Saturday 17 August 2013

An Unscheduled Visit to Fradley Junction

Hilary gets some occasional work undertaking ecological surveys for a firm of consultants. I suppose it's a form of zero-hours contract, in that they only employ her when they want to and it doesn't do to turn them down too often. So, when the call came for a couple of surveys  in Staffordshire I decided to go along for the ride. The surveys have to be done at "dusk" and "dawn" and the usual practice is to do them the same night, with a few hours off in-between. Accommodation is normally provided, but as we've just bought a new tent and hadn't had an opportunity to try it out, Tuesday evening saw us at a camp-site near Wood End on the Trent & Mersey. 
It turned out to be no more than a couple of miles from Fradley Junction, so after Hil had left for the "dusk" survey at 8 o'clock I took myself off for a walk. It took me 35 minutes or so to get there and I had a walk around the moorings to see if there were any boats I recognised; but there weren't, so I went over to the Swan and had a couple of pints of Holden's Bitter (in excellent nick and not too frothy, Sarah)

I've been a bit landlocked recently, for one reason or another, so it was good to reconnect with the cut.

3 comments:

Nev Wells said...

you missed Percy then, bobbing about just below Hunts lock !!

Nev

Sarah said...

Decent beer in the Swan? What, in a clean, dry glass and everything? Wonders will never cease.

Jim said...

Sarah, I have to say I couldn't fault it. I only tried one of the six beers though.
Jim