Another early start, this one even earlier than the last few, we were awake before the sun had lifted over the horizon today. Breakfast and the magic food bowl set. Not Again! This is getting tedious!! We walked through the city the sun coming up and making everything look wonderful. The Library shone gold, and when we reached St Martin in the Bullring the sky behind the church peachy gold and just emphasised how high up the centre of Birmingham actually is.
We climbed on board a train from Moor Street Station headed for London Marylebone. I had time to carry on knitting the next pair of sockathon socks, I’d made pretty good progress with them in the hire car to and from Scarborough, maybe I’d get this pair finished on this trip to London.
A walk, then the tube, except there was some hold up, so we changed lines and got ourselves to the Mildmay Line to Homerton. At my brothers we dropped off our overnight bags and we had time for a good chin wag, some lunch and an attempt to sort dates for a pre Christmas get together. Have to admit my mind hasn’t been thinking of such things at all recently.
Autumn is falling in London
Back into London to meet with my friend Nick and friends at The Albany pub by Great Portland Street tube. It is soon to be Nick’s 60th birthday so he’d arranged a get together with friends and their woofers. Tilly had been invited and she’d accepted. The menu later on didn’t include rodent curry, so in the end I declined the invite!
Around 30 of us met at the pub, had a drink and then headed into Regents Park. The walk would cover quite a distance, so Mick opted to get a bus to the next location. The masses stopped to look at the sculptures in the park. We only saw a few of them before it started to rain and everyone’s attention was distracted from the artworks to a double rainbow. I got chance to chat to various people who’d been at Nick’s 50th in the Yorkshire Dales and I got to meet his in-laws, Kerry’s family. Nick is my oldest friend, by that I mean he met me when I was only a couple of days old, he was a couple of months old.
Nick and Harry
We wove our way through the park. A slight detour to see the giraffes at the zoo who had just been given some fresh branches to munch on. Then across the Regents Canal to Primrose Hill. Here we met up with Mick again and climbed to the very top. Photo opportunity with storm clouds over the high rise cityscape down below.
I’d looked at a map for where we were headed, it wasn’t that close, there were a few comments of ‘How much further?!’ Was everyone still with us? We now meandered our way through the streets, a pit stop and a half pint each at Camden Brewery, I enjoyed some gluten-free, alcohol-free beer, you’d never have known anything was missing! Chance to chat to Nick’s brother Guy who is now retired and is planning quite a major cycling trip to Istanbul next year, this year he’d achieved Lands End to Gateshead using quite a bit of the canal network.
After dark we arrived at The Pineapple, Kentish Town. An old fashioned boozer with small rooms, but a larger one upstairs. Here we were joined by more people and the rest of Nick’s family, his sister and his Mum, both of whom I’ve not seen since 2019. Plenty to chat about as we all drank, ate Thai curry and on in the back ground on a large TV screen was a coloured version of the World Cup final of 1966. Mick and I tried our best to see if we could spot our friend Frank in the crowd, but the resolution wasn’t good enough. We and more importantly, Frank knows he was there!
A lovely afternoon and evening with friends and their family. I was asked what I’d be doing for my 60th. The second time this had been asked in one day! Well a thought had been to have a do in Scarborough, but timings for that are now a touch wonky for several reasons, so I may have to opt for a get together at a later date. We’ll see.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 train, 5 tubes, 1 overground, 2 buses, 1 Elizabeth line, 23161 steps, 125 brisk minutes walking, 1 Leckenby lunch, 2 pubs, 1 brewery, 1 tyre tree, 4 woofers, 1 absent cat, 2 giraffes, 1 big view, double rainbow, 1966 World Cup final, 60 years old.
Sunday we dug out Tilly’s magic food bowl and set it ready to open in 8 hours time, topped up her biscuit bowl, then packed bags and popped the cheesecake into a cool bag and set off to walk to Newark Northgate Station.
Moo planters
Our train was delayed, engineering works had overrun so our train was held in London, this made for a slower walk to the station. Stood on the platform we had speeding train after train whizzing through the station, all trying to catch up with themselves. I wonder if the delay repay on such occasions gets handed onto Network Rail?
Museum Gardens moorings in York
In York, Mick caught a bus to Fishergate whilst I walked to the London Leckenby’s flat. I chose to walk past Clifford’s Tower and then alongside Castle Mills Lock to see if the works on replacing the gates were complete. At the beginning of June we’d seen new lock gates sitting alongside the lock and a work boat in it. Today the work boat was still there, so were the dams either side of the lock. There was a lot more fencing up around the place and acros spanning the lock. At least the bottom gates looked to have been installed, the top ones still sitting on the bank. At least something this year is taking as long as Oleanna’s repaint!
We were here for a lunch with an old family friend Ian. Ian was one of the younger friends of my parents, he used to work at Rowntree’s and soon after starting he joined the Rowntree Players, the factory’s amateur theatre group, and he got a part in Billy Liar. Ian was a favourite with me, as for a while he worked in the jelly department and at Christmas he’d arrive with a big box (possibly 12 packs) of Rowntree’s blackcurrant jelly, which I used to eat in chunks straight from the box.
It was very lovely to see him, Andrew and Jac have seen him quite recently at various fundraisers he’s been holding to raise funds for The Brain Tumour Charity. He set up the Janis Connell fund three years ago with the goal of raising £100,000 in memory of his wife which he achieved recently. There was talk of more fundraising. Sponsored walks, sky diving, Jac may just have been signed up to that one!
Some lovely slow cooked lamb, with potatoes and a salad were followed by my cheesecake, quite a bit of wine but more importantly lots of conversation. I don’t think Mick, Josh or I had seen Ian since my Dad’s funeral in 2012, so it was wonderful to catch up with him.
Some of the conversation had been about my best friend Emma and her sister Jane. Jane’s second husband, an actor had played Inspector Goole in the National Theatres production of an Inspector Calls in the West End quite some years ago. This prompted us to nestle down on the sofas to watch the BBC version. It was interesting compared to the stage version with added scenes which put the time line off just a bit. It was still enjoyed by those who managed to keep awake after our lovely meal.
