Great Haywood Junction (Trent & Mersey Canal) – Thursday 15th August

A very strange thing happened to me during the night!  All I remember is hearing footsteps crunching on the towpath, the boat moving and then sitting up in bed yelling “what do you think you are doing?”!!!!!  I woke up at that stage – with a terrified dog on the floor and a very concerned husband beside me!  Goodness knows that it was all about and I guess there must have been more to the dream than just hearing footsteps!  I am not one for yelling out in my sleep though I did once find myself outside by the dustbins!

The floral displays at Stone

After our disturbed night we didn’t wake up until 8.45am!  It was quite overcast and heavy showers were forecast.  We went down the four locks into Stone and pulled over so that we could visit the town.  I follow a blog by Ellie and Mick on Parisien Star and have been intrigued by Stone as they moored at Aston Marina over the winter and were always blogging about their visits there.  We left the boat in sunshine fortunately with an umbrella as the heavens opened as we reached the town.  We had to shelter for what seemed ages before finding a coffee shop where we could sit outside.  I made a brief visit to the Co-op and a bakery and then we walked back to the boat.  The town is very nice with mostly independent shops but also a couple of smaller branches of bigger chains.  But the most amazing thing about Stone are its floral displays – I just couldn’t stop taking photos and am going to bore my readers with some!  Mick and Ellie are missing the displays as they are out cruising for the summer L

 

More from Stone

We had moored by a park and found this lovely mosaic beside the canal.  I can’t seem to find anything about it on the internet which is a shame.

The mosaic by the canal

We moved on hoping to get to Great Hayward for the night.  Last night I really didn’t feel like cooking after quite a hectic day, so today I cooked dinner while we were under way – it was a nice feeling knowing that I only had the potatoes to do later.

Muffin fell in the canal again!  Richard was walking him along the towpath while I was steering.  Muffin suddenly decided he had had enough and I could see that he was thinking about jumping back on the boat from the towpath.  The boat was not within his jumping range – well I could see that but he obviously couldn’t and missed.  This is the second time he has tried to jump when I’m going along and missed – you would have thought he would have learned his lesson last time.  But the funniest part was that he just kept swimming after the boat instead of making for the bank.  I had put the boat into neutral but, of course, was still drifting forward.  He finally gave up and made his way to the bank where Richard pulled him out.  Fortunately it was a very warm and sunny afternoon so Muffin soon dried off.

Cows waiting for the rain

We had two things to do at Haywood Junction.  One was a trip to the wonderful farm shop for me and the other was a complete water tank full.  We had filled up at Etruria yesterday but the water was extremely unpleasant.  The washing I did yesterday smells, the water tastes musty and even in the shower this morning the water smelt dirty.  We emptied the tank which took about an hour and then refilled it – hopefully this load will be better.  I love the farm shop at Great Haywood and bought lots of lovely things – it’s not cheap but most of the vegetables are home grown and the meat is all local.

We moored up just south of Great Haywood Junction

Meaford Bottom Lock to Great Haywood Junction

10.46 miles
8 locks