Stoke Prior (annual haircut day)


Those of you who know me will know I have a haircut once a year.  Since living on the boat I have made it a rule to only use a shop that allows Buddy in and is also cheap.  As luck would have it I found a shop in Stoke Prior that allowed Buddy in and only charged £7.50 for a wash and cut.

Obviously forgotten how to smile

I always feel sad for a few days afterwards but soon get used to it.  I get mixed emotions from the family as half the children prefer it long and the other half prefer it short.  I say half, but some don’t care either way.  You may wonder why I do it and the only reason, is that I know Karen likes it to be short sometimes, so, as I’m lucky enough to still have hair that grows, I give in once a year.

On Tuesday evening we were off to Stratford to play bridge with our friends but during the afternoon Karen rang to say she wouldn’t be able to get away from work in time so I cancelled it.  I then found out from one of the girls that we had the wrong evening anyway so it was just as well we didn’t trek over to Stratford for a non-event.  That’s the first time in over two years we’ve got a date wrong.

At last we had a rain free and warm day forecast on Wednesday so, after my early morning haircut, Buddy and I went for a walk before the heat of the day.  Just down the canal from where we are moored a cat keeps teasing Buddy and he just stands and stares at it not knowing how to get across.  Sometimes it just sits on the gunwales of a boat on the other side and that winds Buddy up even more as it is then a boat width closer.

Buddy and his friend the cat

As it was a sunny day I decided to visit a wild flower meadow that I had seen last week to check out the butterfly situation.  You can’t really tell from the picture but the meadow was full of different flowers and there were lots of butterflies on the wing – mainly Meadow Browns.

Wild flower meadow full of butterflies but you can’t really seethe variety of flowers or the butterflies


Male Meadow Brown at rest

The last part of the walk took us up a flight of locks and every lock was empty with one of the bottom gates open.  This meant that a boat had been down and couldn’t be bothered to close the gates.  This is just lazy and contributes to water wastage.  Not only had they left gates open but paddles were left up too.  I know this flight quite well and there is one lock where one of the gates will swing open when the lock is empty but not the whole flight.

Paddle up on left hand gate – right hand gate not closed

When we got back to the boat I saw a Comma flying around the flowers on the roof and then got a picture of it on the towpath displaying its distinctive comma mark.

Comma butterfly displaying its distinctive comma mark

Boat beginning to look summery

I was planning to service the engine today but it never happened – in my mind I decided it was too hot.  I’ll be having a little cruise on Thursday morning to get a pump out.  It is only one lock and a mile away so I’ll probably turn around afterwards and come back to the same spot.  At least the engine will have run so the oil will be warm so I’ll have no excuse but to change the oil etc.

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