Another beautiful autumn morning
Our plan today is to visit the National Memorial Arboretum, and then move the boat back to Fradley Junction
Alrewas is a lovely village, if somewhat difficult to pronounce. It has a great bakery, a fantastic butchers, in addition to a local co-op. We visit all three, picking up supplies. There is also a cafe and chippy that need future research
Lots of autumn wreaths on doors, and Halloween displays, it looks a good place to live
This gets my award for Best Pumpkin
To get to the arboretum we have to cross the A38, a busy dual carriageway with cars doing seemingly insane speeds a few metres away as we wait to cross.
By contrast the arboretum is an oasis of calm, and a lovely tranquil setting
It is predominantly military in nature, although not exclusively. There are, for example, memorials to child victims of war, and to the people dying in the Covid pandemic. I always feel conflicted in these places, the emphasis on British loss rather than the wider suffering. There is a memorial to the few hundred killed in the Iraq war, but silence on the more than half a million Iraqis killed, mainly civilians.
The talk we had at the Shot at Dawn memorial, remembering those in WW1 executed for not obeying orders was moving and well presented. Our volunteer presenter Paul was incredibly knowledgeable about the stories behind the deaths
Then back across the still busy A38 to Venture for our short journey to Fradley
At the second lock of our return trip a drone accompanies us. This belongs to Ian who we met yesterday and we are looking forward to seeing the resulting video footage
Moor up well before sunset. I spot a kingfisher emerging through the bridge just above us and disappearing down the canal in a flash of blue
Heading off to the Swan at 7pm we are surprised to see a light coming towards us up the canal. Narrowboats never travel at night, I thought. It is a professional boat mover with a deadline to achieve, and apparently night time travel is not unusual
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