Category Archives: Cats on the Cut

Released! 2nd September

Burton on Trent / Derby Hospital

I’d set the alarm clock, but I was awake long before it was going to go off. Tea with breakfast, no shore leave for Tilly, there were far more important things to do this morning, I hoped!

Mick messaged. The new shift of nurses arrived at 7am, ‘You’re going home today!’ one of them said. Next news that the missing box of pills had been dispatched from the pharmacy. It now depended on the route the hospital drugs run took around the hospital as to when it would arrive.

Breakfasted, I headed into town, to the Market Square where a queue of Bus Pass holders waited for it to turn 09:28 for them to be able to tap onto the 09:30 bus to Derby. At 09:58, as I got out of the lift on the 4th floor of the Royal Derby Hospital I got a message from Mick.

Dressed and packed and released Waiting in reception

I pressed the bell to allow me entry onto the ward, there he was sat with all his things, checking his paperwork! The nurse had been, delivered his last box of pills, he’d signed things then been left to get dressed and pack his bag. He managed to say goodbye to Brian in the bed next door, but the other two inmates had their curtains closed. Everyone was busy, no-one to say thank you to, we thanked the receptionist and headed on our way, the first time Mick had seen any of the hospital really.

A free man out in the sunshine again

No ambulance crew to help him, not that it was needed. We waited for the bus, checked which stop would be nearest to Oleanna with the current road works in Burton. Then I pointed out the sights as the bus whizzed it’s way along the A38, Willington Cooling Towers, Clay Mills pumping Station.

What to eat this evening? What would the released inmate most like to eat? I ended up having to offer various things, chicken pie and a jacket potato came out top. A few items would be needed from Sainsburys where the bus would drop us off.

Veg and fruit

A few items purchased then we took our time walking back to Oleanna. This is the first time Mick has seen this side of Burton on Trent, he had been going to explore whilst I worked for a few days. Being outside was one thing, moving through the outside another.

Oh Hi, I’m busy!!

Back at Oleanna Tilly was keen…. to go out! No healing head nudges for Mick, there was the great outside to explore! Lunch followed by an afternoon kip for Mick. A phone call regarding an MRI scan back at Derby in a few days gave us something to think about. Water and bus routes to be kept in mind. I worked on better scans for panto, piling up books to get things as flat as possible took up most of the afternoon, just a few pesky little areas not quite in focus.

Scanning, again!

A catch up phone call with Frank was interrupted by the sound of a boat engine, NB Bargus with Kat, Teddy and Bella. A few days ago I’d placed an order for a top up of diesel and some bags of coal, not knowing whether I’d be onboard or not. Kat topped us up and chatted away as Teddy her admin helper scurried along the top plank making sure she only delivered the right amount of coal to us, keeping a tally on their stock. Diesel £1.01 and coal £15 a bag. Yes we would have saved by topping up at Shobnall Marina, but we try to support the coal boats whenever we can as they are a life line in the colder months.

Having first hand information about the level at Alrewas was good. Kat had struggled her way to Fradley with one boat towing another pushing through bridge holes on the Coventry Canal a few days ago. Yesterday the locks around Fradley had gone onto time restrictions, that today had reached Bagnall Lock, the one above the lock onto the river section. In Kats opinion it won’t be long before Alrewas closes too due to lack of water. Below the canal is fed by the river, so venturing as far as Wychnor Lock should remain possible.

Chicken leek mushroom and tarragon pie

For dinner, there was the chicken to use up from my Sunday roast and the remaining pastry in the freezer from our Whitsunday Pie. Individual pies were made up with leeks and mushrooms in a Tarragon sauce, jacket spuds cooked in the oven too with some nice green crunchy broccoli. Not one packet of salt or pepper in view. We may even have had a glass of wine too!

It’s very good to have him home.

Us

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 1 leek, 2 pies, 2 jackets, 1 afternoon kip, 75 litres diesel, £1.01, 3 bags excel, 12 more scans, 7 books, 3 box sets precariously balanced, 1 box of pills, 1 Mick back with his boat.

Where we travelled in August

Ham or Chicken. 31st August

Burton on Trent / Derby Hospital

A cuppa in bed with the papers

10 out of 10 and 8 out of 10 for the blind date was relayed to the hospital where Bran Flakes had been served up this morning along with a request for a banana.

I joined the Geraghty zoom, very good to see all of Mick’s sisters, there seems to be a touch of hospital relay race going on in the family, one out, one in and another waiting to go in. Here’s hoping in a few weeks everyone will be at home and all sorted. Subjects discussed today obviously included medical things, armed guard drug deliveries, jazz hand sight tests, pulling the whistle and poo dominoes!

A good sun puddle day for Tilly

I packed a bag for Mick, our hope is that if I provided him with several clean sets of clothes he’d end up not needing them, fingers crossed. A new set of pyjamas was requested, no washing of clothes allowed on Oleanna at the moment to conserve water, plus his ear plugs. Last night after one chap had finally persuaded the staff to let him go home despite there not being a full array of his drugs to take with him (the missing one he had plenty of already at home) a new patent was admitted. Everyone on the ward has been affected in different ways by their stroke, this poor fella needed his bed changing several times during the night which obviously was quite disturbing for everyone, especially himself.

A brighter sky today

One bus company don’t run on Sundays, I had to make sure I wouldn’t end up being stranded either as the buses stopped late afternoon. A visit to Primark on the way to catch the bus then it zoomed it’s way up to Derby.

