And Some Days it Rains

Tuesday 26th October:
Preston Brook to Billings Green Flash
After yesterday's brilliant sunshine this was the scene that greeted me on emerging from the boat this morning:

With my new-found status as a gentleman of leisure I should have been able to stay put, light the fire and settle down for a day's reading or listening to the radio, but I've been offered a hand for the locks between Middlewich and Market Drayton which will be welcome company. The only problem is that it is dependant upon being in Middlewich on Wednesday morning.
I don't mind the rain too much. You soon reach a position of maximum wetness, after which you might as well just carry on and enjoy it. I stopped at Barnton, after the tunnel, for shopping and some lunch and so did the rain. . .

Not raining at Barnton

. . .but it started again as soon as I did and continued for the rest of the afternoon. At some point I gave an approaching boat too much passing room which allowed an overhanging branch to catch my coolie hat, lift it from the chimney and deposit it in the cut, it thus becoming the first piece of equipment to feature in both sections of the "Lost and Found" box on the left hand sidebar.

The scenery on this section of the Trent & Mersey is, shall we say, varied. Here are some idyllic canalside cottages at Anderton:

but here is the less-than-idyllic view from the back garden:

By four o'clock I'd had enough and tied up for the day on the peace and solitude of Billings Green Flash, after which it promptly stopped raining!