Retail Therapy?

 We went to see 'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' last night and we both thought it was very good. This morning we went for a walk to Ventura Retail Park to have a look at a bit of furniture that Helen has her eye on, and apparently needs my approval to go ahead. Of course there are lots of other shops on the park so it would have been bad form if we didn't have a look in for bargains etc. I was absolutely surprised to see just how many people were out shopping on a Tuesday morning. The car parks were very full, and it was taking time to get in and out. What would it be like on a Saturday!! Hell on earth I'm sure.

We came home and have a cup of tea before heading off down the Glascote Locks. I was wondering if the curved wall that is near the wooden gazebo indicates where the basin was found from my  Previous blog Unusually there were no boats around, up or down, as we descended.

There is definitely more water in the Tame as we crossed over the aqueduct again. 

The canal leading up to Fazeley Junction is quite dark and closed in so the bridge to the junction made me think of a gate into a stadium where it is open and light. No boats coming and no one on the water point but we didn't stop this time. I don't remember so few boats in Fazeley ever before either.

It always said on the radio that we need more house as none are being completed at the moment. This maybe true but as we pass down canals there seems to be loads of development going on. Dunstall Farm, near Fazeley/Tamworth is massive and there will be loads of new people here. So many that they are having to build two new schools to accommodate the children. I wonder if there will be pubs, shops, churches etc etc too

The old farmhouse is surviving still. I wonder what it will end up being in the end.  In the newspapers it has lived a life as there have been fires, the death of a newborn due to an untrained midwife. It obtained pipe water in 1904. There is also a warning in 1884 that anybody tampering with the Dunstall Farm osier beds will be prosecuted. In 1909 it was part of the land holders of the Peel family and made up the Packington estate of 820 acres bringing a rent of £1,060 per annum.

My eye was drawn to the TV mast at Hints. It is 1000+ feet high. You don't really get a sense of scale, but today I was thinking about the guy wires that hold it up. There is plenty of wire holding up the mast and fixing it and tensioning them must be really difficult as get it wrong and it will pull the lot over. I wonder if they 'sing' in the wind, and how often do they need to replace the wires, or grease and oil them. I remember sliding down the standing rigging on my first few ships as an apprentice in a bosun's chair, greasing the wires as I went. You tended to get as much on yourself as the wire as it was a bucket and a lump of waste to apply the grease then.

After Hopwas the woods were starting to look autumnal. I suppose another week and they will be in all their glorious technicolour. As we neared the edge of the wood we could hear the gun fire going off after having seen the red flags flying and the gates shut. They were really giving it a go. I thought it may have been at the Whittington Barracks but apparently that is now the Defence Medical Services planning and training centre since 2008.

This bloke does 'useful' things with old tyres, and not just fenders it seems.

We moored up just a little further on and found a spot not under trees and with a bit of shelter,just in case the weather is worse than expected. We decided that we would walk into the village, Whittington, for a drink and something to eat. We were going to go to the Dog that was being refurbished last time we stopped. We looked on line and found that it was closed tonight, so we ended up at the Bell and had a burger and a beer. We both feel full.