Mick was making full use of his chair, it even had an extra gel pad to sit on. No new news and no visits from a doctor of any sort, he’s just in a holding bed, or that’s what it feels like. In the bed opposite is a chap who has lost more sight than Mick. The Occupational Therapists had taken him into a kitchen on the ward and asked him to make a cuppa. ‘I wouldn’t know how, I never make tea, my wife does it’ ‘What sort of things do you cook?’ ‘I don’t, my wife does the cooking’. He was also taken for a walk down the ward then asked to find his way back to his room, ‘How am I meant to do that?’ He’s certain they have written that he is stroppy on his notes and isn’t allowed home because of this. He did offer Mick some positive news that 18 to 20% of people who have sight loss after a stroke make a full recovery, wonder if he’ll ever be capable of making his own cuppa!

We chatted, swapped clothes over. Took a photo so everyone can see he’s still with us. He insisted on me taking the photo of him pulling that funny face. Good job he was a telephone engineer and not an actor hamming it up like that! Mick ordered roast chicken for his dinner which sounded like a good idea, so I headed off to catch a bus that would have me back in Burton in time to do some shopping.

How do single people manage to shop? It’s been twenty odd years since I lived on my own. I wanted just a chicken leg to roast with some veg. I could only buy them in fours. The freezer is full of the things we had delivered last week so no room for three legs in there. I ended up buying a small chicken to roast.

Micks chicken breast looked like it had been grown in a lab, mine had tarragon and garlic under the skin. Mick had watery things that resembled sprouts, I had crunchy broccoli. Mick had gravy that had been nuked in a microwave, turned slightly chewy towards the edges, I had gravy with wine and tomato puree in it. What I didn’t have was little packets of salt and pepper though!

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 sisters, 2 buses, 1 pyjama set, 2 clean pairs of pants and socks, 1 cheese salad, 1 bored boy, 1 stroppy chap, 1 well used chair, 1 small chicken, 1 cultured chicken, 1 bored cat, 0 new neighbours on the cut, 2 boaters 1 cat with everything crossed for tomorrow.

Salted Butter. 30th August

Burton on Trent / Derby

I woke at 6 feeling a little odd, was it something I’d eaten or stress related? I haven’t had a funny turn like this is in years. Mick had a slightly quieter night in the hospital. Porridge for breakfast, not really hot, but not cold as he normally has it on the boat. When I woke I opted to collect the Saturday newspaper before having breakfast. My pace nowhere near brisk today, I felt quite rotten really, good job we’d decided I’d not head to the hospital. If I had a bug I didn’t want to take it in with me. The paper was placed on Micks side of the bed, it’s purchase not quite so much of a treat this weekend.

Hopefully these would sort my insides out

Poached eggs on toast would hopefully make things better. Then it was time to do some work. I tried rescanning things. I compared scans. The ones the print company were saying were better, were in my mind really quite bad!

Quack!

Was there a different way of scanning them? Would they need to be sent to the printers to be scanned? Not having my IT department handy wasn’t helping. I decided to do some chores instead for a while. On Oleanna, as I’m sure happens in most homes, we each have jobs we do, you could call them pink or blue jobs, but I’m really not partial to pink! It’s time we got to know each others jobs. Today the yellow water needed emptying. Which cap to take off? There are two next to each other, one connected to a gulper pump, the other for a manual pump should the gulper stop working. ‘Which ever is finger tight’ ah yes easy! Container outside the bathroom porthole and you can reach everything . Job done.

Container and hose, ready to pump

Now could I sort the bathroom cupboard? The mirrored door goes into a spring loaded push to open catch, which should release when you push the door. With aid of a screw driver pulling the door out whilst I also pushed it in it came free very easily. It might be that the door hinges need tightening. Or more likely the catch needs replacing as the spring isn’t springing anymore. For the time being the door can remain slightly open, Tilly hopefully won’t be so bored that she tries to empty the cupboard, the toilet roll will get murdered long before she discovers the cupboard.

A bit of a tuna theme with hospital meals today, a jacket potato with cheese and tuna, this came with 3 pats of butter, most probably salted. For dinner Mick opted for a tuna salad, far healthier than the chicken goujons and chips.

Butter

I battened everything down on the roof as the wind was picking up. Did my best to popper the extra poppers on the covers. This is quite difficult on 8 year old covers with my reduced grip, as the covers have shrunk and are really REALLY tight.

Time to get back to panto. Chatgpt suggested using a setting I’d tried on the scanner, it should allow me to scan at 1200 dpi if I dug deep enough. Just how to turn off the thumbnail viewer though?. There were suggestions, but the right things didn’t appear on menus, a bit like veg in hospital meals! The scanner wanted to update itself, I let it. Then hey presto the thumbnail viewer had vanished! The first scan took forever, a good sign. The file size bigger in pixels as well as DPI and half a GB. Before I lost whatever settings I’d set I made sure I scanned everything I could find.

Us girls holding the fort

A try out to see if Mick would be able to join the Geraghty zoom tomorrow from his hospital room. At Christmas he was given a headband which has built in speakers. This is so you can lie in bed without having headphones in your ears, much more comfortable. The headband has proved useful in hospital as it also can be worn over your eyes. Mick wanted to try it out with his phone to see if he could talk on zoom without his room in the hospital being able to hear everything. Well I was audible across the ward, Mick was only occasionally audible here in Burton and he was nowhere to be seen on screen. So sadly he won’t be able to chat to his sisters in the morning.

