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!
A cuppa in bed with yesterdays paper with a pretty good view out of the window, bliss.
Once up, breakfasted and enough layers on I popped down to have a look at the Tithe Barn. Both it’s doors were wide open inviting the light and myself inside.
What wonderful shapes
The amount of timber in there and the number of joints! Very impressive. The roof beams have been analysed and the timber dates from 1334 to 1379. In the 1950’s major work was carried out to preserve the building by the Ministry of Works, now English Heritage.
More Tithe Barn
Time to get moving, I’ve a panto to get to.
Green for GO!
As I’d just pushed the bow out a chap walked by with a windlass, a hire boat heading back to Foxhangers, we could team up with them to do the lock. A day boat was just coming down so our two boats came into the prepared lock. A gongoozler was concerned that someone’s shoes were getting wet in the bow of the hire boat, I indicated to Mick that they should nudge back as they were right up against the cil. The paddles were raised and we were on our way up.
Bradford Lock
More boats waited to come down and one chap asked, ‘Is there a reason this paddle hasn’t been lifted all the way?’ This was said in either an I don’t understand manor or that I was a woman so therefore didn’t know what I was doing! I pointed out that there was no more paddle to lift to which he just said ‘Oh!’
Reserving your space on the visitor moorings, we were tempted to pull in
Mick had stocked up yesterday, but one or two things were still needed. This was luckily remembered before we left the lock, so I hopped off and walked up to Sainsburys picked up what was wanted and returned to the canal at the next bridge where Mick had pulled in just behind NB Sanity at Last, who we’d shared locks with on the other side of the summit over a month ago.
Fill her up please
Onwards to Hilperton where we pulled in to top up the diesel tank, we only needed about 30 litres but at 72p it wasn’t to be missed. A couple more bags of coal and we were on our way again.
Traditional pasties, mine smaller at the back!
I’d brought home some pasties so 30 minutes on gas mark 4 and they were nicely heated through for a lunch break at the bottom of Semington Locks. As you can see Mick’s pasty was far bigger than mine!
Semington Bottom Lock
As I walked between the bottom and top lock there was a chap trying with all his might to prise his boat off the bottom. Blimey it was on a list, the only thing to do was add more water to the pound, a boat was about to come down so hopefully that would help. With the lock emptying the chap used his gang plank to try to shift his boat. In the end he managed to back it off with large clouds of black smoke coming from his engine. As he moved off you could see that his boat had quite a list to it anyway, he pulled in on the offside before the lock, breasting up to another boat, presumably fully afloat.
Swing
From here I walked on ahead to open the next three swing bridges, the weather was lovely, a great day to be back boating again, even if my legs were starting to complain.
Good name, they even have a red cows face on their licence
The visitor moorings below Seend Locks were empty so we pulled in, hoping someone might come down before the morning to empty the bottom lock. Tilly headed off into the undergrowth and we put a roast chicken in the oven. What a lovely Sunday.
Such a colourful boat with red eye lashes
3 locks, 7.15 miles, 4 swing bridges, 2 traditional pasties, 500grams prunes, 1 box oat cakes, 27 litres, 40kg excel, 1 roast chicken with all the works, 1 pooped Pip.
On Sunday Mick helped me with all my things to Avoncliff Station.
This used to be a request stop
I had quite a lot and a quick change at Westbury Station so he decided to come with me that far to help get me onto the next train. After another change I got a taxi to Admirals Hard where I caught the Cremyll Ferry across to the Rame Peninsula. Only an eight minute crossing but just long enough for those of us sat outside to get sprayed by the waves.
A woofer passenger on the Cremyll Ferry
Lou was there to pick me up, we dropped my work things off at the workshop where Ade was busy and then she gave me a lift down to the village of Kingsand. With keys to my flat I made myself comfortable, stocked up on some things to eat and drink from the shop, possibly getting ripped off and then went for an explore. This was likely to be the only time I’d get in daylight to look round.
The old border
Kingsand and Cawsand are twin villages in Cornwall, however until 1844 Kingsand was in Devon and Cawsand Cornwall. A house still marks the boundary, about 100 ft away from my flat.
