Checking into our weekly Geraghty Zoom slightly late this morning we had to quickly join in with singing Happy Birthday to Tilly (Mick’s great niece) who was turning five today, we also got chance to wish Kath (Mick’s little sister) a belated Happy Birthday for yesterday. Everyone was in high spirits as we got to see all of Tilly’s unicorns in turn, our Tilly returned in time to wave a muddy paw to everyone too.
Treasure Island NT
Discussions on the latest two National Theatre productions were held. We’d not watched Jane Eyre which others had but we’d seenTreasure Island last night. A lot of money had been spent on that set. When I was at college 30 years ago my final project (only designed and never realised) was Sweeney Todd set on the Olivier Stage. A visiting Production Manager told me that the budgets for such a show at that time were around £100,000 and I’d spent all that on my set only! We all suspect that when the National Theatre reopens the budgets will be far smaller for some time.
A grey day with showers. Mick decided to get a bike out and head to the garage for a newspaper as we’d missed out last weekend. He donned waterproofs as it was a touch wet and set off only to return a few minutes later once he’d noticed a puncture!
Bike at the ready
As he set to mending it the heavens opened, he sought refuge under the pram cover and continued mending the hole. The position must have been easy to find as no bowl of water was required. Then he was off down the towpath.
I continued with virtual poses for my illustrations. Then moved onto sizing them ready to be used as guides for my drawings. By the end of the day I was happy with how the second drawing was turning out with the addition of an oak tree into what would have been my set design. The opening drawing can wait as it should be quick to do with nobody in it.
Snowballs and angels
Mick returned with our Saturday newspaper and left it for tomorrow. As we sat and half listened to the news conference from Downing Street an aroma of Camembert wafted through the boat!? Strange as we don’t have soft smelly cheese on board at the moment!
First sketch
It reminded me of when I went on an exchange trip to Dijon in my early teens. My host family kept a very ripe Camembert in a cupboard in the kitchen, whenever the cupboard door was opened you fought to stay upright. The poor York lad who had ended up in the same house as me really couldn’t cope with it and Monsieur Boulot made the most of the situation.
At least the aroma on Oleanna meant one thing, neither of us had lost our sense of smell, a new symptom of Covid -19. But just where had this aroma come from?!!
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 toasted cheese scones, 2 birthdays, 10 hours shore leave, 9 pheasants, 6 more poses, 1 new neighbour, 1st sketch, 1 puncture, 1 wet day, 1 soggy cat, 1 oak tree, 0 yellow ribbons, 0 veg boxes available this month, 1 cheesy smell, 1 look to my left … Mick!!!
This outside is almost completely worn out! It is exhausted and so am I. She says it’s because of Lockdown. But we used to do that all the time (apart from when we did Lockup) and that was how they moved the outside up. I know because I used to sit in the window to see them raise it. I may be given 9 10 hours, but I’m starting to not be able to use all those hours. Please will someone come and move the outside for me! I’ve run out of friends!!
The Garden model packed up for storage
Time to start my illustrations for The Garden. Amy the director had filmed rehearsals, and has pin pointed certain moments that would be good for my pictures. This morning I started the process by working my way through the footage and taking snap shots to work from. The angle of the film isn’t that great and it being a physical theatre piece with all the actors wearing black it is hard to make out forms, but it’s a start.
Firielle and Meghan in rehearsals
It’s a long time since I did any life drawing, I get away with basic human beings in my costume designs. These are always standing figures, looking this way or that. What they are wearing is the main interest. But with the illustrations I need to be able to have people seated, dancing and look reasonably human, rather than disjointed. How to draw someone sitting cross legged?!
A touch disjointed
I had a hunt around on the internet for a program the other day that might help. I’d found a couple of programmes, but today I came up trumps.
Adult Male
Baby
JustSketchMe is an on line program where you can choose one of several figures. Male adult, Female adult, children, teens, dogs and cats (if you pay for it). Each figure is jointed, so you can manipulate their limbs in three directions to whatever position you like. It takes a little bit of getting used to, which arrow works which direction of movement, especially when you are at an odd angle. You can move around the figure to see it from different angles, this helps to make sure they are sitting comfortably.
Each dot is a joint that you can move in three directions
As I worked on set ups, I started to add a second figure, a web grid helps you to ground them and then move them round to face each other. A form of perspective. I got quite into it all and worked my way through nine of the fifteen set ups before my shoulder was aching and I needed to go outside and have a game of stone with Tilly. A good start though.
