Thursday 26 April
Having changed our minds about where to stop last night, we were now unnecessarily facing towards Rugeley. Unfortunately, the nearest winding hole is virtually at Rugeley, so the morning was spent boating down there, winding and boating back.
Just as we were about to set off, an American guy approached us and asked for help. He was off a Shakespeare Classic line boat, and it seems that one of their number had tried to run a 2 kWatt hairdryer off the inverter, which wasn't up to it and switched off. They'd been unable to get it back on again, and were completely confused by the switch panel.
I agreed to see what could be done, and leaving Sheila to work Sanity down the lock with help from John who'd turned up, I walked down to where they were moored below. After a lot of clicking of breakers on and off to no effect, the guy said, "there's this other switch here", and drew my attention to a remote panel for the inverter, which was indeed showing 'overload'. I switched it off and on again, and the 'power on' light came on to everyone's joy.
As I left the boat, they insisted on presenting me with a bottle of wine for this act of hi tech wizardry. I protested that switching a few switches wasn't in any way worth that much, but they would not be gainsaid.
Boating on through quite steady traffic, we came to Colwich lock and had to wait for the boat in front to go down and one below to come up. As Sheila left the lock, the boat stopped in midstream with me still waiting on the towpath. Sheila indicated that the prop seemed to have filled up with something, and threw me the centre line to pull her in to the lock mooring. Despite my best endeavours, she wouldn't move. Sheila accordingly switched off the engine where she was and went down the weedhatch to check the prop. Nothing was found, but the boat still wouldn't move.
She started up again, and applied heavy revs with me leaning on the centreline as well. Slowly she edged forward and eventually came clear of whatever she'd been sitting on. Sheila reported bits of black plastic in the wash, so it looks like some kind soul had dumped some rubbish bags in the cut. The general populace has this fantasy that canals are bottomless, so that anything thrown in there disappears for ever.
Carrying on towards Rugeley, we passed the Taft, a base for the BCF, or Boater's Christian Fellowship. They have a swan nesting area there, where last year we'd seen a lone trumpeter swan. Trumpeters aren't native to the UK, and this one is believed to be an escape. To our delight, it was still there, and obliged with its characteristic honk, which sounds like nothing so much as an old air bulb car horn, as used to comic effect by Harpo Marx.
Sheila performed a model turn in the winding hole, which is the remnant of a rail/canal interchange basin, possibly left over from the construction of what is now the West Coast Mainline. We got back to Great Haywood in time for lunch, and moored below the lock.
A relaxed afternoon followed after the exertions of the previous three days - brass was polished, crochet crocheted and so on. Sheila rang Stone to confirm the arrangements for our dry-docking next week. A wasp entered the cabin, the first of the year. The new electric fly swat proved to have been a good buy - it's not potent enough to kill a wasp, but stuns it, so it can be lifted out and dumped in the canal for some lucky fish.
I wrote up the blog, and we had dinner.
Friday 27 April
Apparently it rained hard in the night, but we didn't hear it. We made a lazy start, since we've got a few days to kill - we need to be in Stone on Sunday afternoon, but it's a bare day's cruising to there from Great Haywood.
We went up the lock and on past the junction to the waterpoint, and did our usual trick of starting a washload whilst watering. I bought a cylinder of Calor gas to replace one that ran out a couple of weeks back.
We were just preparing to back off the waterpoint and turn through the junction to go back to Tixall for the night when Carolann Richardson from Autumn Years appeared on the bridge, quite unexpectedly. She's gone ahead of their boat to check the junction as they came from Tixall. Much friendly greeting and "Have a cup of coffee", so Graham brought Autumn Years through the junction and tied up on the moorings to its right, and I backed Sanity down and tied outside him, the cut being very wide here.
We had a happy natter, especially about the Brycelands' plans in putting the boat building business up for sale (it's not clear if they are selling the name Braidbar as well) and the prospects of a Braidbar owners get together at the Crick boat show. After all this they set off south again and we went on to Tixall.
After lunch we took everything off the roof, swept it and cleaned all available brass. The weather was now improving greatly.
It must seem to readers of this blog that we spend a lot of time on routine tasks like cleaning, watering and polishing, and indeed we do, but one of the satisfactions of our lifestyle is that things do have to be done by hand. To continue having water and gas to use, tanks have to be refilled or bottles bought. I believe that one of the reasons that stress levels are so much lower and moods brighter is because there is this stream of routine jobs, the completion of which leads to a sense of mastery of one's life. Yes it can be a worry if the timings don't quite work out, and water has to be used sparingly for a few hours, but nobody dies, and it's soon back to normal.
Saturday 28 April
We woke to a glorious morning. I spun the boat in a huge half circle on Tixall Wide, and we headed back to Great Haywood yet again. Sheila had done yet more washing, so we stopped on the water point. We won't be able to do much washing in dry dock, so Sheila's aim is to get as up to date as possible beforehand. I had time to pop into the village to get a paper, and got back before the tank had filled.
We went on about half way to Stone, to Weston, a village we've often passed through, like Acton Trussell, but never stopped there. It proves to be a lovely spot.
A couple of days ago, I'd had a request from the guy who does the Joe Blogs site (http://mrjoeblogs.blogspot.com/) to do an interview about this site for his. I took a bit of time to do that, and then we went for a walk. I was planning to catch up with the blog when we got back, but it was not to be.
Firstly, whilst strolling through the village, we succumbed to the temptation to stop for a pint at the excellent pub on the village green, the Woolpack. When we got back to the boat, a little later than intended, we were approached by the people from Golden Eagle, the boat moored in front of us. Tug and Kirsty Wilson live aboard, and Tug, an ex-Royal Marine, works as a freelance railway signalling tester.
They explained that they had defrosted too much meat, and would we help them eat it after they'd barbecued it. Meanwhile, would we like a drink. Sheila went into Sanity to get a shower, while I joined them on the towpath. A merry evening ensued, featuring cider, red wine, pork, beef, rice salad, and a lot of good natured banter and gossip. It's just typical of the cut that this sort of thing happens. We didn't know these people from Adam and Eve, though we'd seen their boat about from time to time, but yet another friendship was forged tonight.
The only downside is that I've had to do three days blog rather than two just now, but it's a small price to pay. I'll try and keep up to date next week, but the demands of docking and blacking the boat may get in the way. Meantime. there's an account of the last time we did it (also at Stone) on the main website here.
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Cruising with Waimaru
Tuesday 24 April
We decided to take both boats to Acton Trussell, and then leave Sanity there and go on in Waimaru to Midland Chandlers and then Penkridge. We had an uneventful trip with no further antics from the white water swan. Waimaru proves to be a very nice boat indeed. She handles very nicely, as you'd expect from a Mike Christian hull, and she has the same Beta 43 engine as Sanity. Some of the controls are a bit stiff, and the tiller is a couple of inches too long, putting the steerer's knuckles at risk from the edges of the back doors.
When buying a quality narrowboat (as opposed to one that's been mass produced) it has to be remembered that it's not like buying a car. The whole thing has been painstakingly constructed, bit by bit, starting with sheets of steel and wood, and there are bound to be some snags that need sorting in the first few hours of use.
Penkridge is a lovely village to shop in. To wind, you work up Penkridge Lock, go beyond the service block and turn by some moored boats. As we were doing this, the local schools came out, and a bunch of kids of around GCSE age, I guess, came and foregathered by the tail of the lock, where the abutment of the road bridge makes a sheltered spot. They were pretty noisy, but didn't seem terribly threatening, and in fact apologised when I asked to get by to open the bottom paddle. As we've said in comments to an earlier post about the BCN, the trick in these situations is not to assume the worst, but to engage in eye contact and chat.
Just as the boat was sinking in the lock, and her roof was level with the lock sides, one of the smaller lads ran across from one side of the lock to the other via the roof. Interestingly there were shocked (and admiring, natch) comments from his peers, but no attempt to emulate him, and indeed again apologies were offered along the lines of "that's Dean, mister". Dean then returned from where he'd shot off down the path, removed his school bag and coat, and after some hesitation, proceeded to clear jump the now empty lock, passing over the heads of John and Nev on the back of Waimaru, who remained unaware of his feat until told about it.
I f you can't take risks at the age of 14, when are you going to?
Getting back to Acton Trussell by about half five, we went back on board Sanity, where I knocked out the last blog and Sheila showered before returning to Waimaru for curry with all the bits and bobs.
Wednesday 25 April
Sanity was of course pointing the wrong way still, but there's a winding hole at Acton Trussell, so my first job was to head up there, turn and head back. The weather was still quite cold and blowy, enough to make the winding interesting.
We chugged back to Great Haywood, and had some fun getting onto the Anglo Welsh service point - it's a layby just on the Staffs and Worcs side of the junction, and approaching in the direction we were, it meant poking Sanity's nose into the junction bridge hole, then reversing and turning to back down alongside the hire boats all lined up stern to the bank.
The wind, of course, chose the most difficult moment and direction to get up, and Sheila ended up walking down the gunwale to the centre to fend us off from a couple of little dayboats sitting in the corner. Eventually we got her sorted out and against the next boat, and filled up with 90 litres at 49 pence a litre, which isn't bad these days.
More fun was had getting out again, and we found a mooring just above Haywood lock. A quick trip to the shop got a paper, then we had lunch. A phone call to John and Nev established that all was going smoothly at Ben Harp's, but they would need to go on up the canal to wind, as we'd done two days before, so that he could sort the other window. Then they too needed diesel, the boat having been supplied with about a third of a tank full, and all told, it was liable to use most of the rest of the day.
This seemed like a cue for us to stay where we were, and for us all to have a meal in the local pub, the Clifford Arms, before going our separate ways tomorrow. Just before half five, Waimaru appeared, and we worked her down Haywood lock to moor below, coincidentally next to some other friends of ours, Graham and Jan on Huff 'n Puff. We'd been show boats together at Crick three years ago, and keep in touch because they moor at Fradley so we see them about every six months.
A very good meal was duly had at the Clifford Arms - good value, well prepared, and with cheerful and friendly serving staff. The evening ended on Waimaru, giving us a chance to appreciate how much Nev had achieved already in getting her shipshape and sorted out.
We decided to take both boats to Acton Trussell, and then leave Sanity there and go on in Waimaru to Midland Chandlers and then Penkridge. We had an uneventful trip with no further antics from the white water swan. Waimaru proves to be a very nice boat indeed. She handles very nicely, as you'd expect from a Mike Christian hull, and she has the same Beta 43 engine as Sanity. Some of the controls are a bit stiff, and the tiller is a couple of inches too long, putting the steerer's knuckles at risk from the edges of the back doors.
When buying a quality narrowboat (as opposed to one that's been mass produced) it has to be remembered that it's not like buying a car. The whole thing has been painstakingly constructed, bit by bit, starting with sheets of steel and wood, and there are bound to be some snags that need sorting in the first few hours of use.
