Category Archives: Boat cats

Out Of Our Hands

21st September

Hazelford Lock

Today was a work day for me, a couple of panto meetings to fill the day. However the day started off with conversations with Chris who hosts the blog. His servers were having some problems, we’d been wondering if the blog had now got far too big and thoughts had turned to splitting the last ten years of posts onto a separate blog to reduce the blog’s size. Conversations were had, maybe he should try turning things off? So for the time being you may not be able to comment, or you may have to sign in to comment, we’ll see what the next few days brings.

Tilly asked to be let out early, just as we’d been getting ready for breakfast. We were going to be here all day, but I did want to see her so I limited her shore leave to a couple of hours. She returned within the time limit, jumping onto the stern, Mick opened the back door and in she came. Hang on! What’s that in your mouth Tilly? I£&(*s a M&”&***Se my F*&%£DY. I hadn’t really wanted to know as she had broken the first rule of ‘NO friends home’ She was picked up and escorted straight to the bow doors and out onto the well deck, the doors closed firmly behind her. Mick hadn’t spotted that she had company! She soon didn’t anymore!!

**Tractor thankfully not making smells**

My first meeting of the day was with Gemma the Production Manager for panto. The last few weeks she’s been busy, I’ve been moving to the boat and been occupied with other things, so we both felt quite a bit detached from the show. We chatted through where we’d got to, should we try to source 4m long cardboard tubes locally so they can stay in long lengths? After a pause to take a phone call we decided that we were still in quite a good place, just the order for the print to be placed, I need to do a little bit more to the artwork and then it will be ready.

After lunch we had a catch up chat with Helen and Min the props makers. Conversations about confectionizers, snowballs, skis, buckets all sorts were followed by lantern discussions. All good and on course.

Time for a walk, I crossed the river and headed down stream to Fiskerton, passing numerous fishermen, through several clapper gates and arriving at The Bromley pub which seemed to be popular for a Monday late afternoon. I carried on past the big houses hiding behind their flood walls and on to where a footpath heads away from the river along a flood bank, it was quite nettley!

The path then crossed over a steam, into a field which was close to where cattle live, their hoofpath surrounded by wooden fencing and a rather interesting gate. Then I was at Fiskerton Mill which sits on the River Greet. It began as a corn mill run by Osbert the ‘milner’ in 1248. In 1579 it was listed as two mills, by 1792 it was listed as a cotton mill. In 1829 there were five bobbinet machines in use and by 1832 it was a lace thread mill. 1837 it was converted back into a corn mill which burnt down in 1851, the mill was rebuilt in 1872 with several sets of stones, it continued to work into the 1920’s when it started to produce animal feed which stayed in production until 1980s.

Today it seems to be split into a few homes. At the front there was a box of eating apples left for people to help themselves. I still had a bag for such finds from last year in my bumbag so I helped myself, I think I picked an apple of each variety. Thank you.

Back through the village and to the pub. Here the old wharf building is for sale. A modern conversion of quite a large building the ground floor high above where flood waters come. It comes with the moorings on the river, all yours for £1.5 million. It’s a little odd that there are no interior photos in the brochure, but then a lady was just finishing varnishing the balcony doors, maybe more photos will follow.

**A Tilly friend safe on the opposite river bank**

Back at the boat I spent some time sending messages to friends before chopping up some of yesterdays roast pork and making us Paprika Peppery Pork. Very nice, it’s a favourite that I haven’t made in an age.

During the day we’ve constantly been getting emails from the blog saying that it was unresponsive, then a while later that it was back online. This evening on a few occasions when we’ve been informed it was back online we had a go at putting up a post about our technical difficulties. This took about 2 hours to actually achieve a post, that is seriously slow. Chris has spent a lot of time trying to sort things today, but unfortunately he’s not had any luck, it sounds like it’s something out of his hands.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 grounded cat, 1 friend, 1 upset stomach, 2 panto meetings, 1^st contact in 5 days, 1 little list of jobs, 4.58 miles walked, 1 impossible blog, 312 emails, 1 very sad message to send, 1^st Mrs Tilly stamp of approval of the year!

22^nd September

Hazelford Lock to Opposite Kiln Pontoon, Newark

This morning Chris called, where his server is located is apparently being hit by a Denial-of-Service Attack, commonly known as a DOS attack. So for the time being Chris can do very little. Apparently the part of the centre where his server is located people were now installing something that should help, but only time will tell. Have to say I’m a little bored of writing the blog in Word, so I hope it gets sorted soon.

Tilly wasn’t allowed out today, yesterday she’d had a bit of a dodgy tummy so she was on reduced rations. Hopefully a quiet day inside would help to sort her out. After breakfast we winded and headed on further downstream to Newark.

We’d started off in jumpers, but soon with not a cloud in the sky, these came off! We nearly brought out the sun cream. The last few days have been windy, but today not a jot of a breeze, just blue skies, what a wonderful day to cruise.

Mick radioed ahead to Town Lock, the Lockie was just letting someone down and then would refill the lock for us. No Heather Bleasdale on the mooring by the weir, no rubbish bins by the CRT yard, they have gone. Soon we were descending in the lock with the Lockie asking if Oleanna was a new boat, no just a new paint job.

Past the castle which seems to be having quite a bit of building work going on with scaffolding up at one end. Under Trent Bridge, ahh no space on the Kiln Pontoon. A couple of the boats we recognised from our trip a few years ago on the Great Ouse. Dutch Barge Karma was moored right on the end , followed by a cruiser so accessing the water point was going to be seriously hard. Our tank was down to about a quarter, so we needed a fill up especially as we’ve been on frugal rations for a few days and really wanted to have showers. Only one thing for it, head into King’s Marina and fill up there.

An angler had just cast their line across the entrance to the marina as we approached, I called out to them and they reeled it in. Our arrival on the service pontoon ended up being timed with lunchtime. Mick walked up to the office, then called the number left on the door, it went to a mobile and then to an answerphone. He left a message saying we hoped it was alright to fill up and if we needed to pay then that was fine as we’d be back to moor for a couple of days at the weekend. No one challenged us as we filled up the tank. We also took advantage of being at a good level to empty the yellow water, Mick decided not to use the elsan as that would be a touch too cheeky!

Back out of the marina we headed back upstream and pulled in a bit of a way behind The Newark Barge and tied Oleanna to the wall. From here we’d be able to see when a space appeared on the pontoon and being alongside the low wall we’d just about be able to get on and off the boat to head into town.

Gosh it was warm now, mid 20s. This is when Tilly prevents us from having front and back doors open to get a breeze through the boat. I do have a plan for the stern doors at some point so that we could have the rear hatch slid open, but my carpentry skills leave a bit to be desired.

A list of items to be bought was made then I headed into town to see what I could find locally. B&Q, M&S, B&M, do all shops have to operate under initials nowadays? I worked my way along the retail park on the east bank of the river. Very few yellow labels in M&S for a ‘Sad Git’s’ meal, I opted to see what Waitrose might have instead. Into town and to Boyes for some new egg poach pods as the old ones had gone very sticky over this winter.

