We were sat quietly reading yesterday afternoon when a knock on the window interrupted the peace, it was a couple of the BW crew that were trimming trees & shrubs. They had just taken a large dead oak branch down & did we want some of it? Err yes please!

So this morning we moved the few hundred yards along the canal & got about 2/3rds of this lot on the roof, should keep us warm for a while :)
We carried on for a couple of hours & are now moored in Hockley Heath for the next few days. After mooring up we had a walk up into the village to see what's what & collected some post from the very helpful lady at the post office. I then got busy in the sunshine & washed the side of the boat, we'd got mud everywhere whilst loading the wood. 
Tomorrow I'm off to Manchester for the weekend & leaving Mark to his own devices, he's found a TV signal & the village stores will supply the daily papers & choccy biscuits so I think he'll be fine....

Dickens Heath

 It has been so cold, grey & damp for the last couple of days we have had  little exercise apart from strolling up to the Tesco express in the 'village' to get the papers & fresh bread.


 I put village in ' ' as Dickens Heath is an odd place, a 21st century village centre according to Parkridge the developers so it's basically a new village with shops, a library, a village hall & green etc etc . Except that most villages I know aren't made up of large apartment blocks & huge water features with sculptures, a lot of the shops are empty, a lot of properties still for sale & apart from a few bods shopping  in Tescos there is no one to be seen. Weird, it reminds me a bit of The Prisoner  & I half expected to run into number 6!  But it's a ghost town, it looks like the recession has hit it hard. 


 Anyway after a weekend of sloth today is not so cold & damp so I thought I should get some exercise & took myself off down the towpath towards Hockley Heath. The towpath is a bit muddy so I donned my wellies & it was just as well I did.....

 

as 'a bit muddy' turned into this... the browny bits are where the BW chaps who are busy trimming back tree branches have  put some of the 'shreddings' to try to make it less muddy.

 Spotted this pile that they have left for us boaters,

 hope it's still there when we pass on Thursday !

 I only managed 3 miles as I gave up at bridge 19, the mud just seemed to get worse.

 Home was a welcome sight...