Virtual Firielle and Meghan dancing
Whilst checking on delivery slots this morning Mick had spotted another one. He jumped in and secured it with some wine. Marvelous, three deliveries around a week apart. Except the first one, next week had vanished! Try as we did there was no sign of it anywhere. Mick tried cancelling the last slot to see if it would come back. We got an email through saying that one had been cancelled, but we heard nothing about the first one. All we can think is that the website decided to amend our first order and move it. So we now need to think about shopping for next week again!
One thought is to try having a second account, so as to keep orders separate. When we can get another slot we’ll give that a go.
All the stones need sending back
As I worked Mick spent much of the day accompanying Michael Palin around the world in far less than 80 days and Tilly came in for a long afternoon snooze. Out on the canal there seemed to be far more movement than we’ve had for days. Some familiar boats heading into Nantwich for shopping and water, others new to us, some heading up the Hurleston flight. Are the extra movements due to the lockdown being extended? People finding excuses to move?
Thank you for all your messages of support. It’s very lovely to hear from you. Life has it’s problems, twists and turns, we’ll get through ours, but sadly we’ll have to make changes. Anyhow, we’ve three months at least to think them through.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 lost slot, 1 new programme, 9 poses, 4 hours not 80 days, 1 bored cat, 7 boats, 1 stove, 1st none chicken meal for almost a week, 273 stones moved to the stern.
How I would like to write about our day, a walk around the fields of Nantwich, Tilly playing on the towpath, conversations with family, some work, sanding down the gunnels to make them look pristine again.
But today has been totally crap!
Tilly wasn’t impressed either
Sorry for the swear word, if I could bring myself to write something far stronger then I would. None of the above has happened today. Instead our hands have been forced into doing something that we really didn’t want to do. In normal times it would have been a very bad day, but with the current state of the worlds health it is even worse. We are just very thankful that we are healthy.
Before baking, my cutter has a handle hence the circle on the tops
Needing cheering up, I turned to baking, a batch of cheese scones. Followed by a Quinoa and Parmesan crust chicken quiche. Both tasty.
Baked
Late afternoon a musical flourish came along the canal. Was that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita? It certainly was. She was singing her heart out of the back of a tatty cruiser heading towards Nantwich, pleading with Argentina not to cry. A couple of hours later she returned, still pleading. At least this brought a smile to our faces, especially when the chap continued on his way towards Barbridge!
Quinoa and Parmesan chicken and feta quiche
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 TV, 1 walk to the bins, 1 window, 10 cheese scones, 1 section 21, 1 quiche, 3 months, 2 boaters at sixes and sevens.
Thursday photo, the fields are getting greener
Dimitrios from NB Galene has asked for the cheese scone recipe. This is a gluten free recipe and was very tasty. I suspect if you have normal glutenous plain flour you could substitute it for the flour and miss out on the xanthum gum. The original recipe used garlic powder, but I used mustard instead. You may also want to add a milk wash before baking.
Ingredients
2 cups (250 g) plain gluten free flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder (I used mustard powder)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoons butter (60 g)
3/4 cup (190 g) plain yogurt
1 large egg
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup (125 g) grated cheese, I used a mixture of extra strong cheddar and red leicester
Instructions
Mix flour, baking powder, mustard, sugar, salt, and bicarb in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it in.
In a separate bowl whisk together the yogurt, egg, oil, and lemon juice. Stir the yogurt mixture and cheddar into the flour mixture well. Cover bowl and let sit for 30 minutes (important for gluten free version), Preheat oven to 450ºF Gas 8.
Line a baking tray. I then pressed out the dough onto a floured top and cut out 10 scones. Placed them on the tray about 1/2 inch apart (this traps a little extra steam between the scones and makes them more tender).
Bake until golden, about 15-17 minutes turning the tray 1/2 way through.
Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving with butter whilst still warm.
Today Mick had extra errands to do on his bike other than just the click and collect from Sainsburys. I’d managed to track down a local timber merchants that is open in the mornings Richard Potter Ltd. A quick phone call this morning and bingo they had dust masks! I go the chap to put a pack aside for me. I’ve been wanting to get on with some painting of Oleanna, which of course requires the existing paintwork to be rubbed back. When doing small areas I haven’t bothered with a mask in the past, but in the current climate I’d rather not be adding any dust to my lungs.
Cowslips on the branch
Just about any suitable masks on the internet were being snapped up by those wanting to wear them day to day when outside, so I was relieved to be able to get hold of some locally which are suitable for the job in hand.
As Mick cycled away I checked on my stock of sandpaper, nothing, well it wasn’t where it should be. I knew I was running low anyway so that and some masking tape were added to Mick’s list.