The chilly wind outside spurred me on to light the stove. So as the gales and downpours hit, Tilly and I sat all cosy inside Oleanna. I spent the rest of the evening tidying up the cyc for Panto, if the printers say it’s better I need to find the time to rework all the other things they’ll be printing.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0.5 water tank, 1 Saturday newspaper, 1 wobbly Pip, 1 bored Mick, 1 sausage day for Tilly, 13 minutes brisk walking, 18.6grams Butter, 1 cosy warm stove, 1200dpi, 1 scanner fooled into working beyond itself.

To Grow A Peach Like You. 27th August

Burton on Trent / Derby

I was delivered a cuppa in bed this morning, Mick was having breakfast, he then set off to hopefully catch the A&E department at Queens Hospital Burton early. It’s about a fifteen minute walk to the hospital and across the busy A38. He was triaged quickly at about 8:30, the screen saying that the waiting time to see a clinician was currently 17 minutes!

Very autumnal

Twenty minutes later he moved to the Urgent Treatment Centre waiting area. I got up and started to do some work on panto. Today with Mick out of the way for a while I was going to sort out stretching the artwork for the front cloth. With Tilly out I had the peace and quiet to find a solution and start work on it.

By 9:30 Mick was waiting for a CT scan to make sure he’d not had a stroke, they didn’t think he had.

Opposite the moorings started to empty out. I considered moving over but the wind was building and I didn’t fancy fighting to tie Oleanna up. Plus there was a group of youths chasing each other around the fields holding large firework rockets in their hands, the rockets aimed at each other.

An empty waiting room

11:30 Mick joined the queue for a scan. Fifteen minutes later the fire alarm went off and he was put in a wheelchair to move him to somewhere safe, this is when Mick seemed to become attached to wheels. Just after midday he’d had his scan, just had to wait for the results. The waiting room emptied out until he was the sole person there, had everyone gone for lunch?

Then at 2pm he was given the results, he’d had a small stroke. They were deciding what to do with him, where to refer him to. I headed over to be his back up memory, my second client as a Medical PA, I’d already caught up with Frank this morning. Mick’s messages suggested he didn’t think he’d be there long, he didn’t want me to take lunch, I took a banana and not much else. Have to say the result wasn’t that much of a surprise to me as my Dad had a stroke that affected his vision, he couldn’t see Judith Stamper one of the Look North presenters on TV one night. Mick’s problem had been similar, but his blank spots had come and gone.

Ambulance 4851

Finding the A&E department was quite complicated, just as I got close he said he was being sent to Derby Hospital to the stroke unit there, they were arranging transport. Then I was given the number of the ambulance he was about to be put in, we met just as he was being pushed up the ramp into it. Neither of us had expected him to going somewhere overnight.

Our second ambulance ride and third hospital in two weeks. It didn’t take that long to reach The Royal Derby Hospital where he was popped on a trolley in the middle of the A&E Majors. Pretty soon a nurse from the Acute Stroke Unit arrived, she chatted things through. Did various visual tests and others for stroke victims. She’d seen his CT scan and they wanted him to stay for tests to try to find out why it had happened, maybe it was connected to our previous trip to hospital ten days ago, or it might just be a coincidence.

Finally someone asked him to move to a room with reclining chairs, he was allowed to actually walk there. He was given some food, pasta carbonara … possibly! We waited, there had been mention that there was a bed for him up on the ward and it would only be an hour before he could move. We waited, a few people came and went, we waited. Nothing else was going to happen today so I opted to leave and head back to feed Tilly, we made a list of things he’d be needing. A very handy express bus back to Burton, a bit of shopping and I was back on board within an hour. I had a nice homemade chicken curry old style for my dinner.

By the time I headed for bed, Mick was still sat in his recliner, a man was asking everyone who arrived what they were there for, he was obviously an expert in everything and seriously annoying! His chat up line for the nurses, ‘They grow pears in America, they grow apples there too. But it takes a place like (insert where the nurse comes from) Swadlincote to grow a peach like you.’

0 locks, 0 miles, 0.3 of a front cloth sorted, 2 hours shore leave, 1 CT scan, 1 blood test, 2 A&E’s, 1 ambulance, 1 wheel chair, 2 trolleys, 1 recliner chair, 1 bus, 1 bemused cat, 241 messages, 1 stroke.

Raindrops And Bins. 26th August

Willington Visitor Mooring to Opposite Shobnall Fields

Our wet morning view

Proper old fashioned rain woke us this morning! Do you remember it? Only half an hour, but still it was a step in the right direction. Still in bed, with cuppas in hand we watched as more boaters came with rubbish, more rubbish added to the ground of the compound. Then a Biffa wagon arrived, today with a crew of two. They looked at the state before them, walked round to the side and opened up one of the sides, from here they could move one of the skips to be emptied without having to move any of the bags on the ground. It was emptied, positioned close to the compound but not in it, as now the mountain of bin bags had fallen over. Photos were taken and the crew of two climbed back in their cabin and headed off to the next site.

Soon the locals were around to inspect the compound. One lady arrived and added a bag to the floor mountain, then chatted away to a chap who’d come to take photos. According to him the bins had been emptied on Friday, did he know that Biffa had been yesterday? They chatted for a while, he was on the case with CRT and had been asked to take photos for them.

Willington

A while later two more people arrived with bin bags. One just dropped their bag on the floor, the other actually found the empty skip and used that. Later a couple arrived, the empty skip was manoeuvred closer and the chap spent a while filling it with bags from the floor, the skip was then slotted back into the compound, not all bags of rubbish were off the floor, but a tidy up might mean the skips could be accessed now to be emptied.

