Stone

Sunday 26th August - Tuesday 4th September What can I say about Stone? It's a delightful little town in Staffordshire, a proper canal town with historical connections. It's lively, with a great market on the first Saturday of every month, and lots of music events on all the time. We went into the Swan Inn, which is a proper old locals pub, very lively with lots of old characters and a free buffet on Sundays, of which we partook merrily. Children are not welcome in the Swan, but dogs are - only until 9pm though, and then they have to go home to bed. I had my hair done in a local hairdressers by Douglas, and we visited all the charity shops and came away with 3 nice jumpers for under £20. The high street is pedestrianised and coffee shops and restaurants have seats outside so people can enjoy themselves in the sun, which gives a relaxed holiday feeling to the town. The Morrisons is the best we've been in and they have a large Co-op and lots of other independent shops. It's a small town with a buzzing atmosphere. Terry Darlington, writer of Narrowdog to Carcasonne lives here, although we were informed by someone in the supermarket that he has had a stroke and is not well. Everyone knew we were off a boat because apparently people from Stone don't carry rucksacks.