Staying put

Sunday April 11^th; between bridges 27 and 26a

The sun was hazy and the wind was cold as I walked to the village with Jess for the Sunday paper.  I saw the oddest thing growing by the towpath.

A Broad Bean plant!  It’s just coming into flower so someone may be able to pick beans in a few weeks.

The towpath end of the footpath to the village is very close to the road bridge but hidden behind a structure, I can’t remember what it is now.  I should have taken a photo as we crossed the fields which looked lovely in the hazy sun, and with no sheep around the dog was able to run about after her ball.  The path then crosses a stream and goes through a plantation, coming out in a small residential road.  When I got to the village end of the path it was easy to see why we had missed it yesterday – it looks like a little cul-de-sac of bungalows.  On the corner is one of the lovely timber-framed houses of which there are several in the village. 

£700,000 fixed price and Grade II listed

There are lots of pictures here.  I had a brief look, spotting the word ‘potential’ which suggests there is work to be done on it!  Beautiful though and in a lovely situation.

When I got back we had a lazy morning reading the papers.  After lunch I took advantage of the reasonable connection and got a blog posted – last night the signal kept dropping out.  When Dave got back from taking Jess out he gave me a hand to remove the matting from the well deck.  The pieces tend to come apart if one person does it and then it’s a pig to get put back together.  I swept out the detritus of winter, which included bits of twig from kindling, coal dust, grit and grass from towpaths and a large number of willow catkins.  Our mooring at Droitwich was two boats away from a weeping willow and the bits had winkled their way in through tiny gaps in the cratch cover and had even got inside the boat through the porthole we had left open. I cleared the drain channels with a mooring stake – the one without the D-ring is perfect.

Jess enjoying a bit of stale baguette

We had bought a chicken at Selly Oak so we had a roast this evening.  A lovely day all round.