Penkridge is a lovely village to shop in. To wind, you work up Penkridge Lock, go beyond the service block and turn by some moored boats. As we were doing this, the local schools came out, and a bunch of kids of around GCSE age, I guess, came and foregathered by the tail of the lock, where the abutment of the road bridge makes a sheltered spot. They were pretty noisy, but didn't seem terribly threatening, and in fact apologised when I asked to get by to open the bottom paddle. As we've said in comments to an earlier post about the BCN, the trick in these situations is not to assume the worst, but to engage in eye contact and chat.
Just as the boat was sinking in the lock, and her roof was level with the lock sides, one of the smaller lads ran across from one side of the lock to the other via the roof. Interestingly there were shocked (and admiring, natch) comments from his peers, but no attempt to emulate him, and indeed again apologies were offered along the lines of "that's Dean, mister". Dean then returned from where he'd shot off down the path, removed his school bag and coat, and after some hesitation, proceeded to clear jump the now empty lock, passing over the heads of John and Nev on the back of Waimaru, who remained unaware of his feat until told about it.
I f you can't take risks at the age of 14, when are you going to?
Getting back to Acton Trussell by about half five, we went back on board Sanity, where I knocked out the last blog and Sheila showered before returning to Waimaru for curry with all the bits and bobs.
Wednesday 25 April
Sanity was of course pointing the wrong way still, but there's a winding hole at Acton Trussell, so my first job was to head up there, turn and head back. The weather was still quite cold and blowy, enough to make the winding interesting.
We chugged back to Great Haywood, and had some fun getting onto the Anglo Welsh service point - it's a layby just on the Staffs and Worcs side of the junction, and approaching in the direction we were, it meant poking Sanity's nose into the junction bridge hole, then reversing and turning to back down alongside the hire boats all lined up stern to the bank.
The wind, of course, chose the most difficult moment and direction to get up, and Sheila ended up walking down the gunwale to the centre to fend us off from a couple of little dayboats sitting in the corner. Eventually we got her sorted out and against the next boat, and filled up with 90 litres at 49 pence a litre, which isn't bad these days.
More fun was had getting out again, and we found a mooring just above Haywood lock. A quick trip to the shop got a paper, then we had lunch. A phone call to John and Nev established that all was going smoothly at Ben Harp's, but they would need to go on up the canal to wind, as we'd done two days before, so that he could sort the other window. Then they too needed diesel, the boat having been supplied with about a third of a tank full, and all told, it was liable to use most of the rest of the day.
This seemed like a cue for us to stay where we were, and for us all to have a meal in the local pub, the Clifford Arms, before going our separate ways tomorrow. Just before half five, Waimaru appeared, and we worked her down Haywood lock to moor below, coincidentally next to some other friends of ours, Graham and Jan on Huff 'n Puff. We'd been show boats together at Crick three years ago, and keep in touch because they moor at Fradley so we see them about every six months.
A very good meal was duly had at the Clifford Arms - good value, well prepared, and with cheerful and friendly serving staff. The evening ended on Waimaru, giving us a chance to appreciate how much Nev had achieved already in getting her shipshape and sorted out.
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
The Joy of a New Boat
Sunday 22 April
For once, a lazy start, with only the short run back to Tixall Wide to do. I gave the engine its weekly check, and off we went. We got to Tixall at 11.30, and I walked on to Great Haywood. I went into the farm shop to buy some of their expensive but delicious organic bread, and then carried on to Great Haywood itself to buy a newspaper and some milk.
After lunch we were pleased to see Hawksmoor, an OwnerShips boat, turn up. It was crewed by Alan and Lorraine Sensicle, whom we had first met at Norbury Junction a couple of years ago. Experienced hirers, they were on a hire craft, and having some trouble with it. As a result of our description of the OwnerShips scheme, they bought a share in Hawksmoor and are very pleased with it.
At the back end of the afternoon we joined them and Jeff and Jackie from Tiger Lily for a few glasses of wine and a lot of chat. Jeff and Jackie are privateers currently heading for the Thames via the Oxford canal.
This meant a late dinner again, but well worth it. It's one of the striking things about life on the cut - you get to know people one way or another, don't see them for months or years (though maybe keeping in touch via email) and then meet up again and carry on where you left off.
Monday 23 April
Today is the day we are due to meet our good friends John and Nev Campbell when they collect their new boat from Ben Harp, who builds at Great Haywood. We weren't expecting to see them till the afternoon, so had an even lazier start, especially in view of the fact that it had started raining at last. After the long hot start to the Spring, the rain was actually quite refreshing.
We ambled through to the Great Haywood water point, filled the tank and started a washload, then pulled just through the bridge to the north and moored on the visitor moorings there. We then walked into Great Haywood for some basic shopping, though I was unable to find an Independent. The Great Haywood/Colwich/Little Haywood area is very much Telegraph and Daily Mail territory.
Getting back to the boat we had lunch, and were just settling down to wait for a call from John and Nev when they turned up, lunchless. So we fed them a cheese sandwich or two, and went off with them to admire the new boat, Waimaru.
It's a good looking boat, built on a Mike Christian shell, and fitted out by Ben Harp, who's been in the business on his own account for a couple of years - Waimaru is his seventh boat. The design and execution of the fit out is very pleasing, though there were the inevitable snags and minor problems still to be sorted.
After a good look through, we set off up the Trent and Mersey, since Waimaru was pointing that way, and we had agreed to spend the night back on Tixall Wide. The first trip was thus up Hoo Mill lock, and on to the winding hole at Ingestre bridge. Coming back to Haywood about two hours later, we left John and Nev watering Waimaru while I backed Sanity through the bridge, and then turned through the junction to go on to Tixall.
Waimaru duly turned up a little later, with John steering and Nev still trying to get the boat into a state where they would actually be able to lie down on the bed to sleep that night. Moving onto a boat, even a holiday cruising boat, is very like moving into a house - there seems to be just so much stuff, all of it in loads of packing, and the concern bordering on panic is where it will all go.
I remember that for our first few weeks on Sanity, we had these boxes of stuff in the saloon that had to be moved about all the time and only slowly unpacked. The best thing friends can do in these circs is provide support in the shape of sustenance, so we invited John and Nev to share our lamb tagine and cous cous, and a great evening was had by all in the comfort of Sanity's saloon.
For once, a lazy start, with only the short run back to Tixall Wide to do. I gave the engine its weekly check, and off we went. We got to Tixall at 11.30, and I walked on to Great Haywood. I went into the farm shop to buy some of their expensive but delicious organic bread, and then carried on to Great Haywood itself to buy a newspaper and some milk.
After lunch we were pleased to see Hawksmoor, an OwnerShips boat, turn up. It was crewed by Alan and Lorraine Sensicle, whom we had first met at Norbury Junction a couple of years ago. Experienced hirers, they were on a hire craft, and having some trouble with it. As a result of our description of the OwnerShips scheme, they bought a share in Hawksmoor and are very pleased with it.
At the back end of the afternoon we joined them and Jeff and Jackie from Tiger Lily for a few glasses of wine and a lot of chat. Jeff and Jackie are privateers currently heading for the Thames via the Oxford canal.
This meant a late dinner again, but well worth it. It's one of the striking things about life on the cut - you get to know people one way or another, don't see them for months or years (though maybe keeping in touch via email) and then meet up again and carry on where you left off.
Monday 23 April
Today is the day we are due to meet our good friends John and Nev Campbell when they collect their new boat from Ben Harp, who builds at Great Haywood. We weren't expecting to see them till the afternoon, so had an even lazier start, especially in view of the fact that it had started raining at last. After the long hot start to the Spring, the rain was actually quite refreshing.
We ambled through to the Great Haywood water point, filled the tank and started a washload, then pulled just through the bridge to the north and moored on the visitor moorings there. We then walked into Great Haywood for some basic shopping, though I was unable to find an Independent. The Great Haywood/Colwich/Little Haywood area is very much Telegraph and Daily Mail territory.
Getting back to the boat we had lunch, and were just settling down to wait for a call from John and Nev when they turned up, lunchless. So we fed them a cheese sandwich or two, and went off with them to admire the new boat, Waimaru.
It's a good looking boat, built on a Mike Christian shell, and fitted out by Ben Harp, who's been in the business on his own account for a couple of years - Waimaru is his seventh boat. The design and execution of the fit out is very pleasing, though there were the inevitable snags and minor problems still to be sorted.
After a good look through, we set off up the Trent and Mersey, since Waimaru was pointing that way, and we had agreed to spend the night back on Tixall Wide. The first trip was thus up Hoo Mill lock, and on to the winding hole at Ingestre bridge. Coming back to Haywood about two hours later, we left John and Nev watering Waimaru while I backed Sanity through the bridge, and then turned through the junction to go on to Tixall.
Waimaru duly turned up a little later, with John steering and Nev still trying to get the boat into a state where they would actually be able to lie down on the bed to sleep that night. Moving onto a boat, even a holiday cruising boat, is very like moving into a house - there seems to be just so much stuff, all of it in loads of packing, and the concern bordering on panic is where it will all go.
I remember that for our first few weeks on Sanity, we had these boxes of stuff in the saloon that had to be moved about all the time and only slowly unpacked. The best thing friends can do in these circs is provide support in the shape of sustenance, so we invited John and Nev to share our lamb tagine and cous cous, and a great evening was had by all in the comfort of Sanity's saloon.
Sunday, 22 April 2007
To Penkridge for Pump Out!
Friday 20 April
With no final decision yet made about how far we were going today, we set off just after 8. I left Sheila setting Haywood lock whilst I nipped into the village to post a birthday card for Cathy and to buy a paper.
I got back just as the lock was ready, and worked her up. Then on to the water point to fill up and start a washload. Sheila then performed a neat reverse and turn into the junction and we headed off along the Staffs and Worcs.
Tixall and Deptmore locks were passed without much in the way of incident - it seems a long time since we came this way on 17 March with snow forecast. That time we did a long day all the way to Gailey. This time we were to an extent killing time, so settled for a mooring we've never (that I can recall) used before at Acton Trussell. After the village, the M6 comes very close to the canal, so we stopped on the towpath on the Tixall side.
The guides are a bit sniffy about Acton Trussell, especially Pearson, saying that it doesn't live up to its romantic name. In truth, it's basically a dormitory for Stafford and Wolverhampton, but the houses, though very modern, are smart, and the locals clearly take pride in their gardens.
At the far end of the village is the Acton Moat House Hotel, not part of the chain, but so called because the core of it is an old moated manor house, part of whose moat was utilised by Brindley for the canal.
Back at the boat, some time was expended in cleaning the dusty side and polishing brass, then it was inside to catch up on the blog for the two previous days and cook Thai chicken and rice. This is based on a recipe from Steve Haywood's book Fruit Flies Like a Banana, is very quick to do once all the prep is sorted, and makes a great change from my usual Chinese or curry recipes for chicken.
Saturday 21 April
Setting off at 8.15, we had a pleasant run to Teddesley, and went into Midland Chandlers there. I wanted some spare bulbs for the reading lights over the beds, and in fact decided to try one of the LED clusters they now sell. It's very expensive at £10, but will last virtually for ever, and uses a fraction of the current of the quartz halogen ones we have at the moment.