No market today, I strode across the market place. Hang on! What!? WHAT??! On the front of Boyes there was an obvious gap no Boyes sign just their tag line partially visible. Initial panic subsided when I noticed a sign saying they’d moved, Phew! Round into a more modern building not far away. Well as with the Doncaster store the new shop is bigger and brighter than the old one. There are still all the reassuring items for sale.

Poach pods, something to be able to keep my CP ring around my neck when painting or working locks, a new retractable tape measure for knitting and a few more items. Next was Waitrose to see what sad gits items I’d find there. I’d timed my arrival too early really, the staff were just starting to pull items off the shelves, but I came away with a curry for this evening.

After sweeping the chimney the other day Mick had laid the fire ready to be lit, well tonight was not going to be the night as it was still very warm when we retired to bed.

1 lock, 9 miles, 1 very sunny day, 25C? 0 clouds, 1 full water tank, 1 empty yellow water tank, 2 paddling cows, 1 mooring against a wall, 0 view, 1 suede strip too short, 1 lobster clasp only just big enough, 2 hot for pies, 2 poach pods, 1 new store, 1 new innards for sheep, 1 bored Tilly still with a dodgy tummy!

Cruising Back To Blogging.

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Here’s hoping our blogging woes have all been sorted. One thing that will be a bit different for a while is that Mick will be updating our blog roll manually, as and when, rather than it being automatic. We also think we’ll be reducing the number of blogs we have links to with the hope of returning the roll to automatic at some point in the future.

So, whilst we’ve not been posting I’ve been writing blogs in word to try to keep on top of things and remember stuff. They now need photos adding and formatting etc which all takes time. So because we’re also on the move now I’ve decided to update you all by putting two days together until we’re just about caught up.

19th September

Stoke Lock, River Trent

Tilly was given 8.5 hours of shore leave this morning as we’d decided to stay put for the day. There were jobs to do. Tilly came and went, had a roll around on the bank where the silt was at its best, turning her sleek black and white to a dusty grey! But once this was done, she seemed to come and go purely for the Dreamies, I’d bought catnip flavour to help attract her back to the boat and it was working, working very well, every five minutes!

There were people to message, a receipt for rent to redo as I’d missed a couple of payments, oops!

Then I had a chat with Jamie regarding the set build of panto. We briefly went through each item Jamie will be building, any problems I’d designed into them that could be rectified, maybe widen a base a little for stability, was there room for maybe an extra inch for structure? I made a list of jobs I needed to do, questions I need to ask. Work done for the day.

After lunch I headed off for a walk, retracing a walk I did last year to Burton Joyce. Past the lock, along the long access road where numerous vans were parked up and what looked like a very serious fishing match was on going. If Gongoozler is the name for a person who watches boats going through locks, what is the name for people who watch fishermen? One group had brought their chairs and a picnic to watch one chap.

Along a stretch of road, through a wooded area and into another field where the fishing match continued. When the match ended how would they notify one end to the other, the wind today was really rather strong and was likely to blow away any call, maybe the stewards had horns that they could sound in relay down the river bank to stop fishing.

I turned into the village, crossed the railway line and then headed for the Co-op. It’s quite a long way to walk for a Saturday newspaper and a parsnip, but the Co-op is of a reasonable size. Mid afternoon they still had a paper of our chosen flavour but sadly no parsnip, maybe some sweet potato would do for the roast instead.

My return walk was via the road, over the level crossing at the station, this is possibly where Tilly and her brothers were rescued getting on for eleven years ago, abandoned by their original owner at around four months old.

**I like village signs, this one has 2.5D details!**

The under sink cupboard in the galley was cleared out, given a wipe down along with all the things inside it. Thankfully I managed to put everything back in a slightly more ordered manor, at least I now know what’s in there! There was only one empty bottle to remove.

Chicken Tagliatelle tonight and some knitting with Tilly sat on my knee.

This evening we discovered that maybe our new 5G router was interfering with the TV signal. Mick turned it off and the picture returned to normal. The router was put on to 4G and we could all now watch TV without it breaking up.

0 locks, 0 miles, 5.07miles walked, 3 for a fishing picnic, 1 newsapaper, 2 sweet potatoes, 150 or 200 treads, 350 or 450 bar, 1 clean cupboard, 5G bad!

20th September

Stoke Lock to Hazelford Lock, River Trent

The blog is starting to run reeeallllyy sloooowly. Taking an eternity to load photos when normally it takes a second or two, in fact it was soooo slow at doing anything! During the day I battled on when I had time, but soon it was apparent that there was something happening beyond our control so I gave up. The blog is normally a couple of days behind us anyway so I always have a bit of leeway.

A Mick breakfast followed by the Sunday morning Geraghty zoom, included subjects that I now can’t remember, but it was an interesting zoom.

We made ready to push off. I walked up to check whether there might be a lock keeper on duty today, the light at the lock was on red not amber, someone was about! Mick radioed to the lock, no answer came. He tried again, still no answer, but then a chap wearing blue appeared at the top of the steps, ‘Morning, are you okay?’ We were, just wanting to use the lock please.

With covers rolled we headed towards the lock, down the lock cut there was a widebeam getting ready to go down too. He asked if we could take the starboard side of the lock as his throttle is on the port side, of course we could oblige. I think last time we shared Stoke Lock with a widebeam the crew had no idea how to keep their boat under control in the lock, but todays crew were totally in control. Up above by the lock control tower there was a group of walkers who’d been invited up there to watch what happens, the Lockie was very informative. Once down we headed off first, the widebeam would be mooring at Gunthorpe, but they’d come and work the lock for us as we’d helped them.

The next reach is so pretty. Grassy fields down to the river, the blue sky and sunshine glistening on the water. I think it’s our favourite reach of the Trent. Geese a gogo, sheep, it’s just lovely.

We seemed to be quite a distance ahead of the widebeam so we pulled back on the throttle to let them catch up. Plenty of space on the Gunthorpe Visitors pontoon, but it is quite a distance from the lock, they’d be an age coming to help us. I saw them pull in, the lady jumping off the bow to moor up. We loitered in the lock cut, maybe we’d be quicker if I climbed a ladder to work the lock. Then whizzing along the road came the chap on an electric scooter, very happy to press the buttons at the lock for us.

Gunthorpe Lock, for those who have followed the blog since our Lillian days will know this is my least favourite lock and why. I checked to see if I could see a large fish or a clone of myself, but the water was too cloudy for that. Mick brought Oleanna in gently to THE blue riser on the port side. I passed the end of the rope round it. Was that an indentation to the blue plastic coating?!

Now on towards Hazelford Lock, our chosen mooring for the day. More walkers fewer fishermen on the bank. I looked at Nebo and spotted a Lancaster Bomber Memorial on the the map, maybe a good location to walk to this afternoon.

**Tugs and crane boats above Hazelford**

The Lockie responded to our radio call and penned us through, only one sluice operational on the bottom gates so it would take a while to empty the lock. Below we winded to face the current coming over the large weir and pulled in to moor on the lower wall, it’s still quite a way up from the bow, far bigger than a step.

Tilly was given an hour or so whilst we had lunch. She needed a bit of encouragement to get to the top of the big steps, but there lies a cats wonderland of who knows what! After a while she returned to use the onboard facilities at quite a rush. Hmmm, she had a dodgy tummy, time for her to have a snooze inside!