28th September
Skeldregate Bridge
Everyone was up early. The flat was to be packed up, trains to be caught in differing directions. Josh headed back to Manchester to attend his first lecture of his third year at University. I was next to leave to catch a train to Scarborough, shortly followed by Mick heading to York hospital for a blood test (this saved him going back to Scarborough) but in the end it may have taken far less time as he sat waiting in the blood test queue for an hour and three quarters! This left Andrew and Jac to pack their car and head back to London.
Breakfast with added sanitiser
In Scarbrough I had a day planned to help with things for Frank. Tucker an old work colleague picked me up from the station and we headed to Franks house to try to find some documents and to meet a cleaner. James was a very nice chap and knew exactly what was needed at the house. Sadly Tucker and my hunt proved fruitless.
I got a lift to our house to pick up the second toothbrush charger and Brompton bag that we’d forgotten. Anna our lodger had left out the copy of an old program from a Theatre In the Round production in 1957 which has Alan Ayckbourn playing a part and as the Stage Manager. A wonderful piece of theatre history.
I had a chat to various people keeping them up to date over the phone, then walked over to Scarborough Hospital to visit Frank and update him too. There were things he needed to read, more visitors arrived who patiently waited as I chatted to Frank about important things. A catch up with Steve before I left Frank, Geoff and Steve to have a far more interesting conversation. My tasks were done apart from posting a form for Frank which was dropped off at the Post Office on my way back to the station.
This cat will talk to absolutely anyone!
A catch up chat with Ben, who is back for a week from touring with The Calendar Girls. Ben is one of the original Frankness group and we had lots to chat about. This would be my last visit to Scarborough for some time so passing on some jobs that needed to be done.
Mick had arrived back at Oleanna earlier in the day, another £10 M&S pie deal had been purchased. This was enjoyed with a very large glass of much needed wine.
0 locks, 0 miles, 5 trains, 14 years too long, 1 lovely lunch, 1 odd time line, 1 sandwich for breakfast, 1 ex Technical Stage Manager, 1 Film and Live Streaming Co-Ordinator, 1 ex Senior Technician currently Sound No 1, 1 ex Master Carpenter, 1 ex Resident Designer, 1 form of ID, 1 cleaner, 1 plan coming together, 2 pies, 1 portion of mash left for another day.
No news from Redhill this week. The way Tom had written his message last Sunday suggested that he was unlikely to be about, maybe he and his family had headed off on holiday before the schools go back.
A birthday card for my cousin Ian
In Scarborough we planned to see Handbagged for a second time, sadly late afternoon I got the indications that I was in for a migraine! Luckily tickets hadn’t been booked and the evening was spent sitting quite still and taking pills.
Tuesday questions came through from the people who we are wanting to print cloths for panto, my brain wasn’t functioning too well, so I passed this on to the Production Manager to answer. I’m still not sure if she’s been in touch with them. I got confirmation through that my digs have been booked in Chippy, although with no contact details for my new host. Very sadly the host I stayed with last year, Rachel, passed away just before Christmas, so instead of being in the old bakehouse with the ghosts, I’ll be staying in a modern house with Spiderman keeping me safe whilst I sleep.
Tilly getting back into tree climbing ready for being back on the boat
A hire car was sorted for Wednesday afternoon, we opted to have it for a week with the hope that with three trips to Oleanna we’d be able to move everything back without too much problem. First job once we had wheels was to check on prescriptions for Frank and deliver any that had gone rogue. Then drop off the camp beds we’d borrowed when the house was extremely full of lodgers and ourselves.
Dinette cushions were loaded into the car followed by bags of possessions and then smart clothes for a party in the south.
The two and a half hour drive to Redhill turned into nearer three and a half due to the torrential rain and accidents on the M1. We ended up doing a detour and approaching Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station from the other side, the cooling towers suddenly looming out from the low cloud.
Redundant rollers now our neighboring boat has gone
At the paint shed the shutters were down. Bertie was chatting to someone about our neighbouring boat. A few last minute bits for him to do, then the roller door was raised ready for the boat to exit and be launched. Have to say our thoughts were, ‘why isn’t that us?!’ After all, we’d been in the shed a few more weeks than them!
We had a walk through Oleanna. Our plan had been to do a deeper clean in a couple of areas, dinette and under the bed so that we could offload and stow some of our stuff. The final hoover through the boat by the painters was still to come. We could have done it ourselves, but Oleanna wasn’t hooked up, we’d need power from elsewhere and now the tractor had arrived to pull the other boat out of the shed. I decided there was too much for us to clean to be able to leave the dinette cushions on the dinette, and after all why should we do a job we were paying someone else to do.
Cupboards were checked for space in the bedroom. I managed to stow a few bags of things and then the remaining bags were left on the bed, everything enclosed away from dust. The dinette cushions would now need bending to squeeze into the boot to allow us to have passengers tomorrow, but that job could wait.
Rain water on the gunnels from the leaking shed
I had a good look round Oleanna, making notes of a few places where things would need touching up. Nothing unexpected, a little bit of overspray on the cream, one or two places where the tape hasn’t stopped the paint from bleeding.
Stern locker lids now with a wood surround
The new locker lids are just as we’d wanted. They will now need a few coats of varnish to keep them waterproof. But now the surrounding paintwork will be far less likely to get marked when accessing the lockers. If marks now appear, it will be down to operator error and deserve a telling off!
Sat on a bench next to Oleanna were all the external fittings ready to go back on Oleanna. We added to it the new lockable diesel cap we’ve finally remembered to bring down. We’ve wanted one of these from before Oleanna was built, but it was one of those things Finesse didn’t do.
There’s quite a list of jobs
A sheet of paper had Tom’s list of jobs on it. It’s quite a long list. Some won’t take long, others will. My guestimate means she won’t be ready to go back in the water just after the bank holiday as had been suggested, but we’d already known that. There was a suggestion that some items were on order, replacing fittings so Oleanna would look smarter.