On we went to the foot of Penkridge Lock, where we saw a new thing. Thirty two years boating, and there are still surprises from time to time. In this case it was a swan white water rafting (without the raft). Penkridge is one of the deeper locks, and when you raise the bottom paddles, the water fairly boils around in the bridge hole below. This swan was deliberately swimming into the mini-maelstrom and bouncing about in it, ducking its head under from time to time. I was on the towpath holding the boat, so couldn't get hold of my camera, worse luck.
We went up the lock, waited for another boat to finish using the services point, then popped over and did a self pump out. This took about half an hour, then we winded, worked back down the lock and moored below. There was just nice time to shop before lunch. I made an impulse buy of some fresh spaghetti, to put with some Bolognese sauce I already had in the freezer. It struck me later how our attitudes to food have changed, that I took it as quite normal to be able to buy fresh pasta in a Co-op. I can remember my Mum being taught by an Italian butcher how to make Bol sauce, and explaining to a friend's mother (whilst at University, so in the 70's) how to cook spaghetti.
After all this we went back to Acton Trussell for the night. We now had the other side against the towpath, so could put in a bit of time washing and brass polishing that side. This was just about finished when some people we know from the IWA Festival team turned up, walking their dogs, a pair of Norwegian elk hounds. They'd moored a bit further down the cut.
Pat and Sheila live on Fair Fa - when we first met them, at Calveley on the Chester canal, they had three elk hounds, but sadly lost one over the winter. They (the elk hounds, that is) make super boat dogs, compact, friendly and full of personality.
We all stood round on the towpath swapping gossip about the IWA and telling stories about BW. When boaters meet, there are two unfailing topics of conversation; toilets, and the daft things BW do.
We took so long over this that it's a good job I'd planned a quick dinner. The semi-defrosted block of sauce was popped in the oven, I took a shower, and then cooked the pasta, taking a call from Graeme in the process. Note to self - 500 grams of fresh pasta is more than two people really need, though we managed to eat it all. Well, it had been a hard working day.
As a result, perhaps, we were ready for bed in good time, and just about managed to stay awake long enough to appreciate the new reading light. It's a softer light than the QH, but as such better for this purpose - it'll make it easier to read in the night without disturbing the other one.
With no final decision yet made about how far we were going today, we set off just after 8. I left Sheila setting Haywood lock whilst I nipped into the village to post a birthday card for Cathy and to buy a paper.
I got back just as the lock was ready, and worked her up. Then on to the water point to fill up and start a washload. Sheila then performed a neat reverse and turn into the junction and we headed off along the Staffs and Worcs.
Tixall and Deptmore locks were passed without much in the way of incident - it seems a long time since we came this way on 17 March with snow forecast. That time we did a long day all the way to Gailey. This time we were to an extent killing time, so settled for a mooring we've never (that I can recall) used before at Acton Trussell. After the village, the M6 comes very close to the canal, so we stopped on the towpath on the Tixall side.
The guides are a bit sniffy about Acton Trussell, especially Pearson, saying that it doesn't live up to its romantic name. In truth, it's basically a dormitory for Stafford and Wolverhampton, but the houses, though very modern, are smart, and the locals clearly take pride in their gardens.
At the far end of the village is the Acton Moat House Hotel, not part of the chain, but so called because the core of it is an old moated manor house, part of whose moat was utilised by Brindley for the canal.
Back at the boat, some time was expended in cleaning the dusty side and polishing brass, then it was inside to catch up on the blog for the two previous days and cook Thai chicken and rice. This is based on a recipe from Steve Haywood's book Fruit Flies Like a Banana, is very quick to do once all the prep is sorted, and makes a great change from my usual Chinese or curry recipes for chicken.
Saturday 21 April
Setting off at 8.15, we had a pleasant run to Teddesley, and went into Midland Chandlers there. I wanted some spare bulbs for the reading lights over the beds, and in fact decided to try one of the LED clusters they now sell. It's very expensive at £10, but will last virtually for ever, and uses a fraction of the current of the quartz halogen ones we have at the moment.
On we went to the foot of Penkridge Lock, where we saw a new thing. Thirty two years boating, and there are still surprises from time to time. In this case it was a swan white water rafting (without the raft). Penkridge is one of the deeper locks, and when you raise the bottom paddles, the water fairly boils around in the bridge hole below. This swan was deliberately swimming into the mini-maelstrom and bouncing about in it, ducking its head under from time to time. I was on the towpath holding the boat, so couldn't get hold of my camera, worse luck.
We went up the lock, waited for another boat to finish using the services point, then popped over and did a self pump out. This took about half an hour, then we winded, worked back down the lock and moored below. There was just nice time to shop before lunch. I made an impulse buy of some fresh spaghetti, to put with some Bolognese sauce I already had in the freezer. It struck me later how our attitudes to food have changed, that I took it as quite normal to be able to buy fresh pasta in a Co-op. I can remember my Mum being taught by an Italian butcher how to make Bol sauce, and explaining to a friend's mother (whilst at University, so in the 70's) how to cook spaghetti.
After all this we went back to Acton Trussell for the night. We now had the other side against the towpath, so could put in a bit of time washing and brass polishing that side. This was just about finished when some people we know from the IWA Festival team turned up, walking their dogs, a pair of Norwegian elk hounds. They'd moored a bit further down the cut.
Pat and Sheila live on Fair Fa - when we first met them, at Calveley on the Chester canal, they had three elk hounds, but sadly lost one over the winter. They (the elk hounds, that is) make super boat dogs, compact, friendly and full of personality.
We all stood round on the towpath swapping gossip about the IWA and telling stories about BW. When boaters meet, there are two unfailing topics of conversation; toilets, and the daft things BW do.
We took so long over this that it's a good job I'd planned a quick dinner. The semi-defrosted block of sauce was popped in the oven, I took a shower, and then cooked the pasta, taking a call from Graeme in the process. Note to self - 500 grams of fresh pasta is more than two people really need, though we managed to eat it all. Well, it had been a hard working day.
As a result, perhaps, we were ready for bed in good time, and just about managed to stay awake long enough to appreciate the new reading light. It's a softer light than the QH, but as such better for this purpose - it'll make it easier to read in the night without disturbing the other one.
Friday, 20 April 2007
Off we go again
Wednesday 18 April
Today we wanted to set off for Great Haywood and points North, but were pointing the wrong way. People who are feeling brave have been known to wind in the river section below Alrewas Lock, or at a winding hole in the Wychnor moorings between the river section and Wychnor lock. People have also been known to get into serious problems with these strategies, and Sheila, whose turn it was to steer, is nothing if not prudent in these matters.
This meant that we planned to go down both Alrewas and Wychnor, use the official winding hole below the latter, and then come back up. Since there still seems to be a lot of traffic about, even though the summer school term has started, an early start was indicated. We set off at 7.45, and by 8.30 were back on the Alrewas water point pointing the right way. Sheila ran the washing machine while I nipped off to buy a paper, bread, and two of Coates's pasties.
At 9.10 we were approaching Bagnall Lock, and found four boats waiting. The start was not quite early enough then. I was on the bike, so the next few hours meant that I kept arriving at locks to find one of our precursors (pre-cursers?) working up, helped them up, and then worked the lock one or more times until it was Sanity's turn. Then back on the bike, off to the next lock and repeat.
By 11 we were working up Hunt's Lock, the first of the Fradley flight of 5, and three hours later we'd arrived above Shade House, the top lock. This is slow going for five narrow locks, but nothing like as bad as our record, which was the day after the IWA National Festival at Burton. That day we arrived at the foot of Hunt's to find 11 boats waiting and it took six hours to clear the flight. Several domestics were to be observed during that time, and in fact I was the unwilling spectator for one such this time.
As they say, if you are in a hurry, you shouldn't be boating, but not everyone has grasped the truth of this observation. Slightly to our surprise, the moorings above Shade House were half empty, and we decided to stop for the night. The Coates pasties were duly devoured, followed by a quiet afternoon of reading, loafing and blogging.
Two wildlife events in the late evening - as we were planning to go to bed, we heard this weird and alarming noise coming from the copse across the field. After some thought, we realised that it was a vixen, screaming.
The other was less exciting - we had our first mosquito of the year in the boat, which gave us a chance to try out the new tennis racquet type fly killer. It works on the same principle as the UV attracting ones in a butcher's or cafe - three sets of mesh are charged up and the insect flying (or being swatted) between them is fried by a discharge. After a bit of chasing around, the mossie was duly zapped.
Thursday 19 April
We set off at 8.15, planning to get to at least Colwich, or perhaps Great Haywood. This is a bit of water we know well, although we've not done it this year, this being the bit we missed by going round through the BCN to get from Haywood to Alrewas, Armitage rail bridge being stopped.
It's a lovely piece of rural canal, with Rugeley in the middle to make you appreciate the rest even more. I was steering, so Sheila was able to to take it easy, once she'd worked Woodend lock. She was rewarded by the sight of a pair of blackcaps, the first she's seen for a long time.
Armitage signals the start of the industrial bit, though I quite enjoy it. There's the narrows in the vicinity of the Armitage Shanks porcelain factory, which looks like the set of Carry on at your Convenience, then the opened out and partly re-bridged over Armitage tunnel. It's narrow and bent, so the crew has to get off and precede the boat, to prevent awkwardnesses with boats nose to nose in the narrows.
After that, there's the Gothic splendour of Hawkesyard Priory, now a conference centre or something, and then there's no escape, it's Rugeley for you, my lad. Rugeley Power Station is having a new chimney added, as part of a desulphuretting plant. Elanor is working on the financial management of this, so it was interesting to see what she's been telling us about for the past several months.
As usual, we stopped to shop and lunch in Rugeley, then set off again. We were making good time, so decided to go on to Great Haywood. There was a short queue at Colwich lock, but by 3.30 we were on a sunny mooring looking out at Shugborough Hall, below Great Haywood lock.
Tomorrow we plan to turn left at the junction and run up to Penkridge, where we can do a self pump out, then back to Haywood to meet our friends John and Nev Campbell, just after they've taken delivery of their new boat from Ben Harp.
Today we wanted to set off for Great Haywood and points North, but were pointing the wrong way. People who are feeling brave have been known to wind in the river section below Alrewas Lock, or at a winding hole in the Wychnor moorings between the river section and Wychnor lock. People have also been known to get into serious problems with these strategies, and Sheila, whose turn it was to steer, is nothing if not prudent in these matters.
This meant that we planned to go down both Alrewas and Wychnor, use the official winding hole below the latter, and then come back up. Since there still seems to be a lot of traffic about, even though the summer school term has started, an early start was indicated. We set off at 7.45, and by 8.30 were back on the Alrewas water point pointing the right way. Sheila ran the washing machine while I nipped off to buy a paper, bread, and two of Coates's pasties.
At 9.10 we were approaching Bagnall Lock, and found four boats waiting. The start was not quite early enough then. I was on the bike, so the next few hours meant that I kept arriving at locks to find one of our precursors (pre-cursers?) working up, helped them up, and then worked the lock one or more times until it was Sanity's turn. Then back on the bike, off to the next lock and repeat.
