Shady business

 Well here we are in a quiet shady spot not far below Hinckley.  It's actually been tolerably cool in the shade, but tomorrow is supposed to be the super hot day.

As is quite normal on these trips we keep passing the same boats moored up, then they pass us moored up later.  A sort of canal boat leap frog.  We again passed the nice old feller who swapped us coal for cooking oil and also the Yorkshire man who we moored next to in Shackerstone on the way up.  Do you remember the Monty Python sketch about the old Yorkshire men.  "We used to sleep in a paper bag", "Well we used to dream of a paper bag" etc.  Well this Yorkshire man was of that ilk.  

He had many strong opinions and he wasn't afraid to express them.  "I'd build a wall round the M25 and lock all the London buggers in".  "There's only two builders in England who can build a proper boat. All the rest are complete rubbish" etc etc.  He referred to a well know canal person as a Leftie, so I presume our man was a Rightie. Humouring him, I didn't venture to express my own opinions since as I come from south of the Humber, my opinions are worth bugger all.  Yet he was friendly enough I suppose.

Our neighbours tonight are a pleasant couple who live aboard with their dog and cat.  In the time honoured manner we talked about how we came to get a boat, our general life stories etc.  He is a web site developer working entirely from his boat. Nice people.  I always like talking to the people we moor next to, even the bluff Yorkshire men.

Normal shops are virtually non existent up the Ashby canal, unless you want to walk some distance from a bridge in Hinckley.  There are however a couple of good farm shops near the canal and this morning we visited the one near Stoke Golding.  I suppose a lot of the stuff was not produced on their farm, (bananas grown in Leicestershire?)  but what they had was good and reasonably priced, so we stocked up with bread, fruit and veg, milk and some very nice lamb chops which we cooked on our Cob barbecue and I am digesting as I type this.

Tomorrow? Who knows.