My walk took me over the bridge below the weir and back along the river bank we’d just passed. Moored boats, narrow tracks, then out into green lush fields, a big lake reaching off to the west, sheep, horse riders, and Trent clapper gates. The sun shone what a lovely walk.

At the far end of the boating lake stand two tall stones, a memorial to two Lancaster Bombers that crashed close by in 1945 two weeks apart. They had been on training flights from RAF Syerston, one’s portside engines had caught fire, the other had over ran the runway, all the crew of both planes had died, Canadians, New Zealanders and British airmen.

On my return a joint of pork went in the oven and then my attention turned back to panto. Updating the technical drawings for Jamie. Asking questions of the lighting designer, Checking a few depths, all good.

3 locks, 9.7 miles,2 lock keepers, 1 zooming scooter, 1 poorly cat, 2 Mark 3s, 5.21 miles walked, 1 joint of pork, 9 big red crosses, 1 sock up to it’s heel.

How Did They Do That?! 18th September

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Sainsburys Nottingham to Stoke Lock, River Trent

I was expecting a phone call from the panto set builder this morning. I got my drawings out from the cupboard and sketchbook to make notes, have to say over the last couple of weeks I’ve been ignoring panto, too many other things going on, but that will soon be changing. As I’d not had a call by 10am we decided to push off, todays goal a cat friendly mooring, after all Tilly’s been inside for too long now!

I walked down to Castle Lock, passing a burnt out, sunken boat. As we arrived a family were sitting down at one of the tables outside the pub alongside the lock, not sure if they were having breakfast or an early lunch. Dad complimented Oleanna on her looks. All four paddles worked at the top end of the lock today, just as well as the bottom gates were leaking lots. Then the bottom gate wanted to swing open and stay that way, it always does. Mick and Oleanna headed off into the distance as I walked round to close everything up, which did mean I got quite a nice photo of the British Waterways building with Oleanna looking insignificant below it. I caught them up at the sharp bend. Spotted a flood level stone by the railway bridges I’d not seen before.

Meadow Lane Lock was full, top gates closed, but they only needed a slight push to get them moving. As I lifted the paddles on the bottom gates I took a look onto the river to see if there was much traffic around. Firstly a few canoes, but they’d be long gone by the time the lock was empty. There was however a blue van half submerged on the opposite bank. Firecrews, Ambulance, Police all in attendance. A Rescue rib joined them from up stream and gradually the van was being winched out.

As Oleanna left the lock I told Mick there was nothing on the river apart from a blue van, he of course knew nothing about it and thought I was bonkers! The off-side gate wanted to swing open so he reached up with a boat hook as he left to encourage it to close behind him, only managing to leave the boat hook hooked onto the gate. These gates are so tall I do my best not to cross them, thankfully Mick managed to reverse back up to them to retrieve the hook.

Onwards downstream. About this time last year we’d seen the new Waterside Bridge being put together on the bank, this year it spans the river very elegantly. A yellow diamond, we presume, marks the highest point of the arch and green triangles point to it.

As we passed the sailing club we radioed ahead to Holme Lock where there was a Lockie on duty. Thankfully the lock was already in our favour, so there was no hanging about for it to fill. We were directed to the island side of the lock where the steel risers go higher up the lock wall.

Onwards under Radcliffe Viaduct Rail Bridge, round the big bend towards the weir and Stoke Lock. I zoomed in on my camera, two boats were moored. Hang on, they were both on the pontoon and the low wall mooring was free! Yes, Tilly you shall have shore leave!!!

**Tilly and Tilly Too so excited about shore leave**

We pulled in with the port side to the bank, Mick would now be able to sweep the chimney too. Once moored up the noise of excitement from Tilly inside the cabin was incredible! Tilly Too stayed quiet, she always does! Rules are rules though, the three words have to be written down first! Then shore leave rules recited.

Tilly you have four and a half hours, no friends home dead or alive or putting them on the roof for later, no jumping in, no bullying, no going on other peoples boats! Enjoy yourself!! Okay then, if I must!

A job needed doing straight away, attaching the new landing net to the old pole. The connector through the years had come apart and been taped up. Some maximum uhu glue and a lot of lx tape to keep everything in place was used connecting everything together. It was now laid on the roof to go off and hopefully will take the weight of a second mate should it need to.

Well I never!?! How did they do that!?! I had to look twice, thrice, four times! I checked through the one way hatch. Yes inside was still the same. But outside isn’t! They’ve not only moved the outside, but they’ve changed what goes around the inside too! It’s all milky creamy now, but the front and the back are still the same! Wow!

I’m kind of glad that we’re the only boat here on the low wall. Who knows, other than Tilly, if she is going to get confused now her boat is no longer dark blue? Or has she always and will always just go by scent too and fro from Oleanna. Well she smells differently too!

Tilly didn’t venture very far, possibly because the Dreamies on offer are the Catnip ones, their purchase done on purpose to attract her home more often, or maybe this outside isn’t as good as we thought?

After lunch Mick swept the chimney, maybe a job that should have been done before the repaint to cream, but then it was also good to get rid of any grit from the grit blasting too. We had a go at emptying the yellow water. This was interesting, the new pump worked, but only for about five seconds! When installing it Mick had added a fuse as the instructions had suggested, on the original fitout there hadn’t been one. There is already a suitable breaker on the circuit in the electric cupboard so he removed the fuse at the pump and now it works. Phew no need to keep our legs crossed!

I’d intended doing more kitchen cupboard tidying, but ran out of motivation. Anyway my afternoon was taken over by whatsapp messages from Scarborough and from panto people, things are starting to heat up on that front!

I had a walk down to the bins at the other end of the lock cut. Thankfully they are still there. We’ve heard so much over the last few months about bins being removed from the network on social media.

Mick installed our new 5G router. This should improve our internet, but it appears to have affected our TV signal, or it may just be that the signal is bad here as we’re in a dip. Although it did get a thumbs up last time we were here. Other moorings will assist in this.

3 locks, 6.9 miles, 0 Chippy chippy call, 1852, 14 years, 1 submerged blue van, 1 low wall, 1 befuddled cat, 0 friends, 1 net mended I hope, 1 fuse, 1 fire laid ready and waiting, 1 sock fairy, 1 empty yellow water tank, 1 clean pooh box, but does this mooring deserve a Mrs Tilly stamp of approval? 1 cat not too sure!

https://what3words.com/broad.quail.lower

Slowing To Stop. 17th September

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New Boots Footbridge to Sainsburys

Last night we’d given our cruising plans some thought. Our original aim had been to head to York for a get together with an old friend and family. We’d considered it possible in the time we had, had we left Redhill on Monday, maybe Tuesday at a push, but another days delay? We know the route pretty well and can plan day to day in our heads, but we still did a Canal Plan route, 45 hours cruise. We then checked the tides. The day we’d be looking to go from Cromwell to Torksey were possible. The remainder for the Tidal Trent to Keadby, not so good. One tide was very early in the morning, like not long after midnight so all of the trip would be in the dark. The other late afternoon, so by the time we’d get to Keadby we were unlikely to be in time for a lock keeper. Mick has a hernia, so he’s not keen on standing for long periods of time at the tiller.

