Last lock.

We set off about 0930 and were enjoying the sunshine, but cool breeze. It seemed quite quiet but we were trickling along.

As we passed through Amington we saw this little area that seems to make good use of a corner by the bridge, and was a good place to place stuff that nobody else wants.

We stopped at bridge 73 where there used to be a pub but is now a Co-op. It was a good little spot with moorings just through the bridge. A little further on is the old canal/railway interchange basin and was the base of Hudsons.

As we passed the arm I saw 'Futurest' on the moorings in the sun. It used to be owned by another blogger who died last winter. It seems strange to see it here rather than down near Banbury. The sun makes for a lovely colourful picture.

This is looking back at the bottom Glascote lock which is more than likely to be the last one we will do this year. Mind you that is the 558th of the year.

We seemed to meet boats at every bridge thereafter on the way to Fazeley. It was our turn to go first over the aqueduct over the Tame.

At Fazeley Junction we popped out after having spoken to a lady down the arm to Glascote who was feeding the ducks. It seems there is a turf war here abouts as she was quite scathing about the lady feeding those pesky geese! She only wanted to feed duck so had come down away from them. This is the lady feeding the geese that seemed to be coming from far and wide. There was nobody on the water point just past the junction house so we pulled over and topped up before heading off again.

As it happened there was nobody on the Peel's Wharf services so we pulled over and dropped off the rubbish before setting off again. This is the TV mast at Hints which used to be the ITV mast. Further west is the BBC mast. I have my fingers crossed that we will be able to get a signal, BBC, as it is 'Bake-off' tonight and I need to keep Helen sweet so that she will try out some of the recipes on me.

This mountain ash or rowan tree looked great on the outskirts of Hopwas. We were rendezvousing with Kym and Tracy on the Little Chimney Boat oot the other side of the village in the wood.

Kym had soon been to measure up and quote. All was agreed and he was soon removing the old flue so thought I had better get a picture for the before and after shots.

Flue gone and a hole in the roof. I thought that we would need a double skinned chimney as I didn't want tar from the chimney ruining our new paint work next year. The flue was a straight run so couldn't be to fit into the base of the chimney. Plus it would be a better and easier to seal join on top of the stove itself if it was perpendicular to it. Steel work ordered and with luck all should be completed for Friday.