Tea in bed with the Saturday newspaper, just what was needed along with an extra hours sleep.
Tilly
The sun was out warming the lock cut and making it steam. At 8am we got the first rowing boat arrive and sit chatting for ages as we read the papers. Then as the world warmed up more people walked past on the towpath.
Mick spotted a Lock Keeper and was about to say we’d like to stay a while due to our engine overheating, but the Lockie beat him to it saying that the river was back on Red Boards again, so our stay for the time being will be free.
I checked the levels and sure enough this reach isn’t the only one to have gone red overnight. It’s interesting how often they update the conditions, a week ago there were four updates in a day, but today there had only been one in 24hrs.
Sunny day
We had a long discussion this morning, should we eat out at the pub across the way, or should we cook ourselves. The later meant having to go shopping, we chose this option as we knew we’d end up with a much better roast for half the price. Mick headed off on a bike to a big Sainsburys where most of Oxford seemed to be restocking their cupboards.
All very well going downstream
Tilly and I stayed put enjoying the sunshine, watching a chap row by standing up, bet that’s hard work going up stream. What a lovely day for doing just about nothing.
The lock landing on 20th August
After lunch we went for a wander. Coming up the lock was a boat Mick recognised from Goring, the one with the cats on board. We chatted to the chap who moored behind us. They’d come through Abingdon this morning, fighting against the stream believing it to be on yellow boards, when they checked quarter of an hour later, it was on red. They battled their way upstream at about 1mph against the current. Serious hard work. Oleanna won’t be doing any of that!
The lock landing today
We walked down to look at the reach below the lock, it was very high, higher than yesterday, just about to come over the lock landing. Back in mid August there had been at least two foot below the landing visible. The stream from the weir was very strong, I’m surprised the boat had managed to come past it.
Red
A sunny slow quiet day ending with a nice roast chicken before I head back to Chippy tomorrow and paint my arms off for a second week. Here’s hoping the levels improve along with Oleanna’s engine.
My route to work in the morning
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 bike ride, 1 lazy morning, 1 lazy afternoon, 1 lazy evening, 1 roast chicken,1 boat, 2 kids, 3 dogs, 5 cats that’s one very full boat behind us!
Early trains, two of them to get me to Banbury. Then the 488 bus to Chipping Norton, which arrived so I had a good half hour before the meet and greet with the acting company. The van was already being unloaded with the set pieces that had been built in Cornwall.
Pieces coming in through the front doors
There was time to make sure all was well before I’d be needed elsewhere. Unfortunately there were two pieces that wouldn’t fit through the front doors! I had given Ade and Lou what are known as the ‘Get in’ dimensions. The two offending pieces had a very quick straight cut put through them which will be disguised with a lick of paint when I get round to it.
Portals going in
The first day of rehearsals starts with meeting all the actors and other creatives, this is followed by a read through. This was very funny indeed, plenty of jokes for both old and young. Then it was time for Helen (the costume designer) and myself to be centre stage and show off our designs to the company.
Positions on stage
Over lunch time there was a production meeting with Lighting Designer, Sound Designer, Props Maker, everyone involved apart from the actors. My world that normally revolves at about 3mph was suddenly accelerated to ten times that speed and that is the way it has stayed for the rest of the week.
Starting the phone box
Monday saw the portals being put together and fixed in position on stage. By the afternoon a second van arrived with barrows, hanging baskets and the start of a telephone box. Plenty for me to paint.
Pepper being grumpy with me
Late afternoon I walked round the corner to pick up the key for my digs and drop my bags off. I’m staying in the same digs as last year, so no need to be shown round, just a quick hello to Suzanne and Pepper the cat and I was back at work within fifteen minutes.
Yummy!
Late evening we all retired to the pub where on the menu there was gluten free cider battered fish and chips, I obviously had no choice. The portion was huge and I did consider keeping half for the following day, but I did my best and polished it off.
Tuesday more set pieces went up, sliders were suspended. This all took time as the floor of the stage is by no means flat, in fact it dips by getting on for two inches towards centre stage!
Hanging baskets all blobbed and splodged
I took over the front foyer, painting smaller bits of set. Hanging baskets, kitchen counters, the telephone box. By late afternoon it was time to say goodbye to Ade and Lou. They very nicely gave me two bottles of this years apple juice that they’d just pressed.
Glitter tastic scooter
Wednesday was props meetings with John the Director and Jo the Props maker. The scooters Jo has made are wonderful. The huge vault door wasn’t opening quite far enough, so some major chamfering back of the built hinge was needed and I then had to promise not to put too much paint on it all.