Tides, cruising hours and hernia have put the kibosh on that plan. However, it would still be advantageous to head northwards for a while, but at a much slower pace before we turn and hope to get south for Panto. After all, the majority of our plans haven’t come off this year, so we might as well add another one to the list!

We made ready to push off, Mick at the helm and me on the towpath. It was quite a pleasant walk in towards Nottingham. Less pennywort on the canal than we remembered from last year. A group of boats were moored up by Thane Road Bridge, all moored to rings, I made a note of the mooring before carrying onwards. Maybe these are new rings, or maybe their proximity to the two bridges make for a not so attractive mooring.

I climbed back on board at Lenton Lane Bridge as we’d be turning into Castle Marina shortly and there are too many boats moored near the entrance to be able to climb aboard there.

Gosh what a difference a year makes. Last year many of the pontoons at Castle Marina had been condemned, they had been for a few years. But Aquavista have invested a lot of money here. the five pontoons has been reduced to four, meaning they can accommodate more narrowboats, but in return cutting down on the number of cruisers. They still have a couple of winter moorings available should anyone be interested.

We filled with diesel, 64 litres at £1.50 domestic, Ouch, thank you Donald!

Back out of the marina pulling in close to the entrance for Sainsbury’s. Lunch first then we’d go and do a big shop ready to fill the freezer.

We came back with four big carrier bags full. I set about filling the fridge with cold stuff. The new fridge is great because it actually gets cold, but the arrangement of the door shelves is very odd and the main shelves seem to be a couple of inches shorter than our old fridge. The most annoying thing about it is that the crisper is not wide enough to hold a wine box! It’s something we’ll have to get used to and we’ll have to buy smaller bottles of tomato ketchup in future as the current one is too tall.

Next thing was to find a suitable container for our wood litter, we use it in our separating toilet and Tilly uses it in her pooh box. We buy it in 30 litre bags and where the bag now needs to be stored it could easily fall over when Tilly’s pooh box is removed. I headed off to B&M which was full of new students buying essentials for their accommodation. Storage boxes were plentiful, but just about all of them were too wide for the gap I wanted it to go in. Then high up I spotted a container that would hold 20 litres of dog biscuits, it came with a scoop. It would fit the gap and leave enough space behind it for the remainder of the bag of litter. It looks quite smart and we won’t tell Tilly it’s meant for woofer food!

After the last week and now no need to keep going today we opted to slow right down and stop for the day. Yes, down at County Hall the mooring is nicer than opposite the student flats, but we were in need of a rest, plus there were still jobs to do and the students haven’t moved in yet.

Tilly thought that the bushes looked really interesting alongside us, but She said it would be really bad if I got to meet a sooper fast bicycle, especially on my first shore leave in ages! Instead Tilly watched me repack mince, sausages, turkey steaks and jointing a chicken to go in the freezer. Now we just have to hope that the freezer can cope with getting everything cold!

Mick tinkered with the wires in the new connection block for the TV and radio aerial. We now have TV signal again! Hooray!!

Red Pepper Salmon tonight and some knitting now we have light again.

0 locks, 2.7 miles, 2 rights, 1 wind, 64.11 litres, 0 gas, 1 more change of plan for the year, 1 trolley to the boat, 1 more day of feline boredom, 1 woofer litter box, 1 slow day that wasn’t actually that slow.

That Spring Feeling. 16th September

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Redhill Marina to New Boots Footbridge 18, Beeston Canal

Now that Tilly is sitting in the windows she’s been eyeing up the grassy bank alongside the mooring here. There will be friends in there, but there is also a wasps nest that I’ve told her she’d best not go sticking her arms down!

Mick phoned round and found a suitable 24 volt Whale Gulper at Sawley Marina to replace the broken one we use for the yellow water, then Tom arrived with our fridge, all going well so far this morning, we’d soon be on our way! Unfortunately a phone call put a damper on our mood.

Tom very kindly brought the new fridge on board and down the stern steps for us. It needed wiring in and then leaving for six hours before we could use it. It worked!!! Hooray!!!!! We did have to remove a batten from the cubby hole it went into as it was just a little bit taller than the old fridge, I suspect the batten was only there for neatness by Finesse.

***Apparently these were instead of the fridge!?!***

I mentioned the scratch and misty windows to Tom. He returned with some Tcut for the scratch and thinners for the windows, all easily remedied. There was also a big box of paints for us. 2 Pack blacking, coloured top coats, Multiforte for the gunnels and some yacht varnish. All in pretty big tins! I’ll need to cull the old paints and varnishes that I’ve had for ages as they won’t be needed now.

I was given instructions about touching up. If anything goes back to bare steel, put some blacking on it no matter where on the boat as Oleanna was blacked top and bottom. Then finish off with which ever colour is required. Multiforte use a flock roller and the others a brush which should be cleaned in standard thinners. Mick asked about washing and polishing, not sure why he asked as he does his very best not to have to do either! The paint on Oleanna will continue to cure for the next six months, so we should only wash her with water and a microfiber cloth for the first year. Keep on top of any paint work touch ups and if we get a bit of a mark use some Tcut. After a year, maybe we could give her a buff up, should we feel she needs it. Hopefully I’ve remembered it all here for our future reference.

The gas bottles in the bow were nudged about to accommodate the third one, which currently is empty. Mick then turned his attention to the single light above the sofa. The wiring at the switch had different colours to the wiring at the bulb end. The switch is actually a two way switch so Mick moved the wires and hey presto the light works again! Hooray!!!

My inbox pinged. Someone had made a donation to the Felicity Edition Sockathon. It was from Felicity’s children, Bubbles and her brother Matt. Originally Bubbles had said they would donate £2000 from their Mums estate, but they had gone a touch better with £2500! Wow, how wonderful. I’m glad the light above the sofa is mended now, as I’ve still a lot of socks to get through!

As we finished our lunch I sent a message to Tom giving him a ten minute warning of our departure. Covers down. Life jackets on. Nebo on. Anything else. No. Time to push off. Did we still know how to boat?

Tom waited by the bridge over the flood lock to film us going through. Oleanna is the 52nd boat he’s painted. It’s rather a nice landmark to pass through with it’s redbrick arch. We’d passed through it on the 13th October last year and now 11 months and 3 days later we were leaving Redhill and setting off on our travels. A wave back to Tom and a thank you.

Time to put my navigators hat back on, that way please! Straight, left, left and on upstream to Sawley Locks. The sun was shining through the clouds, blue sky, so wonderful to be moving again. Have to say the day had made me a bit emotional!

Approaching Sawley, two volunteers appeared, pointing us to the left hand lock, then to the left hand side of the lock for an easier ride up. One of them came to take my bow rope which had handily got itself into a knot despite having been coiled properly. They were suggesting passing the rope around two bollards behind me which didn’t make sense as Mick would have a stern rope up to a bollard. We rose and chatted with the volunteers, a boat heading towards them wanting to come down, we said we’d be coming back shortly as we were only going to pick something up at the marina.

