Category Archives: Rapunzel

Curtains and Catch Up to 28/11

Firstly a big thank you to Jenn for letting me know that on the 16th November Bargain Hunt had a special bit all about Emily Blagg as this year is the 100th anniversary of The Palace Theatre. Very interesting to see Emily’s grave, not a big thing as the locals still had a problem with her demolishing the Chauntry to build the theatre. Also I’m glad the researchers didn’t manage to find a picture of her, as I spent ages trying to do the same. Here’s a link to the episode. If you are ever in Newark when the Antique Fair is on it is worth a visit, it costs to get in but is crammed full of interesting things. When we went there was a free bus from near Newark Northgate Station.

Tilly doing her best not to shred the lining before it’s on the curtains

Back in Scarborough I’ve been busy with the sewing machine. I started off small relining curtains for Oleanna, just to get myself and my machine warmed up, much bigger curtains were to follow for the house.

I’d ordered a big roll of thermal lining, enough for boat curtains as well as the bay window. The other day I’d unpicked the stitching on the dark blue curtains from the saloon and dinette areas. Doing this I’d discovered that Kim (who made the curtains in Sheffield) had used some wonderweb on the side hems. This seemed like a good idea, so before lockdown 2 was imposed I’d had a walk to Dunelm to stock up. After several washes the wonderweb had disintegrated and as I pulled the lining away I was left with a big mess to clean up.

I measured up the lining, not as much as Kim had used as I hope I can get away with having not quite so much bulk. The rectangle of lining was pinned in position, having to tug to the curtains to their full extent as no matter how much ironing they simply didn’t want to lie flat. Wonderweb held the sides in position, then I was able to pin round all sides, hopefully where they were before, then I sewed round each panel.

Well that was the plan, but on my third curtain my machine jammed! Oh B**er!! As it was late in the afternoon I called it a day. Good karma at a sewing machine usually works and maybe coming back to it another day would be a wise idea.

It was time to give my machine some TLC. The advantage of being in the house was that it didn’t take too long to find the oil that had come with my machine along with the original manual. This showed me how to take the bobbin and what lies behind to pieces and apply one drop of oil.

Then I removed the plate around the teeth, then the teeth themselves. Here was my main problem, fluff, lots of fluff! With all this cleared out and the one drop of oil applied I wondered if I should oil my machine anywhere else. Not according to the manual. I looked on line, no luck, then asked on Facebook after all I know quite a few wardrobe supervisors who should know. Thank you to those who made suggestions, including Dave and Chris who both suggested applying a touch of oil to anything that moves.

Gary White from All Seasons Boat Covers hunted round the internet for me and eventually found a file for my brand of machine suggesting a few more places to oil. Thank you, I promise to do this before I pack my machine away before Christmas.

I soon discovered that my machine and needles were not capable of going through all the layers in the corners, so I decided that I’d finish these off by hand. All six dark blue curtains were soon finished.

Before moving onto the bedroom curtains for Oleanna I decided to make the living room and dining room curtains for one side of the house. I’m very glad we’d not moved fully into the house as once I’d had a good tidy up, rationalisation of Franks and my tools I had a lot of floor space to play with, needed when you want to have floor to ceiling curtains round your bay window.

Rolls of fabric had arrived, first thing was to square off the end and then cut the correct lengths. Tilly decided she’d hold down the fabric for me and supervise the end of my steel ruler. I on the other hand pretended that I was cutting up dance floor for a show (a frequent job in my theatre life usually with at least one other pair of hands). Hands are much better at doing this job than paws, but I was glad of the company.

The fabric I’d chosen had a very small pattern, so not noticeable should I not quite line everything up properly on the wider curtains, although seeing some of the salvage edge peeking through wasn’t good, I revisited such areas.

Lining and curtain fabric were both hemmed, then sewn together. I’d checked that my lining was narrower so that the main fabric would fold back round the sides, but sadly once I’d turned everything the right way round I had a very narrow bit of fabric. So one side of each curtain was unpicked and a couple of inches trimmed off the lining, then everything resewn.

Curtain tape sewn onto the tops, job done. I just needed my assistant Mick to help with the hanging of them and enough hooks and runners. The bay window track had enough but the dining room track had a mixture of runners, most of which weren’t the right size! A hunt through my stash of such things, we didn’t have enough. One window elsewhere had the right ones so they were stolen.

Some curtain weights are required and the ends of the bay window track are leaning a touch, these may need trimming back as my curtains are partially on the floor. However these were my first ever properly made curtains, not bodged for use on stage, but proper fully lined curtains. I’m quite proud of them and have ordered more fabric for curtains in another room, but they will have to wait to be made next year.

It was back to boat curtains, bedroom curtains. A couple of years ago I’d bought some more of the original fabric in a sale, having more than enough lining now meant I could reline the original curtains and make a brand new pair too. Tilly has managed to make them look quite shabby.