By 11 we were working up Hunt's Lock, the first of the Fradley flight of 5, and three hours later we'd arrived above Shade House, the top lock. This is slow going for five narrow locks, but nothing like as bad as our record, which was the day after the IWA National Festival at Burton. That day we arrived at the foot of Hunt's to find 11 boats waiting and it took six hours to clear the flight. Several domestics were to be observed during that time, and in fact I was the unwilling spectator for one such this time.
As they say, if you are in a hurry, you shouldn't be boating, but not everyone has grasped the truth of this observation. Slightly to our surprise, the moorings above Shade House were half empty, and we decided to stop for the night. The Coates pasties were duly devoured, followed by a quiet afternoon of reading, loafing and blogging.
Two wildlife events in the late evening - as we were planning to go to bed, we heard this weird and alarming noise coming from the copse across the field. After some thought, we realised that it was a vixen, screaming.
The other was less exciting - we had our first mosquito of the year in the boat, which gave us a chance to try out the new tennis racquet type fly killer. It works on the same principle as the UV attracting ones in a butcher's or cafe - three sets of mesh are charged up and the insect flying (or being swatted) between them is fried by a discharge. After a bit of chasing around, the mossie was duly zapped.
Thursday 19 April
We set off at 8.15, planning to get to at least Colwich, or perhaps Great Haywood. This is a bit of water we know well, although we've not done it this year, this being the bit we missed by going round through the BCN to get from Haywood to Alrewas, Armitage rail bridge being stopped.
It's a lovely piece of rural canal, with Rugeley in the middle to make you appreciate the rest even more. I was steering, so Sheila was able to to take it easy, once she'd worked Woodend lock. She was rewarded by the sight of a pair of blackcaps, the first she's seen for a long time.
Armitage signals the start of the industrial bit, though I quite enjoy it. There's the narrows in the vicinity of the Armitage Shanks porcelain factory, which looks like the set of Carry on at your Convenience, then the opened out and partly re-bridged over Armitage tunnel. It's narrow and bent, so the crew has to get off and precede the boat, to prevent awkwardnesses with boats nose to nose in the narrows.
After that, there's the Gothic splendour of Hawkesyard Priory, now a conference centre or something, and then there's no escape, it's Rugeley for you, my lad. Rugeley Power Station is having a new chimney added, as part of a desulphuretting plant. Elanor is working on the financial management of this, so it was interesting to see what she's been telling us about for the past several months.
As usual, we stopped to shop and lunch in Rugeley, then set off again. We were making good time, so decided to go on to Great Haywood. There was a short queue at Colwich lock, but by 3.30 we were on a sunny mooring looking out at Shugborough Hall, below Great Haywood lock.
Tomorrow we plan to turn left at the junction and run up to Penkridge, where we can do a self pump out, then back to Haywood to meet our friends John and Nev Campbell, just after they've taken delivery of their new boat from Ben Harp.
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Boating and cleaning and loafing and stuff
Saturday 14 April
Concerned that we might have a problem getting a mooring at Fradley on a Saturday if we arrived too late in the day, we made a flying start in the morning. This involves getting up at 7 and Sheila dressing and starting boating while I get breakfast. Accordingly, we were on our way at 7.10 in a thick mist. As soon as I'd had breakfast we changed over and plodded on through the mirk. It made for some magical boating.
We stopped on the waterpoint outside Fazeley Mill Marina. We'd not used this one before, and it proved to have very good pressure. By ten past nine we were back on the shopping mooring for a quick expedition to Sainsbury's. 45 minutes later we were on our way again, with a lot of other boats around.
We got to Fradley just before lunchtime, and found one slot on the Coventry Canal moorings, just behind Prairie Crocus. There were, in fact, a couple of moorings round the junction by the Info Office as well, but all did indeed fill up over the next couple of hours.
There followed a very pleasant afternoon, sitting in the sun part of the time and polishing brass the rest. We even made a start on the Houdini hatch, which looks lovely when it's polished, but is a swine to do, consisting as it does of a lot of slim bars and edges. We keep meaning to get it to the point where we could cover it with Incralac varnish, but we've never managed it yet.
Prairie Crocus, meanwhile, was using a grinder to strip the paint off his well deck prior to repainting it, which was, perhaps, a bit antisocial on a Saturday afternoon in a tourist spot.
We were just within two hose lengths of the waterpoint, so Sheila ran a washload and then refilled the tank.
Sunday 15 April
A prompt rather than early start today, as we wanted to arrive at Alrewas after the overnight moorers had set off. We got underway at 8.15, again in lots of mist, enough, in fact, that I put the tunnel light and navigation lights on. Sheila, who was lockwheeling, said this made it much easier to spot where I was.
We got to Alrewas at 10.15, having passed lots of boats coming the other way, and were able to moor in our usual spot outside the bowling green.
There followed another afternoon much like yesterday, sitting on the towpath watching the traffic, of which there was a lot, and cleaning the other side of the boat. The towpath was now on the starboard side, rather than the port side we've been seeing for a few days. As a result, some hard work was put into bringing that brass up to the mark. It's amazing how dark it goes in a few days, even without any rain. Speaking of which, the weather continues quite ridiculously fine, which must be becoming a real worry to the farmers - the crops are looking quite drought stressed already.
Monday 16 April
Today was the final medical bit, visiting the GP to get the results of the blood tests of a fortnight ago, and discussing tweaks to my meds. All was well, so I felt pretty cheerful going back to the boat. So cheerful, in fact, that I decided to clean the Squirrel stove flue, which I'd noticed was beginning to look rather caked in soot and scale. In fact it was looking inside just the way I'm trying not to get my coronary arteries.
This is an interesting task, as we don't have a flue brush. The traditional boater's solution, I understand, is to get a bit of gorse bush, drop a rope down the chimney and tie it to the bush, then pull it back up, cleaning the soot off on the way. Unfortunately, Alrewas is far too well groomed to have bits of gorse bush growing around, so another strategy had to be found.
Scraping the boat hook up and down inside got rid of a lot of big lumps, but it wasn't doing a thorough job. In the end, I had the idea of tying an old, slim rope fender to the end of the boat hook, and using that, which worked very well. Meanwhile, Sheila took the fire door outside and cleaned it with the scrubbing brush, and I finished off by using some cleaning foam on the glass.
After using a dustpan and brush on the rest, the whole stove now looked very clean, and could be reassembled. It seems to be coping with the way we use it very well - there's a bit of a crack in one of the fire bricks, but the grate is not showing any sign of burning through, so the combination of scavenged wood and Pureheat solid fuel must suit it.
Elanor came for dinner, bearing with her a crucial bit of post, our complimentary EA licence for the East Anglian rivers for this summer. As one of the boats which will spend a total of three weeks at the site of this year's IWA Festival at St Ives, we've qualified for a free six month's licence, which is good of them.
Tuesday 17 April
There's now nothing keeping us here in Alrewas, except that it's Tuesday, and therefore we can join the Willie Walkers for their morning walk and then lunch in the pub. Before doing so, I rang the Denver Control Centre, to find out how soon we can book our crossing from the Middle Level to the Great Ouse, and back again.
Spoke to a very helpful chap (they always are), who said that the booking system would be available from the beginning of May. The problem is that there is this one bit of tidal crossing we will all need to do, from the Middle Level system onto the tidal Great Ouse and then through Denver Sluice. You normally just give the lock-keepers concerned 48 hours notice, but the Festival will mean a lot more boats wanting to do it, hence the prudence of a more systematic booking system.
Then we went for a good walk, about six miles over two hours, getting back to the pub at one o'clock, just in nice time for a pint (or two) and a pub lunch. One of the attractions of this arrangement is that the pub, the William IV, does a two for one deal on its basic menu at lunchtime.
What with the walk and everything, not much got done in the afternoon, but hey, it can't be all work in this life.
Tomorrow, all the way up Fradley as we set off for Stone and our dry dock appointment.
Concerned that we might have a problem getting a mooring at Fradley on a Saturday if we arrived too late in the day, we made a flying start in the morning. This involves getting up at 7 and Sheila dressing and starting boating while I get breakfast. Accordingly, we were on our way at 7.10 in a thick mist. As soon as I'd had breakfast we changed over and plodded on through the mirk. It made for some magical boating.
We stopped on the waterpoint outside Fazeley Mill Marina. We'd not used this one before, and it proved to have very good pressure. By ten past nine we were back on the shopping mooring for a quick expedition to Sainsbury's. 45 minutes later we were on our way again, with a lot of other boats around.
We got to Fradley just before lunchtime, and found one slot on the Coventry Canal moorings, just behind Prairie Crocus. There were, in fact, a couple of moorings round the junction by the Info Office as well, but all did indeed fill up over the next couple of hours.
There followed a very pleasant afternoon, sitting in the sun part of the time and polishing brass the rest. We even made a start on the Houdini hatch, which looks lovely when it's polished, but is a swine to do, consisting as it does of a lot of slim bars and edges. We keep meaning to get it to the point where we could cover it with Incralac varnish, but we've never managed it yet.
Prairie Crocus, meanwhile, was using a grinder to strip the paint off his well deck prior to repainting it, which was, perhaps, a bit antisocial on a Saturday afternoon in a tourist spot.
We were just within two hose lengths of the waterpoint, so Sheila ran a washload and then refilled the tank.
Sunday 15 April
A prompt rather than early start today, as we wanted to arrive at Alrewas after the overnight moorers had set off. We got underway at 8.15, again in lots of mist, enough, in fact, that I put the tunnel light and navigation lights on. Sheila, who was lockwheeling, said this made it much easier to spot where I was.
We got to Alrewas at 10.15, having passed lots of boats coming the other way, and were able to moor in our usual spot outside the bowling green.
There followed another afternoon much like yesterday, sitting on the towpath watching the traffic, of which there was a lot, and cleaning the other side of the boat. The towpath was now on the starboard side, rather than the port side we've been seeing for a few days. As a result, some hard work was put into bringing that brass up to the mark. It's amazing how dark it goes in a few days, even without any rain. Speaking of which, the weather continues quite ridiculously fine, which must be becoming a real worry to the farmers - the crops are looking quite drought stressed already.
Monday 16 April
Today was the final medical bit, visiting the GP to get the results of the blood tests of a fortnight ago, and discussing tweaks to my meds. All was well, so I felt pretty cheerful going back to the boat. So cheerful, in fact, that I decided to clean the Squirrel stove flue, which I'd noticed was beginning to look rather caked in soot and scale. In fact it was looking inside just the way I'm trying not to get my coronary arteries.
This is an interesting task, as we don't have a flue brush. The traditional boater's solution, I understand, is to get a bit of gorse bush, drop a rope down the chimney and tie it to the bush, then pull it back up, cleaning the soot off on the way. Unfortunately, Alrewas is far too well groomed to have bits of gorse bush growing around, so another strategy had to be found.
