I’m back with Barry for a few days having a bit of a break from my caring role as my younger sister Viv’s with them until Sunday.

Barry does fine on his own (apart from the self-imposed scurvy!), and we don’t have to be at our next festival until the end of May when it’s just The Home Brew Boat trading at Etruria (they said they have already had a face painter booked). So Barry can meander slowly north, as and when. He may even do a spot of towpath trading as he meanders along …

I have the use of mum’s car, as I finally managed to get an insurance company (SAGA) to ‘allow’ me to be a named driver, despite living in NZ from 2005 to 2013. Their previous insurer RIAS wouldn’t insure me as I hadn’t lived in the UK for more than three years, they were quite happily insuring my 93 year old father with cataracts though which I found quite ridiculous!

We’re currently moored in Stourport, described on their website as …

‘a unique Georgian canal town in the heart of the severn valley’

Moored up for a few days in the canal loving town of Stourport

We’ve visited here a number of times, the last on was June 2013. Check out that blog for some of Barry’s very fine photography.

Catching up on my ‘WordPress’ hints and tips emails (I love learning new things about the blogosphere), I’ve discovered an amazing tool that enables me to schedule a ‘photo a day’. I’m going to test it out with some Barry gave me from our recent journey from Birmingham to Tamworth.

We probably won’t have an awful lot of boating news for a while, but I’ll aim to keep you posted on whatever the journey ahead holds for us.

Please keep in touch and visit Barry if you can – I suspect he’d secretly love some more company when I’m not with him.

And a big thanks to Jim for offering to help at any time – we WILL be in touch I’m sure at some point.