This fabric however is quite slippy and slidy, not wanting to keep it’s shape and could be pulled in different directions to make it fit, but what would the end curtains look like?

The old linings were unpicked, new added and sewn in. Using wonderweb proved helpful with this fabric. Then a hole new set were cut out, sewn, ironed and all the corners hand sewn in place. In all twelve curtains finished and ready to go up at Oleannas’ windows again. I just hope they fit on the poles properly! I’ve put together a ‘just in case’ pack, should I have sewn them too tight and they need unpicking.

All finished with ‘just in case’ sewing kit

We’d been planning on a trip down to check on her as soon as lockdown was lifted. The tier in Scarborough surprisingly will be tier 2, the number of cases here shot up and at one point we were highest in the country, then they started to drop, Hull forging ahead of us. However Goole will be in tier 3, an area you can travel through, but not go and hang your curtains and give your boat the once over running the engine for an hour etc, not essential. I’m sure some are visiting their boats, some jobs are essential over winter.

They are plotting behind Mum’s nursing chair

With curtains hung in the house we could move ourselves into the living room properly, well as properly as you can when most of your furniture has gone by the wayside through the years with tenants. We moved the sofa in, side tables, plumbed the TV in and standard lamps. Then we fought with my Mum and Dad’s chairs down the tight stairs from upstairs upstairs. We’d put them up there, so they had to be able to come down! My Mum and Dad bought these chairs as wedding presents for each other. Not your average three piece suite, but I quite like it. When funds allow we’ll replace the two seater sofa with a three seater sofabed and move the smaller sofa back to the other side. But for now we have a comfy sitting room. Just pictures to hang, coal for the fire and we’re there.

It was now time to have a day off, I put my feet up and did a few hours of a thing called work!

Most theatres around the country have cancelled their pantos this year, but have been forging ahead with paired down Christmas shows in the hope that once lockdown 2 is lifted they will have a show to bring cheer to their audiences.

Chippy this year is offering A Christmas Carol, with David Bradley. The SJT here in Scarborough The Snow Queen a one woman show and an audio recording of Haunting Julia, a ghost story by Alan Ayckbourn (a great play I’ve had the pleasure of designing twice).

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-joseph-732841255/haunting-julia-trailer

Thankfully these shows will be able to go on, but many other theatres who find themselves in tier 3 will not be able to open their doors. Some of these will be going on line, others mothballed for Easter next year.

Will, the producer at Chipping Norton had been in touch, the second draft of the script for Panto was sent out and now they were ready to contract myself and others to start work, well ahead for next year. On our last visit to the boat I made sure I brought all my work things back with us, but had forgotten the plans of the theatre. I’ve now received copies and a model box. So it was time to read the script.

The last couple of days I’ve been starting to reclaim my work rooms at the top of the house. A damp problem on the chimney breast meant it needed stripping for a builder to check over.

Then I’ve started to try to make space at my model making tables and cleaned the windows. Plenty more room than I had on the boat, but I have yet to gain access to my drawing board which is still engulfed by boxes. I’ll get there.

It’s in there somewhere, no that’s Tilly

One handy tip though, don’t leave water in a hotwater bottle for six years. Not only will it have lost it’s heat but the rubber will perish!

Last week on our Sunday walk we braved a visit to the South Bay beach. A beautiful day, chilly but sunny and the beach wasn’t too busy. We marvelled at the blue sea and white light house and then decided to avoid the harbour where the footpaths are a bit too narrow for the amount of people about.

So we headed up Bland’s Cliff. This steep hill used to run up the side of the Futurist Theatre which was sadly demolished in the last couple of years after huge outcries. In it’s place is the Scarborough Eye, better views are free up near the Castle, and a crazy golf pitch!

However Blands Cliff has become very colourful. An art gallery had just opened when we left and now the surrounding walls are covered in murals and mosaics with local topics depicted. Really rather jolly.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 visits to Oleanna, 1 cleaned sewing machine, 9 relined curtains, 3 new curtains, 2 pairs of proper house curtains, 1 living room moved into, 1 not so helpful assistant, 1 wall stripped, 0.25 work room reclaimed, 2 clean windows, 1 cat loving the views, tier 2, 1 boat in tier 3!

Where were we

2019 On the South Oxford Canal, Somerton Meadows to Kings Sutton. LINK

2018 On the South Oxford, Somerton Meadows. LINK

2017 On the Llangollen, Wixall Moss to the border. LINK

2016 On the Macclesfield Canal, Macclesfield Pontoon and a visit to Sheffield. LINK

2015 Kings Marina, River Trent. LINK

2014 On the Grand Union, Nether Heyford to Stoke Bruerne. LINK

The Good, The Sad And The Belated. 19th August

Oxclose Lock to Linton Lock, River Ouse

A quick check of levels, still in the green below Oxclose Lock time to make our move, we’ve got places to be!