We pulled in by the diesel point and headed into the office. Our pump was sat waiting for us. We looked round for some matting to go in lockers, so that tins of paint don’t go rusty on the new paintwork! But all they had was thin antislip matting which I just know would be annoying. We’ll keep looking and the box of paints will sit and wait a while longer before being stowed away.

Winding was interesting as there was a sunken cruiser exactly where the bow wanted to go, so Mick resorted to steering with the bow thruster. We were directed to the other lock this time and chatted away to the volunteers again. It was one ladies first season as a volunteer and she had loved it, shame the season was nearly over. This was strange to us as today we had that Spring feeling you get when you first set off for the year, not that the end of the boating season is getting close!

Navigation again, second left please! Trent Junction was very busy, hardly any space on the moorings at the top of Cranfleet Cut, just as well we wanted to go further. The lock was set against us, I remembered from last year how it takes an age to level out to open the top gate, it still did. In fact I had to call Mick over to lend his bum.

Down back on the River. Ahead big plumes of black smoke were billowing from a fire in Barton in Fabis. Thankfully it wasn’t coming near the river. This section of the Trent is very familiar, the lovely houses on stilts, two had been for sale last year, they must have new owners now. Keeping to the left of obstructions, no-one to rescue today, but it did look very shallow in places.

As we approached Beeston Lock we wondered if there would be boats moored on the lock landing. Yes two narrowboats, but there seemed to be space at the end. No hang on a dark green small cruiser was sat right in the middle, from a distance it had just merged into the pontoon. We managed, you have to really.

Down the few inches of the lock, Mick bumping Oleanna as he’d brought her into the lock, the first scars to the gunnels. Good job they are easy to touch up, well, when you get round to it!

Our original plan had been to moor up at Sainsburys and finish off our shopping now that we can have a freezer as well as a fridge. But Mick really wanted to sit down, so we called it a day, pulling in where we always seem to moor at Beeston.

Tilly was so excited at us stopping. She escorted me to the table to find the note book to write down our location. Next thing is to let me out! You need to stroke my head now, and open the door. No, really you have to open the door now! NEOWWWW!! Sorry Tilly, the bikes are too fast, you’ve told us how pants it is here several times before and it’s Ding Ding time anyway.

Mick started to fit the new pump as I put together Chicken Curry Old Style. When food was ready it was time to celebrate properly. Mark who had been a witness at our Civil Partnership, had given us a bottle of champagne, we’d planned to drink it the first night all three of us were back on the boat, however not being able to chill it meant we postponed it to tonight. Thank you Mark for helping us celebrate moving again.

8.8 miles, 4 locks, 2 flood locks, 1 new fridge, 1 mended light switch, 3 months maybe, 1 big box of paints, 1 filmed departure, 1 navigator, 1 new pump, 1st cruise of the year, 3.5 hours, 1 disappointed cat, £2.5k! 1 diplomatic message, 2 boaters glad to be back moving, 2 chinks of glasses.

TV Aerial not working so no thumb

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Keeping Things Crossed. 15th September

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Redhill Marina

The advantage of being on hook up is hot water first thing in the morning, so a nice hot shower was enjoyed. My morning was filled with trying to catch up on the blog and making phone calls to social services.

Jim arrived a little before 9 to do the engine service. Mick asked him to check the engine mounts, the stern gland and that the half tank of diesel that’s been in the tank for 11 months was still okay. He started the engine up to warm the oil, this meant that Tilly found her way behind our pillows under the gunnel, it’s nice and cosy there for an autumnal cruise. Sadly she wouldn’t wake up to a different outside today. We provided him with filters. However, when he opened one box the filter inside it wasn’t the right one, another box was the same! It looks like Beta sent the wrong filters last time Mick placed an order. Thankfully we did have enough of the correct filters for the service to be completed. Jim went away with the incorrect ones as he’d have more use for them than us.

Now all we needed was the fridge to arrive, then we could be off.

A bit more unpacking was done. Mick bumped into Tom who had a delivery for us! It was something we were expecting a Fund Britain’s Waterways banner, but sadly the fridge hadn’t as yet arrived. If you haven’t already signed the petition here is the link again. For the banner to go up I needed to clean the cratch window first. I then moved onto the galley windows, they were a touch misty. These are our original windows and I suspected they’d got a dusting of primer at some point over the last few weeks and it would take a bit more than elbow grease to clean them. I also spotted a little scratch by a galley window, eek!

Next the anchor went back on its holding prongs (for want of a better term) some weed hatch tape was put down behind it to help protect the new paintwork. Good job done.

As we’ve been on board for a few days it was time to empty the yellow water tank. We’d considered moving across the way to do this so that the portside was against the bank, but we really didn’t want anyone else to steal our mooring or miss out on the fridge being delivered. So the long hose came out, everything connected up. ‘Ready?’ ‘Ready!’ I flicked the switch. The pump made some noise. The pump didn’t however make the right noise! It was doing something but not pumping any yellow water. Mick came inside, we tried again. Still nothing! Well there’s another thing to show us how much Oleanna didn’t appreciate being left over the winter!

Mick decided to access the gulper and see what he could find. Tilly decided to close her eyes some more. I decided to go for a walk, via the shore based facilities.

Today I headed to Ratcliffe on Soar village, back along the marina road, then along the track under the A453. Here a hot rod hearse sat, most probably a fisherman’s car. Then on to the village and towards the church, Holy Trinity. On my way I was caught by an old chap who asked if I had joined them, meaning had I moved into the village.

I quickly realised that I could be stood here for quite sometime! Thankfully after about 20 minutes or so someone else walked along with their dog and gave me the opportunity to politely leave and head into the churchyard.

Several new graves, some lovely headstones, a mesh door to keep birds and a local cat out of the church. The church dates back to the 13th Century and had major restoration work carried out in 1886 at the cost of £830 to Earl Howe. It’s a small simple church, but with several carved memorials dating back to 1539 for the Sacheverell family.

Two stones lay side by side for sisters. The younger sisters stone looks like every font was used possible, every line different, whilst the older sister got just the one with no swirls.

The village runs into a manor house not much further along the road, so I turned and walked the other way. Only pretty boring houses, nothing of much interest at all. But when I started to head back towards the boat a mosaic in the bus shelter caught my eye. In fact there were two, one on the wall the other the floor. No idea who had made them and Gaby who runs the community mosaic group in Scarborough would have been a little critical at the amount of grout needed. But none the less, they are a very nice addition.

Big dark clouds were starting to loom, I picked up my pace back to the boat. Mick was midst thinking. He’d taken the yellow water pump to bits, but not found anything obvious. We’d be needing a new one. I hunted round found several at varying prices, we decided to wait and see if either Sawley or Beeston chandlers might have one in stock in the morning.

Mick then hunted round to find a means of emptying the yellow water tank manually. We’ve had to do this only once before when the original gulper pump gave up on us as it was 12 volt and should have been a 24 volt one. There is a manual pump, but the pipes and top to it have perished in the last ten years, so this wouldn’t help. A more basic pump was at hand, but the pipe too thick to get down into the tank. He hunted round for narrower pipes to attach. In the end he sacrificed some pipe from the engine coolant overflow which was then attached to the pump with some self-amalgamating tape. The pipe reached far enough and whilst I cooked our meal Mick slowly managed to empty the tank. Now we need a new gulper, a new hand pump and some new pipe.

