yet more of the white stuff

Friday 19th February 2010

We upped sticks yesterday and continued south stopping to fill the tank at the water tap just before Autherley Junction - this must be the worst water point ever - it's always wet making the ground thick, slimy and goey and there are only two rings to moor up to, neither in the right place to tie up properly!! Enough ranting .... we turned left onto the Staffs and Worcester and continued northwards to Cross Green and moored up outside the Fox and Anchor (click here to see pub review by Captain Ahab).

The snow started just after we moored up but didn't last too long.

this was the picture this morning at 8:45 - when will it end?

We decided to take a walk back the way we came yesterday as over the last week or so we've been seeing some very small shy ducks as we've been cruising. As soon as they see the boat approaching they dive a couple of inches under the water and resurface several meters away ... far too quickly to take a photo.  Anyhow we saw some yesterday and wanted to see if we could find them again and hopefully snap them.

We'd seen this on previous visits to this area between the M54 and Forster Bridge - it looks as if it will eventually be a very enjoyable walk but it needs about 12' to reach the towpath.

it appears to be a wetland area with viewing platforms to watch the wildlife; it's been well planted with trees but doesn't seem to be open to the public yet ... perhaps 'they're' waiting for it to mature more before it does open.  The towpath in this area is absolutely perfect in all weathers, it's obviously part of the whole scheme as it is all very wheelchair friendly. We saw a sign just off the towpath and thought that it would tell us what it was all about, but it didn't.

under Forster Bridge where the very narrow cutting starts (or ends of course)

I think Molly is wondering how far we're going today.

We walked to the end of the narrows towards Autherley; we'd not seen sight of the ducks so decided to turn back.

a peaceful scene through Marsh Lane Bridge

passing the wetland walk again and saw this buzzard being bullied by two crows

and here we saw them - tiny little things - it was so difficult to get a picture as the kept to the opposite side of the canal under the overhanging vegetation.  We discovered via the RSPB site that they are Little Grebes - mystery solved and photograph obtained!

a cheerful Robin

back at the boat to see the trees burning - sun seting at 17:15