Scraping the boat hook up and down inside got rid of a lot of big lumps, but it wasn't doing a thorough job. In the end, I had the idea of tying an old, slim rope fender to the end of the boat hook, and using that, which worked very well. Meanwhile, Sheila took the fire door outside and cleaned it with the scrubbing brush, and I finished off by using some cleaning foam on the glass.
After using a dustpan and brush on the rest, the whole stove now looked very clean, and could be reassembled. It seems to be coping with the way we use it very well - there's a bit of a crack in one of the fire bricks, but the grate is not showing any sign of burning through, so the combination of scavenged wood and Pureheat solid fuel must suit it.
Elanor came for dinner, bearing with her a crucial bit of post, our complimentary EA licence for the East Anglian rivers for this summer. As one of the boats which will spend a total of three weeks at the site of this year's IWA Festival at St Ives, we've qualified for a free six month's licence, which is good of them.
Tuesday 17 April
There's now nothing keeping us here in Alrewas, except that it's Tuesday, and therefore we can join the Willie Walkers for their morning walk and then lunch in the pub. Before doing so, I rang the Denver Control Centre, to find out how soon we can book our crossing from the Middle Level to the Great Ouse, and back again.
Spoke to a very helpful chap (they always are), who said that the booking system would be available from the beginning of May. The problem is that there is this one bit of tidal crossing we will all need to do, from the Middle Level system onto the tidal Great Ouse and then through Denver Sluice. You normally just give the lock-keepers concerned 48 hours notice, but the Festival will mean a lot more boats wanting to do it, hence the prudence of a more systematic booking system.
Then we went for a good walk, about six miles over two hours, getting back to the pub at one o'clock, just in nice time for a pint (or two) and a pub lunch. One of the attractions of this arrangement is that the pub, the William IV, does a two for one deal on its basic menu at lunchtime.
What with the walk and everything, not much got done in the afternoon, but hey, it can't be all work in this life.
Tomorrow, all the way up Fradley as we set off for Stone and our dry dock appointment.
Friday, 13 April 2007
Kingsbury again
Friday 13 April
A single day's account today, as from tomorrow to Wednesday we will be in the connection black hole around Fradley and Alrewas, so the next chance I get to post will probably be Wednesday afternoon/evening.
We had a quiet night - actually I say this though it's not absolutely true. We had a night undisturbed by alarums, ducks, geese or manic contractors on the offside (see earlier posts for all these events). There remained, however, the steady thrum of noise from the main road to Tamworth, which crosses the canal several hundred yards from the mooring we had chosen.
It's a sad fact that almost nowhere on the canal system in the centre of England is it possible to escape road noise. Where we are tied now, at Bodymoor Heath at the foot of the Curdworth flight, the M42 transmits its noise across what would otherwise by the calm of Kingsbury Water Park. It's only by going out to the edges of the system that you can escape this constant reminder of the 21st century.
Anyroad up, after a relaxed but not lazy start, we were away by 8.45, and boated straight through to here, seeing a few boats on the way, but not in anything like such numbers as we'd had for the last few days. The Birmingham and Fazeley is in any event a less popular canal than the Trent and Mersey, and the big rush for the Easter holiday is nearly over.
We had time for a quick walk to the nearest hide before lunch, and managed to spot a particularly handsome teal pair, industriously dabbling. After lunch we decided to explore the rest of the Park, which is much larger than we'd realised at first - it was over a mile to walk to the main car park and info centre, and includes kids playgrounds, a farm, and a miniature railway, one of those ride on ones that's like an enormous train set. There's also a sailing club and a lake dedicated to jet skis. Hours of harmless fun for all the family, in fact like some of the attempts to negotiate Fradley Junction we've seen this week.
Back at the boat in time for a mid-afternoon cup of tea, we've settled down for a quiet evening. The sun has finally emerged, Graeme has rung to say that the latest house move is accomplished successfully, and all seems remarkably well with the world.
A single day's account today, as from tomorrow to Wednesday we will be in the connection black hole around Fradley and Alrewas, so the next chance I get to post will probably be Wednesday afternoon/evening.
We had a quiet night - actually I say this though it's not absolutely true. We had a night undisturbed by alarums, ducks, geese or manic contractors on the offside (see earlier posts for all these events). There remained, however, the steady thrum of noise from the main road to Tamworth, which crosses the canal several hundred yards from the mooring we had chosen.
It's a sad fact that almost nowhere on the canal system in the centre of England is it possible to escape road noise. Where we are tied now, at Bodymoor Heath at the foot of the Curdworth flight, the M42 transmits its noise across what would otherwise by the calm of Kingsbury Water Park. It's only by going out to the edges of the system that you can escape this constant reminder of the 21st century.
Anyroad up, after a relaxed but not lazy start, we were away by 8.45, and boated straight through to here, seeing a few boats on the way, but not in anything like such numbers as we'd had for the last few days. The Birmingham and Fazeley is in any event a less popular canal than the Trent and Mersey, and the big rush for the Easter holiday is nearly over.
We had time for a quick walk to the nearest hide before lunch, and managed to spot a particularly handsome teal pair, industriously dabbling. After lunch we decided to explore the rest of the Park, which is much larger than we'd realised at first - it was over a mile to walk to the main car park and info centre, and includes kids playgrounds, a farm, and a miniature railway, one of those ride on ones that's like an enormous train set. There's also a sailing club and a lake dedicated to jet skis. Hours of harmless fun for all the family, in fact like some of the attempts to negotiate Fradley Junction we've seen this week.
Back at the boat in time for a mid-afternoon cup of tea, we've settled down for a quiet evening. The sun has finally emerged, Graeme has rung to say that the latest house move is accomplished successfully, and all seems remarkably well with the world.
Thursday, 12 April 2007
Boating for the fun of it.
Wednesday 11 April
Elanor duly turned up last night with a boot full of bits of wood, which we lugged round from the roadway near the mooring and stacked on the roof. This morning we set off in good time for Alrewas, meeting a steadily increasing stream of boats coming the other way. A combination of the fine weather and the Easter holidays has resulted in a lot of people taking the opportunity for an early cruise.
We got to Alrewas just before lunch, and got the last mooring before the waterpoint. Apparently there had been serious queuing to go down the lock onto the river for most of the morning.
As another example of the current state of disarray of BW's now combined West Midlands and Central Shires office, the warning signs for the river section still say "Proceed with Caution", despite the fact that the river has been well down at its summer flow levels for at least two weeks now. A BW employee to whom I spoke about this state of affairs explained that the guy who used to be responsible for these signs has been moved to Birmingham. His replacement doesn't seem to have got his head round the fact that signs which are not changed in timely fashion lose their impact. Since I haven't had any further reply from BW about my earlier comments about poor communications from West Mids, I shan't bother taking this one any further.
The weather just carried on getting warmer and sunnier, such that after cutting up the wood (thanks Elanor and Stuart) and some more boat polishing, we were able to sit and take tea on the towpath. After my shower, I even got a pair of shorts out and wore them for an hour or so. There is a distinct change over point in the year for me, based on getting out of the shower. Despite central heating and all, in the winter it's a case of opening the shower door, shivering and grabbing for the towel. In the summer, the tendency is to step out of the shower and stand there going "Umm - coolth!"
Such was the sense of relaxation engendered by this lotos eating that after Elanor had dropped by again, I went on strike as regards catering, and we had fish and chips for the first time in months.
Thursday 12 April
With several days in hand before the final health appointment (GP on Monday next), we decided to take another trip to Kingsbury Water Park, just for the fun of it. This involves going to the shopping mooring outside Fazeley today, Kingsbury/Bodymoor Heath tomorrow, back to Fradley on Saturday and then down to Alrewas on Sunday, ready for the 9.10 appointment the next day.
With some decent boating to do, we made an early start (7.45, even) and even so found boats heading towards us from the outset. We watered and started a wash-load on the water point on the Coventry at Fradley, then set off again, still with a constant stream of boats coming the other way.
This resulted in the odd entertainment at bridge holes, but none so calamitous as the one two years ago, when a Canaltime and a privateer approaching one of the trickier bridges on this section from opposite directions failed to agree whose bridge it was and actually wedged themselves in the bridge hole. It took a couple of hours to free them, and the streak of paint on the underside of the arch was still visible over a year later.
We got to the mooring just after 1; I'd lunched en route, and Sheila did so after we arrived.
A solid session of retail therapy followed, then back to the boat for tea, writing this and then veggie curry when I've made it.
Incidentally, people will notice I've succumbed to the temptation to sign up for Google Adsense ads, which pay a few coppers to me for each one clicked on. I'd be interested to know if you find these irritating, helpful, in the wrong place or whatever.
Elanor duly turned up last night with a boot full of bits of wood, which we lugged round from the roadway near the mooring and stacked on the roof. This morning we set off in good time for Alrewas, meeting a steadily increasing stream of boats coming the other way. A combination of the fine weather and the Easter holidays has resulted in a lot of people taking the opportunity for an early cruise.
We got to Alrewas just before lunch, and got the last mooring before the waterpoint. Apparently there had been serious queuing to go down the lock onto the river for most of the morning.
As another example of the current state of disarray of BW's now combined West Midlands and Central Shires office, the warning signs for the river section still say "Proceed with Caution", despite the fact that the river has been well down at its summer flow levels for at least two weeks now. A BW employee to whom I spoke about this state of affairs explained that the guy who used to be responsible for these signs has been moved to Birmingham. His replacement doesn't seem to have got his head round the fact that signs which are not changed in timely fashion lose their impact. Since I haven't had any further reply from BW about my earlier comments about poor communications from West Mids, I shan't bother taking this one any further.
The weather just carried on getting warmer and sunnier, such that after cutting up the wood (thanks Elanor and Stuart) and some more boat polishing, we were able to sit and take tea on the towpath. After my shower, I even got a pair of shorts out and wore them for an hour or so. There is a distinct change over point in the year for me, based on getting out of the shower. Despite central heating and all, in the winter it's a case of opening the shower door, shivering and grabbing for the towel. In the summer, the tendency is to step out of the shower and stand there going "Umm - coolth!"
Such was the sense of relaxation engendered by this lotos eating that after Elanor had dropped by again, I went on strike as regards catering, and we had fish and chips for the first time in months.
Thursday 12 April
With several days in hand before the final health appointment (GP on Monday next), we decided to take another trip to Kingsbury Water Park, just for the fun of it. This involves going to the shopping mooring outside Fazeley today, Kingsbury/Bodymoor Heath tomorrow, back to Fradley on Saturday and then down to Alrewas on Sunday, ready for the 9.10 appointment the next day.
With some decent boating to do, we made an early start (7.45, even) and even so found boats heading towards us from the outset. We watered and started a wash-load on the water point on the Coventry at Fradley, then set off again, still with a constant stream of boats coming the other way.
This resulted in the odd entertainment at bridge holes, but none so calamitous as the one two years ago, when a Canaltime and a privateer approaching one of the trickier bridges on this section from opposite directions failed to agree whose bridge it was and actually wedged themselves in the bridge hole. It took a couple of hours to free them, and the streak of paint on the underside of the arch was still visible over a year later.
We got to the mooring just after 1; I'd lunched en route, and Sheila did so after we arrived.