Big hinge about 12 inches long
With the crew putting first and second coats of paint on things for me I could concentrate on doing the arty painting. Late on in the day more people headed home, leaving me with Gavin and Ash to carry on.
My pretty walk to work
Thursday the actors started to rehearse on stage. By 4pm the Pippins had joined them. These are local kids who get chance to be in the panto. There are three teams of four, songs are learnt on mass, but stage directions and dance routines all have to be done three times. I’m just about word perfect on some of the songs already!
K6 finished
This also meant that Gavin gave his health and safety chat to the kids. When I realised he’d started I made sure I went into the auditorium to listen. Sadly this year he’s changed the wording somewhat, Death wasn’t mentioned once!
Missed bits
During the evenings the stage is available for painting at the moment, so I’ve made use of Ash and Gavin to get more pleb painting done. This does mean that even though I’m last in the building I also tend to be the first, touching in the bits they’d missed before the actors start rehearsals.
Still things to fly
By the end of Friday night there were just signs and barrow dressing left to do for the market square scene. This scenery possibly has the most work, so on Saturday I treated myself to a sit down in a dressing room doing all the signage. The complicated floor has also been marked out, I just hope it’s still there after all the dancing next week.
Road sign finished
Once these were completed and a few jobs finished on stage I headed to get a Saturday newspaper and a few bits and bobs that Mick had planned to buy when he reached Oxford, but that just hadn’t happened. Leaving the theatre in daylight was a first this week, as I waited for the bus to arrive it went dark. Only the twinkling lights in Woodstock illuminated the journey back to Oxford.
Pub sign completed
I considered on popping in to say hello to our friends, Andy and Irene, who were moored at the end of the canal, but by now I was weary and wanting to get home, still with another bus journey to do. Mick met me from the bus and we walked back to the boat by Sandford Lock. After sausage and mash with a glass or two of wine I had returned to 3mph, Tilly doing her best to keep my lap warm in front of the stove.
Cat cuddles, only because I was nearest to the stove!
2 trains, 3 buses, 1 read through, 7 potatoes more,2 big flats, 3 lots hanging baskets, 1 street sign, 1 nick, 1 kitchen unit, 1 ancient Pepper, 4 free bottles Crabbies, 2 bottles apple juice, 1 wet day, 1 newspaper, 1 purring Tilly, 1 cosy boat, 1 day off.
This morning I noticed that our window frames need a good clean out. We seem to have a crop growing in the fluffy surround. Maybe it’ll be something tasty!
Cress or something more substantial?
As we finished off breakfast yesterdays locking partners came past us, then as we were rolling back the covers they came past again, heading in the same direction as us. How nice of them to call for us to do Woolhampton Lock together.
The river joins from the right
They of course were experienced at this lock and the swing bridge that closely follows it, having been through it yesterday. Below the lock the River Kennet joins again at 90 degrees, this is soon followed by the swing bridge. The flow on the river can mean that heading downstream you won’t be able to stop to operate the bridge, so it is recommended to open the bridge before leaving the lock.
Power on
Both safe through the bridge
Crew went ahead to open up, from my side of the lock I couldn’t see that it was opened but the chap on the other side said it was as Mick left the lock. A bit of power was needed to get past the initial force of the current, then enough to keep steerage through the bridge where shortly afterwards the boats pulled in to pick us all up. We’d both safely made the transit.
The culvert work we passed has progressed into a lot of mud
At Aldermaston Lock we waited and helped bring a wide beam up before we both could descend. An off duty volunteer appeared and as there were a few boats he went off to get his windlass and life jacket from the car, a handy extra pair of hands.
That’s what they look like
NB Seraph went on ahead through the lift bridge whilst we turned to the services to fill with water, this will be the last opportunity before going onto the Thames. This meant I got to see what the underside of a lift bridge looks like from the road. At the services we disposed of all our waste and then reversed out winded and waited for the road to be clear to lift the bridge again. I was glad we’d waited as I got 27 cars compared to NB Seraph’s 19.
Hips
As Mick brought Oleanna into Padworth Lock I heard two Kingfishers, soon followed by the two of them darting past in electric blue unison, both banking at the same time to give a flash of orange as they turned just behind Mick’s head and vanished into the trees. It was like the Red Arrows, they just needed a few more mates to make a proper display team. Sadly no photos were possible.
