Coleshill (by Debbies Day Boats), Birmingham and Fazeley Canal

A beautiful sunny morning and 1/2" ice in the canal.

The curse continues...

As we had decided to turn around and head back towards Birmingham and a trip up the Tame Valley Canal (new territory for us), David winded the boat last night. He had to back up just past the pipe bridge in the picture to the winding hole. This he managed to do without a hitch. We turned the boat and then the engine began overheating, the boat wouldn't steer and we had a real job to get it back onto the mooring.

After a -4C night there was thick ice on the canal and we finally set off at 11am. Once again, the engine kept overheating. We limped along as far as Amington (1 mile = 1/2 hour!) and finally telephoned River Canal Rescue.

Now we have been disappointed with RCT lately, every time we have had a problem they have said it was "domestic" so it didn't count and they couldn't help us. We have gone from Gold Membership right down to a retainer, and had decided that this year we wouldn't even bother at all. WELL. It took them 4 hours to reach us, but the engineer and his apprentice were excellent and explained everything to David. Suddenly we had lost all the water in the engine (don't know where it all went, as there was plenty in the header tank when we stopped!). So thank you once again RCR they only charged us £35 and we will be renewing our membership after all.

When they had finished we set off again at 5pm and finished up opposite the boatyard at Coleshill just as it was getting dark.

Forgot to mention. Just as we were nearing Amington I saw another "Woodie" American Wood Duck. So what with the one I saw last year up in Yorkshire, there are at least three on the canals - so not so rare after all!


A pretty little white card with pink rosebud ribbon wrapped around the front and more pink organdie ribbon tied in a bow on top.

The little ballerina is decoupaged and stuck on over the ribbon with sticky-fixers.