Waiting for the river...

I think we were really lucky with the weather in Kinver and the evening cruise to Wolverly was a real treat. The next morning M/D popped over with goodies of shortbread and waffles yum :-) they also brought over Dad's (now my) guitar. I have been after a nylon strung classical guitar for a while, I've never really got on with my steel strung one (too many finger tips missing from an earlier career in kitchens). So I have signed up to an online e course that will involve me practising some pieces and then uploading the videos of my progress for critique from my fellow students. Quite a unique idea really and the course over all is five years long and completely free. Anyone with an old classical guitar who fancies joining in this is the website of the forum.  It was too wet to wander round Wolverley so onwards to Kidderminster for the night and to get some much needed shopping.

We decided to make a dash from sainsburys in Kidderminster to the bongo first thing the next day as the weather was OK. We didn't stop longer than the time needed to retrieve the bikes and store a couple of bits under the bongo seats. We were all waterproofed up but it didn't rain and we had a really nice trip to stourport.  Not too many boats around so we could plod in our own time.

M/D popped over about 10ish yesterday for a coffee in front of the fire before we went into Kidderminster to get a couple of bits and bobs. Dad wanted golf bits, mum some trousers for their hols in a few weeks, Deb some trainers and me... well I'm a cheap date :-) We had a great lunch out at a pub in the town centre. We were only looking for a quick snack out of the showers and dad had gone into a local cafe to see where we could go, just as I was looking  at an unusual sign on a pub wall inviting patrons to bring their own food in! Result! we bought food in the cafe (that didn't have seating) and sat in the pub with a beer. Win win. Later we popped over to their caravan for a paella which was great (dads signature dish) and even got a lift back to the boat afterwards.

We have had some old BW cards in the leccy cupboard since we picked up LJ. We had presumed that all the credit on them had been used, and we haven't really seen many opportunities to use them either. We are on the last mooring before the lock into Stourports basins and just the other side of the road is a BW sanitary facility. Usual Loo's and elsan but this one has a card operated laundry room as well. Deb tried a card and it appeared to have all its 20 units in place so we trundled back to the boat to get a load for washing. A few hours later, two loads of washing done and put through the drier!

Whilst Deb was washing guarding I used the time to do a bit of guitar practise (still finding string damping tricky) and experiment with the camera to see if the video mode is going to be good enough to post on the forum.

The sun is shining this afternoon and its great to see the solar panels topping up the battery again.

sunshine...

...at last 

There is no more space on the moorings again today, I think that loads of boats are waiting for the Severn to lower from the red boards and probably head for droitwich. I have seen calmer rapids though so we will be keeping clear. Deb is having her usual cleaning catch up this afternoon and I think another curry is in the offing tonight. Maybe cooked on the hob as the last one a couple of nights ago was a bit of a juggle on the stove.

Pots are rice, Dahl, chunky veg curry and nann Style rolls in the ashes