Birmingham and Fazeley Canal

The reason for my four-day trip was to meet up with my brother at my parents' memorial bench in the Kingsbury Water Park for the anniversaries of their births. Instead of a long drive up from Wiltshire taking up the whole morning, I had the luxury of a short drive over from Tutbury.

This meant that I had the time to visit other places in the morning, and I had a couple of venues in mind. The first of these was Barton Marina, near Barton under Needwood in Staffordshire, and in fact there was so much to see that I spent the whole morning there. As well as the marina the country park also includes a series of lakes, a large inn called the Waterfront and a series of waterside shops frequented by well-heeled yuppies of a certain age. I was befriended by a swan beside the lake as soon as I arrived and it was another crisp, clear day for my walk around the marina and up to the Trent and Mersey with my cameras.

I met my brother, the Spotlight Kid, later that morning at the Dog and Doublet in Bodymoor Heath, Warwickshire, as is traditional, and although intending a light lunch only, soon became prey to their fine steak and ale pie, jacket potato, vegetables and gravy and a pint of Marston's Pedigree. He had come up from Dorset but had made time to stop at an old favourite bird-watching haunt near Royal Portbury Docks in the Bristol area along the way.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse when we emerged, refreshed and slightly larger than when we went in, and the sky remained grey and drizzling for the rest of the afternoon. We walked up the canal towpath, where I took this blip looking back, and into the Water Park, visiting some of the lakes, the bench and one of the bird-watching hides before walking back to the Dog and Doublet for our deferred dessert of spotted dick and custard, and of course a cappuccino.

We left at around 1635 hr, the light already gone, with the Spotlight Kid getting back home by 2000 hr and I back at Tutbury by 1715 hr.

L.
15.11.2014 (1945 hr)

Blip #1422
Consecutive Blip #006
Day #1685
LOTD #657 (#777 including archived blips)

Barton Marina, 4 November 2014 (Flickr album)
A Trip To Kingsbury Water Park, 4 November 2014 (Flickr album)

Lenses: Pentax 12-24 mm (Blip), Pentax 17-70 mm, Pentax 55-300 mm

Bodymoor Heath series
Canals series
Family Business series
Landscape series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
First Aid Kit - Master Pretender (Stockholm Session)(2014)

One year ago: Signs Of Autumn #9