We had lunch at the cafe. Sadly the cafe is closing sometime in September, the lady who runs it is heading off to do new things. I wonder if anyone else will take it over, or will that be the end of a very handy cafe riverside?
Unloading the car in the shelter of the paint shed
Back at the paint shed we managed a brief chat with Bertie. He thought the jobs list will take them a couple of days to complete. Nothing would happen over the weekend or Friday as he is an organiser for the vintage vehicle rally over the weekend. Hopefully people will still come despite the rain! The other boat was back in the water but a bilge pump was required to help keep up with the amount of rain, so we left Bertie to it.
A soggy view of Loughborough Basin
Back in the car we drove to Loughborough Travelodge for the night. Our room overlooked the basin and a building site where it looks like a tall building will be going up. The pontoons were surrounded by pennywort and there wasn’t a boat in sight.
I headed off for a walk to Queen’s Park. The museum closed for the day, but I had chance to admire the lovely little tower at the library, try to make out the bandstand underneath all the hanging baskets. I chatted to the birds in the aviary and listened to the bells chiming in the Carillion and bell tower. Loughborough was the home to the foundry which made the Great Paul, E-flat bourdon bell that hangs in St Pauls.
I wiggled my way round streets, found a few restaurants we might visit and checked out menus. Thankfully, the rain had now passed and I didn’t get wet.
The Sock Man of Loughborough
We chose to eat at a Turkish Restaurant, Antalya Kitchen. A huge basket of bread arrived which Mick filled himself up on, followed by lamb and chicken kebabs with rice and salad. All very nice and we didn’t really mind that they didn’t have an alcohol licence as we’d got a bottle back at the hotel. We were offered a complimentary Turkish tea, but they didn’t do decaff, so we turned it down. I asked if we could call in in the morning then we’d try it. Shortly before we left, the chap turned up with a container of tea for us to make it at home.
Back at the hotel just in time before the thunder and lightening started. We compared notes with Brian on NB Harnser who was moored in Coventry, the storm arriving with us around about an hour after they’d had the deluge.
Very nice food, we’ll come back
Friday morning we headed into M&S food hall to find things for breakfast and then set off to drive south. The satnav wanted us to do one route, but Mick had had his eyes on another. This meant skirting round Coventry, having deluges of rain hit us as we arrived in the Cotswolds, sitting in a LONG line of traffic at Stow on the Wold with people heading to Feastival a festival involving Michelin starred chefs!
A rendezvous at a B&B to pick up Andrew and Jac in the torrential rain, not helped by having to rearrange the car for them to have seats to sit on, then we drove the mile to my cousins house where there was to be an 80th birthday lunch for Ian.
The birthday boy Ian
We were here a few years ago for the Royal International Air Tatoo as their garden is half a mile away from the runway at Fairford. That day we couldn’t hear anything said as planes soared over head. This year there hasn’t been an airshow due to the base being used for bombing missions in Iran, the runway was too full of B52 bombers. Thankfully they have all left, but during the day we did have a few occasions of planes taking off and stopping the conversation.
Wonderful food, well it was a Leckenby do!
It’s been around 42 years since I’ve seen Jo, my cousins son, he has shot since he was 3 years old, up to around 7ft! He was a very good bbq chef, cooking some wonderful lamb cutlets and gorgeous steaks. Salads came out of our ears as did meringues and strawberries followed by cheese as a birthday cake. A very good afternoon with family and their friends. We were grilled about boating by one of Ian’s friends who has recently had a narrowboating holiday and he now wants to do more, we suggested share boats if he didn’t want to buy his own.
Cheers!
As guests left, family hunkered down with a few more carafes of wine in the marquee chatting away until almost 10pm. We dropped the London Leckenbys back at their B&B and then headed to Faringdon for that night’s Travelodge. This one had a cafe, bar and the room was actually cool, but it also came with boy racers in the car park!
Breakfast consumed, no gf bread so I made up for it with hash browns from the buffet. Then we called in at Waitrose for a sandwich for lunch. Course was set for Scarborough. We considered stopping to look at the vintage vehicles at Redhill, but as we approached it was peeing it down again, so we opted for a pit stop a little further along the M1.
Alex is always welcome
Now we wonder when our next visit to Redhill should be. Tuesday or Wednesday? An early phone call on Tuesday is needed to see if it’s worth a trip or not. Here’s hoping the leaks in the paint shed don’t delay the anti-slip from going onto the gunnels.
Landing access returned
Today, Sunday, we’ve waved goodbye to Alex, Angie and Polly their woofer, Handbagged is now moving to Theatre Clwyd for a couple of weeks. The barrier separating the two houses has been removed now Polly has headed home and Tilly has reclaimed the other side of the house. We’ve moved living rooms freeing up space for our other lodger who has been happy to share one side of the house with us, Anna now has more space than she knows what to do with. We’ve arranged to meet up with her in the kitchen later today.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire car for a week, 1 filthy boat, 1 boot full of cushions, 1 brother and sister-in-law squashed in there too, 2 days or 1 week? 0 neighbour, 2 Travelodges, 80th birthday, 4 cats, 3 woofers, 2 horses, 2 goats, 21 people, 2 much to eat and drink, 1 marquee held down by human weight, B1’s, 1 year since proposal, 4 hash browns, 1 spoonful of egg, 2 wet for cars, 5 now down to 3, 1 cat free to roam, 1 boat’s tentative smile returned.
Well, this week we’ve been waiting for news on progress from Tom. Mick tried giving him a call on Thursday, but got no answer. He was possibly being too noisy doing jobs, we hope.
A message was left regarding the leak into the bow thruster locker. We’ve heard nothing back from Finesse, which was expected, sadly.
A pretty full diddy car for the weekend
On Friday we packed up a hire car, full to the brim for a weekend away in the Dales with family. Fairly soon after we arrived at our destination, we got a message through from Tom saying he’d only just heard our message.
‘All well at the shop, pretty much ready for epoxy and high build, it’s going to be a productive week with the first main colour of cream on by the end of next week.’ He’s going to send photos at the end of each spray stage. He then wished us a great weekend. Did he know something that not many people knew !?!
