Hatton bottom lock (remembering Spike Milligan on a tangent)

Compared with Saturday, when we had rain all day, we actually had a sunrise on Sunday morning.  It was really rather pleasant, so I left the side hatch open whilst busying myself making my morning cafetiere of coffee and Karen's pot of tea. 

   

The children always make a joke about my morning breakfast ritual as I cannot just have one.  Before Buddy has his first walk I have my coffee and a pain au chocolate.  This is followed by muesli with yogurt and the third breakfast is a slice of homemade cake, Danish pastry or similar.  That is sometimes supplemented by a chocolate bar before lunch if I’m out for a walk.  At the weekend, when Karen takes over cooking I also have a cooked breakfast 😉

We knew we had to continue down the flight on Sunday and get beyond the penultimate lock which is being closed for six weeks on Monday.  By the time we set out all the clouds had gone, and we had blue skies and no wind 😊

Buddy checking his weemails before we set off

After a couple of locks, we reached Ugly Bridge which is well named, being one of the ugly precast concrete bridges on the flight.  The road that runs over it is called Ugly Bridge Lane which, I think, is a great name for a road.  We had left the car in Ugly Bridge Lane overnight as there is a good layby for continuous cruisers there.

Thinking about road names, reminds me that Karen and I have different views on whether or how they affect whether we would live in a house on them.  For example, we often used to visit Rye when we lived in Kent and were forever passing Dead Man’s Lane.  I used to think that would be a great place to have as an address, but Karen thought otherwise.  Coincidentally, close by, is a lane called Dumb Woman’s Lane which elicits the same responses from us, but it does make me smile that Spike Milligan lived there until he died in 2002 😉

Karen opening a ground paddle with Ugly Bridge in the background

Looking back at Ugly Bridge after passing under it – thinking about it now, there are far uglier bridges around

As it was Sunday and sunny, there were plenty of walkers out for their pre-pub pint or lunch.  Many people stopped for a chat at the locks, so we had a leisurely drop down the rest of the flight.  We decided to moor up just before the last lock as it was an open spot even though it wasn’t far from where the A46 crosses the canal.  At least we were now free of the stoppages and could carry on towards Warwick and Leam at our own pace.

Moored before the last lock – now, that is an ugly bridge behind us

We walked back up to Ugly Bridge Lane to get the car and move it into Warwick closer to our mooring.  On the way back, we called in at a garden centre and bought some primroses and a couple of other spring flowers.  The flowers in three of the winter flower pots on the boat hadn’t survived so Karen has now brightened them up.

We finished the day by having a relaxing afternoon watching the final match of the six nations weekend.

We are just over two miles from Karen's office so she will be walking to work on Monday,