Just checking ….

Thursday 23rd March 

We had hoped to be up before now - it's a long time since we tucked Bonjour up for the winter at the end of November. But since Christmas eiether one or both of us have been struck down with one of the various lurgies that have been circulating. Then the flat roof at home started leaking, which needed Dave to don his ‘down the engine hole’ clothes to apply bitumen to the leaky bits. That all took well over a week, waiting for a long enough spell of dry weather to complete the job. But here we are at last.

We arrived to a warm and dry boat – warm, because the sun was shining, and it was lovely to be back. My first job, even before we had unpacked or put the kettle on, was to clean the fridge – over the winter the door must have swung shut and patches of mould had started to grow. But it was easily wiped off. We had no intention of cruising today because of the weather – strong winds and frequent showers - so after a welcome cup of tea we had a walk with Meg down the towpath towards Droitwich, to look for signs of spring.

We also wanted to have a look at where dredging took place very recently. Below lock 6, where the Body Brook joins the canal, a new island had appeared in the middle of the canal after that long spell of wet weather.

Silt island (thanks to Paul Sumpner, NB Old Nick)

 It’s hard to credit that the gentle little Body Brook had dumped so much silt. CRT couldn’t get the dredgers up to the area by water because of the stoppages on the Worcester and Birmingham, and the canal in Droitwich was also too shallow at the time – so trees had to be cleared so the gear could come by land.

The innocent little Body Brook

  We came back though the woods, where we noticed the hawthorns were coming into leaf.

And then, as we walked in the woods along the brook, we came across a large patch of white violets.

Not the best day for cruising. We’d needed our waterproofs on the walk, and had just got back to the boat when the heavens opened again and it rained heavily for several hours. We quickly got the new Chinaman’s hat fitted to the chimney and lit the fire. Lovely!