Edale and Kirk Yetholm are the opposite ends of the Pennine Way
The weekend was billed as a ‘Not Quite Birthday Weekend’ up at the curly wurlys on the Leeds Liverpool Canal, above Bank Newton Locks. Back in January we’d been looking for a venue/location for a celebration. It is my 60th birthday this coming Christmas, and for at least a decade I’ve been wanting to hold a party to celebrate a big birthday. Nineteen years ago I had a 40.5 party at the beginning of July, this decade there is an extra reason to celebrate a year early.
Thank you for suggestions for venues from some of you. These were looked at, but none really grabbed us. I then remembered seeing a sign alongside the canal above Bank Newton Locks on the Leeds Liverpool, something to do with cottages. For my 50th this had been discounted, as I’d been looking for a location with a nearby pub, a campsite along with bricks and mortar accommodation for a party. But maybe, just maybe, it would be worth going to look at the holiday cottages and see if we’d be able to have a do a Grange Newton.
Grange Newton seen from the canal
On a rather damp January day we drove over and met with Rachel and had a guided tour round most of the cottages, all six on site would accommodate 24 people. If we wanted to have more for a do then we’d be needing to have a marquee and extra toilets. We chatted through various options, two fields were possible locations, and a grassy area by the main car park. One field was almost below our all time favourite mooring on the whole network, which back in January was occupied by our friend Chris on NB Elektra (sorry we didn’t come to say hello it was really quite a soggy day). The price of catering, a mobile bar, marquee hire, were all considered whilst sat in the farmhouse kitchen having a cuppa with Rachel. We then walked up to stand on Bridge 164 and a decision was made. We’d keep the do just to family, they’d fill the cottages, there’d be room for us incase we couldn’t get there by boat, other options all felt a touch too weddingy.
Invites were sent out for the Not Quite Birthday Weekend, billed as 59.5 + 68.11. Thankfully everyone thought it was a great idea, Mick’s family tend to be up for such things and my family quite like Mick’s, so they were game for it too.
Oleanna’s repaint being delayed meant that our first planned cruise up to York didn’t happen. Then on to Leeds and a climb up onto the Leeds Liverpool Canal also couldn’t happen, good job we’d made sure there’d be enough room for us too! Just a shame that Tilly would have to stay at the house and not be hunting for friends in the field that sits between the canal and the cottages.
So now back to Friday just gone, we packed the car with baked goods, clothes and two barbeques, the hope was that the weather would be fine enough to make use of them on Saturday night. We made it over to the cottages around 1pm and collected a key for one of the cottages where a gazebo had been erected to offer us some shade/cover depending on the weather. A visit to Robertshaws Farm Shop followed, here we bought ourselves some lunch and had hoped to stock up on meat for the barbeque, sadly nothing really took our fancy even though it was an interesting shop.
Back to the cottages to await various cars coming from across the UK and a very big Sainsbury’s order. The shopping arrived, as did most of our siblings, just one of Mick’s sisters and the London Leckenbys who were cutting it fine for a curry at the Bollywood Cottage down in Gargrave. But all twelve of the early arrivals managed a very nice sit down curry before heading back to meet with the next generation and their offspring, school and work having delayed their arrival. Sometime around 10pm the last car arrived and the youngest generation squealed and ran to greet each other.
The youngest pushing and pulling lock gates
Saturday was a day for people to do what they wanted until late afternoon. We popped into Skipton to purchase meat for the hoped for barbecue, the weather not playing ball in the morning or early afternoon. I set about icing cupcakes and prepping various bits of food for the feast later whilst others headed off to explore Barnoldswick, others walked down to Gargrave via the lock flight gongoozling and helping with gates as a hire boat made its way up. There was just enough time after handing out jobs for a quick stroll along the towpath to visit our favourite mooring. One boat occupied what has now become pole position, where the wall has collapsed giving a better view across to Newton Grange from inside a narrowboat. What a shame we couldn’t be there on Oleanna, but at least we were there.
The view from our favourite mooring
Party clothes were left in bags, too damp for those! After my walk I did have to change as I’d got rather soggy, but warmth was the order of the evening.
Monopoly, such a serious game!
Next problem was to collect everyone together on the terrace for a drink. Easier said than done, a Monopoly game was ongoing, potatoes being cooked for a salad, a shower being taken! I suggested that maybe a drink on the terrace would help whilst waiting for the potatoes to cool. Eventually everyone, bar Sean, was present. Mick tapped on a glass to get everyone’s attention.
York Minster
‘Some of you may have guessed that we’ve had an ulterior motive for gathering you all together.’ Daphne (aged 4) had kind of guessed yesterday as her mum had been packing, asking if she was coming to a wedding!
On the 2nd of June, Mick and I became Civil Partners at York Registry Office at a simple standard ceremony with two witnesses, two of our best friends dating back to school days. We’d dressed up smart, new clothes, newly knitted cardie, some of Mum’s old buttons, Mick borrowed my belt and my dress was dark blue. Morag and Mark took photos whilst the registrar Gareth performed the ceremony. Fifteen minutes after arriving our partnership of 23.5 years had become Civil.
Morag, Mick, Mark, Pip
Thankfully the sun was out, so we walked down to the River Ouse for photos, plenty of space should we have brought Oleanna, but a film crew for the next series of Patience were taking up quite a bit of space. We then headed into the Museum Gardens for a few more photos, being followed by another couple who had also just tied the knot too.
A drink on the rear terrace of the Judges Lodgings, opposite where my Dad had his architectural practice. Then we walked over to The Refectory, a restaurant which used to be the Minster Song School, for a very nice meal. A very lovely afternoon with two very good friends celebrating. All they and we had to do now was to keep quiet until the family get together. When we arrived back in Scarborough the following day we took off our rings, popped them back in the box they’d come in.
.
After our announcement in the Dales, our rings came back out, now to remain on our fingers. I left a message for my best friend in Sydney for her to wake up to, she’d got married last weekend and I needed to tell her that we’d beaten them to it by three weeks!