The amount of water going over the top of the gates meant it was a two person job to get the lock open. Then we were off on our way downstream.

The day started grey and misty, Newby Hall soon passed, our progress a touch quicker heading downstream along with the recent rainfall. A chap stood waiting for the first people to arrive wanting a boat trip. We then turned into Westwick Lock cut. Six years ago I’d had to clamber over moored work boats to get to the lock, but today there were no boats in sight, infact we only saw three boats moving all day.

Where we rejoined the main channel of river frothy icebergs floated in to join us. Cows slid down the banks to the river, one a touch too far, it was up to it’s neck with it’s mates huddled round above mooing encouragement to get out.

Gradually as the miles ticked off the sun started to show it’s face, we knew this wouldn’t last all day and hoped we’d be moored up long before it started to rain.

No 9 was moored up in Boroughbridge opposite the red diesel pump. We didn’t stop carrying straight on to Milby Lock. Going down is far easier than going up, you just have to make sure you will miss the cill.

Oleanna descended on a diagonal, I open the other gate and Mick steers her out with a little bit of help of the bowthruster to get the bow past the closed gate. Extensions have been added to most lock gates round here. At Westwick there are metal bars that pull out and here at Milby extra wooden arms have been added, meaning all your effort on pushing and pulling is made easier, or just possible. I’d hate to think what they were like before the extensions were added.

Now we were down on the long reach to Linton. The River Swale came in to join the Ure from the north. Golfers crossed the river to reach their next hole, paddle boarders headed upstream, we slowed down for these guys.

Under Aldwark Bridge, only a couple of cyclists making the wooden planks rumble today. A gang of goats tasted the juiciest bits of grass on the river bank, far more nimble than cows or sheep.

Then where the almost unnoticeable Ouse Gill Beck joins the River Ure the river becomes the Ouse, a finger post pointing each way to mark the spot. Blink and you’d miss it, well we did on the way upstream!

A farmer was spreading muck in a field filling the air with a pungent aroma, we were glad to eventually get upwind of him. Then the moored boats of Linton came into view along with the spire of the church.

There was space on the visitor moorings even though the broken down cruiser was still moored in the middle. We pulled in decided to stay here for the night. Below the lock we would have a couple of choices, the hard edge costing us £6 or head on hoping that the pontoon mooring at the Dawnay Arms would be free. We decided to stay put, the level below the lock looking higher than we’d thought it would be.

Gaugemap had shown a rise of maybe 18 inches in York and we tried to work out where that would be compared to the moorings at the bottom of Museum Gardens, possibly nearly level. Had the river started to drop or was it staying on a level? Would the forecast rain mean it would rise more?

During our cruise I’d been keeping a look out for news from Chipping Norton regarding Panto. Sure enough this morning the postponement was announced on their website, the news gradually spread across their social media through the day.

A week ago John, their Artistic Director, had called to break the expected news to me. They had been holding on hoping that things would improve regarding the pandemic, that social distancing would be reduced, that guidance from the government would improve the possibility of mounting panto. But try as they might and I’m sure they have tried every single scenario of mounting panto, none would be viable and could end up being financial suicide. So Rapunzel is postponed to next year. They plan on doing a Christmas show on the back of a wagon in town, nowhere near their normal panto, but something to keep the locals amused. All very sad, but I had just been waiting for the phone call.

Stephen Joseph Theatre (Scarborough) - 2020 All You Need to Know ...

Then a ray of light for theatre came through the clouds regarding the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. They are planning an autumn season as well as starting to show films again. A new play by John Godber, the cast being his family who have all been in a bubble since day one of lockdown. The Round auditorium will be socially distanced, reducing the 400 + capacity to 85, if the 2m rule is reduced then they will be able to seat another 100. Their Christmas show has been rewritten as a one woman show. All good news and I’m so glad that some theatres are finding ways to produce work.

We had a walk around the lock, with no river level board below it is was hard to see how high the level has risen since we headed upstream a few days ago. We both made note of where it was sitting on lock gates and railings.

The widebeam that had been on the paid mooring had moved to the floating pontoon, both lock landing and water point. We watched as a narrowboat pulled up alongside. They breasted up and started filling with water, then the lady walked up to the lock and looked for space.

There was the space where we’d been before, but we’d already seen one boat use the slipway today. We offered for them to breast up to us.

Only one thing for it but to gongoozle and lend a bit of umph to open the top gates when the time came. NB Gandja pulled up alongside, gocart tyres between us, all settled for the night.

We still had somewhere to go. The Dawnay Arms. Kerry who runs the pub with her husband used to work at the Stephen Joseph Theatre restaurant in the early days, they have been running the pub for about ten years. I’d messaged ahead to see if their pontoon was empty, it turned out it was, but being on a bend of the river with the levels up I’d not fancied moving from the safety of the lock cut. This however meant we had a much longer walk to get there, in the rain!