There are several problems with the bins. Biffa only empty bins, they don’t move rubbish. Boaters feel it is okay to add their rubbish to an already overfull compound, yet this just means the bins don’t get emptied. If boaters kept their rubbish and came back the next day the bins might all be empty. Sorting waste on board means you can get rid of the smelly things more often, after all we are one of few boaters using the food waste bins, so there’s plenty of room! Bin compounds are fewer than they used to be, boaters still produce the same amount of rubbish, so the compounds maybe should be of a larger capacity to cope. Fly tipping is also a problem, both by general public and boaters. We do our bit, if only others would do the same.

We obviously had time on our hands this morning whilst we waited for Sainsburys to arrive with our shopping. A handy picnic bench meant we could see their arrival whilst watching boats come and go, but thankfully be away from constantly watching the bins!

It was after 2pm by the time everything was stowed onboard, sadly I’d omitted to buy some smoked mackerel! I’d looked at it, bought all the other things to go with it but not added some to our basket!

CRT came to inspect too

We opted to move on, back to the mooring towards Burton, Mick had a GP phone appointment about some medication, so maybe it was better to move sooner than later, phone signal patchy here and the internet quite dodgy. As we made ready to push off a CRT van arrived, more photos taken of the compound, they then climbed back in their vehicle and drove away. We winded, cruised just over a mile to the stretch of armco, tied up, put the kettle on and gave Tilly the good news 3 whole hours! Time for a very late lunch.

Pootle

I’d spotted a sign on the towpath the other day, a circular walk round a nature reserve. I stripped the chicken, so I could drop off the carcass in the food waste bin back in Willington, plenty of space in that bin! Mick had his phone call. He wanted to chat about various things that have been happening in the last week or so, including his trip in the ambulance. They chatted through the cough that has come on, maybe a side effect of a rise in his medication. He was given a link to a community optician that he might be able to access in Burton for other symptoms rather than having to return to Scarborough.

After finding an optician and calling them, describing what was happening, they suggested he should be seen at A&E. The nearest Emergency Department is in Burton, just across the way from Shobnall Fields. We apologised to Tilly for curtailing her shore leave and closed the rear hatch, but we wanted to move on into Burton today.

Baaa!

Under one of the road bridges are four murals designed by local children. I especially liked the sheep on one of them. Not much else to note on the walk back into town that I hadn’t seen before. We followed behind a single hander who I leant a hand to at Dallow Lock, then worked us up behind. As I walked round to close the bottom gates my right foot felt funny. It wouldn’t follow me as it normally did. It felt like I was dragging it, a quick look and a sit down on a bollard and I found the problem a big fishing hook had got caught in the sole of my shoe, I was now attached to something at the other end of the lock. I managed to undo myself and collected the long line of line, that would have seriously hurt if I’d been wearing sandals.

Dallow Lock again

It being after 6pm Shobnall Fields was just about full, well a good smattering of git gaps. We opted to pull in opposite, this would mean Mick could head to the hospital in the morning and I could do some work for panto.

Hook, line but no sinker

1 lock, 4.9 miles, 1 wind, 37 photos of a bin compound, 2 Biffa, 1 Crt, 27 more bags of rubbish, I do wonder how much less rubbish there would be if people used the food waste bin!! 4 boxes wine, 3 hours curtailed to 1! 1 disgruntled cat, 0 mackerel, 1 new drug, 1 dropped, 1 visit put off till tomorrow.

https://what3words.com/cape.tennis.makes

Smoking Chimney. 24th August

Marston Visitor Moorings to High Bridge Aqueduct

Shobnall weathervane

A cuppa in bed with the newspaper, followed by the Geraghty zoom. Acorn coffee and flour, Jelly bags, underwater feeders, trench foot and not going out on a Bank Holiday Monday were topics this morning.

We were just about to push off to when a boat was heading towards us, we were wanting to return to the winding hole behind so waited for them to come past. However they were also turning, but then pulled in just beyond the narrow opening to Shobnall Marina as a boat was already tucked away in there getting topped up and emptied. As Mick brought Oleanna to the winding hole he soon aborted his manoeuvre as the boat that had seemingly seemed to be busy had now finished and was about to turn back out onto the canal. I went to chat with the other boat, yes they were heading in through the bridge for a pump out but we could wind first. I waved Mick on, he winded apologising to the anglers right by the mouth of the marina, he didn’t get a reply just a grimmace. What did they think setting up where boats are guaranteed to be turning!

Coming into Dallow Lock

Dallow Lock was neither full nor empty, I waited for Oleanna to be in sight before topping it up, it’s a quick lock to work so we were soon on our way hoping for a mooring around Bridge 29. We were in luck a space with armco a little way on, we pulled in and had an early lunch.

Whilst on the train the other day, I’d looked up what there was to do around Burton. High up on the list was a visit to Claymills Victorian Pumping Station. On further investigation we discovered that this weekend it was going to be steam! We are finally in the right place at the right time for somewhere to be open and with engines working away as they once did day in day out! Hooray!! We weren’t going to miss this.

Black smoke!

At Bridge 29 there is a sign with directions to follow, it also says that if you can see black smoke coming from the chimney then it’s a steaming day. Sure enough there was a little plume of black smoke curling up to the sky. We crossed the busy road and headed on, the aroma from the sewage works drawing us onwards.

Claymills Pumping Station

Back in the day, 1859, when Burton was making pints and pints of beer the River Trent was one flowing stinking river. For every pint of beer made the brewers put eight pints of used water back into the river. It stank and the river was dying. The first solution was to send all the waste water downhill to where Claymills was built. Here the sewage was left in beds so the solids would sink to the bottom, the cleaner water was then put back into the river. This however didn’t work, the river still stank.

