Summer At Last

The days are definitely getting warmer as this cruise has progressed. Today has been the sunniest and the wind has dropped making for some very enjoyable cruising. Now we are back on the Staffs & Worcs canal the traffic has increased with our first occurrence of having to wait at a lock, and it was a staircase!
As we are ahead of ourselves we decided to moor overnight just short of Kinver at a very picturesque location that have on numerous previous occasions been occupied by the same group of "continuous moorers". One of their boats was a very sad looking wooden hulk festooned with blue tarpaulins to help keep the rain at bay. You could see daylight through the rotten planks and indeed last year when we passed there was an aged battery mounted on the roof supplying a bilge pump; and it was in action. Later that year the boat had sunk to the bottom of the canal and to our delight has now been removed and now we are in splendid isolation at long last.
A few years ago The Vine that is canalside at Kinver lock had gone out of business and lay fallow with the threat of housing being built on it. It was to our delight that is has now been re-opened under new management and so we were compelled to sample the locally brewed Crystal Ale.
Only woodpeckers and the ducks to listen to tonight!