I’d booked our table ten days ago and was glad I had as with the Eat Out To Help Out deal they are now fully booked for the remainder of the month on Tuesdays and Wednesdays the rest of the week is pretty healthy too. The pub has plenty of space although they have had to reduce the number of covers they do, but they can still accommodate 40 inside and plenty more in the garden if the weather is nice.

It was lovely to see Kerry again, six years since we last visited. Despite them being busy she still had time to catch up with us. During lockdown they had started doing takeaways, frozen meals and became a village shop with meat, fish, fresh fruit and veg. I suspect they looked after the village very well.

The menu was tempting and as expected the waiting staff knew exactly what I could eat without having to check in the kitchen, most things could be made gluten free. First thing was to check what puddings I could have, only one choice, but that sounded very tasty so we opted for main courses and puddings.

But was it to be a steak, they are very very good here, Yorkshire Dales Lamb or Beef Fillet. It had to be the beef fillet from the specials menu, with a side order of triple cooked chips to share between us. Normally we’d have shied away from the most expensive thing on the menu, but as Rishi would be paying £10 towards it we just had to. Another way of justifying it was that we’d not been able to go out for Mick’s birthday 3 months ago, so it was a belated Happy Birthday and we only come this way once every six years.

Wild mushrooms, spinach, red wine sauce and some exceptionally tasty smoked sweet potato puree accompanied the melt in your mouth fillet of beef. Yum.

Puddings, Mick had a white chocolate cheese cake with raspberry sorbet and I had double chocolate delice with raspberry ripple chilled medication. All exceptionally yummy. Well worth saving up over the next six years to visit again.

Our walk back to Oleanna was drier, just as well as our jeans had only just dried out. We checked the river level, but by now it was getting dark and a thick layer of froth covered the river below the lock. Here’s hoping things look better in the morning.

3 locks, 14.85 miles, 9 icebergs,15 goats, 1 possible otter, 1 speedy cruise, 1 rising river, 0 panto, 85 audience, 1 belated birthday treat, 2 fillets, 9 chips between 2, 2 puddings, £20 assistance from Rishi, 6 years, 2 boaters watching levels.

Six Years. 23rd July

Greenberfield Bottom Lock to Keld Well Bend, the Curly Wurlys.

A damp day sadly but we hadn’t planned to go far and it was all on the flat. We pushed off just gone 10 with our post breakfast cuppas in insulated mugs, meaning we’d get going sooner.

The farmers were still out turning the grass and raking it up ready for collection. NB Whistle Down The Wind showed off its steam chimney and water gushed into the canal on a bend, obviously being pumped from somewhere.

After a couple of miles we reached East Marton and the Double Arched Bridge. This is where we moored on our second night whilst on our first hire boat together, not quite managing to reach a mooring where we could walk across the fields to Thornton-in-Craven to a friends house for a meal. A lift had to be provided and we were glad of it after 12 locks and 5 swing bridges that day.

The Cross Keys pub at East Marton also has memories for me. This is where my best friends Grandad, Grandpa Lee used to bring us to celebrate his birthdays. A long table would be laid out for his 15 to 20 guests for Sunday lunch all ending with Grandpa Lee telling us a shaggy dog story and nearly always getting the punch line wrong having to be corrected by his grandchildren who’d heard it numerous times before. I always give a wave to him as we pass.

We pulled in at the water point just a little further on to top up the tank. I had a walk back to take some more photos of the bridge. I’m considering turning my illustration/painting skills to capturing scenes from our canal journeys to add to my Etsy shop which could do with a bit of a boost. Hopefully if popular this would give us a touch of pocket money whilst income from theatre is none existent.

With the tank full we pushed onwards, not much further, with our fingers crossed. We hoped that we could find space at our favourite mooring on the curly wurlys.

The canal sticks to it’s contour and winds round Langber TV mast, first it’s on that side then ahead then the other side, but soon you forget it is even there as the views open up around you.

We could see that there were boats. One along the last straight before the canal ties itself in knots. A cruiser on the end of the bend. A grey boat sat where we thought we’d like to be, we pulled just past it, maybe a touch too close to the bend. I walked round to see what space there might be on the other side. Two boats but a length just in front of them which seemed to be just a touch further from the bend than where we’d pulled up. We pulled round and moored up, hoping we were leaving enough space in front of the first boat so they still had a view from their cratch.

When asked by people which is our favourite canal we say the Leeds Liverpool. When asked which is our favourite bit, we say the curly wurlys. Last time we came through we didn’t manage to climb the locks early enough in the day to reach here as it was dark.

Time to see what Tilly made of it. Well she had a good sniff around and then jumped on the wall. Yep not bad. NOt bad!!! She just wanted to get her head down and find friends.

The afternoon stayed damp. My starter stayed flat. I’m running out of brown rice flour and am getting a touch disillusioned with it. I fed it one last time and decided to use the discard to make some crackers. A good amount of fresh rosemary and thyme went into the mix along with a scattering of sea salt. The result was really quite tasty and certainly crunchy. I may be making more of these!