Whilst he was away shopping I continued to reread Communicating Doors by Alan Ayckbourn. The theatre in Vienna were interested in putting on the show next year, but had been told by previous designers that it wouldn’t fit on their stage. A month or so ago I’d come up with a possible layout that might work, the other day I read Act 1 and today Act 2. If the director can live without having a bath I think I have a solution. Who knows whether the show will be mounted, but at least I can say that they could do it. Austria this week are lifting a few of their restrictions, allowing smaller shops to reopen. It will be sometime before theatres open their doors again. Here they were the first things to close, so in my mind will be the last to reopen. But there is no harm in having a show up your sleeve.
Successful shopping trip
Mick returned with the shopping, walking along the towpath. Only one thing was missing from our Sainsburys order and that was hand wash. We’ve just opened our last bottles and in normal times we’d buy more to have in reserve.
This afternoon I decided to extend my walk a touch and head off on footpaths to see what Stoke Hall looked like in comparison to the Manor. I walked northwards along the towpath to Stokehall Bridge 99 where I headed north east across fields.
Pooh sticks bridge
A bridge over a stream meant I just had to have a game of Pooh Sticks. I both won and lost, the longer stick being faster than the shorter thicker one.
Stoke Hall
The hall soon showed itself through the trees. A Grade 2 listed building from the 17th Century it has been extended through the centuries, mostly during the 19th Century. Three storeys red brick in Flemish Bond it doesn’t look quite as imposing as the Manor does. But I hunted down the details from when it was last on the market and their photos are far better than mine. The interior has wonderful panelling and a small blue swimming pool adds to the seven bedrooms and similar number of reception rooms.
Hos
I crossed the freshly ploughed field aiming straight for the stile on the far side, few foot prints to follow on this field. Then a short distance along the road before climbing into a field with a couple of horses.
Stiles a bridge and a hedge to negotiate
The footpath took me across grazing land, over small planked bridges and over stiles in hedges. A farmer plough his field heading uphill whilst the path I followed took me past last years cut off stumps of maize.
Last years crop
My OS map showed a trig point, so I veered off the marked footpath to spot it. Not much good for it’s purpose now as it’s surrounded by trees, but it’s still there.
I then continued straight along the footpath to where a stile brought me onto the road that leads either to Cholmondeston or Nantwich.
Onto the road
Next I had a choice to walk to Venetian Marina and Cholmondeston Lock, returning along the canal and past Lockdown Mooring 1, or to follow a road to the west which would see me passing Stoke Hall again. The former won, the road was a touch busier than I’d expected.
Cholmondeston Lock
Walking up to the lock and standing on the bridge above the bottom gates I sighed. On the 23rd of March we’d known what was coming and headed up the lock for the last time. This is starting to feel like another life, another time.
Hello Blossom
I now followed the canal back to Barbridge Junction. Many of the boats that had been there three weeks ago are still moored in the same places. I spotted a couple of boats that we’ve seen moving, now back on their home moorings and got to say hello to a lady who is a member of the local Covid boaters group.
Below Hurleston Reservoir
Back on the main Shropie a lady paused whilst gardening to have a chat. Her and her husband have been busy tidying their mooring and we’ve said hello each time we’ve passed when going for water. She said I must have been a long way, which I had, a touch further than I’d imagined, but it was making up for not working our way up the Cheshire Locks on the Trent and Mersey today. We chatted away across the cut, their boat was being painted when lockdown happened. Luckily the painter has been able to continue work, but all they’ve seen so far is photographs. I suspect we’ll have another chat the next time I pass.
Shouty boat lifting his fenders
0 locks, 1 walked over, 0 miles, 5.7 miles walked, Act 2 read, 1 solution, 3 masks, 2 boxes wine, 7 black plastic bags, 2 grades sandpaper, 2 rolls masking tape, 3 days quarantine, 3 on the offside, 1 Hall, 2 horses, 6 kissing gates, 4 small bridges, 2 sticks, 2 gardeners, 15 minutes chat, 2 concerned home owners, 3rd chicken left over meal, hash with an Indian influence, 1 shouty boat up the locks, 1 shouty boat down the locks.
Lockdown Mooring 4 to Calveley to Lockdown Mooring 4
Whilst Mick waits for the kettle to boil in the mornings he works his way through the supermarket websites to see if any delivery slots are available. There’s usually nothing, but every now and then something pops up which makes it worth the effort. Today a Click and Collect at Sainsburys popped up for tomorrow!
Mick quickly secured it with a couple of boxes of wine and some blueberries. Marvelous a top up shop to keep us going till we get a delivery next week. Would this be the highlight of our day?