**The usual yellow water pipes at dusk.**

I think we’ll now have reached the £1000 in remedial works that ‘Bring Out Another Thousand’ that BOAT stands for!

I tried a new recipe to use up some of our roast chicken, Rice with Chicken, Tomato and Beans a very handy find as I had everything for it onboard. It took a little longer to cook with brown basmati rice, but it deserves to be added to the recipes section of the blog.

TV signal hasn’t been found, so we’re watching the box via the internet sat in the dark. I should really look back at the blog to see what thumb sign was shown for this mooring last year, just incase the TV aerial has gone faulty too!

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 fridge, 1 broken gulper, 1 bored cat starting to dig, 1 banner, 1 ball of string required, 1 anchor back where it belongs, 1 bow thruster locker checked, 2 windows not quite clean, 2 mosaics, 0.5 hours to empty tank, 2 boaters using shore based facilities in the dark, or crossing our legs!

Windows To Cat Mode. 14th September

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Redhill Marina

Mick was up early and heading off with the van back to Scarborough. He had a couple of chores to do in town, then drop things off at the house, things that we only use to move back and forth to the boat, did a quick hoover up and then the van was returned. He then walked to Seamer Station to catch a train back to East Midlands Parkway. Unfortunately there were issues with cancelled trains, the route via Hull was problematic too, so he didn’t return to us until gone 7pm.

Here on the boat Tilly and I got busy. The radiator by the dinette has been needing a good dusting for ages. Ideally I wanted to take it to bits, but I didn’t want to risk that not being a plumber. I’d bought a radiator brush duster thing this winter, so set about methodically prodding it through the top and hoovering up dust, cat fur and grit. It could only have been more satisfying if I’d been able to get into all the corners as well. I had a good look in the kindling bag and found the curtain pole end, so that went up. Curtains now complete.

**Turning the boat using the flow on the river**

Outside boats were on the move. One boat that had been out on the hard was lowered back in and moored up in front of us. Three chaps turned up and spent an age trying to work out how their bow fender attached. The reason they were having so much difficulty was that it wasn’t just a button, but U bow fender with a Turks Head, the fixings weren’t in the right place.

Next a cruiser was moved from the poly tunnel behind us. The chaps asked if they could walk along the gunnel to get it past. I said yes, but soon realised just how muddy their boots were! Tom had touched in the last bits on the base plate of a widebeam this morning and early afternoon it was put back in the water and then reversed into the poly tunnel. A busy old time.

It was time to empty the kitchen corner cupboard, for this I’d need the dinette table and all the worktops, so it was a good time to do it when no one else was on board. The crockery cupboard was emptied, everything in there had already been through the dishwasher, but the shelves wanted a wipe down. That was the easy side of the cupboard done.

Now I pulled out the pan drawer to reveal all it contained and the shelves that reach deep into the corner. All the pots pans, cake and quiche tins, pie dishes, mixing bowls got a good wash. For years I’ve thought we only had a few items of tupperware but today I got to see just how much there was pushed right back into the recesses of the cupboard.

It all got washed and then sorted to find matching lids and bottoms. Thin cracked items went for recycling, anything without it’s matching part did too. There was still quite a lot. This winter I’d treated us to some more sturdy containers and these hadn’t even entered the mix yet! Do we really need them all? Most probably not.

With everything organised in the cupboard I found places for the tupperware, it looked very neat and tidy when I’d finished. It won’t last!

Tilly was now wanting a better view of her surroundings. She went to climb up into one of the windows, she uses the curtains as a kind of hammock. She managed the somersault to turn round, but then sat very close to the edge of the curtain. Something was different! The window was right up against my face! I thought She said the new hammocks were looser than before so should be more comfortable than the old ones. It’s actually all to do with the new double glazing. Firstly the frames are thicker, so the window sill is narrower. Secondly, the double glazing is getting on for an inch, thicker than the old 4mm glass. It’s a good job I had made the curtains looser to accommodate the glazing, now we just needed to accommodate the second mate!

**It’s not quite as comfortable as it used to be!**

Thankfully we paid extra for the window rests and they have two settings. Normal open, three or four inches, and then with just the top open by about a centimeter. From this day forward this setting will be known as Cat Mode. Thank you that’s much better, thank you!

Starting to catch up on the blog took sometime, Jim a local mechanic tapped on the boat to arrange a time to do an engine service tomorrow, then I decided to head out for a walk. This coincided with news from Scarborough, a long catch up phone call with Steve whilst I stood on the river bank under a hazel tree. Things were improving.

I headed south along the river bank, the sun getting low casting it’s sunny glow on Ratcliffe cooling towers. A while longer to enjoy them before they are gone forever. There are plenty of boats moored along here, mostly big barge boats.There was activity at Ratcliffe Lock, a narrowboat going up in the lock, I stopped for a chat as the chap held onto his centre rope and his mate wound paddles up. Headed to Kegworth, Zouch Lock is still out of action, he’s headed to Leicester for a winter moorin

I carried on up to where the A453 crosses the river. This is the bridge where Chris, The Pink Hat Man reversed to in the floods a couple of years ago, no such excitement there today.

I took a footpath along the side of the busy road and then joined a cycle/footpath cutting back across towards Redhill.

A chicken and leek macaroni cheese was put together to enjoy when Mick had returned.

Before Oleanna had gone back in the water last Thursday, we’d resubscribed to Nebo to be able to track our cruises. However, our apps still said the last journey had been on the 15th October 2025 even though the Nebo link had been turned on for Oleanna’s journey back across the boatyard. We’d been in touch with the support team, Mick had checked the wiring, we went through what the team suggested, still no joy. Then right at the bottom of the page was a RESET button. BINGO!!!! There was our her journey across the yard. We’re considering trying out a similar thing, which connects to our Victron GX system, that has been developed by another Finesse boat owner. The cost of it is far less than Nebo Gold, but it doesn’t send you a report after each cruise. It will take a little bit to set up, so it may be a few days before we give it a try.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 van returned, 1 dingding bell forgotten, 1 bbq tongues forgotten, 3 trains, 29 turpperware lids, 27 containers, 18 pairs, 5 new ones, 1 clean cupboard, 1 infection, 1 walker, 3.16miles walked, 1 nebo journey on land, 0 engine service, 0 fridge delivery, 4 cat mode windows

Repaint Week 13 W/C 7th September, part 2

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Redhill Marina/Scarboreugh

Saturday morning, clothes packing. Finding a bag big enough to pack our dirty washing was one job.

I’d made a list of things not to forget, the Christmas hamper, Tilly Too, my scene painting straight edge and some big rollers for panto. I walked up to Sainsbury’s to get provisions for food this evening.

Yes that’s a suitable way for Tilly Too to travel.

Anna our lodger had baked us some of her lace biscuits to bring with us and we gave her instructions about the central heating as she may be needing it in the next few weeks.

Lunch, the last few items into the van. Were we ready? Was Tilly ready? Last call for the pooh box Tilly! No takers. It was washed and packed in the van.