Cawsand
Several small beaches link the houses together, all very characterful, smugglers hiding in the corner of your eye. Narrow roads with no parking make for a tranquil place, well until the tide comes in! It did however feel as though nobody actually lives there, it’s just for the tourists now.
My groundfloor bedroom window and the sea!
My flat was about as long as Oleanna but wider. Have to say that our bathroom layout is better designed despite being half the size. Everything was very comfortable, but the kitchen lacked a few basics that would have made cooking a touch more flavoursome.
Last bit left to prime
Monday morning I was picked up from outside one of the pubs and was at work for 8.30. First thing was to lay out the back drop. Normally this would have been stretched on a frame, but as my design needed me to be able to draw lots of circles we laid it out on the floor. By 10am I’d primed the cloth and gained a couple of blisters in the process. Ade and Lou’s workshop has been having a new roof fitted, the central ridge still needed replacing and in parts it was open to the sky. So as the day progressed and the weather outside became damp, buckets were deployed around the place.
Drawn up ready to paint
By the end of the day just about every bit of set that was ready had been primed and my backdrop was marked out. A pencil and string being my compass, I could have done with Frank’s trammel heads (ends of a compass that you can attach to a length of wood), but I managed in the end.
Wednesday the sun came out, only one thing for the canine assistants to do, sunbath
Tuesday and I started to lay blocks of colour onto the backdrop. Three shades of blue paint, a straight edge and a steady hand were needed. Occasionally a helping paw would appear, Bo and Shine two collies spend their days over seeing what happens in the workshop and hoping to be able to gain access to the bins from next door.
Pasty powered painting
The workshop is next door to CornishPod, winner of the World Pasty Championship in 2016. The smells wafting through from them were too much for me, on Monday I’d put in an order for a couple of gluten free pasties. Fresh and warm I enjoyed one for my lunch, keeping the second one for Wednesday. The day was wet again, water flooded in through a hole that had been made for new electrics, a blocked drain was found and sorted by the landlord.
Wednesday thankfully a dry day but water had seeped under the wooden floor where my cloth was pinned out , it had crept up between the sheets and was creating quite a stain. In parts the cloth was wetter than when I’d first painted it. Action was taken and we relaid it on sheets of plastic, a fan heater deployed to drive off the worst of the moisture and I concentrated on painting the portals. The roofers were back in for the day, covering up sections of the ridge.
Tellytubbies
Each morning I woke to wonderful sunrises, some from Tellytubbies,
A new day
others more moody and grown up. Not a bad view to have from your bedroom window. The local sea swimmers would all walk down for their morning dip shortly after dawn. They’d bob away in the swell as the tide came in, Kingsand only seems to have high tide!
Oops I might have bought some cheese!
Thursday was the start of the next storm. We hoped the worst would miss us. The team grew by two, Ade’s nephew Frank and a scenic artist Debs. Debs had come to paint another set they have been building for The Drum in Plymouth. Nothing quite so time consuming as my backdrop and portals, just lots of washes and rust. Lu and Frank lent a hand where needed, basing things in for me and painting black for Debs. As the day progressed the winds got stronger and stronger, necessitating brushing more bits of decaying roof off my backdrop.
The view whilst waiting for my lift
By the time I got back to my flat the tide was being aided by the wind. On other evenings towards high tide the waves had been making it onto the road outside my front door, but the direction of the wind having changed and the tides not being so high the waves just crashed against my bedroom wall instead. Their bumping giving the sofa a slight nudge. I hoped I’d be able to get some sleep, but thankfully things calmed down and I managed to get some shut eye.
Tides
Friday, Debs and I were left to it in the workshop, the others on apple duty back at the house. Ade and Lou have around 250 apple trees from which they press apple juice. This years crop has been plentiful, so whilst painting brushes were working hard at the workshop, Lou and Frank picked up the latest windfalls and Ade worked his way through the first of 40 crates of apples.
Finished!
