Finally some bait.

Now you may wonder why I have posted a photo of the moon. Well this full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year, it also presents the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. The moon will not be so close again until August 2014. On the news they refer to it as the supermoon and said we should look into the night sky on the 23rd.  So I kept looking on Saturday night right up to the time we went to bed at midnight. You may recall the noise from the wedding reception  at the Dog and Doublet kept us awake so we kept nipping out just in case the moon made an appearance. No joy though, as there was to much cloud cover. But yesterday hey presto there it was. I suppose it did look a bit bigger and just so I could record the event I took this picture. Anyway back to today.

We were up with the lark this morning as I wanted to make Polesworth on the Coventry canal and go to the tackle shop. Ever since leaving Langley Mill I haven't been able to get any live bait, having to use bread instead. Thats okay for roach and bream but I particularly like fishing for Perch and they wont take bread. Polesworth was the first place on our route that had a tackle shop and as we approached at first we couldn't find anywhere to moor. Luckily for us a space was found before bridge 54 and, after a spot of lunch, made the fishing shop my first stop. Half pint of maggots were purchased for £1.50 and stored away in my small fridge. ( Cant imagine why Ian objected to storing the little wrigglers in my galley fridge! Had to purchase this one instead.)

It seems I have missed a chunk of our journey altogether in my haste to mention my maggots, so to continue. First we had to go down the last 3 locks on the Curdworth flight. On the final lock we had a furry visitor. At one point I thought he was about to jump on board but after a long look at the boat rapidly descending into the depths,  thought better of it.

Then at Glascote locks, and for the first time since leaving the Mill, we had to queue. The boat in front was heading for Watford and the IWA festival. Because of the Wolverhampton 21 being shut, they were having to go the long way round much to their annoyance..

All the plants in this garden are made of plastic.

Bottom of Atherstone locks

With me desperate to stop and fish, Ian decided that we should moor between lock 10 and 9 on the Atherstone flight. I got out the rod as soon as we stopped and settled in to what I hoped would be a good afternoon. It was not to be as boat after boat dropped down the locks in quick succession. In the end I gave up and went exploring instead. At lock 11 this sight greeted me. In amongst the rape was thousands of poppies. It made for a lovely photo.

 And finally:-  ( I am desperately trying to find a bug book to identify these bugs. So far no luck. If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated.)

On tiptoe.