Diary of a penny pincher

Tardebigge, rain stopped play!

Joining the long list of places to visit in better weather, today we went to Tardebigge, to see the canal and the magnificent flight of over 30 canal locks.  We couldn't see much!  With the high winds overnight, some of the narrow lanes were blocked by flooding, branches and fallen power cables.  When we eventually found the canal, we parked up and attempted a walk along the towpath.  The wind was strong and cold and the rain horizontal!  There was one brave duck on the canal, so I fed him generously, as he paddled furiously against the current due to the wind!

The towpaths were flooded in places, which made the walk a little perilous, with all those deep locks so close!

Even him indoors, not one for winter attire, had to admit defeat and wear extremely thick gloves!

There were some lovely properties along the canal though, I wouldn't mind living here!

When we got back to the car, for our much needed warm drink, it was covered in debris from the surrounding trees! 

Yes, beautiful Tardebigge is certainly on the list of places to return to. 

Evesham in the rain!

I had the week off work this week, supposedly to get a few jobs done around the house, general tidying and of course, the usual decluttering.  Well, by this morning we were both yearning for a bit of greenery, and water, and a drive out with a picnic, regardless of weather conditions.  Good job really, it was tipping down with rain on and off, so we headed down towards Worcestershire, with hot flask and trusty map, and a waterproof jacket!

We drove through Evesham, and out the other side, and it was pretty chock-a-block, so we meandered back and forth over the river looking for a way to access the riverbank.  We soon found an almost deserted car park, just below the road level, and would have driven straight past, if it wasn't for a very vibrant blue car already parked there!  Turns out this car park has award winning public conveniences too, and was pretty cheap, compared to Brum!

We had a walk along the riverbank, but unfortunately, him indoors had thought he wouldn't need his waterproof, despite the frequent showers and black clouds rolling in from all sides!  So we were forced to run for shelter on several occasions, I think the ducks thought we were mad!

We saw a lovely baby Mallard, although mum and dad looked quite old, the baby almost sprang out of the bank towards them as they swam around for food!

There were lots of birds at the other bridge, and we ended up with a 'barber shop quartet' of male ducks, all in a line and on tippy toes, quacking for food (although I missed the shot!)

Plenty of young swans at Evesham too, and all the birds were just not afraid of us at all!

After about 45 minutes, and some time sheltering under the overhang on the local rowing club shed, we headed back to the car, and a nice sandwich and a cup of tea, before driving home.   

Joe Bonamassa

I've wanted to see Joe Bonamassa for a while, ever since I found out about Black Country Communion, a new supergroup with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian and Joe.  If you haven't heard any of their stuff, seek them out on the internet, truly awesome and it all sounds so familiar and 70's, without sounding dated at all.  Anyway, with him indoors being a guitarist, so having a vested interest in all things guitar, we went off to the NIA in Birmingham on 31st March to see Joe.

Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera, and him indoors is not yet familiar with his new iphone, but these are all we have so I have enlarged and fiddled with them to the best of my ability.  I hope you can get a feel, and I will not leave home without my camera again!

I've got to say though, that the evening was somewhat marred by the disaster that is the NIA car park.  We had never taken a car there before, (and if it was up to me, would never again!) and it was just awful.  If you do drive there, do not venture out without at least £10 in change, preferably pound coins and a pound in smaller silver coins, or a credit/debit card.  There is but one change machine in the whole car park, which has a queue of people who thought they would be able to purchase a car park ticket from a human being (like at the NEC) not an awkward machine.  At the end of the gig, we were, of course, trapped in the car park for half an hour whilst all the lower levels got out first, and tempers got frayed until some car park staff arrived on the scene, to haphazardly manage the growing traffic jam, and point folk to other slightly hidden or not obvious exits. That was a farce! 

Never mind, we saw the great man himself, in all his solo finery.  Got to say the man gives you your money's worth, there was no support act and he came onstage at 7.30pm prompt, and left at 10pm.  Joe was the only musician who didn't leave the stage for any length of time, he knew we were all there to see him and didn't disappoint!     

Lapworth Flight

Following on from last week's canalside walk, we had to go out again today in search of more towpaths.  A friend popped over for the day on Friday and gave me a National Trust leaflet detailing a walk involving two of their properties, and towpaths!  Only having a couple of hours to kill, we cut the walk short to just part of the towpath, and it was so interesting!

We started out at the Navigation pub, which is presently being refurbished, crossed the road and joined the Grand Union canal.  We walked along to the short length of canal which joins the Grand Union to the Stratford on Avon canal, where there are lovely canalside picnic facilities with carved wooden benches, and toilets if you have a BW key (note to self: must get one of those!) The Stratford on Avon junction there is so amazingly pretty, with a canal cottage completely surrounded by water, a domed roof cottage and an enormous canal basin too.  Here's the island canal cottage from the Stratford side, a real feat of engineering;

Yes, those hungry ducks were heading my way!