The next idea was to pump the sewage to a farm 3 miles away at Egginton, fields in turn had a layer of sewage poured onto them, this was then ploughed in. It still stank! The next move was to add lime into the mix, this was mixed into the sewage, then the mix pumped out to the farm. The 27inch diameter pipes suffered, unsurprisingly with lime scale which had to be chipped out. Today nobody told us whether this process actually worked to stem the stench, but it must have gone someway to helping with the 20 million litres of sewage a day!

Not enough!

The pumping station operated with four beam engines, steam being provided by five Lancashire-type boilers. These were run on coal, but today they were trying out Bio Mass as an alternative. The pumping station is classed as a Traction Engine so it is allowed to burn coal, but should the day come when they have to stop, bio mass may well be the fuel they have to use. Today you could hear the numerous volunteers mumbling and some quite audibly complaining about the lack of psi the eco mass was giving, sadly not enough to get all four beam engines up and running, however B and D were busy pumping away.

Today you can walk into both engine houses, climb the spiral staircases and walk on the metal mesh floor looking down on those three floors below. I’m not keen on heights and after about five minutes up the top I’d had enough, the beam engines were amazing but their constant movement shuddered the floor.

Down to the rear of the engine houses between them is the Boiler House. Here several chaps sat about chatting. One fella was deep in conversation with another in overalls, should they add coal into the mix to get the pressure up? Another chap poked and prodded the boilers, topped the hoppers at the top up with more of the lumps of greenish bio mass, a hot place to work.

Victorian through and through

The pumping continued until 1971 when a new pumping treatment plant was installed next door, the Victorian buildings were left to decay. In1986 the buildings were listed and the owners Severn Trent appealed for volunteers to look after the engines, as a result the current trust was formed. During the years of decay anything brass had been stolen, various parts removed to other museums. Restoration work commenced in 1993.

By 2023, after 30 years of work all four beam engines had been restored to operational condition along with two boilers. They worked hard to bring back to the site other original steam engines, these have all now been restored and are back working on days like today.

The steam powered workshop has been restored, belts criss cross around the building providing power to all the machines. Next door is the dynamo house with its 1889 Crompton Dynamo, the oldest in-situ working dynamo set in the UK. If the bio mass had been giving them a higher psi then this building would have been shut to the public, only being able to peer in from behind a gate. But there was no danger of falling on live things today. Alongside the Crompton Dynamo with all its posh brass is a self built dynamo which was made from whatever the engineers could get their hands on. If you worked at the pumping Station and lived in site, you got free electricity.

Outside people had brought other items of interest. Numerous Austin cars, a Renault, a fire engine from Aldermaston, vintage varieties of apples, a cuddly woofer. Numerous people walked the site in overalls, from the age of nine to eighty something. Pulling levers, oil and grease ingrained everything except the apples and the polish on the cars. No fancy paintwork on the engines, just hard sweaty oily red, pumping pumping away, well apart from Engine A that needed more psi. What an interesting place and well worth visiting on a steam day if you can catch one of the seven weekends a year.

Back at Oleanna we wanted to move on away from the busy road, some shore leave required by Tilly today. Only a mile got us away, only just, from the A38 and the railway tracks, an hour and a quarter was awarded to the second mate. I set about sussing out how much less time we’d need the oven on to cook a spatchcocked chicken. The temperature outside had been creeping up most of the day, but our tummies were requesting roast chicken. I cut the backbone from the chicken, leant on the breast bone and flattened it. Pulled out the roasting tin that normally only gets used for roasting duck with it’s lift out rack, hopefully this would reduce the oven time by at least half an hour.

The chicken turned out very juicy, took an hour to cook, just a slight adjustment to get the other veg browned and job done, a Sunday roast without us getting too roasted ourselves. What a good Sunday.

1 lock, 3.7 miles, 1 wind, 1 smoking chimney, £10, £9 OAP, 4 beam engines, numerous other engines,1 Renault, 1 woofer, 361 volunteers, 8 varieties apple, 20 not 60, A not wanting anything of it, 1 flattened chicken, 2 beers, 1 good Sunday.

https://what3words.com/strut.scavenger.blissful

The Only Paper In Town. 23rd August

Shobnall Fields to Marston Visitor Moorings

I could hear an engine, Could this be him? I stopped eating my cereal and stuck my head out of the hatch. It was Brian on NB That’s It and he was going to pull in for a cuppa. We first came across NB That’s It at Sykehouse Lock a few years ago, then shared Johnson’s Hillock Locks and the Wigan flight with them a few years ago. They moor at Strawberry Island in Doncaster and were one of the leading boats of the Strawberry Fools flotilla that set off the Fund Britain’s Waterways Campaign Cruises this year, which we joined to go through Gainsborough on 1st April. Since then Brian and Jo have cruised down to London, honked their horns outside the Houses of Parliament, reached Lechlade, up to Torksey on to Boston, crossed the Wash, cruised to Bedford, waited for locks on the River Nene to be mended and now Brian is heading back to Doncaster single handing. Until yesterday he’d single handed his way from Peterborough to the bottom of Glascote Locks in 7 days to beat the stoppages, several flights of locks will be locked shut at the end of Monday, remaining that way until we have seen some significant rainfall over several weeks.

Brian on NB That’s It

We’d spotted that our paths would cross, so had he, messages had been exchanged yesterday about returning our Middle Level windlass and key. This morning he’d already pulled into Shobnall Marina to top up with diesel, 200 litres (85p)! There was time for a catch up over a coffee, he can slow down now that he’s out of the danger zone. After an hour of catching up he set off again, todays mission would be to battle with striking trains!

I’ve been up all these big trees now!