I’d found a pack of gluten free pizza dough in the drawer the other day, so that was used instead of a sourdough base. It was okay, but lacked much taste and was only a vehicle for the ham, caramelised red onion and goats cheese topping.

We also finished watching the second half of Amadeus from the National Theatre. Salieri and Mozart were great performances. It was enjoyable but I really wished I’d been sat in the theatre as there were obviously things happening just out of shot that I’d like to have seen.

Three boats came past. Two hire boats who we thought had managed the bend well, so we looked away. Then a big bang followed by a 58ft 6inch scraping noise all the way along our rubbing strakes. The boat in front of us was a touch more peeved than we were, shouting out their hatch as the scraping noise continued for another 50 odd foot before the tiller was pushed over, as the hire boat ended up facing into the off side bank. They were being followed by another boat who had been managing to hold their course well until they had to slow down. Mick offered tiller advise which helped. They were both just heading to wind, but luckily they returned with out making contact.

Today there has been a flurry of emails regarding Chippy Panto. So far there is no news. The government have only given the entertainment industry aspirational dates for reopening to full houses. Under current guidance Chippy would only be able to have 40 to 75 in the audience, not enough to cover the cost of opening the building for the day and all the additional cleaning required between performances. Along with audience safety there is also the safety of the acting company and creative staff both on stage and off in such a building. It may be that all entrances have to be from SL and all exits SR and no audience participation! Not quite panto.

The doors currently remain firmly closed to help preserve the theatres future for years to come. The Governments rescue package still has no guidelines as to how it will be distributed and whether it could be used to guarantee the show. We all carry on waiting.

On a much lighter note, the title of todays blog. Six Years ago today we climbed into our Peugeot 207SW dropped keys off to our house with the rental agency in Scarborough and headed to Sowerby Bridge where NB Lillyanne (Lillian) our bright yellow boat had been waiting for us. Houdini our second mate did not know what was happening and found a shelf in the wardrobe very comforting for the first few days. So six years ago we set out for a year afloat and we’re still here, on our favourite mooring. Not a bad way to celebrate, well we’ll postpone the celebrations till tomorrow when hopefully the weather will have improved.

Our mooring here on the 3rd September 2014

0 locks, 3.78 miles, 1 double bridge, 1 full water tank, 1 wave, 1 damp day, 0 sourdough pizza, 1 boring doves pizza, 32 tasty crackers, 0 news about 0 news, 1 woofer stand off, 360 degree views, 6 years.

https://goo.gl/maps/PRCaTijmr3YLtCKt8

Setting Up Office. 16th June

Bramble Cuttings

Last night we had more rain, thunder and lightening and when we woke it was still peeing it down! As we supped our cuppas in bed we could hear the boat behind us start up its engine and gradually pull away, when it came to taking a peek out of the side hatch we realised we were on our own, the boat in front of us had vanished. Oh well what a shame, Bramble Cuttings all to ourselves!

First job, after letting Tilly out, the yellow water tank. We tried to remember when we last emptied it and we think it was at Calverley! This job normally gets done every three or four days, we’d reached six days. No wonder it was making a slightly odd noise this morning! We considered heading up the canal to wind and return to make the job easier, but that could take a couple of hours and would our space still be here? So instead we pulled back to one end of the moorings with less overhanging trees and set the hose up over the top of Oleanna. The container we pump into had very little room left in it for even one rinse of the tank, the fullest it’s ever been.

The rain last night hadn’t been conducive to sussing out the phone signal. I remembered it wasn’t so good here and certainly in the cabin I only had Emergency calls. With the sun doing it’s best to show itself and the storm clouds having cleared I had a wander around the mooring to see if signal was better. First one picnic bench then another, a couple of faint dots appeared, hopefully that would do. Time to go to work.

Several of our shopping bags protected myself and the laptop from the very wet picnic bench. Then I was ready to make my call. Last week I’d caught up with the Director for Panto and today Helen the costume designer and I were going to have a designers huddle. Comparing notes and references, making sure that the two of us were heading in the same direction with the overall look of the show. After all I could have been heading down the Arthurian way and Helen setting the show in the 60s/70s. But both of us were on the same track. We shared a few ideas and decided which way to go with one character, both a puppet and an actor. Helen will design the costume then I’ll sort the puppet to match. A very good meeting and worth getting a slightly damp bum for.

Bramble Cuttings all to myself, well She and Tom were here too along with a few friends! Fewer now.

Whilst She chatted away I had a good nosy round, claimed all the benches as mine and enjoyed clambering up and down an old tree that had been cut short. Plenty of pouncing possibility. I soon found friends and brought them out of the friendly cover to play with. She wasn’t too impressed and I got taken inside on one occasion, ‘to give your friend a chance to run away!’ But I was soon back outside trying to track it down again. The use of a barbecue stand gave me extra height to see over the tall grass for any movement.