Us
A lovely lovely evening, with lots of food, four barbecues going, Josh’s tempura prawns and John doing his best to off load rocket! Once the sausages, kebabs and salmon had been consumed, it was time for cake, birthday cake, after all the weekend had been billed as a Not Quite Birthday weekend!
So everyone had to have a cake with their ages on them. Sadly it was a little bit too blowy to light everyone’s candles, but that didn’t stop all 22 of us singing Happy Birthday to US! at the top of our voices and blowing out our imaginary candles.
Everyone, except Sean who was charging his car!
Sunday morning was spent trying to return bowls, plates and glasses to the right cottages before we all headed out to various places. Three carloads headed to Malham Cove, a walk to the base of the cove to watch climbers, followed by some chilled medication. Kath, Sean, Fran, Mick and myself then carried on to find Malham Tarn above with a little walk from the car to find the lake.
Others had carried on to Settle, others explored Skipton Castle. Then it was time for the younger generations to head for home, school and work waiting for them the next day. An evening meal of left overs and the sausage rolls I’d made were enjoyed with a few more drinks.
Our cottage for the weekend
Monday morning and it was time to pack the final cars and say our goodbyes to Mick’s siblings. Everyone pulled away from our celebratory weekend at 10.
The Leckenby contingency drove down into Skipton to catch up with the Hall family. Robert and Margie have lived in Skipton for a few years. Since our last visit Margie has moved into a care home, a very nice care home overlooking the canal. It was lovely to see both Robert and Margie, then we had lunch and a further catch up with Katy their daughter and Trevor her husband.
Tilly having missed her bridesmaid duties twice
We were back in Scarborough by 6 to unpack the even fuller car and give Tilly a very BIG hug.
Back in our natural habitat
What a wonderful weekend.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire car, 22 family members, 12 for curry, 23 cupcakes, 1 big cake, 1147.74 years between us, 1 average Richard, 2 jugs Pimms, 12 bottles wine, 35 bottles beer, 1 favourite mooring, 0 boat 🙁 , 0 cat bridesmaid, 1 announcement, 2 rings back where they should be, 1 car being charged in Skipton, 2 much food, 15 bookmarks, 1 klippy klippy, 12 bananas too many, 1 large bar of chocolate smuggled home, 3 birthday cards, 1 exceedingly good weekend, 1 Oleanna ready for Monday!1 secret kept, 2 Civil Partners.
A bit of an update before we get going on what Oleanna news there is, as I’m conscious that some are missing out on the design of panto this year.
Chippy Panto. The Snow Queen model box has been stripped back. A storyboard was drawn up, ideas swapped with Caroline the Director. Then I’ve worked on the white card model, a couple of versions have been worked on and now I’m starting to work on the sketch working drawings so that quotes for the build can be worked out. I have a white card model meeting in London next week, so fingers crossed everyone likes what they see!
Bridget and Storm have been to stay. It was lovely to spend some time with them and show them around Scarborough. The tide was well and truly in, and they met up with Freddie. Hopefully they’ve had a great time on a hire boat with their grandkids and they’ve had more thoughts of being boat owners once again.
John Godber recently turned 70, so there was a big catch-up with lots of old Hull Truckers at The Little Wold Vineyard near Brough. The dress code was ‘A nod to the 70’s’, so with two charity shop shirts and half a metre of suitable fabrics, I adjusted the collars and made us each a kipper tie. It was great to see so many people from my Hull Truck days to celebrate John’s birthday.
Us
On the hottest day of the year so far we travelled over to York for a night with the London Leckenbys in their top floor flat. Gosh it was hot! Wonderful food as ever, time to catch up with them all, Josh currently in the middle of his second year exams.
At around 10pm we had a walk down to the River Ouse where the air was cooler. A sign on the Blue Bridge, where the Ouse meets the River Foss suggested that work was ongoing at Castle Mill Lock. So we wandered up to take a look in the nighttime gloom. New lock gates were sat on the bank, and the lock had a work boat in it and two cofferdams were doing their best to keep the lock water free for the works. We had been planning to come up to York this year and had hoped to be able to get onto the River Foss. But with the slipping of time on Oleanna’s repaint we’ve run out of time to visit as we want to be in the south by the end of August.
We now have two lodgers living with us, both rehearsing for Calendar Girls at the SJT. So we have a full house which will get fuller in just over a month’s time, so the clock is really ticking now until we become homeless.
Everyone with their heads down, cutting tiles and sticking
Mosaicing is having to take a bit of a back seat whilst panto needs my attention, but I try to go to a session every other week. Things are progressing very well and I suspect all the pieces will be finished soon. Sadly I don’t think I’ll get a chance to help with the installation, but hopefully that will be because we’ll be moving back onto Oleanna then.
I’ve had a break from knitting socks for a few weeks, making a cardie for myself. But now I’m back on with Felicity Edition Sockathon Socks in memory of my friends Mum, Felicity. I have several pairs to knit for children, so I’m concentrating on those before their feet grow too much!
I’ve also been doing some trial baking. Just which is the best GF cup cake recipe? The jury is still deliberating and wondering if a third version would be worth trying, however Spanish Buttercream has been deemed too much work for not enough flavour. Our alpine strawberries are doing very well this year after transplanting some into a urn at the house.
There have also been numerous walks around Scarborough, I’m quite enjoying seeing the town full of visitors and at a time of year I’ve not been here for in over a decade.
Tilly still waits in hope for an imminent return to Oleanna. Whenever a bag is brought out she makes sure she is the first thing to be packed. Well, I can’t have them leaving me here with all these singing Shes and annoying cats can I !!!
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trips away, 1 confused cat, 70, 2 kippers, 12 cupcakes, 2 ex boaters, 30C, 1 emergency cardie, 1 mosaic coming together, 2 new lock gates, 1 white card model ready, I think!
Time to move on, time to say goodbye to Anne and Alasdair until later in the year. The sun was almost out as we reversed off their drive. First stop was Morrisons to top up on petrol, where we were headed the price was guaranteed to be higher. We also picked up some bits for lunch, Mick a sandwich, me some spreadable cheese and salami to go in some bread I’d brought with me.
