Another One Gone.

Saturday, 17th, December, 2011.



This is the Plough at Huddlesford Junction on the Coventry Canal which has been closed since the end of September, we were in here on the Friday before the "Huddlesford Gathering" weekend a couple of days before it closed and thought it was expensive, £10 for a plate of pasta covered with a sauce, beer at £3.50 a pint comes as a bit of a shock to us Wetherspooner's. The Plough tried to be an up market dining pub which obviously didn't work.

The owners, Enterprise Inns have a guide rent of £38,000 p.a. for it on their website and claim it is under offer.

The new Kings Orchard Marina just down the Canal from the Plough may bring a bit more business for the pubs new tennants when they re-open but it looks a long way off yet, this was the state of play last Monday with builders working on the service block/office.

I took this picture from the towpath, notice the freshly cut thorn hedge, this can only mean one thing for a towpath cyclist, and it did. 

Undecided About These Things.

Thursday, 15th December, 2011.

These are the new safety handrails recently fitted to the bridge across middle lock Fradley, it seems strange that health and safety requires hand rails here but not for the steep and worn stone steps with the metal trip hazard in the bottom of the picture.

Safety rails are also being fitted to Keepers lock at Fradley which has a similar bridge.

The final version will hopefully look a bit better .

Lighting Up.

Tuesday, 13th December, 2011.

We put our Christmas lights up today, well we put one set up yesterday but the second set didn't work and required a bit of fettling with the soldering iron today.

I also had to carry out emergency repairs to the bird table which had suffered in the wind.

Winter is certainly creeping up on us, no ice on the Marina yet, just a bit on the roof of the boat and car windscreen in the morning.

Jumped on the train into Birmingham last Friday for a look around, the Bull outside the Bullring shopping centre was feeling the cold as he now has his jumper on.

Not many boats around the city centre canals, in fact I only spotted two moored and one on the move, not many people either, probably due to the rain and wind howling through the bridges. 

Being moored close to Lichfield means we have two Wetherspoon pubs a short drive away, last Thursday we were in the Acorn for curry night which we though was less than average, but tonight we were in the other Wetherspoons, the Gatehouse for Steak night and it got 9 out of 10.

Where's Winter?.

Saturday, 3rd, December, 2011.

Not that we're complaining about this mild weather, the longer it lasts the less coal and logs we need to burn, the stocks we built up earlier in the year are lasting well.

Stoveheat Smokeless stored in our shed which we rent at Kings Bromley Marina.

Logs almost ready for the fire.

We've added a link to the blog so that you can see some of our short video's on YouTube.