It's already mid way through the 2025 trading season and The Jam Butty has completed a big figure of eight journey including Worcester at one end and Leicester at the other. We have now returned to the West Midlands and slowed our progress 1. To make some strawberry jam for next year, and 2. To avoid the worst of the succession of heat waves he have been having.
Our trading season is always a bit "back loaded" with the bulk of the organised events falling in August and September, and 2025 is no exception. On the 26th and 27th July we will be joining the Market Drayton Floating Market after which its a steady stream of canal festivals through to the last which will be at Huddlesford near Lichfield (see our events tab for details). 
Huddlesford represents the end of a very significant chapter in the history of Wild Side as we are changing boats over the winter, selling both Wand'ring Bark and The Jam Butty and buying one longer boat. But fear not - the preserves business will continue and instead of the pretty little butty you will need to look out for "Wild Side aboard the Jam Boat".
Lots of you have asked why the change and there are two aspects to the answer. 1. Towing the butty is getting heavier as we are getting older and whilst its ok now, we can see then it will become more of a problem in the next few years and 2. Having a butty means our progress is slow. This is not a big issue on the inland canals but it does prevent us from exploring the more remote corners of the Inland Waterways, particularly those involing tidal passages.
So we have decided to start a new chapter in our own time, rather have change forced upon us. We will be very sad to see the Jam Butty era come to a close, but we are really looking forward to what the next chapter holds.
My appreciation goes to the late Andy Dennis for the photo attached to this post.