Sticky sticky things
We carried on working our way down through the locks and swinging the bridges now on our own, each chamber needing to be filled. Every now and then the river would join again, one stretch taking us by surprise and speeding our way downstream.
Sulhampstead Swing Bridge and lock were to be my last on the Kennet and Avon. A shame the sun hadn’t been out for my last day of freedom before Panto starts. We pulled in at Theale Visitor Moorings, hoping that the Thames will have dropped enough for Mick to make progress upstream towards Oxford this coming week. Today more yellow boards, stream decreasing are showing, they are almost half way to Oxford now, just a few more needed.
Tilly had a good explore this afternoon as I packed, baked and booked train tickets. Mick spent much of the time searching the internet for a new shower thermostatic mixer bar. Ours has decided to keep a constant temperature, just about too hot! So tomorrow he’ll help me with my bags and then go and see if he can get a new one from Reading Screwfix to plumb in.
My bags are now packed and in the morning I’ll be heading off to Panto. Hopefully when you are reading this Mick will be closer to moving onto the Thames, my navigational and windlass duties will be passed over to Paul from Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk to help Mick get off the K&A.
So until I get chance to post a postcard here, this will be the last post for a while. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Thames and other boaters blogs as I eat my cereal each morning before painting my arms off on Puss in Boots. See you all soon.
6 locks, 5.99 miles, 1 wind, 5 swing bridges, 1 lift bridge, 41 held up, 1 boat let through, 1 full water tank, 20 biscuits, 1 oat and chestnut loaf, 1 big bag packed, 1 rucksack, 1 bag of templates, 2 kingfishers, 1 boater signing off for a while.
Others were on the move before us this morning, so the lock was emptied before we could make use of it, well there was the Saturday newspaper to buy and a bar of chocolate!
A little after 11 we pushed off to the welcome sight of a boat coming up Greenham Lock. It took a little while for the penny to drop why they were taking so much time to fill the lock, of course we are now on the Newbury to Reading stretch where all the locks have a tendency to be fierce as they fill. We swapped with the boat and descended away from Newbury.
Bye Bye Newbury
At Ham Lock Mick made sure the stern rope wouldn’t fall and get wrapped round the prop and our transit through here was much quicker than on our way up!
Now that’s a good stick!
There are some dogs that are not content unless they have a stick to take with them on a walk. Well along the next stretch there was one such dog determined to get a good stick. He found one and tried his best to pull it out from the undergrowth. It came right across the towpath but no further, his owner persuaded him to leave it.
But this one is even better!
But the woofer wasn’t content and still needed a stick, a good stick. So he decided to pick his own, unsuccessfully!
Autumn colour may be slow round here to get going, but the leaves on the ground are starting to build up, it’ll soon be leaf kicking time!
That saves me a job
Our first swing bridge was being held open as we approached. It was hard to see the boats coming as they were round the bend taking their time. Two recently picked up hire boats being very careful leaving the lock so we managed to sneak through the bridge before they’d got anywhere near it, they spotted us in time so left the gates open too.
As I lifted the paddles at a lock two cheery people walked up to say hello. I recognised them straight away and had been hoping our paths might cross, Mick needed a touch of reminding. It was Ann-Marie and Dave from NB Legend. We’d passed their boat a few weeks back just below the summit on our way west, but I hadn’t spotted them on our way back.
Not the nest photo of Ann-Marie and Dave
We met Ann-Marie and Dave about three years ago on quite a fateful day. They are great friends of Alison and Laura who used to own NB Large Marge. There was time for a quick chat, they’d just moved their car and would be following on shortly by boat. Hopefully we’ll get chance to have a better chat as both boats will be waiting for the Thames to go down.
Filling Monkey Marsh up
Monkey Marsh Lock needed filling, so Mick came to lend a hand. The first of the turf sided locks they take an age to fill. I sat on the beam waiting for the last few inches to fill up, this takes about twice as much water as on a standard lock. Mick decided to give his beam a good old heave ho and surprisingly managed to hold it open a touch to help equalise the levels.
Heave Mick heave!
The moorings at Thatcham were still filled with C&RT boats, but two others had managed to sneak on the end, no space for us.
The widebeam reversing to where the narrowboat was
Approaching Midgham Lock we didn’t know what was happening. A wide beam was winding, were they heading for the lock? Were they planning to moor? Which ever there was a narrowboat in the way, one coming up on the lock, the other wanting to pull out from having lunch. Eventually it was obvious they were wanting to moor up so we pulled up and shared the lock with the narrowboat.