A solid session of retail therapy followed, then back to the boat for tea, writing this and then veggie curry when I've made it.
Incidentally, people will notice I've succumbed to the temptation to sign up for Google Adsense ads, which pay a few coppers to me for each one clicked on. I'd be interested to know if you find these irritating, helpful, in the wrong place or whatever.
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
I can see clearly now...
Monday 9 April
Although there was no great rush to start the day, we were well aware of how busy the cut had been yesterday, and that today was also a holiday. So we set off at 9 and made the short trip to the Morrison's mooring and did a good shop. Sheila then carried on boating while I put the stuff away.
I'd just about finished when the call came echoing through the boat "Bow, please" and I looked out to see that we were approaching the Shobnall visitor moorings. Despite our fears, there were a couple of spaces, one just being vacated, and in we popped.
It was just nice time for lunch - it is nice when things come together.
After lunch, I made the changes to yesterday's blog, and then wondered how to use a pleasant but not scorching afternoon. In the end, I cleared out the well deck in the bow, moving the two remaining coal bags into the bread tray on the roof, and shifting the coal box, the bucket and the folding crate that holds the ready use wood onto the towpath.
Then I washed, rinsed and dried the whole area, before putting the coal box and wood crate back. By placing the bucket on the gas locker lid in front of the cratch, there was now room to put our folding chairs in the well deck and drink a well deserved cup of tea.
Sheila, who had been working inside on the family accounts while all this was going on, promptly announced that the sun was behind the boat and the well deck therefore in the shade. Accordingly, she put the folding chairs and the table out on the grass section of the towpath, and we drank our tea out there.
Philosophical question: if a man speaks alone in the forest, and no woman is there to hear him, is he still wrong?
Note: in any argument with Sheila, I have the last words. These words are "yes, dear".
Tuesday 10 April
Today is opticians day. Our appointments were at 10.35, so a truly leisurely start was possible. This will be the reason why we woke at 6.30 and were up and about by 8.
The time was put to good use by catching up with emails and the like, before we set off to walk into Burton at 10. This got us to the centre by about twenty past, just time to buy a paper and go into Specsavers with ten minutes in hand. This was our first encounter with the Burton Specsavers, and we were pretty impressed both with the design of the shop and the efficiency of the staff. Last year we went to Boots, and weren't.
It took quite a while to deal with the two of us, especially as my diabetes means I now get the fancy digital pix taken of my retinas. These are then forwarded to the consultant in the local eye clinic. Fascinating to see on screen what the doctor or optician sees when s/he peers into your eye with the ophthalmoscope.
All was well, and we went off to do a bit more shopping, including a trip into Thornton's choccy shop, to take advantage of their post Easter sale. My vision was a bit blurry, having had the pupil dilating drops in my eyes, but not enough so's I couldn't give meaningful consent to Sheila's purchases.
We got back to the boat, tired, hungry but reasonably content in time for a late lunch.
After lunch, Sheila gave a master-class in reversing and turning (again) this time to get us into the Jannel service point. This is in the entrance to their marina, what's left of the old Bond End canal that used to join the Trent and Mersey to the River Trent, which was originally navigable to Burton. After taking on 148 litres of diesel, we came out and ran down to the Morrison's mooring again, where we're going to meet Elanor tonight, together with a load of wood she's bringing us from her weekend at Stuart's house, where they re-roofed his garden shed.
After today we're heading back to Alrewas area, so there may be a hiatus in blog posting because of the poor Orange connection there.
Although there was no great rush to start the day, we were well aware of how busy the cut had been yesterday, and that today was also a holiday. So we set off at 9 and made the short trip to the Morrison's mooring and did a good shop. Sheila then carried on boating while I put the stuff away.
I'd just about finished when the call came echoing through the boat "Bow, please" and I looked out to see that we were approaching the Shobnall visitor moorings. Despite our fears, there were a couple of spaces, one just being vacated, and in we popped.
It was just nice time for lunch - it is nice when things come together.
After lunch, I made the changes to yesterday's blog, and then wondered how to use a pleasant but not scorching afternoon. In the end, I cleared out the well deck in the bow, moving the two remaining coal bags into the bread tray on the roof, and shifting the coal box, the bucket and the folding crate that holds the ready use wood onto the towpath.
Then I washed, rinsed and dried the whole area, before putting the coal box and wood crate back. By placing the bucket on the gas locker lid in front of the cratch, there was now room to put our folding chairs in the well deck and drink a well deserved cup of tea.
Sheila, who had been working inside on the family accounts while all this was going on, promptly announced that the sun was behind the boat and the well deck therefore in the shade. Accordingly, she put the folding chairs and the table out on the grass section of the towpath, and we drank our tea out there.
Philosophical question: if a man speaks alone in the forest, and no woman is there to hear him, is he still wrong?
Note: in any argument with Sheila, I have the last words. These words are "yes, dear".
Tuesday 10 April
Today is opticians day. Our appointments were at 10.35, so a truly leisurely start was possible. This will be the reason why we woke at 6.30 and were up and about by 8.
The time was put to good use by catching up with emails and the like, before we set off to walk into Burton at 10. This got us to the centre by about twenty past, just time to buy a paper and go into Specsavers with ten minutes in hand. This was our first encounter with the Burton Specsavers, and we were pretty impressed both with the design of the shop and the efficiency of the staff. Last year we went to Boots, and weren't.
It took quite a while to deal with the two of us, especially as my diabetes means I now get the fancy digital pix taken of my retinas. These are then forwarded to the consultant in the local eye clinic. Fascinating to see on screen what the doctor or optician sees when s/he peers into your eye with the ophthalmoscope.
All was well, and we went off to do a bit more shopping, including a trip into Thornton's choccy shop, to take advantage of their post Easter sale. My vision was a bit blurry, having had the pupil dilating drops in my eyes, but not enough so's I couldn't give meaningful consent to Sheila's purchases.
We got back to the boat, tired, hungry but reasonably content in time for a late lunch.
After lunch, Sheila gave a master-class in reversing and turning (again) this time to get us into the Jannel service point. This is in the entrance to their marina, what's left of the old Bond End canal that used to join the Trent and Mersey to the River Trent, which was originally navigable to Burton. After taking on 148 litres of diesel, we came out and ran down to the Morrison's mooring again, where we're going to meet Elanor tonight, together with a load of wood she's bringing us from her weekend at Stuart's house, where they re-roofed his garden shed.
After today we're heading back to Alrewas area, so there may be a hiatus in blog posting because of the poor Orange connection there.
Sunday, 8 April 2007
Sunny and lazy days
(Monday morning: I finished this post in a bit of a hurry last night, owing to hunger, and then couldn't get a fast connection again to tweak it. I've made a few changes to it now.)
Thursday 5 April
We pushed across to the water point at Fradley first thing and filled up on one of the slowest supplies on the system. It wasn't quite as bad as usual today, possibly because the cafe was not yet open.
Water tank full, off we went back down Keeper's, Hunt's and Common Locks before the short cruise to Bagnall Lock and the drop into Alrewas. There was already so much traffic around, we felt reasonably sure that some of it would have left a space there, and so it proved. In the course of the day pretty well the whole of the towpath filled up, though.
In the afternoon, I trotted round to the Chapmans' where Will was working hard on Save Our Waterways stuff. Since I last used his broadband he's put a WiFi hub in, but it wouldn't co-operate with my Airport carded Mac, so we stuck an ethernet cable in the back and all was well. It's not that Macs won't see other WiFi systems, as I had it working well at the Brycelands'. No doubt with time we could have got it going, but when a quicker solution was available, there didn't seem much point.
Managed to do everything I wanted, including bringing the blog up to date, so an afternoon well spent. We did gossip a bit about SOW, the IWA and BW, as well.
Friday 6 April
A quiet day, since we didn't want to move when there was so much traffic around. There seemed to be a continuous stream of boats through the village, about half of them either Canaltime or Shakespeare Classic Line, and the rest privateers. Sheila got her hair cut, but apart from that we spent some time cleaning brass and nattering to passers by on the towpath, and in the afternoon went for a walk to Wychnor.
I made yet another raid on Coates the butcher, and bought a rolled shoulder of lamb with mint and rosemary marinade on it, ready for Sunday.
Saturday 7 April
As the fine weather looked set to last for a bit - amazing for Easter weekend - more lotus eating seemed indicated. What we did do was switch our clothing over. We keep two sets of clothes, winter and summer, the stuff not in use being kept in a big sports bag and some compression sacks under the bed. Twice a year we haul it all out and change round, throwing out or recycling anything that doesn't seem to be being used, or which has come to the end of its useful life.
We did stir ourselves after lunch, and repeated a walk we'd done with the Willy Walkers a couple of weeks back - up to Bagnall Lock, across country to Fradley Village, down to the Coventry canal, and back via Fradley Junction and the Trent and Mersey. I took the opportunity to take some shots of what looks like a badger sett in by the tail wall of Common Lock. We've reported it, as it represents a bit of a threat to the stability of the lock, but it can take a while to sort such things, badgers being a protected species.
As we approached Bagnall Lock again, there was a fellow Braidbar, Shield Maiden with Steve and Mandy Lock. We spent a happy half hour nattering to them, and then wandered back to Sanity to run the engine and cook dinner. Spag bol, since I was feeling well exercised and not in a mood to be more creative.
Sunday 8 April
A day to do some boating! Well, a bit, anyway. We moved down to the water point in Alrewas, and Sheila stayed with the boat while I popped into the village for a quick shop - bread, paper, potatoes. When I got back, the tank was nearly full, and we were soon away down the river section. The boards still say "Proceed with Caution" but in fact the river is now well down on its summer level already, and no trouble to navigate at all.
There was a bit of traffic around, but nothing like as much as yesterday yet. We stopped at Barton Turns marina to dump rubbish at the only rubbish point between Fradley and Willington on the other side of Burton, and then carried on to Branston Water Park.
We got there just before 12, and this was obviously the right timing, as there were a few spaces on the moorings. After a lunch of bacon sarnies using Mr Coates's best smoked back, we finally got to walk around the park. We'd meant to do it last time, but got distracted by the Richrdson's bottle of red wine. It's the same style of thing as Kingsbury, but smaller and busier. This being Easter Sunday, it was being well used, and perhaps as a result, there wasn't a lot of variety in the bird life. All the shyer stuff had presumably pushed off to one of the other gravel pit lakes. We did however see our first mallard chicks of the year.
In addition, I got some shots of tufted duck, a cormorant and a greylag goose but that was about it.
Back to the boat to polish the brass on the side now against the towpath, and to T-cut the red handrail, which is getting dull after three years - reds never do well in the sun.
Put the lamb in the oven, and it's filling the boat with tantalising smells as I type this, so will stop, post this and put the new potatoes on.
Thursday 5 April
We pushed across to the water point at Fradley first thing and filled up on one of the slowest supplies on the system. It wasn't quite as bad as usual today, possibly because the cafe was not yet open.