We soon arrived at the lower locks of the Lapworth Flight, a long series of locks raising the waterway to the higher position that Birmingham sits on, it was just beautiful!  There are large mooring points or passing places after each lock at this end of the flight, and they are filled with waterfowl and very tranquil.  This part of the canal is really beautiful, with lovely scenery.  I suppose considering the rain we have been having, we were lucky to get such a glorious morning.

Loved this bit, where you can see locks going off into the distance, and you really get a feel that the waterway is climbing a hill

It was gloriously sunny but rather chilly, so I really would like to revisit on a warmer day, hopefully soon as a lot of waterbirds were nesting.

 
 

Swans at Hopwood

I have a towpath addiction, and have driven past, and over, the canal at Hopwood just south of Birmingham, without ever stopping and going for a walk.  Yesterday and today I did stop and walk, and it was good!

Yesterday, after accesing the towpath at the pub, we set off to the right, towards Birmingham. You can't walk far this way, as after a few hundred yards you will encounter the very long Wasthill tunnel.  We didn't quite get that far, but as far a spooky looking old canal boat, with no signs of life but several burnt out remains of camp fires alongside it.  The bit of countryside you can see in this direction is very pretty, and there is an old bridge to nowhere over the canal itself, obviously unsafe as you can get to the bottom of it via a public footpath, but it is all fenced off.

Today we went the other way, off towards Alvechurch, although not too far as we only had an hour.  Most of this walk is pretty shaded by trees and the canal is lower than the surrounding area so it is without scenery, although it is quite tranquil, and there are waterfowl, and occasional canal boats.  Back to Hopwood and we met up with our friends, the Swans;

They appear to be accomplished beggers, as Mrs Swan swims around quite near the towpath, looking all forlorn, and as soon as food appears, so does Mr Swan!  They then chat away as they gobble anything thrown into the water!  They are not too bothered by folk getting close to them either, and were casually preening themselves this morning, I actually bent down and picked up a stray swan feather which was floating near them on the water.

I'd like to go further along this part of the towpath, towards the Tardebigge flight, a group of 30 locks along a short stretch of canal, but that might have to be a whole day trip at some point.

The cut 'n' shut apple!

I bought a bag of apples from the local greengrocer and when I got them home I noticed one had a bit of a split personality!

Almost looks like a tan line, how bizarre!
 

Tie dye on the highway

I've just got back into tie dying, after finding a selection of incredibly cheap Dylon dyes on eBay.  So many colours, not enough clothes to dye!

Him indoors is a bit of a hippy, so I bought a pack of three plain white t shirts from Tesco for £6 and here's the result of the first one and a pack of denim blue dye.  I did dye a few other bits and bobs so as not to waste the dye, but these dyes did only cost around a pound each, which was a lot less than the RRP!

I'll be working my way through the wardrobe in the coming months!

Planet caravan convoy!

I do love looking at the night sky, you can easily get lost in the stars, such a shame that in our big cities there is so much light pollution we cannot see more than the very brightest stars most of the time.  However, this evening I was locking the chickens up and turned back towards the house to see this sight in the Western night sky;

When I saw it I guessed that the planets were Jupiter and Venus, our brightest neighbours, and was pleased to find I was correct. 

They appear to move so slowly across the velvet sky, just like caravans!

Stratford revisited!

Went back to our free car park in Stratford on Avon today.  It was empty, as per usual, and we remembered where it was!  It was a lot warmer, and our little walk along the river Avon took us closer to the town centre, we stopped when we could see the theatre.  There was not as much wildlife around, I'm assuming as it's hatching time all the lady waterbirds were sitting on eggs.  Here's an atmospheric early morning shot; 

A few more gratuitous photos of the area,

We made friends with a solitary swan, he appeared to be a little territorial, but was happy to come up very close to accept some of the floating waterbird food we always take with us!

So happy was he with the food, as we walked along the river, he followed us!

It might have had something to do with the white jumper I was wearing!!

Lemon drizzle cake

I do love baking, and him indoors loves cake, so I'm always on the lookout for something new to bake.  I've never made a lemon drizzle cake before but soon found plenty of recipes on the internet!  I did alter the drizzle bit though as most of the recipes appear to suggest you mix lemon juice with sugar.  I used icing sugar and found it made a very thin icing, which I preferred to the more crunchy option suggested.

Here's the cake, well, traybake, freshly drizzled!

...and cut into pieces, ready for munching!