Yesterday when I returned from Dawlish I’d spotted a boat we were looking out for, NB Jemima-D, Marc and Fabienne had spotted Oleanna and said hello to Mick, he’d just assumed they read the blog so hadn’t twigged that they were also new members of Cutweb an internet based Cruising Club that we have joined this year. I could see someone was outside, an ideal opportunity to go and say hello to them.

NB Jemima-D is a shareboat, or co-operative boat, currently with ten owners, but hoping to be back up to twelve owners soon. Marc volunteers at Harecastle Tunnel and they are watching the water levels dropping at that end of the Trent and Mersey. Boats are starting to sit on the bottom in Stoke. They were glad to still be able to cruise, but their boat won’t be returning to base for sometime. Maybe they’d get chance to do some of the Tidal Trent. It was very good to meet you and maybe our bows will cross again in the coming weeks.

Our two days on the mooring were up. What to do now? We opted to move up to just past Shobnall Marina onto another 2 day mooring. From here we can explore Burton, Tilly hopefully would have some friendly cover to explore too rather than having to climb the giant trees on the playing fields, I’ve got quite good at that! Great views from up there.

The moorings were empty, so we pulled up at the far end. A quick scout round, a busyish road through the trees and friendly cover, hopefully there’d be enough to keep Tilly occupied and away from the road. After lunch we walked in to town to go shopping for the next few days.

Bass pumping station

The Bass Pumping Station was used to pump water up from a well to be used in various ways in the brewing of Bass beer. Apparently there are another six such buildings around the town. Alongside the building is a now rusted away holding tank, it doesn’t look like it’s used anymore, but the water in Burton gave the beer a distinctive flavour.

The deco end of the Town Hall

We walked down to the Town Hall. Originally the Town Hall had been in the market square but by 1883 the building was deemed as unserviceable and demolished, the council taking to having meetings in a back room of the nearby Angel public house. In 1891 Lord Burton offered the use of St Paul’s Institute and Liberal Club for the council offices. 1894 saw an extension built, paid for by Lord Burton, providing more office spaces and a new council chamber. As the town grew the town hall needed to follow suit, so in 1939 a new four story Art Deco building was added again to the east, opening shortly before WW2 started. More info can be found here Link

Outside is a square, a statue of Lord Burton, now slightly hidden in amongst the trees. Next door is St Paul’s church which opened it’s doors in 1874 and was designed by James M Teale and Edmund Beckett Denison. It was paid for by Michael Thomas Bass, the church and vicarage costing £50,000 at the time.

That’s a fancy organ

We managed to find a light switch to have a look around. The organ in the south transept is now mostly empty, but it doesn’t half show off its looks, designed by GF Bodley in 1894.

Large tiles sit on pews in the north transept, these depict the life of St Paul and used to be part of the floor of the chancel. Deep stone carvings in the lady chapel mention Alexander Michael Bass who died aged 6. One window stands out from the others as it’s in memory of Phillip Lloyd Stockley, who was in a machine gun corps and died at Ypres, his father was vicar of the church.

This was to be the first weekend we’d be able to purchase a Saturday newspaper, sadly Lidl didn’t have a copy. We tried the Post Office which had a sign outside suggesting it sold papers, but it didn’t. I opted to cross the railway lines and head into the town centre to see if I had more luck there. Nothing in Sainsburys, so a longer walk was needed. This did mean I got to see quite a few breweries, the offices of Waterways World, the old and new fire stations and some yarn bombed bollards.

There is a trail of Burton Yarn Trent bollards that you can follow, I only found two of them but there are fourteen in all and their website has a pattern you can follow to knit your own cover should you want to.

The Market Hall

I tried two newsagents and finally I found possibly the only copy of our chosen newspaper in Burton. When I got it back to the boat it turned out to have August’s edition of Harpers tucked inside, an American magazine priced at £8.99! Had someone hidden this there to pick up later for free?! Neither of us have found anything that interesting in it, but we are very pleased to have our first Saturday newspaper for what feels like months, there’ll be something to read in bed over the next couple of mornings, plus puzzles!

0 locks, 0.5 miles, 1 Fool on his way home, 2 Cutwebs, 2 BIG trees climbed, 2 outsides, 1 cat a bit too close to the road, 1 cat grounded, 1 newspaper hunt, 49 brisk minutes walking, 1 USA magazine, 10 chicken sausages in a tray bake, 1 town hall, 1 church, 1 plan for the next few days.

https://what3words.com/raced.duke.honey

150 Minutes In Dawlish. 22nd August

Shobnall Fields

Moorings filled up last night

Alarm set for 6am, cheese and pastrami butties made, laptop packed along with two pieces of panto model. Then I was off to the station to catch the direct train down to Exeter St Davids. Thankfully the train from Burton wasn’t that busy to start with and I didn’t feel the need to play seat hopscotch. I opted for my first reserved seat, then moved into my third one across the way a stop before hand.

I tried writing a blog post, but lack of space made that a touch hard, then I got on with some knitting. Gemma, the Production Manager for panto, joined the train at Bristol Parkway, her seat behind mine.

Pretty town hall

When I’d left Burton this morning it had been 10C, now the sun was out and I was heading for the south coast which would be the warmest place in England according to last nights forecast. I made sure to keep an eye out as we headed southwards from Bristol, did I spot Paul Balmer dancing around in his garden waving at trains?

Exeter St David’s

At Exeter St David’s we changed trains, a very seaside feel to those getting on and off the train. The train skirts along the River Ex, the tide seemed to be out and many boats sat on the bottom. Then the train turns along the coast of the English Channel, the sea bright blue today reflecting the sky.

