Barbecue weather but no BBQ food and no shop

After a very pleasant stay on Peter and Julie's mooring at The Taft (lovely cake!) we moved on through Great Haywood to stop at Weston-upon-Trent. It had been a roasting hot day and Jan suggested having a barbecue. The only problem was that we had nothing suitable in the fridge and there is no shop in Weston. So I got on my bike. At the pub a local told me the nearest shop was in Hixon "three or four miles away".

I returned to the boat to consult a map and saw that Hixon was only about two miles distant. (I'd have been happy to cycle four miles, but this was good news.) At the McColl store I bought, among other things, a reduced price pastry. On checking the till receipt (which I'd had to ask for) outside the shop I found that I'd been charged full price for the pastry so I went back and got my refund. Rather reluctantly, I thought. That's one shop I won't be returning to.

Anyway, back at the boat I lit the barbecue and proceeded to make burgers from minced beef. This was very much an experiment. I tipped it into a bowl with an egg and some flour. Jan chopped an onion. I mixed it all up and formed some burger shapes. These worked reasonably well in that they didn't fall apart too much, but I wished that I'd added some salt, pepper and herbs!

Despite the sun having gone behind clouds the instant I lit the barbecue it was a success. The sausages were nice.

On the way to our mooring we passed some plants with enormous leaves.

There was no signal where we were at Weston; we're now on our way to Stone.