Today we have left central Birmingham and moved a few miles up to the Black Country Museum
We are moored inside the museum entrance next to the Dudley  tunnel the journey was very quiet no other traffic at all just three locks where there were some friendly locals who helped with the heavy gates some nearly two and a quater tonnes but some places had large amounts of rubbish including dead trolleys laid under water flat on their backs with all four wheels pointing up to the surface but still strong enough to knock a boat sideways .


                  A lock full of rubbish trying to foul the propeller  fortunately without success

Under the M6 again almost like the pillars of a Greek temple

Dudley tonight

One of only two boats we saw while travelling today

These last few days have been spent meandering around Birmingham , our mooring outside the Flapper has been really good on the weekend we have had free entertainment from the bands playing on Sat and Sun no admission to pay either .We visited the Ikon Gallery Ikon-gallery.This weeks offering  was based on an exhibition  created by Dan Flavin it consisted of multi coloured florescent tubes in bare rooms some just on plain walls some that looked like doors in corners or bars between rooms perhaps my favorite part though was the musical glass lift that as you started to ascend played a choir starting a low pitch OOOOO which became higher pitched as you rose up to the top floor , great fun


This is the inside of Whites Ironmongers on Summer lane in Birmingham they have floor to ceiling shelves with every sort of fixing , bolt and bracket etc etc , a proper shop! I just popped in for a water carrier but it took me at least twenty minutes to look round .

A pagoda on a roundabout in China Town

The sign says it all really 

Canal side graffiti or art ?

Paradise is being cut into small pieces see two pictures below we have sat and watched these machines at work for ages better than the TV

Yesterday there was a hoax bomb alert and the precinct was closed down just as we were on our way to Spar for a sandwich we were rather curious about all the ladies sat on the wall in their dressing gowns as we arrived but thought it could be a photo shoot Calendar Girl style so it was only when we were stopped by security that we realized something was up and the ladies had been evacuated from the health spar round the corner see the picture below guess who is stood next to the right hand set of arches left hand bay didn`t know about the "bomb" then .

Picture from Birmingham Mail