The River Exe

Just a couple of minutes to enjoy being close to Dawlish beach before Jamie arrived to pick us up and whisk us along to his workshop. A quiet time in between festivals for Back Drop Design, a few TV things coming up and Chippy panto would fit nicely in between.

Sunny beach

Gemma had brought the model pieces for us to discuss. I have to say I was a little bit surprised that the finished model drawings hadn’t been forwarded to Jamie, nor the colour model storyboard. So various things had changed from the information he’d had, but at least there was time to go through everything and for him to make notes.

The last bit of model to discuss

A cuppa as we chatted. How was the budget? Well I’d been told a month ago we were fine, it looked like there’d be no need for any amendments then. But Gemma asked if Jamie could bring the build in for a couple of thousand less than he’d priced it up and a few extra bits had been added today. I wasn’t surprised at his reaction, ‘that’s my profit’. It’s a shame this conversation couldn’t have happened a month ago, but people are busy, maybe a bit too busy! Another hour sat with up to date drawings would have helped us find some savings, but Gemma and I were booked on specific trains back.

Good signs

Back along the coast, up the estuary, changing trains again. The train back north was two units, one would be stopping at Bristol Temple Meads the other one carrying on. Announcements were too quick, platform staff guided us to the front carriages, thankfully these weren’t as packed so tightly as those behind. We found seats a miracle, the previous train had been cancelled and there was suggestions from the passengers that tomorrow there is a strike. One lady said they had only just added four more carriages, so she’d quickly moved so she could breath. Then there was the announcement that meant we were actually in the wrong part of the train, but half an hour later another guard had been found so all eight carriages could continue onwards to Edinburgh, phew!

Because of overcrowding the train was delayed a bit. Gemma alighted in Bristol. Then there was a points failure, necessitating going into Gloucester to get round it. Then because of the train before having been cancelled they added an extra stop at Tamworth. All in all I ended up being over an hour late back into Burton, at least I’ll get some money back.

A well deserved glass of wine

Mick had planned to spend the day in the engine bay fitting a new bit of Victron kit. But another bad nights sleep had had to be made up for so he’d had a good afternoon kip. Tilly had had an inquisitive black Labrador come to visit her, but she’d spent quite a lot of the day on her throne under the pram cover. Three loads of washing were hanging about the place, so Mick had been busy for some of the day.

I got back to Oleanna around twelve hours after I’d left, I’d managed 2.5 hours in Dawlish. Now I’m waiting to see what adjustments are required!

Daffodils?!

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 trains, 1 production manager, 5 week out of date drawings, 2 attempts to write the blog, 1 sock completed, 5 reserved seats, 4 sardine carriages, 2 giant figures, 3 loads washing, 1 black lab, 1 hello, 10 C to 25C, 12 meatballs and spaghetti, 1 spring weather forecast!

Is Autumn Here Already? 21st August

Massey’s Bridge 12 to Shobnall Fields

Woofers were audible for quite a lot of last evening and as I set of to walk to the lock there was fencing around an area advertising a woofer baby sitting service, quite a good one by the look of it, where you can leave your dogs to roam in their field having fun. I don’t think the place is open yet, but we may amend where we moor in the area in future as I suspect the woofers will be noisier.

Not long before we pushed off there was plenty of boat traffic coming and going, the last boat heading towards Swarkstone Lock was the hire boat we’d seen at Sawley. We’d end up sharing the next two locks with them. At Swarkstone a CRT volunteer was helping boats through. Apparently the delay in getting the Derwent Mouth pound back up last weekend was because Wychnor Lock, where the water could be let down from is in a different CRT region. So to get water sent down someone couldn’t just jump in a van to go and lift a sluice, but it had to go from one region to another delaying the top up by 24 hours, this is of course according to the volunteer.

Swarkstone Lock

The hire boat were a family of four, Mum and Dad considering getting a boat when they retire, the teenage kids very helpful and chatty, but looking forward to a hot chocolate between locks.

I opted to walk on ahead, even though the pound up to Stenson Lock is 3 miles long. Yesterday I was questioned by several people about why I wasn’t getting on the boat and being made to walk! So as I walked I considered what I should get printed on a t-shirt. In the end I opted for ‘I’m walking my imaginary dog’. Maybe that will stop people being astounded at me walking so much.

I noted a couple of moorings that we’d thought might not be so Tilly friendly, which actually she would love, the railway quite a distance away from the canal and the road stopping sooner than I thought it would. We’ll see what she thinks when we’re on our way back.

Raggley Boat stop was full, this was roughly where we should have moored last night, just as well we’d not carried on. A little wooden sign hung on a tree ‘Bumpy Farm’, here chickens scratched the ground and floppy eared goats bleated through the hedge to me.

Just after I’d reached half way boats started to come towards me, a lady walking the towpath with a windlass in hand. She’d realised that maybe she’d made a mistake in walking, even more when I told her she’d not quite got half way and the walk would be 3 miles!

Stenson Lock

Two boats were just entering the lock, Oleanna and the hire boat weren’t too far behind me as the depth of water isn’t too bad. The two boats rose in the lock and were replaced by two more coming down, a constant stream of boats from both directions. I chatted to a chap from a boat going down, he’d been an architect but drawing gave him back ache, so he’d retired from it aged 40 and got into vintage cars, writing books about them. As his wife brought their boat into the lock I was suddenly getting déjà vu. Their powder blue electric narrowboat NB Falcon was familiar from somewhere, I think I’ve talked to this couple before, possibly on the River Nene.

Hooray for Willington!

