Hatton station (Am I the man with the pig?)

I decided to stay moored by Hatton station on Wednesday as it’s an easy run for Karen into her office (and the towpath isn’t too muddy for her).  Once again it rained all morning but stopped when I was having lunch so I decided to walk Buddy the 2 ½ miles to Rowington to see if that would be a good place to moor next.  We have moored there before but not when we were dragging a car around.  In those days we could moor well away from bridges and not worry about access.

After about a mile into our walk the clouds started clearing and the sun came out.

Sun makes a welcome appearance

Male catkins on a hazel tree highlighted by the sunshine

We arrived at Rowington and I immediately decided against mooring there.  We would have to be in a dingy cutting to be near a bridge and use mooring stakes in a very soggy bank.  The best mooring spots would be ¼ mile away out in the open with lovely views across the village.

We would have to moor in the foreground to be near the bridge; the best bits are round the corner away from the trees

The picture above shows the size of the embankment that was built by hand to carry the canal above the village.

We walked up to the bridge and down the private lane that runs into Rowington.  If we were to moor here then Karen would have to leave the car at the end of the lane in the church car park, making the walk even longer.  Half way along the lane a car had stopped by a field where a woman was feeding her ponies and the driver was having a chat with her.  As Buddy and I walked past she shouted out, “Are you the man with the pig?”.  She could see I had something on a lead but the car was blocking her lower view.  I had to disappoint her but she explained that there is a strange man round these parts that walks a pig on a lead.

Unusual milepost, set on wood, outside the church

One of my post boxes from the times of Queen Victoria that I like to find still in use – in the wall at the front of the house next to the church.  The initials VR for Victoria Reign can be seen at the top of the box.

As we walked back I noticed once again how tired my legs felt.  This has been happening a few times over the recent weeks.  I do do a lot of walking so we have put it down to having a change in style of walking.  The towpaths have been so muddy recently that we have to use a different gait that is probably bringing different muscles into play.  Karen has also noticed her legs are affected the same way at weekends.

I’ll have to move on Thursday as my middle son, Steve, is driving up to see us for a couple of days on Friday.  As he will be here during the day he won’t be able to park his car in the station car park (the 20 spots are full each day) and the lanes round about are all too narrow to park in.  I’ll probably move to Shrewley and moor on the other side of the tunnel.  There is easy access to the road that runs through Shrewley from there and plenty of cars seem to park along it.

The bank of the cutting leading up to Shrewley tunnel is covered in one of my favourite ferns – the Hart’s Tongue.

Hart’s Tongue fern