Diddy fungi on a lock beam
The crew were jolly companions on NB Seraph, helping to move a friends boat back up towards Napton, they were only out for the weekend. We shared a couple of locks and swung bridges together letting them continue without us when we found a space before the moorings at Woolhampton Lock.
We could get the bow in and tied on the last ring of the moorings, but to be anyway level the stern had to be quite a long way out. This would do us.
This would certainly do me! Trees, friendly cover as far as the eye could see, brilliant! I came home once, but got far too busy to come home when called the first time. She however caught me in a lull of excitement just before the lights went out.
A batch of biscuit dough made and in the fridge for fit-up biscuits, my sour dough starter out of the fridge warming up and a roast chicken in the oven. I could then sit down and sort out my receipts so far for Chippy.
Trying to push us out
We decided that sorting our list out everytime a boat filled the lock was pointless, so waited til after dark when boat movements would stop. The stove was lit and tonight for the first time this year we’d keep it in overnight as the temperature is set to drop to around 4 degrees.
8 locks, 5.94 miles, 4 swing bridges, 1 locking partner, 1 newspaper, 1 big stick, 1 batch of biscuits ready, 1 sponge ready, 1 roast chicken ready and in our tummies, 1 outside contender for a stamp, 2 more hours would have swung it, 1 batch receipts, 1 invoice, 1 cosy boat, 2 yellow decreasing boards!
Hunting round for a printers to do copies of my plans I noticed a group of possibles behind the marina opposite. I chose one to aim for and set off with my tracing paper roll under my arm. After I’d crossed the canal the roll had to be tucked inside my fleece as it had started to rain. They were wrapped in a plastic bag, but all the same I didn’t want to end up with a wrinkly set.
Newbury Salmon ladder
In what seemed to be someones garage I opened the door and enquired if they did A2 copies. No came the answer from a chap hidden behind numerous toner cartridges, but there was a place in Aldermaston. That was no good to me, they’d be closed on Sunday when we might just pass through. They could however do me a couple of copies that covered the whole drawing, that would do me.
Modern printers are like old TV sets they take forever to warm up and get going. A test copy was done, which took forever to appear at the far end of the garage. This was fine and he set about doing my copies for me. once this machine got going it didn’t hang around! They charged a minimum of £7.50, was that okay? Just over 30p a sheet that was great, an A2 would have been around £2 a go!
Ambient! My lasagne the other day was ambient too
Now with a bigger roll I looked like I was hiding a shot gun under my fleece. I met Mick at Sainsburys where we stocked up on perishables. Back at the boat we had lunch and then pushed off.
Dante modelling a new woofer life jacket
Okay so we didn’t go far, just around the corner to wait for the marina service mooring to become free. Then we pushed over doing ‘an Andy’ to get the stern in against the strong wind. Newbury has no C&RT water points, but here you can top up your tank for £2, if you spend enough on other things it’s free. We managed 50 litres diesel and a bag of coal, so we got the H2O for free. I put a load of washing on to make the most of it.
When the new rulings come in for Diesel the chap said they wouldn’t sell to passing boats anymore. How many other places will go the same way?
Impatient locals
This all took time and it was nearly four by the time our tank gave it’s boom to tell us it was full. So we pushed back over, mooring just before Greenham Lock. All was good, with empty and full tanks as required and a clean pooh bucket, happy boaters.
Whilst Tilly explored this stretch of narrow land between canal and river I drew up a template for the pattern in the Boozer for Panto. This recurs on several bits of set, so being able to draw it out quickly will be a great help. With this then cut out I could start putting things away.
Work corner
For months now the corner of our dinette has had a model sitting in it along with boxes of paints and my model making box. It is normally tied away better than in this photo. I’d hoped that the Production Manager for Vienna might manage to pick the model up this weekend, but we are too far off his route, so it will be sent by courier instead, we’ll have to put up with it for a while longer. Everything else though could be packed away again and stowed under the seating until next year.
Mine!
It’s all mine!
Tilly woke up just as I was putting the cushions back and made sure that she claimed them by rolling all over the place and running along the dinette sideways, those poor cushions!
Our forth and final meal from the left over pork this evening. Left over stew, just about anything that I could find went into this in my cast iron pot which was left to bubble for a couple of hours. With a large jacket potato each it was very tasty. The joint may have been large, but it did us five main meals so that’s just over £1 a go. Not bad.