Our turn next, up the deep scary lock. Stenson used to have quite restrained ground paddles which worked counter intuitively. But now they seemed to rush water into the lock, with two boats in the chamber both paddles could be lifted together, so I don’t know if it’s still counter intuitive. Boats arrived above, the next pair ready to swap with us and the hire boat. I hopped on board, my walking done for the day until later.

A surprising property. Click photo for details

Now the run towards Willington. The house that is hemmed in between the canal and railway is for sale. It would be tempting apart from the railway behind it. Gradually the amount of boats moored up increased as we neared Mercia Marina. A top up of water and disposal of rubbish at the services before we carried on westwards running alongside the A38 for much of the way.

The Trent and Mersey now becomes a narrow canal at Dallow Lock. We pulled in next boat in line, one going up, one about to come down. I chatted to the crews of the boats, we all had connections to Goole and Hull, two downhill boats heading back towards base avoiding dropping levels until maybe later in the year.

Dallow Lane Lock

Now we hoped to find a mooring. Shobnall Fields would do us, there was a gap and then space nearer the bridge where there are picnic tables. We opted for the gap, this would do us for a couple of days.

Fishing at Dallow Lane

Tilly was impressed at the size of the trees, but not impressed with the lack of friendly cover and the constant stream of woofers. She opted to stay in the pram cover rather than venture further afield. I however decided to have a walk up to the station to see how far it was for tomorrow morning. 16 minutes brisk walk got me to the ticket office, that would do nicely. I chose to walk through residential streets rather than past St Paul’s and the Town Hall, I’d save that way for tomorrow.

More interesting than the residential streets

I picked up a few things for my lunch tomorrow at Lidl along with some meatballs before returning to Oleanna to make a fish crumble. I’d totally forgotten to buy something green to accompany it, frozen peas filled the gap.

Is Autumn here already?

3 locks, 11.1 miles, £1,150,000, 4 goats, 6 chickens, 3 miles between locks, 2 familiar boats, 1 hot chocolate without marshmallows, 95 brisk minutes, 16 to the station.

https://what3words.com/test.stand.draw

Arry. 20th August

Henry Knibb Bridge 3A to Massey’s Bridge 12

Tilly was given an hours shore leave whilst we had breakfast and required reminding of the time. Thankfully it seemed that I’d found a suitable moment in between her being busy to give her a call as she came running pretty quickly. I’d just like to say that Arry’s disappearance has nothing to do with me!

The boat infront of us was making ready to set off, Mick had walked down to say hello having spotted that there was Made in Sheffield on their cabin side. This was a Finesse boat owned by Tim, NB Life Positively Quieter, who had a couple of friends crewing for him for a few days as he made his way up the Trent and Mersey, hoping to catch NB Barbarella up on their way towards Stone.

Toodle Pip to Toodle Pip

They set off before us, but I soon caught them up walking the towpath, Oleanna wasn’t that far behind them when we reached the first lock of the day, Aston Lock. Here a CRT work boat was sharing the lock. It’s funny how some people on boats right now have to tell you about how the canals are closing, as if every other boater on the system doesn’t know about the drought and low water levels, You’d have to be totally unaware of everything, but then rumours are rife and the conspiracy theorists are having a field day!

Sharing Aston Lock

We shared Aston Lock. Tim and his friends offered me a lift as I was walking ahead, they do have a very big cruiser stern but I’d rather walk.

Bywash flowing fast

Weston Lock was next with it’s big heavy heavy gates. Unfortunately I was too busy wondering if the new gates (since our last visit) would be any lighter to remember not to open the off side bottom gate. As Mick brought Oleanna into the lock he said he would have scooted her around the gate to save opening it! I tried my best to close it, normally it would be hard, but having lost quite a bit of ballast now it was impossible. Luckily I was soon joined by the other crew and the two of us managed to get it moving.

Huge fat lock beams at Weston Lock

Boats arrived above, saving having to close the top gates. We planned on stopping before Swarkstone Lock today, having a slightly shorter day of it so as to have a better mooring for Tilly than above the lock. So we said our goodbyes to Tim and friends and headed to where we’d planned to moor. They must have stopped for lunch and either decided to stop for the day or had sneaked past us silently as they are electric.

Two Finesse bows

A quiet afternoon for us, a busy one for me! Mick hasn’t been sleeping so well since the weekend so I suggested he went to bed rather than just kipping on the sofa. This he did and had a good couple of hours well and truly asleep, whilst I tidied up a bit more of panto ready to go to the printers. I’ve now the front cloth to sort which will take a bit of time. Because it’s a curtain and I want it to have 20% fullness to it, the piece I made for the model is flat, I need to either stretch the original artwork or add to it. This will take some working out how to do it as stretching the design doesn’t look so good and I really don’t want to have to redo the artwork if I can help it. So some research on how Paintshop can help me is required on a quiet none moving day.

On the off side goods trains occasionally came past and somewhere nearby woofers woofed! We’d had this last night too, they seem to be following us!

2 locks, 4 miles, 2 Finesse together, 1 fat heavy beam, 1 missing parrot, 1 shorter day, 3 woofers at least, 1 snoozy afternoon, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/52%C2%B051’01.3%22N+1%C2%B025’41.2%22W/@52.8503738,-1.4287437,125m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m13!1m8!3m7!1s0x4879fa7d52ce1389:0x61fa22b89ba3c71b!2sSwarkestone,+Derby!3b1!8m2!3d52.854711!4d-1.4536359!16zL20vMDlnX3Ax!3m3!8m2!3d52.850373!4d-1.4281?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

https://what3words.com/proofs.gentlemen.puddles