Wildlife around the Boat and Walks along the Canal

Sitting in the Woods

Wish I Lived There!

We are still staying in our small area of canal as it's a lovely rural spot where we are moored with lots of birds and ducks, etc. around.  We put out a couple of feeders and have been lucky enough to get blue tits, great tits, green finches, gold finches, a robin, black birds and even a little field mouse.

We go for a walk most days and there are a few circular walks we can do which takes us along the canal, along lanes and through fields.  There is a lovely wooded area by Bridge 10, the balustraded bridge and the bird song there is just wonderful.

Greenfinch

Swan

The canals may be open fully on 1st June depending on what the Government says so all being well, we will start to chug around but if the canals don't open fully, then we will stay where we are until we get the all clear to start travelling again.

Goldfinch by the Boat

Greenfinches on the Feeder

Our Furry Little Friend

Picnic by the Canal

When we get moving again, we plan to travel down to the end of this canal, get on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal which will take us up to Great Haywood and the Trent and Mersey canal and then we will turn right there and go down to Fradley Junction and carry on down the Trent & Mersey canal towards Burton Upon Trent and see how far we get before we have to turn around and head back up to the Staffs &Worcs canal as at the beginning of August we are going into the dry dock at Stafford Boat Club which is on that canal to black our boat's bottom for a week and then we will be back out chugging around again.

We have been very lucky with the weather and not much rain at all.

Well, that's all for now.  Hopefully soon we will soon be able to do a full blog of our movements and adventures on the canal.

Peaceful, Quiet Canal

Lock Down Weeks

Red Sky at Night

We had lots of plans this year, including doing our first markets and festivals on the canals selling Kev's hand made products but it was not to be, not yet anyway and the markets we were booked on  had to be cancelled.  Kev is still making his products and hopefully we will be able to sell from the towpath later in the year and if not, there is always next year!

View from our Mooring

As we are liveaboards and do not have a fixed mooring, we have been able to move to get water, supplies, etc., so we are on the Shropshire Union Canal and have stayed in a two to three mile stretch.

Chaffinch

Gold Finch

There are some really nice open moorings by Bridge 8, quite remote with no roads nearby so you only get a few walkers and cyclists going by and as it is a long stretch of moorings you can easily moor away from other boats, not that there has been many here, just a few so we decided this was the spot for us.

Robin on the Coconut

Another Visitor!

We have put out bird feeders where we are moored and have had quite a few birds visiting, Robins, Chaffinch, Gold Finch and blue tits.

More of our Walk

Walk through the fields

Avenue Bridge from the Canal

What we do is stay at the mooring for 8 to 10 days until we are running low on water, then chug the 2 miles to a small village called Brewood where there is a Coop, a Spar, a Butchers and a Bakers so all you need.  Also there is a boat hire place on the canal at Brewood and they kindly said we could use their services which was really good as the next water tap and Elsan point and rubbish disposal is at Wheaton Aston another 3 miles away from Brewood.  We did do this once before we found out we could use the hire place. but it was quite a trek.  Now we can get any shopping we need and if we need to do a bigger shop then we can get the bus from Brewood to Wolverhampton which we have done but try not to go very often and just use the small shops in Brewood, it is much easier and less stressful!

Left behind when lockdown started!!

The path that goes on for ever!

Avenue Bridge

We then chug back to our mooring at Bridge 8 and stay there again until we need to get water, etc and do it all again.  As it is only 2 miles, we can easily go up and back in the same day so it has worked very well so far.

View on our walk

Flower Moon

There are some nice walks around where we are moored so most days we go out and do a circular walk. One of the walks takes us to a lovely balustraded bridge which many years ago used to be part of a drive up to Chillington Hall, but that has long gone and it is now a wood with lots of birds singing and the walk goes along lanes and along the towpath.

Spring Gorse

Also last week, there was a super moon called the Flower Moon and I managed to get some quite good pictures, it was quite spectacular.

Flower Moon

We will get the blog going again properly when we are allowed to move freely around the canals whenever that will be but for now we will stay between bridge 8 and Brewood and I will just update from time to time.

All take care and keep safe.

Our Lock Down Mooring