Water tank full, off we went back down Keeper's, Hunt's and Common Locks before the short cruise to Bagnall Lock and the drop into Alrewas. There was already so much traffic around, we felt reasonably sure that some of it would have left a space there, and so it proved. In the course of the day pretty well the whole of the towpath filled up, though.
In the afternoon, I trotted round to the Chapmans' where Will was working hard on Save Our Waterways stuff. Since I last used his broadband he's put a WiFi hub in, but it wouldn't co-operate with my Airport carded Mac, so we stuck an ethernet cable in the back and all was well. It's not that Macs won't see other WiFi systems, as I had it working well at the Brycelands'. No doubt with time we could have got it going, but when a quicker solution was available, there didn't seem much point.
Managed to do everything I wanted, including bringing the blog up to date, so an afternoon well spent. We did gossip a bit about SOW, the IWA and BW, as well.
Friday 6 April
A quiet day, since we didn't want to move when there was so much traffic around. There seemed to be a continuous stream of boats through the village, about half of them either Canaltime or Shakespeare Classic Line, and the rest privateers. Sheila got her hair cut, but apart from that we spent some time cleaning brass and nattering to passers by on the towpath, and in the afternoon went for a walk to Wychnor.
I made yet another raid on Coates the butcher, and bought a rolled shoulder of lamb with mint and rosemary marinade on it, ready for Sunday.
Saturday 7 April
As the fine weather looked set to last for a bit - amazing for Easter weekend - more lotus eating seemed indicated. What we did do was switch our clothing over. We keep two sets of clothes, winter and summer, the stuff not in use being kept in a big sports bag and some compression sacks under the bed. Twice a year we haul it all out and change round, throwing out or recycling anything that doesn't seem to be being used, or which has come to the end of its useful life.
We did stir ourselves after lunch, and repeated a walk we'd done with the Willy Walkers a couple of weeks back - up to Bagnall Lock, across country to Fradley Village, down to the Coventry canal, and back via Fradley Junction and the Trent and Mersey. I took the opportunity to take some shots of what looks like a badger sett in by the tail wall of Common Lock. We've reported it, as it represents a bit of a threat to the stability of the lock, but it can take a while to sort such things, badgers being a protected species.
As we approached Bagnall Lock again, there was a fellow Braidbar, Shield Maiden with Steve and Mandy Lock. We spent a happy half hour nattering to them, and then wandered back to Sanity to run the engine and cook dinner. Spag bol, since I was feeling well exercised and not in a mood to be more creative.
Sunday 8 April
A day to do some boating! Well, a bit, anyway. We moved down to the water point in Alrewas, and Sheila stayed with the boat while I popped into the village for a quick shop - bread, paper, potatoes. When I got back, the tank was nearly full, and we were soon away down the river section. The boards still say "Proceed with Caution" but in fact the river is now well down on its summer level already, and no trouble to navigate at all.
There was a bit of traffic around, but nothing like as much as yesterday yet. We stopped at Barton Turns marina to dump rubbish at the only rubbish point between Fradley and Willington on the other side of Burton, and then carried on to Branston Water Park.
We got there just before 12, and this was obviously the right timing, as there were a few spaces on the moorings. After a lunch of bacon sarnies using Mr Coates's best smoked back, we finally got to walk around the park. We'd meant to do it last time, but got distracted by the Richrdson's bottle of red wine. It's the same style of thing as Kingsbury, but smaller and busier. This being Easter Sunday, it was being well used, and perhaps as a result, there wasn't a lot of variety in the bird life. All the shyer stuff had presumably pushed off to one of the other gravel pit lakes. We did however see our first mallard chicks of the year.
In addition, I got some shots of tufted duck, a cormorant and a greylag goose but that was about it.
Back to the boat to polish the brass on the side now against the towpath, and to T-cut the red handrail, which is getting dull after three years - reds never do well in the sun.
Put the lamb in the oven, and it's filling the boat with tantalising smells as I type this, so will stop, post this and put the new potatoes on.
Thursday, 5 April 2007
Catching up again
Sunday 1 April
Having made a resolution to keep up to date with this blog, things promptly conspired against me. I wrote the blog for Friday and Saturday in good time on Sunday morning, and then discovered that the GPRS connection in Alrewas was so slow I couldn't get it published via Blogger. It seems the Orange signal round here, though strong enough for adequate voice calls, doesn't have enough capacity to deal with substantial amounts of data. Email is OK, and basic use of the Web where the site is reasonably fast, but anything large, or involving secure connections, just takes so long that the connection times out.
After trying day after day, finally managed to post it on Tuesday.
Apart from this frustration, things were pretty good. The weather continued fine, so we were able to do our weekly boat clean without much difficulty. Elanor dropped in late afternoon, after taking Stuart to catch his train, and we had a relaxed evening.
Monday 2 April
The main theme for today was dentistry. We use a very helpful dental practice in Alrewas, who seem to cope with our lifestyle. We had appointments for check up and scale and polish for both of us first thing in the morning. Because I was getting some discomfort in the upper left, we'd also booked a treatment appointment for later in the morning. This avoids the situation where something turns up in the check up, but then it's necessary to wait a month or so for the treatment appointment, thereby mucking up carefully laid cruising plans.
There was indeed a moved filling in my upper left 7, so back I went and had it drilled out and replaced.
The afternoon was pretty quiet again - we moved onto the waterpoint to top up, and then went on to a mooring further into the village. Elanor looked in on her way back from work, but didn't stop for a meal.
The mooring we were using is very nice - it's by the Alrewas Bowls Club, and opposite a tastefully done residential conversion and extension of old canal-side buildings. The only problem with it became apparent during the night. It's not often realised, but when it comes to dedicated fornication, ducks lead rabbits by a short beak, with the rest of the animal kingdom nowhere. This is all the more apparent because, where rabbits seem to just get on with it, there's an awful lot of foreplay in duck sex, and this mooring proved to be the ducky equivalent of Club Med.
At four in the morning, one duck started quacking and kept it up for a solid half hour. This was followed by a lot of duck flirtation, which is a sort of kiss-chase in which the duck flies around, alighting from time to time on sundry high spots, and the drakes have to keep up as best they can. Hence, at six, there was the unmistakable noise of one or more ducks landing on the roof of the boat, and then stomping around on it, quacking.
The final straw came when the duck sat on the Houdini hatch over the bed - I contemplated banging the underside to make it get off, but desisted because of the risk that it would make a deposit in its fright. Needless to say, it promptly dumped anyway.
Tuesday 3 April
After the nocturnal alarms, we were a bit dozy in the morning, but when we finally emerged, it was to find that the roof bore the marks of the ducky revelry. It's better than fag ends and beer cans, I guess, but there were footprints and duck poo all over the place.
I had an appointment for diabetic review at 11, so couldn't take part in the weekly walk, which sets off at 10.45, more or less. Sheila, however, was keen to go, so I saw her off and then walked round to the surgery for my meeting with the excellent diabetic nurse.
All was well, and I toddled back to the boat to wait for Sheila. In fact the entire walk came by just on one o'clock, so I popped my boots on and went with them to the pub for lunch. This didn't finish until about 3 (Gad, this life is hell, but someone has to do it!), when we ambled back to the boat to drink tea and recover.
Had another visit from Elanor, who sighed and looked disapproving at our state, then left us to eat sandwiches instead of dinner, we having had a cooked meal at lunchtime.
Wednesday 4 April
Just for a change, we made an early start, as we wanted to do the short run up to Fradley Junction to get a pump out and diesel. Sheila had noted yesterday, when walking through Fradley, that there were now a lot of boats on the move, so we thought to get our own moving done early while it was quiet.
Accordingly, we were on our way at 8, and at Fradley just after 9. The pump out was no problem, but Geoff and Dave at Swan Line have still not sorted their fuel supply out. This has been going on for many months, and is to do with the fact that the service point is on the opposite side of the cut to the road access.
Suppliers used to be happy to run a hose across the water, holding up the boats meanwhile, but our health and safety culture means they won't do this any more. The chosen solution is to put a tank and pump on the flat they use to hold the pump out water, which can be pushed across to the other side to be filled with diesel and emptied of sludge. They've got the tank in, but haven't yet connected it up, so still no diesel. And this with Easter next weekend.
Pump out achieved, Sheila gave a master class, for anyone watching, reversing the boat into the junction and turning it so that we could drop down Junction lock and moor on the visitor moorings below for the afternoon. The weather just went on getting better and better, so we had a stroll round the nature reserve they've made of the small reservoir, trying out Sheila's new binoculars and my camera, especially on what looked like a terrapin sitting on a piece of wood in the middle of the lake.
The boat tied two behind us had signs up saying "Cheese Boat", and indeed he was selling some excellent Snowdonia Cheese. We bought two at £2.99 for 200 grams - one with garlic and herbs, and one with whisky added.
Chicken and bacon risotto for dinner, and a peaceful night, free of randy ducks. Back to Alrewas tomorrow, where hopefully I'll get to borrow Will Chapman's broadband access and can post this.
Having made a resolution to keep up to date with this blog, things promptly conspired against me. I wrote the blog for Friday and Saturday in good time on Sunday morning, and then discovered that the GPRS connection in Alrewas was so slow I couldn't get it published via Blogger. It seems the Orange signal round here, though strong enough for adequate voice calls, doesn't have enough capacity to deal with substantial amounts of data. Email is OK, and basic use of the Web where the site is reasonably fast, but anything large, or involving secure connections, just takes so long that the connection times out.
After trying day after day, finally managed to post it on Tuesday.
Apart from this frustration, things were pretty good. The weather continued fine, so we were able to do our weekly boat clean without much difficulty. Elanor dropped in late afternoon, after taking Stuart to catch his train, and we had a relaxed evening.
Monday 2 April
The main theme for today was dentistry. We use a very helpful dental practice in Alrewas, who seem to cope with our lifestyle. We had appointments for check up and scale and polish for both of us first thing in the morning. Because I was getting some discomfort in the upper left, we'd also booked a treatment appointment for later in the morning. This avoids the situation where something turns up in the check up, but then it's necessary to wait a month or so for the treatment appointment, thereby mucking up carefully laid cruising plans.
There was indeed a moved filling in my upper left 7, so back I went and had it drilled out and replaced.
The afternoon was pretty quiet again - we moved onto the waterpoint to top up, and then went on to a mooring further into the village. Elanor looked in on her way back from work, but didn't stop for a meal.
The mooring we were using is very nice - it's by the Alrewas Bowls Club, and opposite a tastefully done residential conversion and extension of old canal-side buildings. The only problem with it became apparent during the night. It's not often realised, but when it comes to dedicated fornication, ducks lead rabbits by a short beak, with the rest of the animal kingdom nowhere. This is all the more apparent because, where rabbits seem to just get on with it, there's an awful lot of foreplay in duck sex, and this mooring proved to be the ducky equivalent of Club Med.
At four in the morning, one duck started quacking and kept it up for a solid half hour. This was followed by a lot of duck flirtation, which is a sort of kiss-chase in which the duck flies around, alighting from time to time on sundry high spots, and the drakes have to keep up as best they can. Hence, at six, there was the unmistakable noise of one or more ducks landing on the roof of the boat, and then stomping around on it, quacking.
