A Happy Birthday

Wednesday 5th August

Today we had the honour of being invited to celebrate the birthday of someone we had just met! The crew of nb Florence were pulling onto the same overnight mooring as us last evening. We met up again with ‘the Ladies that Plonk’ (so called after the lovely sound of their engine) at Stewponey lock and we chatted with them at every lock until Kinver. Brenda had an inkling that she knew one of them and Yes, she did, but she was not who Brenda originally thought she was. They got talking some more and found that their paths had crossed in various directions. They were stopping for lunch at the Vine, Kinver, to celebrate a birthday. We were invited to join them. We then got around to talking about our very fluid boating plans. They did not want to go down the river Severn so would turn round to return to Napton via Birmingham. We said that we would accompany them down the Severn to the Droitwich canal which would allow them to return via a different route. Whilst passing through Kinver lock we spied a mobile farrier shoeing a pony in the field next to the lock. After lunch we continued down past the lovely sandstone walls to finally moor for the night below Wolverley lock. I then went on the Di Blasi to fetch the car from Swindon and move it to Kidderminster. In the evening the ‘ladies who Plonk’ came onto Jannock to complete the day of birthday celebrations with pancakes and jam.

Graham