By the end of the day the other set was finished and Panto had a completed backdrop and two portals. Plenty more for me to do, but at least the main aim of the week was completed. I celebrated by having a halloumi and roasted pepper pasty for lunch, very tasty it was too.
Saturday my last day. A quick tidy up of the flat before I got a lift up to the workshop to see what I could achieve before heading home. I made a good start on two large flats, but I’d hoped to get them almost completed but the paint just wasn’t drying quickly enough. There was also the matter of packing paint and mixing colours so Lou can carry on basing things in,hopefully saving me hours of work.
Mixing grey
The last job was to mix a huge vat of grey. I hate mixing grey, you think you’ve nearly reached the right shade, just a bit more black, a bit more, a bit more, maybe just a touch more. Damn! Now a bit more white!!
Frank and Lou, my cloth was raised and stretched out shortly after this
The other set was loaded onto a wagon. The pieces I’d finished were stacked away and the backdrop was hung to help it continue drying. The water stain is fading but I doubt it will go completely.
Plymouth
Back in my civvies it was time to head for the train. A lift down to the ferry which was just coming in, then an awaiting cab to the station. I had 4 minutes to get to the right platform, my luggage a touch lighter as my brushes will go to Chipping Norton with the set. Two trains and I arrived back in Bradford on Avon where Mick was there to meet me.
A hard weeks work in the company of the lovely Lou and Ade in such a wonderful setting. It’s just a shame I never really got to see the village at low tide in day light.
Meanwhile back on Oleanna.
Mick and Tilly have not been idle. On Sunday afternoon Mick moved the boat a little towards Bradford joining the local boats. On Monday he took the toilet to bits. We have a Separett Villa, the urine gets separated into a tank under the floor from which we can pump it out into another container for disposal. Gradually when rinsing through the system I have noticed it taking longer and longer for the water to drain to the tank, so I’d raised a chitty with the maintenance department.
It was quite sometime ago that Finesse showed us how everything had gone together but Mick managed quite easily to remove the toilet and then the floor above the tank. From the separator one pipe leads to another which then does two 90 degree turns to enter the underfloor tank. Here was where the blockage was gradually getting worse and when Mick poured vinegar into the top it stayed put, the pipe finally having blocked.
Our yellow water tank, the blocked bend on the left
With some drain unblocking cabley thing and more vinegar he eventually managed to shift the blockage. No need to cross our legs, we can go to the loo again. But maybe we need to add more vinegar to the bottle we spray the separator with, or even add it neat every now and again, or maybe we should just drink it so that the pipe doesn’t block again.
On Tuesday morning I made a request that Tom should move the outside. This outside was okay, but another would be better, so he moved it to a Mrs Tilly stamp award winning mooring, Dundas. Here I busied myself outside, returning to check on Tom only to find he’d lost his legs! I found them for him down in the big box at the back of Oleanna. It was quite soggy down there so Tom was trying to get rid of all the Aunty freeze that had leaked there a month or so ago. He was very careful to keep me away from this Aunty, apparently it can be deadly to cats.
Purring paws
Thursday they filled with water winded and headed back towards Avoncliff. All the sink U bends and shower traps were given a good clean and then on Friday they moved up to Bradford and managed to get a spot on the 48hr moorings below the lock. Here was good, plenty to keep me occupied, but then Tom decided to nudge the outside a touch. This touch to the outside meant there were far more woofers, in fact a constant stream of them. It really wasn’t worth stepping off the boat!
0 locks, 7.24 miles by boat, 5 different moorings, 1 calcified lump added to the yellow water tank, 10 litres anti-freeze, 2 winds, 5 trains, 2 taxis, 2 ferries, 13 lifts, 2 pretty villages, 0 beach to be seen, 6m plus high tide, £51!!! 2nd shop at the co-op, 1 flat almost on the beach, 1 thumping sea, 4 bottles wine, 1 bottle oil and some garlic required, 58 hours, 1 fat knee, 1 pastie powered painter, 1 back cloth, 2 portals complete, 1 well used straight edge, 2 woofer assistants, 1 slightly blue ball, all three crew back on board, 1 purring cat.