A photo for Frank
Earlier than advertised the Michaelmas Fair firework display started. We tried looking out of the hatch but we were too far away with too many trees in the way to see anything. Oh well, we just listened instead.
0 locks, 0.24 miles, 52.4 litres, 1 bag Glow, 1 full tank water, 1 empty wee tank, 1 clean pooh bucket, 24 copies, 1 chicken, A1 template, 1 corner reclaimed, 1 set loaded ready for Monday, 3 yellow boards, the rest still red, 2 free days hooray!
When you wake up, turn your phone on and before you think it’s even woken up fully you get a text message with a question about panto, you just know it’s going to be one of those days!
Luckily the first email I got was from the actor/writer for A Regular Little Houdini who had just worked his way through the model photos I’d sent out yesterday, he was thrilled, so was Josh the Director when I heard from him later in the day.
Then the Panto emails started, questions left, right and centre. Everyone is gearing up to the start of rehearsals next week. Builders wanting to know if they should use prime mixed with colour. Will we need a pay phone in the telephone box? Will a recoiling hoover cable work? Could they have a hanging plot? My plans don’t quite match plans the technicians now have. Which are correct? Mine have to be. How many 1950’s mics have we got? Black or silver stands? Has portal 3 gone? The repercussions of that. They just kept coming all day!
Pub sign
I enlarged writing for signs on the printer and just had one more thing to do when the black cartridge ran out. I changed the cartridge but somehow it didn’t prime itself. Now the printer thinks it is full of black, but can’t print with it. I stopped what I was doing and handed it over to the technical department to fix. That last job could wait.
The designer of Houdini needed to be shot. Drawing up a cross section can be a challenge at times, one I somehow usually sadistically enjoy. But the bridge structure being set at an angle on the stage and then leaning in both other planes! Blimey!! Okay, so doing drawings on a computer would make this so much easier, but hardly a challenge. The sense of achievement when I finally finished it was great.
I just need a shoe horn now to be able to fit the bridge into the actors camper van to bring it back to England after the run in Vienna.
The technical department tried and tried to get the printer working. The final thing was to leave it off overnight and see if it would sort itself out. Fingers crossed as printer scanners are few and far between now. * Edited Looking at the spec of printers Mick found that most manufacturers of printers don’t boast about scanning as they used to! So if needs be we’ll be buying a new one.
Someone’s hard at work!
Tilly came and went. Even though her time outside here has been short, she is bored of this outside. So much so that she constantly got in the way today, being told off for walking on things she shouldn’t and leaving paw prints on drawings! She then gave up and retired to her shelf. When do cats stop growing? Will she be needing an extension soon.
The pork still keeps giving. Tonight we had roast pork and potato pizza. I’d tried making the sour dough base leaving it to do it’s stuff for 8 hours instead of 24. The verdict was either my sour dough starter has died or it simply wasn’t long enough. The base was a touch chewy!
The photo makes it look a touch too done, but it wasn’t
The Thames is still out of bounds, but looking at the levels on the C&RT site the Kennet should be fine. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to do a bit of boating.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 days not stepping off the boat, 4 yellow boards the rest red, 1 Still Rockin stuck at Goring, 1 Kamili stuck at Abingdon, 8:20 first question, 2 many questions to get my work done, 1 annoying cat, 3 pawprints that shouldn’t be there, 1 broken printer, 1 expanding camper required, 3rd pork meal, pizza not so good.
The Thames is still high, out of the reaches we’d need to cover five are ‘Caution Stream Increasing’ the rest ‘Caution Strong Stream’, no signs of it decreasing yet. Hopefully after a couple of dry days this will start to change.
A sneaky peek
Yesterday we decided to stay put until all my work is completed for Houdini and the bit of prep work for Panto I need to do. If then we have time to reach somewhere with a station nearer to Reading we’ll move. Getting closer towards the Thames would be a good thing and getting Oleanna through certain obstacles on the K&A would help too. This will give Mick more chance of reaching Abingdon or Oxford for my first weekend trip home from panto, that’s if the Thames goes down.
and another
So today I knuckled down, hoping to finish my model and any amendments to drawings for Houdini. Only one drawing left to do, a cross section. Lots of photos of the model to show the Director, Lighting Designer, Writer/Actor, Videographer. Just annoying that the internet started playing games as everything was uploading!
