A busy day on the BCN

Mark was raring to go at 7.30am as daylight broke on a cold, frosty & sunny morning with no wind. I  was a bit slower off the mark so had only just dressed & breakfasted when we got to the first lock of the day. We soon got into a rhythm & worked like a well oiled machine  ;)  reaching the top lock of the Stourbridge locks at 11am.

Looking back towards Dadford's Shed

 Double Lock cottage & the Red House Glass Cone in the background

I made us a coffee & just had time to drink it when it was time for the Delph locks.

 Mark lets 'Poppy' go into the lock on her own as he goes up the steps to assist me with the lock

 Date on lock side

 Old stables looking very well kept

 The greater spotted scroat leaves it's mark.

Inscription on a brick lock side, I think it says ' Doulton and Co'

We moored up outside the Merry Hill Shopping Centre at 1pm so not bad going really,  only 5 miles but that included 22 locks.  A quick wash & brush up & we were in Costa Coffee having lunch by 1.30pm.  Sainsbury's  was next to do a grocery shop so the cupboards are now restocked.

The water tank is very low so tomorrow it'll be the services then the Netherton Tunnel, all 3027 yds of it  & we shall probably be heading for Gas Street or thereabouts. It would  be nice if we had the sunshine we've had today but I doubt it.

Well we did move to just outside Stourbridge & ended up having 5 bags of coal stolen off the roof last night!! Not happy :(
But to back track, on Wednesday we moved from Kinver just a short hop to The Beeches above Hyde lock & just as I was finishing my lunch we were joined by Seyella & Rock n Roll . It was nice to meet face to face at last :)


Being in need of coal I rang a local coal merchants & arranged for a delivery at Newtown bridge on the Stourbridge for Thursday. So Thursday am  we moved up near the bridge to await the coal man, we were hoping he wasn't too late as we didn't really want to stay there overnight. 
He turned up at 3pm so after stashing the coal we upped pins & moved another short hop to moor in what looked like a nice quiet spot about a mile from the Stourbridge Arm. 


We realised we'd probably be there for the weekend as the wind had really got up & according to the weather forecast was due to last a few days. Not too bad we thought, only a mile or so to a Tesco express & Lidl  for supplies & nice views of New Wood across the fields. 

Not so quiet we found as somewhere in the valley  at a property hidden in the trees were some dogs who barked & barked then occasionally  just for a change, howled. It was like the Hound of the Baskervilles! Still the howling wind deadened it somewhat....


But we dug in & waited for some abatement in the wind, then this morning Mark went out to chop some wood whilst I did some washing & changed the bed. He'd been chopping a while when he realised we were missing 5 bags of coal. Scroats !!  So despite the wind it was time to move.


 Mark did a sterling  job of steering us up to the junction to wind ( literally!) then took us back up to the winding hole at Stewponey where we winded again & moored up in a hopefully better spot, at least there is no barking dogs! So tomorrow I shall ring the coal man  ( W.Corbett & Son Prestwood  01384-877350  - excellent service )  for another delivery,  our loss will be his gain!


I've calmed down now after ranting most of the morning  but Mark's still seething.


Hopefully we will be on the move again by Tuesday as tomorrow looks windy again.