All morning Tilly had been following me round the house, she’d had a final snooze on the back of her favourite armchair, had sniffed at the cat caravan which was sat ready in the shed. She knew exactly what was happening. She positioned herself behind a table in the living room where I could see her, but it would be tricksy to pick her up, was that a purr I could hear?

She and Tom sat down! What’s that all about? You are meant to pick me up and bundle me into the caravan. I’ve heard you closing all the doors in the hallway! They just sat there, I thought ‘Come on! Get on with it!!’ She lunged, but I slipped through. Ah nearly had you there!

On the third approach from Tilly, who was very quietly purring, I succeeded in picking her up and popped her into the caravan. Shouts of dismay came from within as she was carried out to the awaiting van. Time to say goodbye to Scarboreugh Tilly.

Only one cat comfort break on our way south was required today. It was very obvious that she prefers straight roads at a constant speed. On these she fell quiet and laid down. But approaching junctions, slowing turning corners these had her shouting at us. Next time we’ll consider using the A64 to Scarborough as it has far fewer twists and turns and roundabouts.

As soon as the van door opened Tilly knew she was back to boat life, not sure she recognised Oleanna from the outside, but inside things required checking out. First things first. Try to gain access to the secret passage, fail! Check high shelf, tick. Where’s my food bowls? Houdini shelf, tick. These curtains look different, might save them for later. What’s happened to my water bowl? I need a drink after all that fastness!!!

Tilly has a bigger pooh box now, so some thought was needed as it lives under the bathroom sink, and I’m nearly 11 you know! So access needed to be thought about as she gets in it from above. We’ll see how having one corner sticking out works for us all.

More unpacking and attempting to stow things, when will it ever stop! Last of the frozen food items from Scarborough were consumed and then we spent sometime going through our click and collect order deleting all the things I’d added to go in the freezer. Minimum fridge items too.

Then time to sit on the sofa and relax. Normally we have one light on above the sofa, its sufficient light for everything, even knitting. But it seems that this one light has given up on us. We decided to turn on the other lights which feel like the Blackpool Illuminations and require eclipse glasses so as not to go blind! Another job to add to the list.

Sunday morning. The very last day of the Redhill Marina Cafe, she was open from 8:30 until she ran out of sausages, breakfasts only today. We felt we needed to go and support her on her last day, unlike Friday morning it was raining, so we had no view.

The Geraghty zoom followed. Subjects included Social Services for cats, O level German umlauts, bus shelters or the lack of them, carpet gardens and silver sofa surfers.

The click and collect was collected. Chicken wrapped in two insulated bags until later when it would be roasted. Items in the freezer/fridge were edited to accommodate items that have to be in a fridge.

In the afternoon the sun came out which meant we could film the reveal of Oleanna’s livery from the other river bank. It took a few goes at finding somewhere with enough sunlight to light my model and be able to see Oleanna sideways on.

Conversations were had with our friend Steve in Scarborough who had gone to visit a friend whose health has been failing. After a discussion, they decided he’d be better off in hospital. By late evening I had a call saying he was in A&E, he already sounded so much better. I’ve spent the last three weeks trying to get him assessed for walking aids. Hopefully now someone at the hospital will sort him out, rather than me being passed back and forth, time after time, between social services and the GP.

Mick checked out the light above the sofa. The bulb is fine, we’re hoping it’s the fitting and not the wiring. Plus there seems to now be a loose connection on the temporary fridge!

Having not been for a meaningful walk for a few days I decided to see what Trent Lock looked like from the other side than we’re used to. I crossed over the bridge by the flood lock, across the next bridge to get off the island then along the towpath where I could then start to head north towards Trent Lock.

A lovely early Sunday evening, the sun shining across the fields and I could hear a squeeze box, fiddle and guitar drifting from Trent Lock, a very jolly jig. The corner of Cranfleet cut was chocka block with boats, but there was space for two on the pontoon. Sods law as we don’t want to move until the engine has been serviced and we’ve taken delivery of the new fridge! A nice walk away from stowing items on the boat.

Sunday roast chicken was enjoyed. Now that all three of us were aboard, we’d planned to crack open the bottle of champagne we’d been given by Mark one of our witnesses for our Tuesday Civil Partnership. However, not having a fridge or space in the temporary one means that we will now hang onto it to celebrate us all being back on board with brand new refrigeration!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 cat safely moved, 2nd mate settling in, 1 box of biscuits, 1 chicken not 2, 2 much STUFF!!!! 3 9’s, 1 right decision, 1 failed light 2 add to the list, 1 box of warm white wine, 2nd cooked breakfast in a week, 0 knitting, 2 boaters 1 cat back on the waterways, lets hope there’s enough water to get us places!

Normal Service Will Return Soon

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Redhill Marina

She has asked me to let you all know that, Tom, She and I are all back on board Oleanna and she has a wet bottom.

She wants you all to know that it has been a VERY busy week with allsorts of things going on, not just boaty things.

She says normal service on the blog will be returning soon.

She says there is still a lot for She and Tom to sort out, I have to agree as the boat is a complete TIP! They really should have tried harder before my return!

Once the boat is more suitable for living in, She will fill you all in on what has been happening. Well She might want a sit down first with me on her lap

She wants to reassure everyone, that She will do a big reveal of Oleanna’s new livery very soon.

I just want to know when I can go out to find some friends and when will they start moving the outside!

But for now, you just need to know that apart from the fridge, we are all very happy! If we weren’t in Nottinghamshire, I might even be a Cheshire Cat!

Repaint Week 12 W/C 31st August

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Redhill Marina / Scarboreugh

Bank Holiday Monday, I had an early walk. Then having a car, Mick collected Frank and brought him round, getting him out of his house and so that we could help him fill in a form. A lot of concentration and a couple of mugs of tea were needed. More socks for the Felicity Edition of my sockathon were finished off and packed up ready to be posted.

Tuesday morning. We’d already decided that heading to Redhill today would be pretty pointless as not much would have changed since we’d been there last Thursday. Before we’d finished our cuppa in bed we got a message from Tom. He’s still be on holiday until the end of the week. Bertie was getting on with jobs, could we go down to meet with him on Friday? Yes. We extended the car hire by a couple of days.

What to do with ourselves with a hire car at our disposal? Mick did a little look round on the National Trust website. Robin Hoods Bay, before they close the visitor centre? No, been there seen how they altered my Dad’s award-winning building for Marine Biology. Nunnington Hall? Might have been before, but it was a very long time ago if I had. We got ourselves sorted, found our NT cards and set off for a day out.

Nunnington Hall sits north of York across the Howardian Hills. More a manor house than a big hall it still is quite grand. Originally a nunnery, hence the name, the oldest parts of the house date back to Tudor times. Successive owners have left their mark, a combination of re-purpose and renovation.

In the 1920’s Margaret Fife inherited the hall which was in quite a state. Walter Brierley was engaged to renovate the hall. As we walked round, reading the information panels, Walters name kept being mentioned. I wanted to ask a guide about this chap. Could he be the Brierley who had been senior partner of my fathers architectural practice in York during my Grandfathers days?

