set off , turned around and went back up the locks and towards the hire base and the end of their   holiday.
We travel onwards down onto the Trent Mersey where we have stocked  up on gas and coal at Smithsons before entering Harecastle tunnel a mere 2926 yards long that only took us forty minutes to complete,
a doddle after last years attack on the Standedge.
We are now moored next to Westport lake in Stoke on Trent settling down for the night