June 13

Last night, around midnight, it was a bit noisy. Some clown on a low powered motorcycle was racing up and down the tow path and some of the debris from the pubs was giggling and talking at the top of their voices. Fortunately the rain came and by 1AM it was all quiet again.

The weather has been great up to now, and the rain is scheduled for today and maybe tomorrow. It's quite persistent but not cold. We had planned to spend the morning at the Stone Festival, but the rain changed our minds.

We stopped off at Burston and walked about 400 yards from the canal to the hamlet. It's a small, quaint village around a duck pond. No pub or shops, just a few ducks and moorhens. Fishing in the pond was limited to members of an exclusive fishing club based in Stone.

Lynette and Sue spent quite a time in the local church of St Rufin. It was quite small, probably smaller than the one at Reed village that we visited last year. What was unusual was that it had only an entry in the side as the space which would normally be used by the front door was taken up by the house that held the church caretaker. Presumably in the old days, this was the vicarage.

It was a couple of miles down the canal to Salt, and the rain continued. We caught up with Dave (Jim's second cousin) and his wife Collette at the Holly Bush Inn. We had a great couple of hours with them and the evening meal was very good too. In all, an excellent evening.

The number of boats moored on the canal at Salt had grown from two to five, so it must be a popular spot. The rain stopped and started again.

Jim chatted to a couple of fishermen on the canal. They were hoping to catch Silver Bream, which were slimy and about a foot long. The fish aren't edible so they are released after being caught. The bait was a mixture of sweet corn and bread, but as they hadn't caught anything, it might not have been suitable.

Burston Duck pond

Shaun was talking to Lynette 

This house in Burston had no street number, so it was probably the lord of the manor.

A very reflective duck pond

With them all the way.

A bridge and its reflection 

Holly Bush Inn

Dave, Collette, Jim and Lynette 

A house near Salt, Staffordshire