Thunderbolts of lightening

…. As I sit here writing this!   And we think this is the first thunder/lightening storm that we have experienced on Jandai!   We’ll be ok though because a steel narrow boat acts as a Faraday Cage.   Foxxie isn’t bothered at all - she’s snoring in her bed!!


Not moved a lot since last blog - just up to Wheaton Aston where we were surprised to get a mooring between Turners Garage and the lock as there are soooo many boats about.


We had a nice meal at The Navigation at Gnosall - Dai surprised himself by polishing off all his 20oz meat pie followed by apple pie (no, I won’t ask “who ate all the pies”!!).  They still have Rev. James ale so Dai was in seventh heaven!  Pies and Rev James, oh my.


I did get an Easter Egg this year from Dai - a Thorntons one no less.    Only trouble was that for the first time since living on Jandai, I must have picked up some weird bug that put me off chocolate for a couple of days.   We even postponed our Easter Sunday dinner to Monday when the Gnosall butcher did us proud with a beef joint which was delicious.


Dai was hoping for a set to when we were at Gnosall.   There are 2 water points and every night we were there, boats were moored blocking access.   OK, if there is nowhere else and you get there as daylight is fading fast and are off again in the morning by say 8am, then nobody really complains too much.   These were there well before sunset and not off the next day until at least 10 or 11 am.   Anyway, came the time for us to leave and we needed water, it was about 9.30.    It was a hireboat.   I asked them if the hire company had told them not to moor at water points ---- “no” was the answer (not totally unexpected); “but I know now”.   They then proceeded to water up so we had to wait because the second water point was out of order I discovered when I tried to open it!   In the end, no harsh words were exchanged, we just had to be patient which isn’t a problem to us as we aren’t on any timetable!



Inbetween the rain showers this weekend, we did manage to plant out some pansies - at least they got well watered in!   I have 3 containers on the roof and hope they do as well as they did last year.


Since last blog we have done … 16 miles and  12 locks
Total since Setting Off ….. 1698 miles and  1323 locks


At Wheaton Aston we are moored almost opposite the winding hole you can see in the old photo below.   There are some permanent moorings opposite which have obviously appeared since 1952! 

Wheaton Aston 1952: both pix taken from http://www.francisfrith.com/wheaton-aston/

When you look at the Francis Frith site, you are invited to comment on the photos and two comments by the canal picture say:

I Have a picture of my grandfather, Harry Evans, who managed the warehouse building in the background which was known as the coal wharf. He is unloading coal with the father of the schoolteacher, Sue Brereton. He initially lived with his uncle at the pub whose family name was Bowdler after he was orphaned when he was 9/10 years old (they died of TB). His parents came from Albrighton. In those days the Bowdlers also owned the garage. Eventually with my grandmother they bought Mileford Cottage on Wenlocks Bank and she (Gladys) lived there until the mid 1970s. 
       During the school holidays the canal and it's towpath became a playground for many of the village children. Several of us caught the fishing bug and used the canal many times throughout the holiday. We always looked out for a barge called the MENDIP. The bargee was a gentleman called Charlie Atkins. His route was from the CADBURY factory at Knighton to Bournville in Birmingham. This was the origin of his nickname (Chocolate Charlie). We always asked him for a bit of chocolate but it was the raw chocolate crumb before it had been milled and was all but uneatable. If he was in a good mood we were alowed a ride up the canal for about 2 bridges then it was Get off home to your mother. Can you see that happening today?