Thursday 12th April

The beginning of another summer of cruising – our third! The time just seems to have whizzed by. We actually came up to Mary H on Tuesday but yesterday was my birthday so we had a day off. We had a lovely sofa bed delivered by Wilsons of Kinver in the morning and then went to Shugborough House in the afternoon. It wasn’t as grand as I thought it would be – much more a gentleman’s residence. The nice part really was Patrick Lichfield’s apartments which have been opened to the public this year – there were still his things lying around and I felt I could relate to it better. We called in at the farm and saw the baby lambs and a very porky pig who was extremely nosey! In the evening we went to a very nice Thai restaurant in Lichfield.

We set off this morning quite late and went through the first lock. The rain started so we pulled over for lunch but it didn’t abate so we carried on. Richard in full waterproofs and me down below keeping dry until we came to Fradley top lock where I had to don waterpoofs too and work the five locks. At one stage there was thunder and lightening and I was rather worried manhandling the metal paddle gear on the locks! However the rain did decrease and finally stop and the last part of the day was really rather nice! We pulled over below Tatenhall Lock for the night. Millie was soon ashore as she didn’t like the marina very much and hasn’t ventured out up until now.