The final straw came when the duck sat on the Houdini hatch over the bed - I contemplated banging the underside to make it get off, but desisted because of the risk that it would make a deposit in its fright. Needless to say, it promptly dumped anyway.
Tuesday 3 April
After the nocturnal alarms, we were a bit dozy in the morning, but when we finally emerged, it was to find that the roof bore the marks of the ducky revelry. It's better than fag ends and beer cans, I guess, but there were footprints and duck poo all over the place.
I had an appointment for diabetic review at 11, so couldn't take part in the weekly walk, which sets off at 10.45, more or less. Sheila, however, was keen to go, so I saw her off and then walked round to the surgery for my meeting with the excellent diabetic nurse.
All was well, and I toddled back to the boat to wait for Sheila. In fact the entire walk came by just on one o'clock, so I popped my boots on and went with them to the pub for lunch. This didn't finish until about 3 (Gad, this life is hell, but someone has to do it!), when we ambled back to the boat to drink tea and recover.
Had another visit from Elanor, who sighed and looked disapproving at our state, then left us to eat sandwiches instead of dinner, we having had a cooked meal at lunchtime.
Wednesday 4 April
Just for a change, we made an early start, as we wanted to do the short run up to Fradley Junction to get a pump out and diesel. Sheila had noted yesterday, when walking through Fradley, that there were now a lot of boats on the move, so we thought to get our own moving done early while it was quiet.
Accordingly, we were on our way at 8, and at Fradley just after 9. The pump out was no problem, but Geoff and Dave at Swan Line have still not sorted their fuel supply out. This has been going on for many months, and is to do with the fact that the service point is on the opposite side of the cut to the road access.
Suppliers used to be happy to run a hose across the water, holding up the boats meanwhile, but our health and safety culture means they won't do this any more. The chosen solution is to put a tank and pump on the flat they use to hold the pump out water, which can be pushed across to the other side to be filled with diesel and emptied of sludge. They've got the tank in, but haven't yet connected it up, so still no diesel. And this with Easter next weekend.
Pump out achieved, Sheila gave a master class, for anyone watching, reversing the boat into the junction and turning it so that we could drop down Junction lock and moor on the visitor moorings below for the afternoon. The weather just went on getting better and better, so we had a stroll round the nature reserve they've made of the small reservoir, trying out Sheila's new binoculars and my camera, especially on what looked like a terrapin sitting on a piece of wood in the middle of the lake.
The boat tied two behind us had signs up saying "Cheese Boat", and indeed he was selling some excellent Snowdonia Cheese. We bought two at £2.99 for 200 grams - one with garlic and herbs, and one with whisky added.
Chicken and bacon risotto for dinner, and a peaceful night, free of randy ducks. Back to Alrewas tomorrow, where hopefully I'll get to borrow Will Chapman's broadband access and can post this.
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Joys of mobile internet
I haven't posted for a few days, due to connection details here in Alrewas: here's a bit to be going on with - full story as soon as I've got a better connection!
Friday 30 March
Today's task is to get back to Alrewas - Elanor is going to join us for dinner again, and then stay the night, as the plan for the weekend is for us to go over to her house and advise on the mounting of a corner cupboard, have a look at her progress in sorting it out after moving in, and generally socialise a bit. Stuart, her boyfriend, is coming up by train from his home in Horsham, and it'll be good to see him again.
We made an average start from Shobnall (ie about 9), and did the short run to the Morrison's mooring, where Sheila stayed on anchor watch while the washing machine did its thing, and I walked over to Morrison's to get a paper and some bread. A boat tied behind us on the mooring set off while I was doing this. On return to the boat, we set off too, and arrived at the next lock, Branston, as the leading boat was just entering it. It was my turn to steer, so She walked up to the lock to help.
Had to wait for a Canaltime to come down, then up we went. Sheila was chuckling as I arrived - it seems the boat ahead is crewed by two ladies of mature years, seemingly on their first trip, and already expressing anxiety about the level of fitness required. As Branston is not a hard lock to work, and as they were planning to do the Leicester ring, which includes some substantial river locks in its later phases, I do hope they are going to be OK.
On we went to Tatenhill lock to repeat the procedure almost exactly. On this occasion, one of the ladies asked Sheila how many locks they'd done so far.
"Where did you start from?" asks Sheila.
"Shobnall" came the reply.
"Then this is your second lock"
"Oh dear"
Oh dear indeed. The moral is, it's great to see people experiencing the canals for the first time, whether they are in the first flush of youth or have left it to a bit later in life, but it's really a good idea to try hiring first, before laying out a lot of money for a boat. The towpath telegraph is full of stories of people whose resources, shall we say, somewhat exceeded their store of common sense, who spend huge amounts of cash on a state of the art boat, only to sell it at a loss within months of taking delivery.
What is even more alarming is to see people with little or no boating experience selling up their house and moving on board a boat. Living aboard is wonderful - for us. It's not for everyone, as the life involves some big differences from life ashore. There is a shedload of advice available, especially from the RBOA, but the crux of it is - read the books, do some boating, then do some more boating in winter, then think hard about the changes it will mean.
If after all that you still want to try it, then fantastic, welcome to the gang, our boat's called Sanity because it's all the sanity we've got in our lives!
Anyway, here endeth the lesson. On we went to Barton Turns to water before carrying on to Alrewas. Arrived there at about two, and settled on the mooring just above the lock off the river, beside Rebel's field. Rebel is an Exmoor pony who used to pull the local milk cart, and on retirement was adopted by the village. He's now in his thirties, but still looks hale and hearty, and has a great life coping with all the scraps people feed him.
Elanor duly turned up and helped eat a liver casserole.
Saturday 31 March
We were all up and about in good time, considering it was a Saturday. By 9.30 we were in Elanor's car heading for Burton, doing in quarter of an hour what had taken about four the day before. We called at the Marston's Brewery shop for me to get a slab of 24 cans of Pedigree, and for Elanor to do some serious buying.
She's an active member of London wrg (ie the London branch of the Waterway Recovery Group), and whenever there's a weekend dig or party coming up, she takes orders for beer for the group. It's got to the stage that when she walks in, they get the hand trolley out ready.
She dropped us off at the house where we officially live, and went off to get Stuart from Derby station.
A pleasant day passed doing bits and pieces in her (our) house, including fixing the dreaded corner cupboard. This is an heirloom that's passed down the distaff side of Sheila's family. It's an 18th century, mahogany veneered cupboard. It looks lovely, but is an absolute swine to fix to the walls of a modern house. It's not a true right angle at the back for a start, it weighs about 10 kilos, and the fixing at the top is almost impossible to reach with a screwdriver. Sheila's father hated the thing, I hate it, and now Stuart's learning to hate it too. Welcome to the family, Stuart.
However, at last it was done, and we enjoyed the rest of the day hugely. By half four we were heading back to the boat, where Stuart and Elanor declined the offer of a meal with us in favour of some quality time together. They missed out on lamb tagine with cous cous, but I'm sure they thought it was worth it.
Friday 30 March
Today's task is to get back to Alrewas - Elanor is going to join us for dinner again, and then stay the night, as the plan for the weekend is for us to go over to her house and advise on the mounting of a corner cupboard, have a look at her progress in sorting it out after moving in, and generally socialise a bit. Stuart, her boyfriend, is coming up by train from his home in Horsham, and it'll be good to see him again.
We made an average start from Shobnall (ie about 9), and did the short run to the Morrison's mooring, where Sheila stayed on anchor watch while the washing machine did its thing, and I walked over to Morrison's to get a paper and some bread. A boat tied behind us on the mooring set off while I was doing this. On return to the boat, we set off too, and arrived at the next lock, Branston, as the leading boat was just entering it. It was my turn to steer, so She walked up to the lock to help.
Had to wait for a Canaltime to come down, then up we went. Sheila was chuckling as I arrived - it seems the boat ahead is crewed by two ladies of mature years, seemingly on their first trip, and already expressing anxiety about the level of fitness required. As Branston is not a hard lock to work, and as they were planning to do the Leicester ring, which includes some substantial river locks in its later phases, I do hope they are going to be OK.
On we went to Tatenhill lock to repeat the procedure almost exactly. On this occasion, one of the ladies asked Sheila how many locks they'd done so far.
"Where did you start from?" asks Sheila.
"Shobnall" came the reply.
"Then this is your second lock"
"Oh dear"
Oh dear indeed. The moral is, it's great to see people experiencing the canals for the first time, whether they are in the first flush of youth or have left it to a bit later in life, but it's really a good idea to try hiring first, before laying out a lot of money for a boat. The towpath telegraph is full of stories of people whose resources, shall we say, somewhat exceeded their store of common sense, who spend huge amounts of cash on a state of the art boat, only to sell it at a loss within months of taking delivery.
What is even more alarming is to see people with little or no boating experience selling up their house and moving on board a boat. Living aboard is wonderful - for us. It's not for everyone, as the life involves some big differences from life ashore. There is a shedload of advice available, especially from the RBOA, but the crux of it is - read the books, do some boating, then do some more boating in winter, then think hard about the changes it will mean.
If after all that you still want to try it, then fantastic, welcome to the gang, our boat's called Sanity because it's all the sanity we've got in our lives!
Anyway, here endeth the lesson. On we went to Barton Turns to water before carrying on to Alrewas. Arrived there at about two, and settled on the mooring just above the lock off the river, beside Rebel's field. Rebel is an Exmoor pony who used to pull the local milk cart, and on retirement was adopted by the village. He's now in his thirties, but still looks hale and hearty, and has a great life coping with all the scraps people feed him.
Elanor duly turned up and helped eat a liver casserole.
Saturday 31 March
We were all up and about in good time, considering it was a Saturday. By 9.30 we were in Elanor's car heading for Burton, doing in quarter of an hour what had taken about four the day before. We called at the Marston's Brewery shop for me to get a slab of 24 cans of Pedigree, and for Elanor to do some serious buying.
She's an active member of London wrg (ie the London branch of the Waterway Recovery Group), and whenever there's a weekend dig or party coming up, she takes orders for beer for the group. It's got to the stage that when she walks in, they get the hand trolley out ready.
She dropped us off at the house where we officially live, and went off to get Stuart from Derby station.
A pleasant day passed doing bits and pieces in her (our) house, including fixing the dreaded corner cupboard. This is an heirloom that's passed down the distaff side of Sheila's family. It's an 18th century, mahogany veneered cupboard. It looks lovely, but is an absolute swine to fix to the walls of a modern house. It's not a true right angle at the back for a start, it weighs about 10 kilos, and the fixing at the top is almost impossible to reach with a screwdriver. Sheila's father hated the thing, I hate it, and now Stuart's learning to hate it too. Welcome to the family, Stuart.
However, at last it was done, and we enjoyed the rest of the day hugely. By half four we were heading back to the boat, where Stuart and Elanor declined the offer of a meal with us in favour of some quality time together. They missed out on lamb tagine with cous cous, but I'm sure they thought it was worth it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)