And I thought it had rained

I thought it had been raining? Not in this reservoir

We are at the highest point of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. We've just climbed the seven Barrowford locks to reach the summit where a cluster of reservoirs feed the canal the huge quantities of water it needs.
No problem there; it seems to have been raining for weeks now. But look, Barrowford Reservoir over there, seems very low. And it is; according to lockie Andy there was very little rain during May and June, but not to worry because the bigger reservoirs are still well stocked.

Summertime lockie Andy is author A R Lowe in the winter

And yes, we have a lock-keeper to help us on this flight – shame there were none on the Wigan 21 way back. Andy is a seasonal keeper: in the winter he's an author with a successful string of e-books on Amazon under the name A.R. Lowe. His speciality, apparently, is comic novels set in Spain where he lived for many years.

Another empty mill, this monolith at Nelson

To reach Barrowford we churned our way through some fairly unpleasant stuff as we wound through Nelson, passing ever more redundant old canalside buildings and one particularly massive empty mill.
We also passed a canal users' recycling point thoughtfully set up by Pendle Council (ironically in the most filth filled stretch of the canal we've been through).

Council provided recyling mooring for boaters

The Barrowford locks, by contrast, are out in pleasing countryside and very well kept. We are moored tonight above the top lock and tomorrow we'll take a stroll into the town – seemingly a chic little place with an assortment of expensive designer shops. Seemingly David Beckham has shopped there and tomorrow so will we. We need a bottle of milk.