Next I had some thinking to do and an email to send. Yesterday my agent had been in touch regarding designing another show this year. With the theatre industry sitting on a knife edge at the moment this was quite a surprise.

In normal pre-covid and pre-boating days I’d have checked the dates seen that it fitted quite well with panto, said yes and started to pack my bags for another trip to Vienna. But life is not that way anymore.

Austria is ahead of us with Covid-19 and the Vienna English Theatre are starting to put together a plan to reopen later this year. I presume they have social distancing to deal with and then importing their actors, director and designer from England. The dates sit very close to panto and it would mean me being away from Mick and Tilly for a few weeks in a row. I’d return from Vienna and head straight to Chippy. Should the 14 day quarantine still be enforced I would not be able to do both. But if Panto can’t go ahead then it would be a shame to turn it down. So many factors no body knows the answer too. I sent an email to Chippy to see what the current feeling there is.

Mick checked the engine bay to see how much water had made it’s way down there yesterday in the storm. Only water where it is expected to be, the rest still dry, the drain around the engine board did it’s job well.

Early afternoon we were joined by a boat at the far end of the moorings, they proceeded to sand back to metal a portion of their gunnels, but after about an hour the world fell silent again and they pushed off heading towards Middlewich, leaving us all alone again.

The washing machine was put to use, but we didn’t dare hang it out as it would certainly get another rinse as late afternoon the sky started to rumble away again, this was soon followed by more torrential rain.

Thunder? What’s that?

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 empty wee tank, 1 office, 1 load washing, 2 designers in a huddle, 1 designer in a quandary, 2 dinky frogs, 6ft back to metal, 1 boat cat in heaven, 1 thunderous evening, 1 Tuesday roast of pork.

https://goo.gl/maps/WZMGP8SRNqi4NFzp9

Home Baking. 9th June

Lockdown ‘Home’

She needed some quiet this morning for her important phone call, with an important man (who has a woofer apparently), so I obliged and made myself scarce for much of the day. Whilst we’ve been tied to other outsides, ‘Home’ outside has got fatter and greener. New friends have moved in so I’ve kept myself busy introducing myself to as many of them as possible today. There were far too many to bring home, after all we’re only allowed to meet up in sixes at the moment!

My meeting with David was good. He’d sent through a few photos of what he’d been thinking and I replied with over 200 I’d found. If you didn’t know Rapunzel is another name for Lamb’s Lettuce, Valerianella locusta. So I’ve been thinking maybe we might need a world based on giant leaves, the structure of which mirrors fan vaulted ceilings. Tall trees stretching into the sky, like ships rigging. Lots to think about and formulate. Questions like where to put the Musical Director? How to change the world into England on the Wold? How to make the wold more than just green grass and rolling hills? Can we fill the auditorium with Kabuki drop banners, or would that be a touch too much to re-rig for the stage management?

The Tradeing boats were on the move, some coming and winding, others pulling up in front of us, hatching plans for a weekend trading here. My dungarees came out and the starboard side got a coat of black. It’s so nice to have both sides of Oleanna matching, just before we start doing locks again!

Mick headed into Nantwich for some bread, sneaking in a visit to the butchers for a pie. My sour dough starter had done it’s thing overnight and preparations for some pizza dough were needed. A mix of flour, water and starter was set aside for a while whilst I ground up some chai seeds, added psyllium husk and some water to make a gel. This all seemed a touch odd to me. Adding more flour and some water gave me a very gelatinous blob that needed to rest for a while. I wasn’t holding out much hope for how it would turn out.

Mick spent some of the afternoon prising the second punctureless tyre onto the Brompton, we’d had it forwarded to Scarborough last week. I could hear the odd bit of swearing coming from the stern. The front tyre had gone on far too easily, but then it had had several hours sitting in the sun, today the sun hid behind clouds for much of the day.

It fought back, but Mick got there in the end

Whilst I waited for the pizza blob to prove I set about making a batch of cheese scones, a proper days baking, should have made a cake too, but didn’t! The oven being on helped keep the kitchen warm for the pizza dough and then provided us with a treat to have with a cuppa as we listened to the days news conference from Downing Street.

What toppings to have on our pizza? There was the last of the chicken to use up and a bunch of asparagus. The bases were stretched out into a suitable shape and then put on hot trays in a very hot oven for a few minutes before coming out to have the toppings added. They looked a little less gelatinous now thank goodness.

Garlicky tomato, some red onion, strips of chicken, then spears of asparagus with a scattering of mozzarella cheese and back in the oven they went. I hoped I’d moved them around enough to compensate for our zoned oven, but mine needed to go back in for a few more minutes. Verdict tasty, very tasty. A better base than the one I’ve made in the past and asparagus goes well on pizza. We accompanied our food with a glass of wine, or two, as this would be our last night at ‘Home’, our 48hrs will be up tomorrow and it will be time for us to start to head away from the area.