Clematis at Claveley
At 10am I signed into Zoom for my first meeting of the morning with the Director for The Garden. The show has now been re-imagined and I will be doing illustrations to go with the recording. Last week it was thought that I’d be doing about eight illustrations, but over the weekend this has expanded to 13, by the end of our meeting it was up to 15 and then the credits. I’m going to be busy!
Rehearsals had been filmed so there are moments that I can take from the footage to work from, but the filmed angle isn’t so good. I’ve been hunting around for sites on the internet that will give me poses that I can draw from. Better to use a real form than just make them up, my life drawing wasn’t that good with a model in front of me, so take the reference away and I’d be scuppered.
Babies
Then there was enough time for a quick break before my next meeting. Blimey it felt like I was back in full time work! This meeting was with Lynda the lady with the money for Dark Horse. My contract for the show needs altering and we discussed my fee. This will stay as was and I will also be given generous expenses to cover any other costs.
With all this now settled it was now time to head off to fill with water.
There was a choice, which water point to go to? Calveley won this as it would mean we got a tank of hot water on the way there as well as on the way back, it would also give the batteries a good charge, along with the dishwasher and washing machine being put to use.
Push back to the junction
We reversed through the bridge to the bottom of the Hurleston flight where we winded to point north. The three boats moored here all came out to see what was happening, moving boats now a rarity. One chap said they walk up to the water point at the top of the locks with a container to fill their tank. Others waved us goodbye, knowing we’d return in a few hours.
Just as we were turning the first bend I could see a boat had appeared at the junction behind us, they were winding. Would our space still be there when we got back? We’d just have to wait and see.
I doubt that is an essential journey
Moving again, a slight chill in the air, but the sun was out shining way above us. Oh it felt good! Over the years we have slowed down our cruising somewhat, no longer in a rush to get places unless we really have to. Now we move once a week for essential things, water and shopping, a little bit too slow. But that is just the way it is for now.
This summers original cruise to Leeds from Autherely junction had all been worked out on Canal Plan. Starting on 6th March we had 114 days to travel there via the River Weaver and the Macclesfield Canal then over the Leeds and Liverpool. This averaged out at 1 hour 21 minutes a day. The shortest day would have be 23 minutes, the longest 2 hours 20 minutes. However these would have been nudged about to give us free days here and there and scoot through areas we didn’t want to stop in etc.
40th day
So where should we have been today. It would have been our 40th full day and our schedule suggests we should have been mooring tonight at Annes’ Bridge 157 on the Trent and Mersey. We’d possibly have stopped at the mooring before or carried on to Wheelock ready to start on the Cheshire Locks in the morning.
Instead today we winded twice, filled the water tank, disposed of rubbish and cruised the stretch of canal from Hurleston to Bunbury. The washing machine did a load, I made use of a tank of hot water by having a shower as the water tank filled and then we headed back again.
To the services
The boat we’d seen earlier had continued back towards Nantwich, leaving the space we’d left vacant for us. The same two rings were tied to and Tilly was allowed out to enjoy an hour before curfew.
A game of towpath stone was had, good job the towpath is suitable. If we run out of small stones to chase from the stern of Oleanna I’ll just stand at the bow and throw the stones back!
Tilly took some finding this evening, I think she was busy keeping an eye on the Pheasants who seem to have moved in for a feed on the newly sprouting fields. She was about half way down the field where there is some good looking friendly cover.
Happy to be boating
0 locks, 7.18 miles, 2 winds, 2 meetings, 16 drawings, 1 fee agreed, 1 full dropbox, 1 phone call, 1 verdict waited for, 40th day, 2 fishermen, 2 outsides the same, 1 load washing, 1 shower, 1 full tank water, 1 postal solution, 6 girls to 1 boy, 2nd leftover chicken dish.
Whilst lying in bed with our cuppas this morning I turned the page on my puzzle book, the next one was titled Puppy Love. Mick immediately made a comment, ‘That was by David Cassidy wasn’t it?’ WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We just don’t get out enough anymore
At the age of five/six I only knew of one pop singer, Donny, Donny Osmond. Yes there were others such as David Cassidy, but no one outshone Donny for me. I was bought the single (my first) and remember the video that came with the song, Donny wandering through fields of red poppies. At the time I wasn’t too sure of the lyrics, it could have been Poppy Love or Puppy Love, it really didn’t matter so long as Donny was singing it. It was No1 for five weeks and I’m certain that I danced to it every time it was on Top of the Pops.