An Autumnal Mick
Mick cycled off to Halfords for some engine oil. Then he did a biggish shop at Sainsbury’s. They keep giving us really good vouchers so it would be silly not to use them. It’s that thing they do at this time of year, they think they have got you hooked with free nectar points, money off etc. so you’ll do your Christmas food shop with them. For us it tops up the nectar points that we may or may not be able to spend on a Christmas food shop. If all goes according to plan, our bird will come from the butchers in Braunston and our veg from the Post Office at Napton, so our points will wait for another time.
Mick spent the rest of the afternoon sat out the back, keeping out of my way and chaperoning Tilly. It was such a mild afternoon that I had the hatch open for much of it and Tilly could return as often as she liked.The Fish Selection Pocket Pillows have nothing to do with it! They are rather nice, thank you to Joa or Adam for them, although I think I still prefer the Chicken and Cheese ones.
Autumnal catwalk
She’d had enough after a while and returned to sleep leaving her chaperone outside. He eventually came in to carry on working his way through programmes on the channel tunnel, Heathrow and the first series of Star Trek.
Why the title? Today is the first day of Newbury’s Michaelmas Fair which happens in the week where the Thursday is the first Thursday following the 11th of October. It dates back to the 17th Century when Shepherds and Maids turned up to seek work in the town. It is about a mile away, but we could just about make out the words coming across the PA. Neither of us are big fans of fairs, so I doubt we’ll be paying it a visit. Although the fireworks on Friday may be worth it if we are still here.
0 locks, 0 miles, 0 steps of the boat for me,4 hours, 10 litres oil, 4 boxes wine, 1 model finished, 2 groundplans, 6 sheets, 1 cross section still to go, 25 year anniversary, 2,000 robot women, 2nd left over pork meal, teriyaki stir fry.
Time for breakfast, we’d some big eggs to eat so a couple of poached eggs each to start the day. We have poach pods and normally only two sit in the pan to poach. But today with four in there it was a little bit cramped, so much so two of them decided to sink! So we had one poached egg and a boiled egg each. Getting the timings right was a touch harder than normal as they were so big to start with. But they turned out well. The yolks on the sunk ones just, but only just starting to thicken up, so lovely and creamy. Yum!
Hmmm
A dry day, the first in an age! The thought of maybe having to put up with a bored cat for a week made us reassess shore leave. It was decided that she could go out if chaperoned.
Tilly and I went out to access the situation, the river had quite a flow to it and was making a noise which caught Tilly’s attention. An amorous couple across the way did too, I told her not to stare! The noise was off putting and the trees were more attractive. So up into the ivy of a dead tree she scurried, the only sign of her position was the waving branches.
One sluice open from the canal to the river
Mick took over so that I could get some work done. The aim to get all my model wet so that it would have to have time to dry, meaning we could go out for a walk and explore Newbury.
That’s interesting
The warmer and drier weather meant this took some doing as everything was drying quickly. Tilly came in to lend a paw. Today for the first time she became fascinated with the paint water. I’ve been fortunate that she’s not noticed it before and today I was able to keep an eye on her.
I’ll just put my paw in it
Houdini our previous second mate, couldn’t keep her paws out of water pots. When I worked full time I had to remember at the end of the day to pour the contents away. If I ever left it on my work bench, by the morning it was guaranteed to be spilt over everything! Living on a boat means I am very unlikely to leave my water out as we’d be needing the table for other things.
Mid afternoon we set off to stretch our legs. I was after some grey card and we wanted to see if we could get rid of some rubbish. Newbury is quite a good place to be for transport, shopping and things to do, but unless you pay at a marina there is no water and there are no bin stores along the towpath, these are marina based also. So Sainsburys got our recycling, then we set off to walk to Hobbycraft.
Much nicer than the dual carriageway
The walk involved dual carriageways, underpasses which after a while I decided wasn’t worth all the noise and pollution for two pieces of card which I could get away with not using. So we turned back towards town to see what was on offer.
Clock Tower
A large town center with many big names including John Lewis and Lakeland tucked away to the side in a new shopping area. The main street is long and ends with a clock tower. Here fingers point towards Oxford and Bath. Oxford closer, but inaccessible to us for the time being.
Bath feels so much closer right now
We had a good nosy around the shops, if you ever want to buy marker pens go into Wilko first before WH Smith, they are a third the price there! I maybe got a couple of things for Christmas too and we had a discussion as to whether one decoration on a tree in John Lewis was a pie or pudding.
Pie or Pudding? The holly thew him!