Today there have been two anniversaries. A boating one and a theatre one.

Today, fifteen years ago was the press night in New York of Alan Ayckbourn’s Private Fears In Public Places. The play was part of the Brits Off Broadway season at 59E59, the first time a production from the SJT had taken part. The show in England hadn’t made much of a mark, but it was a different case across the pond.

This was all just before I left the SJT as Resident Designer and Alan and Heather had invited Mick and myself out for a meal before I left. That evening coincided with the reviews coming out in New York, our hosts were late to the restaurant and came in with huge beaming smiles across their faces, clutching copies of the reviews. The show had gone down a storm, it had been a huge financial risk taking a show to New York but it paid off. Within hours tickets had sold out, a list of famous people were being turned away and our little show from Scarborough was THE show to see in New York.

Six years ago today, we pulled out of Crick Marina on Lillian to start our journey northwards for the Tour de France, our yellow boat had to be in Hebden Bridge for the race to pass through! We pulled out of the marina, beeped the horn and joined our friends Bridget and Storm on NB Blackbird, becoming a cruising duo, The Wasp. That is more or less the day we started out on our journey.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2nd tyre, 1 hour talking panto, 2 smart gunnels, 1 boat surrounded, 10 hours! 9 friends maybe more, 1 aborted nosy, 1 last Thursday photo (on a Tuesday), 10 scones, 2 pizzas, 11 spears of asparagus, 4 glasses on wine, 1 last night at Home.

PS. The dates went to Lee on NB Halsall, sorry!

Dates. 8th June

Lockdown Pickup Mooring to Lockdown Mooring 4

There was a long wait this morning which stretched into the afternoon. But a little while after 1pm the familiar car pulled into the layby at Henhull Bridge. This is our last veg box delivery from Nantwich Veg Boxes or Clems Traditional Greengrocers before we move out of their area. Hoping the contents will keep us going for a while I’d ordered a £15 veg box and a £12 fruit box. We chatted with the chap and thanked them for looking after us over the last couple of months. We’ve no idea when we’ll be back in the area, but I hope they will still doing the boxes as I’ll be placing an order.

What treats lay inside our two boxes?

Cabbage, lettuce, aubergine, vine tomatoes, new potatoes, a courgette, parsnips, asparagus, peas, cauliflower, brocolli.

Satsumas, apples, pears, plums, peaches, bananas, a pineapple, strawberries, a melon and a tray of dates! Very festive, apart from neither of us are partial to dates. We’ll find someone who is.

The amount of boats going past all morning reminded us that we are of course on the Four Counties Ring, maybe we’ll have to queue at the Queuing Lock on the branch in a few days time! We’d held off having lunch and decided to wait a little longer so that we could get to a mooring where Tilly could be let out.

The rain last night had swollen the ground, my mooring spike at the bow was held tight and needed a good whack with the hammer before it would pull out. We then pushed off joining the moving boats, one appearing behind us, two coming towards us in the first short stretch.

The potato field has had another spurt of growth, the furrows having almost vanished now. Round the bend to the Flag Bubble Mooring. How many boats?! Five. This stretch has been taken over by trading boats. Plum has new neighbours, The Hippie Boat and Toastie Boat. He said it was better now the Australians had moved on, tongue in cheek of course!

A couple of boats were on our ‘Home’ mooring where we hoped to pull in. There seemed to be gaps, but one boat was on ‘the’ best bit. We pulled in at the far end, our original mooring here. Tilly sauntered off the boat, trotting into the field to check on it’s progress. The top of the grass is now yellowing with seed heads, wheat maybe? Someone else will have to stop and let us know how Tilly’s field is doing over the coming months, photos please.

NB Halsall came by and topped up our diesel tank. Chance to get local knowledge about the Anderton Boat Lift and the Macclesfield Canal reopening, would we still be able to cruise where we’d planned this year?

Current word on the boat lift is that it may open at the beginning of next month. There is a new chap in charge who has to learn the ropes. Various differing reasons are given when ever anybody asks when it will reopen. They are worried about operating the lift with social distancing measures (!), they are reluctant to open it without being able to run the trip boat and cafe (which will fund the whole operation, then there is the other worry that it hasn’t been used for a few months and will it still work? Lee and Roberta are keen to start doing their monthly trips onto the Weaver again.

News on the Macc is more positive. C&RT are going to open Bosley and Marple Locks a couple of times before the end of the month and then they plan on reopening them for July and August, the main boating season. They have been closed due to low water reserves following the Todbrooke Reservoir incident. But water is now being back pumped off the River Goyt and a damaged culvert from Combs Reservoir is currently being mended. We’d been a touch worried that we might get onto the Macc and then get stuck for the rest of the year, however Lee thinks we should be fine.