Climbing up high
Which route to take? We opted to drive along the sea front and along the side of Gare Loch, an uppy downy road that passes Faslane and HMNB Clyde. Armed officers stood on a grey ship, no idea if any of the submarines were in. More than 6500 civilians and service personnel work there, google shows a Greggs, so they’ll all be living off sausage rolls.
Looking down on glens
Along the side of Loch Long on the A814 to join the A83, a faster road with fewer ups and downs and twists and turns. We saw Lochs, Glens, Fells small patches of snow left in tucked away recesses. We passed the Rest and Be Thankful, stretches of the road are being worked on to improve drainage and fencing as the road is prone to landslides. Along the side of Loch Restil high up then back down to sea level to drive along the side of Loch Fyne passing what we thought might be Oyster beds.
Up ahead was Inveraray, a possible lunchtime stop, certainly a comfort break. We pulled in facing Inveraray Church and walked round to the pier to make use of the shore based facilities. Here we took note of how much it would cost to moor Oleanna for a visit, £25 per 24 hours as she’s over 9m long.
Inveraray moorings
Most of the parking was payable, so we opted to not visit the sweet shop and carry on a little while, there was bound to be a layby somewhere we’d be able to stop for lunch. Well that’s what we thought as the road proceeded to cut across a headland, the loch vanishing for a while. But then near Furnace a long layby with a Loch view, we pulled in, as did others, to enjoy our lunch.
On to Lochgilphead, here we paused to get some cash at the Post Office. Then a turn towards the north on the A816 right alongside the Crinan Canal. We’d thought about a walk along the canal, but it was raining now. Maybe it would brighten up as we drove, but it didn’t!
The Crinan Canal in the rain
We passed locks water cascading over the bottom gates. Then the dark stone sided channel on low pounds. Blimey just how deep is the Crinan Canal normally? You wouldn’t be able to stand up if you fell in here! The canal is currently closed for maintenance until the end of April, so we’d not see any boats go through locks today.
A nice house over looking the canal £260,000
As the main road carried on north to Oban, we turned off onto a smaller road still hugging the canal. At Bellanoch a swing bridge sits over the canal taking the road northwards again, we stayed on our westerly course, turning onto a road with passing places, climbing over the fells, passing more lochs then down into Tayvallich our destination for the day.
Tayvallich
Mick asked me if I knew Morag’s address. Well it’s just the name of her house and the village, luckily when she first moved here I’d had a good nosy on Google maps and found her house, so I knew which way to go as we turned away from the natural harbour of Loch a’ Bhealaich.
Morag is an old school friend of mine, she moved to Scotland around four years ago to a place she’s been coming to since she was a young child on holidays. Her dad has lived nearby for many years.
Fig after a swim in the sea
Time to meet Fig her dog, a very well behaved woofer, in fact we never heard him woof once! A tour of Morag’s house, then a walk over the other side of the peninsula to look out from Carsaig towards Jura all whilst Fig swam to retrieve a ball. What a wonderful place to be. What a difference from Morag’s flat in south London!
Lots to catch up on, a walk to the village shop followed by a veggie curry before Morag headed out for the evening. She goes Scottish dancing with a 89 (?) year old neighbour and her friend who is 85. We were quite happy to keep her sofa warm in front of the log burner watching The Other Bennett Sister and as we enjoyed Small Prophets, it was time to get Mick to watch a few episodes of Detectorists.
Breakfast followed by the Geraghty zoom. We tried using two laptops for the zoom, but sadly the sound echoed so we all got cosy on a sofa to chat to everyone elsewhere. As I’m writing this a week later, the subjects we discussed have mostly slipped my mind, although the Romans and Hadrian’s Wall were discussed.
Gates and lamp posts along the street give away the designer
A ten minute walk from Anne and Alasdair’s house is Hill House a Scottish National Trust property which our English membership cards gave us free entry. Just walking in through the gates from the road you could see who had designed the house, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
The box around HIll House
When built, Mackintosh wanted to use a modern render, so roughcast cement was used over brickwork and red sandstone, the underlying construction materials not of high quality. However, the cement wasn’t the best at keeping water out and being in Helensburgh there is a large amount of precipitation! Over the decades the house has grown increasingly damp and something needed to be done, so a ten year (now possibly 15) conservation programme started in 2019. The render has mostly now been removed, and the building is being left to dry out. A decision on what material will replace the render is still to be made. Should it be something from the era the house was built in, or should the latest and best waterproof material be used, possibly something Charles Rennie Mackintosh would have chosen should he be alive today?
A box, or chainmail cage has been erected around the house, so that the render could be removed and then the building would be able to gradually dry out protected from the elements by the box. This means that there are walkways all around the building giving you views from above the house, it was really quite interesting seeing things that only builders would have seen.
Through the modern ebonised wooden visitors centre/shop/cafe we walked into the house, welcomed by a friend of Anne and Alasdair’s. The dark dark wood lit from Mackintosh lanterns with squares and circles with pink/purple stained glass. Wow!
Beautiful
A guide came past with a key to open up a desk in the drawing room. I quickly headed through to see what was to be revealed. Almost chinoiserie in style the cupboard was opened up to reveal squares of mother of pearl and a beautiful backing which glinted in the light from a phone. Stunning.
Now it was time to take time to appreciate the interior of the house. Dark due to the box construction outside and some of the windows having been covered over for protection, we didn’t really see the rooms how Mackintosh had intended, yet they didn’t disappoint. A man for great detail with everything, his design showing through on items of furniture, windows, fireplaces, lanterns, carpets, stair rails, beds, curved niches in bedrooms. Even in the servants areas hearts had been cut in cupboards and the square motif continued on.
Tulips reaching up to books
The library shelving had symbolic blades of grass, tulip stems reaching to the tops of the woodwork where they opened with a open book. The house, commissioned in 1902, was built for Walter Blackie, a Glasgow book publisher. Squares on part of the shelves pull out to create a small writing desk, everything thought out.
The Hill House is considered to be Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s domestic masterpiece. Walter Blackie commissioned the up-and-coming architect and artist Margaret Macdonald, who worked collaboratively to create almost everything.
Back in the drawing room, white or cream, hard to tell in the lighting, every corner had been considered. A mosaic fireplace with pink/purple insets, the fine curves of some tiles likely to have been ground rather than cut. This was a room that so needed the full natural light to appreciate it and warrants a second visit when the cage is gone and the render replaced. In one corner of the room sat a chair from a very different world. This was Mrs Blackie’s armchair, she insisted on having a comfy chair to sit and read in, rather than a design masterpiece. Don’t blame her really!
The bottom of the staircase
The staircase, ebonised with lanterns, woven carpet and stained glass, exquisite. Up to the bedrooms. Mrs Blackie’s room white/cream again with Mackintosh roses, wonderful cupboards. Can you tell I liked it? A stunning house on the inside and interesting on the outside, the box making it more so. Here’s a link with some photos before windows were covered over for the conservation.
Lunch was enjoyed in the cafe. Onion bhaji wraps with mango chutney, butternut squash soup and a scone. All very nice.
Some seriously posh houses
I headed off to walk down to the seafront, whilst the others headed back to the house to collect our car. Thankfully Anne is quite small, she managed to squeeze onto the back seat but needed assistance to escape! My walk had me passing large posh houses that the Glasgow elite had lived in, they commuted to work by steamer on the River Clyde. The railway cuts across the hill, so you have to walk round to avoid the tracks deep in a cutting. Along Queen Street there were a whole load of vans, something was being filmed.
Sunny but windy!
I arrived at a similar time to those in the car, a walk along the seafront was a windy affair, with a strong aroma from seaweed on what was visible of the beach. The walk ended up being curtailed, we all headed to shelter in Dino’s for some chilled medication, the darkest chocolate ice cream I’ve had in a long time.
Dino’s medication
With room for only 2.5 people in the car I walked back up the hill, filming still on going in a modern house nestled between two Victorian properties. An afternoon of chatting, knitting and watching a mine sweeper down on the loch before we climbed into the bigger car to head to Masala Twist for a very tasty curry.
Another lovely day. One which left us wondering if we should add something Mackintosh to Oleanna’s bow maybe. A tulip or rose wouldn’t be right, as they would be horizontal, flowers grow vertically. But maybe we’ll adjust her dashes and dots to something with a nod to the man to match her original sign writing.
A lovely sunny day, although the view across to Greenock was quite hazy, but it was a perfect day to go sightseeing.
These three woofers were well in control of their motorhome
We climbed into Anne and Alasdair’s car, plenty of space in the back for passengers, unlike our car. Mick navigated to cross Scotland, part way between Glasgow and Edinburgh, passing Stirling Castle high up looking over the Mosses. Where were we going? 55 miles or so. To where all boaters visiting Scotland must go, the Falkirk Wheel.
The wheel with absailers
It was busy, a charity abseiling event taking place down from the aqueduct leading to the wheel. Four lines and plenty of nervous fundraisers awaiting their turn. We walked round, paid for tickets having arrived about twenty minutes before the next trip boat up the wheel. We stood in line then took our seats, second row on the boat and waited for it to get moving.
There was commentary by a chap and a recorded lady. Safety briefing: your exits are here, here and here. Then the doors were closed, a good blast of bow thruster to get us lined up to go onto the wheel. Once we’d bumped the side a bit the crew stepped off the boat and secured her bow and stern to the caisson.
Anne, Alasdair, Mick and Pip
The lady in front of me, in blue, would now feature in most of my photographs, trying to sneak a photo around her forever moving head meant taking around six or seven photos to get one reasonable one. But heyho, I suspect I’d have been the same if I’d had the front seat and someone would have complained about the lady in red!
Behind us the caisson was shut off, two pivoting doors under the water rise up to close off the wheel from the canal, similar to those on the Anderton Boat lift, except those work vertically. The water is pumped out from between the two doors. Then the wheel starts to turn. Large wheels on track move the caisson round the circular opening whilst the structure around us swings round and upwards. The wheel can go in both directions, clockwise and anticlockwise. There is a slight optical illusion whilst one side of the lift seems to be going down in the opening, yet it is still rising with the structure.
At the top the reverse was done with the caisson doors, this time in view ahead of us. We passed the abseilers all hooked up onto a safety line awaiting their descent. Up ahead is Roughcastle Tunnel, 334m long with coloured lights shone across the ceiling and a traffic light system to warn of on coming boats. Mrs Blue got in the way again, but I managed to only catch her grey locks.
Through the tunnel the trip boat winded, showing the bottom of the staircase lock above, water cascading over the gates, then we returned through the tunnel, the commentary breaking up whilst underground. Back to the lift to see the hazy view, everyone doing their best to spot the glint of the Kelpies over to the east. Try as we did they weren’t in view for us, maybe the bridge structure got in the way, maybe Mrs Blue did, but I did get a good view of both sets of cooling towers at Grangemouth.
A better view than on the way up
The Falkirk Wheel connects the Forth and Clyde to the Union Canal. Opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project, reconnecting the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. Planners opted for a 21st Century structure rather than recreating the 11 locks that used to raise boats. We looked on various maps to see where the locks used to be. The historic layer on Open Canal maps didn’t show us anything, it wasn’t obvious on either OS or Google maps. We knew where we’d find the information we wanted, Waterway Routes.
We don’t have much call for the Scottish waterways normally, so had to download a copy. Sure enough there they were marked in pale grey, now built over.
The wheel raises boats 24m, still another 11m to go to reach the height the 11 locks used to rise to reach the Union Canal. The locks fell into disuse and by 1933 were dismantled. BWB came into existence on the 1st January 1963, the day the Forth and Clyde Canal closed. In the 1990’s plans and funds started to come together for the Millenium Project. Tony Kettle led a team of architects who along with BWB, Arup, Butterley Engineering and RMJM came up with the design in 1999. The full structure was put together in Ripley, Derbyshire, before being dismantled and brought to site on 35 lorries. Roughcastle Tunnel was built with the two locks following so the route could go under the Roman Antonine Wall rather than through it. The wheel was opened by the Queen on the 24th May 2002 as part of the Golden Jubilee . Plenty more information can be found here
Back on dry land we headed for lunch, soup, scones and a generous jacket potato were enjoyed by all. Then a walk to Rough Castle. This took several attempts to get out from the wheel site and onto the correct track through lots of woodland.
The outer wall of the castle to the left
Rough Castle was the second smallest fort on the Antonine Wall, but it is the best-preserved. Alasdair filled us in on historical information, one of his specialist subjects. The wall was built across the central belt of Scotland from 140AD, forming the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire. So all those who thought they’d stopped at Hadrian’s Wall were wrong, they even made it further north too.
Back to the wheel for a comfort break, some chilled medication was consumed under the wheel as it descended with the next load of sightseers.
The misty view from Helensburgh
We drove back to Helensburgh via a local Co-op for a few bits. A tasty chicken casserole was awaiting us with the freshest of cabbage which had approximately two minutes out of the ground before being cooked. Yummy. All followed by cheese and oatcakes, well, we are in Scotland!
Yesterday I got exceedingly excited. She, was, packing!
Did this mean?! Could this mean?! We’d be heading back to the world where the outside moves? I climbed into the bag cringing at the thought of the cat caravan coming out, maybe She’d let me travel in this bag instead.
Sadly for Tilly it didn’t mean heading back to Oleanna, despite the high decibels of her purring.
Our little car for the week
For several years we’ve talked about doing a road trip up to Scotland. Anne, one of Mick’s sisters moved there 13 years ago, followed about 4 years ago by some other friends. Things started to align a few weeks ago. A lodger willing to look after Tilly, the boat repaint not happening yet, reasonable weather, longer hours of daylight. We put our long thought about plan into action, tweeked dates a touch to fit in with other peoples plans and hired a car for a week, insured for two drivers.
Our little thug
Early Friday morning Mick headed off to pick up our Fiat 500. No openable sunroof, but we weren’t aiming to have more than the two of us inside, unlike in Mick’s teenage years! By now the penny had dropped with Tilly, I’d not packed enough bags for a return to the boat, so her purring turned into sulking under the bed. Since adopting Tilly ten years ago, this would be the longest she’d be apart from the two of us. I just hoped she’d be polite to Vicky our lodger for the next week.
A charred landscape
Normally when we have a car we turn right at the bottom of the road, but this time it was left, we were heading northwards. A pause at Proudfoots to purchase some Easter eggs as gifts, then we were off along the winding roads up the North Yorkshire Moors. Here the fires that caused chaos and serious concern last summer have left black scars across the land.
Angel and ice cream
Up to Newcastle then a left to have a pause at the Angel of the North. I’d hoped there might be some shore based facilities here. Only one available, a chilled medication van, doing a pretty good trade. We had a walk around Anthony Gormley’s giant structure, but a wee break was really required so we pressed on to a nearby Sainsbury’s. After a comfort break we sat and had a lovely view to eat our butties that I’d prepared for us both.
We headed on westwards to Carlisle and started to see signs to Scotland. All this time sat in the car I managed to finish off the first of my Felicity Edition Sockathon socks. It’s quite baby pink and not really my kind of sock, but that’s not the point of the Felicity Edition, although I have added a band of darker pink to help count rows.
Crossing the border
Finally, we were into Scotland and carrying on heading northwards. In my late teens and early twenties I would drive friends up to Kirkcudbright for long weekends or weeks, but today we were bound for further north.
Canal!
The satnav suggested a slightly quicker route through Glasgow, but that meant we missed out on the Erskine Bridge and got slightly lost in the process. We also missed out on driving along the old runway at the now closed Renfrew Airport that Mick’s Dad would have landed and taken off from when he was a pilot. Nowadays the M8 follows the course of the old runway. Maybe we’d manage that on our way back home. We did however get our first view of the Forth and Clyde Canal at a bridge.
Heading west
Out the other side of Glasgow we headed for Helensburgh where Anne and Alasdair have lived for thirteen years. There was a very warm welcome and a very nice Shepherds Pie, thank you Anne.
February this year marks a couple of tenth anniversaries for us.
On the 14th February Oleanna’s baseplate was laid at Tim Tylers in Newcastle Under Lyme. We visited her on the 15th and got to stand on the bare steel 58ft 6″ apart with cuppas in hand. What an exciting day that was. Once the majority of her hull was completed she was moved over to Sheffield for Jonathon Wilson to finish off the shell, then for Finesse to work on her fitout.
It doesn’t feel like ten years ago in many ways, but it does in others.
I maybe should have worked out her total milage and locks over the ten years, but as she wasn’t officially launched and handed over to us for over a year I’ll save that for the anniversary of when she got her bottom wet for the first time.
Also back in 2016 we’d been without a second mate for a year. Whilst we moored at Kings Marina in Newark for the winter I hunted round the internet hoping we’d be able to rehome a rescue cat. One cat caught my eye with Burton Joyce Cat Rescue. They had no probelm rehoming to someone living on a boat, but they’d rather we adopted a younger cat, the one I’d spied was a year old. I’d thought this might be better for Mick as he’d never lived with a kitten. We waited and around the beggining of February the ladies at the cat rescue got in touch offering us Amelia, a Tuxedo kitten of around four months old, she was the last of her litter. I requested a photo and on recieving it instantly fell in love.
Just look at that face!
Amelia had to wait to be picked up as we needed to be through Meadow Lane Lock in Nottingham before it closed for winter mainteneance. A handy visit from the London Leckenbys meant we could head to pick her up in a car. A few days later she was renamed Tilly, the Tiller cat, Cat Stevens singing in my head
Choosing some toys
Ten years later both Tilly and Oleanna are bored and wanting to be back on the water. But they will both have to be patient, as will we.
Ten years later
0 locks, 0 miles, 10 years of Oleanna, 10 years of Tilly, 2 very lucky boaters.