More Houdini model painting before I put it all together, but by this time it was a touch too dark to check to see what else I might want to do to it. Hopefully not too much more, then I can have a couple of days off before Panto starts in earnest.
0 locks, 0 miles, 4 eggs, 2 floating , 2 sunk, 1 engine run, 8 red boards, 1 purple wash, 1 hour shore leave, 1 blue sky, 1 canoodling couple, 1 tree conquered, 2 red tabs moved, 2 black tabs okay, 0 grey card, 1 paw painting assistant, 1st pork left overs, paprika pork and peppers.
Yesterday we’d stopped short of our planned destination for the day, today we needed to catch up. So the alarm went off, we had breakfast and were ready to push off into the chilly morning. At least the sun was out and we might be able to see the views that the cloud had shrouded on our way west.
Sun’s out
There are so many boats moored along the Long Pound, progress was very slow but at least Alton Barnes White Horse was in view for much of our way. Then we skirted round the Wiltshire mounds to our north were ancient terracing is very evident.
Mounds
Under Lady’s Bridge and past the wide water where a chap was just coming out of his boat full of the joys of spring!
Terraced Pickle
Just before Pewsey Winding Hole a chap pointed at us from the bow of his boat and then three others waved.
The Rustys
The Rustys had winded this morning and managed to get their boat just about into the side to moor so that they could go for an exploration. our boats were finally pointing different directions and our paths wouldn’t cross again. Hope their trip back to Hilperton is good. There was a bit of banter about meeting up next year, maybe Bingley.
Boat cat keeping an eye on us
We considered stopping to dispose of our yellow water but by the time we realised that the service mooring was actually free it was a touch late, so we carried onwards. The chilled medication emporium wasn’t open anyway!
Birdies
Approaching Wooton Rivers Mick took it very slowly, we didn’t want to get shouted at again. The boat in question seemed to have moved since we’d come the other way a month ago, by a full boat length! Maybe he’d been all the way to Bath and back having returned to the same spot, or maybe not.
At the bottom of the locks we disposed of all our rubbish with the handy recycling bins and then started to make our way up to the summit pound.
A chance photo paid off
Work emails kept me busy when not winding my windlass. Difficulty finding the paint I was after, where’s the drawing for the ladder, would I like an extra painty pair of hands in Chippy. This was all panto stuff, then the emails regarding Houdini started flying back and forth between the writer and production manager. All the time I was aware we would be heading into a black hole of communication once over the top.
Wooton Rivers Lock
Even though I was busy trying to respond to everyone there was still time to buy some eggs at our 2000th lock on Oleanna. I picked out the larger ones from the bottom tray thinking that they would be fresher than those on the top. I’d make use of these in the quinoa quiche I was making for tonight, we were a couple of eggs short before and now we had several very large eggs in hand.
As we pulled out of Brimslade Lock an abc hire boat came from the lock above. We left our gate for them as they closed the gates ahead of us. We all said hello and then we watched them pull into the lock landing to drop off crew, followed by having difficulty getting into the already open lock.
Last lock uphill
Cadley Lock was our last up hill. Sadly the plums by the top gate were now well past their best, most rotting on the floor making it very slippy under foot. But I was surprised at the number of butterflies here. About four fluttered their way around me, one hitching a lift on our roof for a distance. I’d have thought it was way past butterfly time.
Rotting plums
The locks up to the summit and down the other side are still being locked overnight at 3pm. We’d been caught out by the very low pound heading westwards and just made it to the top in time. With two more miles across the top we knew we wouldn’t be down the first set of locks by 3pm, so we’d find somewhere to moor instead. At least we’d caught up some of the time we’d lost yesterday, hopefully tomorrow we’ll get back to where we should be.
Hitching a lift
Through Savernake Tunnel we started to look for a possibility, the railway now very close by but on the off side, so Tilly would be safe. A short distance fro where we’d moored last time we pulled in by another boat. The water deep enough at the stern to get close, but the bow sitting a long way out. Here would do us for the day.
Out of the tunnel into the eastern side
Tilly jumped to the bank with ease and headed off to make friends. I then spent the next three hours trying to catch up on the Houdini emails about Kabouki drops and video footage, finally chipping my ideas into the mix that had been going back and forth all morning. My drawings were scanned and shared. Food put in the oven and after eating I finally got chance to do some model making. Four hours later I had a new version of the proscenium finished, it was now well past bedtime.