This afternoon the weather has been better than we’d thought it would be so I donned my dungarees, got out my dust mask and rubbed back the primer on the starboard side. A rinse off with canal water was going to take a while longer to dry than last week, so the paint will have to wait for tomorrow.

I also had some work to do, preparation for a chat with David the panto director for Chippy this year. The final decision as to whether the show will go on is still to be made in mid August, but I have agreed to do a bit of work before hand. So if the green light is given then I’ll be ahead of the game a touch.

0 locks, 0.81 miles to ‘Home’, 1 last time, £15 veg, £12 fruit, 1 pack of dates, 5 hours shore leave, 1 grown field, 204 reference photos, 1 gunnel rubbed down, 1 starter fed, 2 fingers crossed for a new pizza recipe, £16.40 refund from Sainsburys, Yay!

Oh Yes They Are! 5th May

Lockdown Mooring 4A

I was slightly alarmed this morning when Mick said that there was someone up the mobile phone mast across the way as I was due to have a Zoom meeting at 11am. With my camera zoom we could see that the person was in a cherry picker, so unless the conspiracy theorists regarding 5G have got seriously organised this was just maintenance. All the same if the mast was turned off would we have enough signal for my meeting?

Luckily despite the mast being turned off for much of the morning there was sufficient signal, only a couple of blips where people froze or stuttered. This morning was a kind of meet and great for Panto at Chipping Norton. This year the current team consists of Helen (Costume Designer), Rebecca (Composer), David (Director) and myself (Set Designer) we were brought together by Will (Producer). David, Will and the writer are the only people actually working on the show at the moment. The rest of us won’t be contracted until the theatre feel they can give the green light for the production, they hope to have made that decision by August.

David has seen the last two years productions and has most definitely got the number of the Chippy Panto, a different beast from your average commercial show. Ideas are very much still in the melting pot and everyone is waiting excitedly with bated breath for the first draft of the script. All very exciting and hopefully the show will go on this year, if not it will be put on the shelf ready to go next year so any work done will not go to waste.

The wheelie shoppers were back, Mick spotted the chap first passing by the gap in the hedge. Mrs Wheelie Shopper following behind. The thickness of the hedge meant that despite them wearing bright colours they soon disappeared. Tilly refused to go and have a closer look, so I hesitantly stepped ashore and made my way to the gap.

They were no longer in the field! Where? Then just round the corner behind some sideways trees I could see the chap, wheelie shopper held above his head, the pathway must be narrow, then a few minutes later the lady followed. Where were they going??

Don’t look in here, go and look through the hedge!

Later in the afternoon Tilly and I went to see what we could see. At the corner of the field is a small overgrown pond, beyond this a slightly worn path through the grass to a barbed wire fence. A loop of sisal string is attached, presumably to make lifting it out of the way easier. I urged Tilly to go on ahead to see what she could see, but a rotten old tree was far more interesting to her than Mr and Mrs Wheelie Shopper.

Bottom arrow our mooring, top arrow where the gap in the sideways trees is

A look at Google maps suggests there is a grassed area behind where the house at Hurleston Junction used to be. Maybe I’ll go and venture further tomorrow.

During the afternoon I did my final adjustment to The Garden sketches and the cast portraits. Once scanned they were sent off for approval which came back very quickly. Thumbs up, I can now move away from the safe world of pencil, paper and rubber into the inking in world. Make a mistake now and you have to start all over again. Think I’ll do a practice run first to get back in the swing of things.

Yesterday I’d woken my sour dough starter up. Bringing what was left from the last loaf out from the fridge and giving it a feed. I’ve joined a group on facebook which is full of people trying different flours to bake gluten free sourdough at the moment.

My starter still had life in it, even if I’d not fed it before popping it in the fridge the last time. With one feed it rose a centimetre, the second it managed an inch. Around lunchtime today I scooped off half a cup of the fluffiest starter and mixed it with some water and more flour, a slight mix mostly of brown rice flour but also a touch of SR flour and a good glug of Maple syrup. I’ve been watching other peoples brown rice starters that seem a touch lame in the rising stakes, but several people had added a different flour too and this had perked the whole process up.

All mixed up it was put on the proving shelf to do it’s thing. Far too late in the day to make a loaf similar to the ones I’ve made recently, but by this evening it had more than doubled in size, so I had to make use of it. My River Cottage book came out, most of the recipes in the book require the making of a sponge and leaving it overnight. I was only one flour short, but I could substitute a different flour instead. As our evening meal cooked I mixed everything together, hopefully I didn’t warm the water too much!

Fingers crossed that tomorrow I’ll be baking again.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 mast off, 1 wheelie shopper, 1 pathway through, 5 for a meet and greet, 1 dog, 2 cats too, 1 Suzie to say hello, 1 Bubbles maybe soon, 2 last drawings, 1 thumbs up, 0 identification yet, 1 starter reaching for the sky, 1 very bored cat, almost 30,000.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna