Atherstone

Been off gallivanting and come back to some hefty gales below Atherstone! It looks like I missed seeing a couple of boats, including nb No Problem who's blog was the first I read on narrowboating and which made me think "ooh - I'd like to live like that". I also missed nb Hadar which Jo had kindly shown me over when Hadar was still in the boatyard shed. I was looking forward to seeing her afloat but there are lots of great photos on Jo's blog.

The Atherstone locks, as anyone who goes up and down them knows, are beautifully looked after. The lock-keeper's cottage is also well maintained and there are tended flower beds and rose bushes but who is this enigmatic lock-keeper? I can only go on impressions. Was he for example, one of the knot of three portly gentlemen who stood at the cottage, arms folded, staring while I locked down the first two locks, getting redder-faced and more and more clumsy under their gaze? Surely they were there on the other two occasions I've been up and down these locks?! Is the stuffed figure dressed up in camouflage clothes, leaning at the lock cottage wall, with 'Keep Hunting' painted on its lapel, his work? And the long letter in the BW noticeboard addressed to 'Mr Boater' (3 times) asking us to be patient and polite, telling us that he has an MBE, well I guess that's his handwriting. As a Ms Boater, I'm assuming I'm exempt!

I've noticed that there are signs limiting a boaty stay of only 48hours in the fairly long stretch in the middle of the flight and that this stretch was completely empty. I've been noticing this elsewhere this winter - completely empty stretches of useful canalside mooring where boaters would presumably have been spending cash in the nearby shops and pubs if the staying limits were relaxed over winter. Where are all the boats? The worst was Cropredy. You'd be hard put to fit another sign along that stretch above the lock, with the 'No running of engines...', 'No more than 24hrs...', 'Overstay fines..', 'Take rubbish elsewhere..' signs every few feet. It really makes you feel unwelcome. We're boaters - we should bloody well be able to use the canal without being made to feel like we're scum. Grrrr...
Anyway, enough grumpiness for today. It's great to be back on board and now I'm going to cut up some of the forest I've got piled on the roof.