Numerous four poster beds, green painted walls, views into the gardens. Up to the top floor, here there were plans of the house when it was being renovated, dated 1921 and signed Brierley and Rutherford, 13 Lendal, York. No need to ask a guide anymore other than for any further information as this is where my Grandfather and Father worked. The drawing may have been drawn by my Grandfather, who knows. Cecil, my grandfather, took over as senior partner in 1926 a year after my Dad was born. In Dad’s time the practice was called Brierley, Leckenby, Keighley and Groom and was the oldest architectural practice in the country having been founded by John Carr. It still is, continuing under the name of Brierley and Groom.

A guide was asked about him, but she was far more interested in chatting about the Carlisle Collection, a collection of miniatures. Mostly 1:8 models of period rooms, everything made from the materials the 1:1 objects would have been made from. Some exquisite handiwork on show and interesting to me. But I would have like to know more about Brierley.

Up on the top floor is a gallery space. The exhibition was about Gina and how she fixed fairy tales. Her main solutions seemed to involve cake, a very good way of thinking. By now we were starting to feel hungry so headed to the cafe on the ground floor for lunch, a toasted sandwich and jacket potato. This was followed by a walk round the garden, orchards, iris gardens all very nicely kept by what seemed like a small army of volunteers. A good day out.

**Packing paints to go in deep storage**

Wednesday involved some PA duties for Frank, the start of a painting I’ve been planning for a while and some packing of work things hoping that we’d be able to take them to the boat.

Thursday, a message was sent to Tom hopefully now back from his holiday. We’d really like to be able to leave the dinette cushions on our next visit as they take up quite a lot of space in a car. He said that once he’d caught up with Bertie he would make it his first job to clean through the boat.

**Coming down the Col de Wetwang, or is it Sledmere?**

Friday morning we followed the course of that days Tour of Britain around Sledmere into Wetwang and further south where they would veer off towards Beverley. It was a slow drive and we arrived near to 1pm. The chaps were hard at work on Oleanna, a new neighbour sat alongside, a new shell with one spray of blacking (it most probably arrived like this from the shell builder).

**A new neighbour, not even spray foamed**

There were discussions as to the diesel cap lock. Unfortunately, Mick had bought one that had been in stock, but the pipe into our tank is a different diameter and we have four fixings not three. We’ll need to be in touch with the chap who makes them, we also noted that the original filler cap had been got by the grit blasting, we’ll want to replace that.

Tom had had a very good go inside Oleanna, all the spray foam off cuts removed, a good tidy and he’d obviously spent quite a bit of time hoovering and dusting things down. I wanted to make sure places I wanted to stow things were dust free so carried on where Tom had stopped, but delving deep into the recesses of Oleanna.

Once behind the freezer was clean, possibly the cleanest it’s been since brand new, I could stow my work boxes. A few items could return to the house like the angle poise which has a dodgy connection. I now have a ring light with a weighted base and magnifying lens which will serve two purposes and packs away smaller.

I worked from the galley towards the bow. Gosh how long had that bottle of water been sat in the fridge for?! Ten maybe eleven months! With no water in the tank all I could do was hoover and dust, washing things down will have to wait a little while. Under the back steps we now have a round inspection hatch, just the job.

**Anti-slipped bow, locker lids and everything!**

Access was from the stern today as the bow was being made ready for anti-slip paint. More than we had originally. I spotted that between the new T studs and cratch board there wasn’t an area for anti-slip, this was mentioned to Bertie and amended.

As I hoovered as many recesses I could get into, Mick and Tom were busy at the stern. They hooked up Oleanna so there was light inside. The engine was turned over but not for very long as we are inside. A service is arranged hopefully next week sometime. Then they got on with pulling new cables through from the electrics cupboard to outside for a new 5G antenna. We will be installing a new 5G router when back on board. Now Mick could see what state the batteries were in. The solar controller was looked at too, very little voltage was showing from the new panels but that is hardly surprising inside the shed. But at least there was some voltage showing, indicating that the panels are actually connected.

The sofa was pulled out, the door that used to be in front of the washing machine removed to be taken to the house along with a big block of foam, no need to keep them here. Ah, but what will Tilly make of the secret passageway now? Will we need to put something in there to be the new secret?? Or should we leave it empty so she has no interest in squeezing herself through the tiny gap?

**No longer Tyler Wilson on the stern anti slip**

Some of the grills under the mushroom vents had been put back on. The amount of dust on them needed to be hoovered. They are better but will need taking down for a thorough clean once we’re back on board. The dinette cushions could now be brought back on board, she was starting to look habitable again.

We had a walk round outside with Tom. Marks from the painting will be polished out, hinges touched up, edges missed by the spray gun will be hand painted in. I asked for the wooden liners of the side hatch and back doors to be sanded back and varnished, the cratch and locker lids already done. I tried to peek inside the gas locker with it’s fresh coat of paint and band of filler over the hole into the bow thruster locker, but I wasn’t tall enough to peek inside and managed to anti-slip my hand in the process! Oh well, I’ve left my mark on her.

A realistic time scale for her going back in the water was discussed. The base plate still needs painting, Tom hoped to get a coat on parts of it today before leaving so that the blocks Oleanna sits on can be moved meaning the whole of the base plate will get painted. The plank and pole rest still needs attaching, other bits and bobs and the final snagging is to be done. Hopefully if the weather plays ball we should be back afloat sometime next week. We’ll confirm with Tom on Monday when we know what the weather is doing.

We came away feeling far better than last week, we’ve inched closer to her being ours again. First thing was to head to Trowell services on the M1 north for a comfort break and for a very late lunch, we’d not wanted to stop the momentum at the paint shed when we’d arrived today. Sad gits sandwiches from M&S and then we plotted a route across country to avoid delays on the M1.

There is more packing to do in Scarborough, mostly things we’d packed a month ago that have now been unpacked! Maybe I’ll want to re-access the items of clothing packed to be put under the bed for winter. There is a press night we can attend for the new Ayckbourn at the SJT and we need to make sure everything is sorted for Frank. Some head space looking out to sea was required yesterday, that distant horizon is always worth a stop to look at. Then a gluten free challah loaf was made, it’s only the second time I’ve made one and I’ve been short of one ingredient for a while. It is so tasty.

Fingers and paws crossed that this next week will be the week!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire car extended, 3 days of PA duties, 2.5 ml, 2 drawings that Grandad Lecko may have drawn, 1 scarecrow, 1 boat inching towards the finish line, 2 sets of doors to go, 1 baseplate, 1 lock 2 skinny, 1 empty secret, 0 bananas anti-slipped, 2 many things to go outside still in cupboards, 1 hire car returned, 1 van planned but not booked, 1 skip required, 4 miles of the Cleveland Way walked.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna

Category Archives: Boat cats

Out Of Our Hands

Cruising Back To Blogging.

How Did They Do That?! 18th September

Slowing To Stop. 17th September

That Spring Feeling. 16th September

Keeping Things Crossed. 15th September

Windows To Cat Mode. 14th September

Repaint Week 13 W/C 7th September, part 2

Normal Service Will Return Soon

Repaint Week 12 W/C 31st August