Towpath Biirthday Tea.

While on the mooring at Alrewas we were joined by Maid of Oak the narrowboat belonging to Julie and Peter from the Taft(although peter wasn't there, Arthur was crewing for Julie) Peter came later to take Julie and Arthur for a meal.Julie was a founder member of the Boaters Christian Fellowship, which Marlene and me are members of. As I sat reading, Julie came and invited us to tea and cake on the towpath. We took our chairs and joined Julie and Arthur and two other members of the BCF at the appointed time. When Julie brought out the cake it had candles on and she announced it was her birthday. It was a pleasant two hours chatting and celebrating Julie's birthday.
Next morning we left Alrewas and went up to Fradley junction. It was the usual chaos at Fradley so we watered up and carried on to Woodend lock where we spent a peaceful night in the country. That was Tuesday on Wednesday we moved on to Rugeley did some shopping and moored for the night. On the way up we had trouble with the bolts we had had replaced,once again they had sheared off.Next morning we moved before breakfast as rain was threatened, a brief stop for breakfast at Taft bridge then on to Great Haywood and Shugborough Hall. Just as we were mooring up the rain finally arrived.
Brighter weather on Friday was very welcome as we were meeting Pamela,Nathan and Archie for a Picnic at Shugborough Hall and farm. It was a lovely day out and the weather held warm and sunny all day. Saturday morning Richard, Gill and Duncan came and picked us up for a weekend at there home in Ripon North Yorkshire.