4 locks, 2000th on Oleanna, 11.96 miles, 1 final farewell, 1 white horse, 1 must have galloped away, 70 ft in a month, 6 giant eggs, 10 litres paint, 1 ladder, 20 pairs castors, 1 or 2 kabouki drops, 10 scanned drawings, 18 toing and froing emails, 1 prosc, 12 midnight finish., 1 black hole ahead
Our suicidal cat managed to survive the night, A model Edwardian chair can’t be as poisonous as a bentwood or Chippendale. I still need to make a new one though as what was left by Tilly is only slightly useful for lighting the stove!
Nice pie shop
Plastic free dry ingredients
Before our order arrived from Sainsburys we took advantage of a later start and had a cooked breakfast. Then I popped out to have a ‘girl look’ around Devizes for some card. Sadly Mick’s boy look yesterday had been correct and he hadn’t over looked any. I found the bakers that sold him some pies yesterday, both gluten filled and free which were tasty. Several nice looking independent bakeries and The Healthy Life Co another shop where you can shop plastic free to add to the list, think I might start a separate page of these for easy reference.
The drivers brother runs one of the pubs in Stoke Bruern
Back at the wharf the Rustys were filling with water and heading to Pewsey today, this was also our goal, hopefully by 3pm when I was to have a phone call with Vienna. At 10:15 a Sainsbury’s van backed up to the boat, a very handy mooring for such things. Once off loaded and the perishables stowed we wanted to fill with water, but the Rustys were still there.
Mick went to check if all was okay. The red light had come on on their toilet, they needed a pump out. The hire base had said there was a pump out card they could use on board, but there was none to be found, someone was coming out to them, so they were staying put for the time being.
Bye bye White Swan maybe see you again next year
Talking of toilets. Since Mick unblocked our yellow water pipe on our toilet I can only just count to 6 when giving it a rinse. Just before it was looked at I could get up to 36! I think this is now better than when we first got the boat.
Then all got quite confusing. The boat in front of us started to reverse to the winding hole where he winded. So Mick set off thinking we’d get water further on. But as he pushed out the winded boat started to reverse past us. This took a bit of doing, as reversing does, we were most probably in their way and them in our way. He reversed to the bridge and then pulled into the now vacant service mooring, where had the Rustys gone? This should have been the end of boat manoeuvres but the chap on the reversing boat had hopped off with a centre line but left his boat in gear making it impossible to pull it into the bank. Mick had to get on board and put it in neutral. All was well and we could continue on our way.
Drawings for Houdini
I decided to stay below taking advantage of few obstacles on the Long Pound and continued with my technical drawings.
The Rustys. Would this be our final farewell, no they passed us later in torrential rain
There seemed to be lots of boats moving today, bottle necks at bridges, wide beams to pass both moored and moving. At the winding hole by Devizes Marina the Rustys had turned and waited for us to pass before heading back into town. They’d been told once the red light showed they would have ten flushes left before the tank was full. Two each with a couple spare, at least nobody was having to cross their legs!
We pulled in at Horton Bridge to make use of the water point, the washing machine had been in use, so a top up was required. No sooner had I started back at work and there was a swing bridge, after which I only had a bit more work to do managing to avoid a sudden downpour outside.
Working hard to get through the reeds
I’d timed my work quite well as we were now starting to cruise through the moundy landscape of Wiltshire. Plenty of reeds lined the way, a hire boat looked like they were ploughing their way through as they approached.
The bridge that nearly got away!
Showers came and went, the occasional strong gust of wind causing slight problems at the second swing bridge. Here I swung it back into position and as I crossed to secure the big bolt the wind caught it pushing it round, I managed to run back to dry land before I had nowhere to go. I pushed it back and then dashed across to get it secured before the next gust caught it. Mick said he’d have rescued me if needs had been.
Time was ticking on, we wouldn’t reach Pewsey by 3pm. Would there be space at All Cannings or Honey Street but more importantly would there be phone signal? We decided to stop as soon as there was space.
Now where are my friends?
At All Cannings there was a gap just made for us and phone signal too, even inside the boat. Tilly set off to find more nutritious food and I set myself up in the cratch for my phone meeting. Juggling a laptop, sketch book, plans and a scale ruler took some doing all whilst Tilly appeared from the friendly cover with friends to munch in front of me.
Horse
90 minutes of discussion later and my work drawing plans up hadn’t been wasted. Some clarification was needed from the writer and director about a few things in the show as there was some confusion over a few scenes. More emails to be sent, dinner to cook, chicken pancakes, one day I’ll get chance to finish knitting my cardigan!