Mick then suggested it might have been sung by Jimmy Osmond ………………………..
JIMMY! Long Haired Lover from Liverpool !!!! Firstly Jimmy was only 9 years and 8 months old when the song was released in 1972, hardly the age to be thinking about such things. He did not have long hair for the 1970’s and he most certainly wasn’t from Liverpool. He also was not Donny.
Life on Oleanna is getting a touch trying!
Bacon butties
The towpath yesterday had been a touch busier with walkers, today cyclists were making the most of it. We headed out for a walk to check on Lockdown Mooring 3 and see if any green shoots had started to appear in the field opposite, none yet. We also miss the lapwings but they were nowhere to be heard today.
No Lapwings today
As people came past we’d move over into the longer grass them clinging onto the edge of the canal for everyone to get as much space as possible. One chap with his fishing gear and two kids just laughed at Mick when he suggested they shouldn’t be walking three abreast leaving only three foot between us and them.
Green shoots!
The towpath got too narrow for our liking, so we back tracked to Oleanna. The field behind us is already sprouting less than a week since the crop was sewn. Maybe last nights rain has spurred it into action. Wonder what it will be?
Getting better
Improving every day
Our covers are starting to look bluer, still a long way to go before they will be fully clean, but certainly after a rinse of rain they have improved.
NB Mountbatten
An engine could be heard in the distance? Yesterday one boat had come past and headed up the locks. Who could this be today? NB Mountbatten.
Mick flagged them down, a gas bottle had just run out, and whilst they were at it we’d have a top up of diesel. When we’d seen them last week Mick had said that if they came past before NB Halsall then we’d use them this time. Mick got the gas bottle out of the locker and Richard lowered the new one in. It all felt a little bit awkward. Mick would normally undo the filler cap on the diesel and maybe even fill the tank up, but Richard did all this , everyone doing their best to keep their distances.
Turning left to go up the flight
As they pulled away from us, Richard jumped off and went to empty the bottom lock. Ruth turned the tiller and got them lined up for the flight, hopefully annoying the fisherman and his kids. Fishing is currently banned on the waterways!
David Devant latest album, Cut Out And Keep Me
Instead of listening to the Osmond brothers I caught up on the latest episode of The Community Hall Roof Fund. David Devant and His Spirit Wife played their song Pimlico live on facebook from their respective houses in memory of Tim Brooke Taylor (original video with my friend Nick as a spectral roadie). Then we listened to the new audio episode of Peter Kay’s Car share, still funny without them being sat in the car.
Enjoy
One happy cat
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 Mick trying to be funny, twice!!! 5 year olds heart throb, 1 stove re-lit, Act 1 again, 1 busy cat, 3 of us, 1 short walk, 2 narrow for safety, £32 gas, 37.3 litres diesel, 1 cat past curfew, 1 st leftover chicken meal.
Easter when I was a kid was quite often spent in Buttermere in the Lake District. We would stay at The Bridge along with many others who had become regulars for the weekend. The first sign that the Leckenbys had arrived was our dog Worthington running through to the rear bar to claim prime position in front of the log fire. I strongly suspect my life began in that hotel Easter 1966.
1977 The Lake District
The adults would play Hare and Hounds, the hare leaving a paper trail across the fells for the hounds to track them down. I suspect my brother and I were left with mum in the bar with her G&T whilst my Dad, Buddy and others were scree running on the peaks.
One year we joined in with an Easter Egg hunt at a friends house in York. This was the first hunt I’d ever been on. It was very well organised, each of us with a little basket to collect our chocolate in, special eggs had our names iced on them. I came away with quite a collection I seem to remember.
Amazing what you can fashion with a toilet roll, pink ribbon and some micropore tape
Then there was the year Granny and Pompom came to stay with us and I made myself an Easter bonnet out of pink ribbon. I remember it well, better than that jumper!
Now onboard Oleanna, Easter usually brings with it the not so secret secret purchasing of Easter eggs. These are then normally hidden until our Sunday morning cuppa in bed when we produce them from their hiding holes, “Happy Easter!!!” Well that is how it’s been since we moved to living on a boat. This year however it was different.
Not with the veg
The not so secret secret purchase hadn’t been possible for normal eggs, due to lack of space in our shopping bags, restocking the wine cellar was far more important! But two small bags of Mini Eggs had been squeezed into our bags amongst the cabbage and carrots, so we wouldn’t do without.
Not under the back steps
The shopping on Thursday had been unpacked, disinfected or left for three days before being brought inside. Mini eggs were deemed to need disinfecting to be brought indoors. The new regime takes time and means that things don’t always end up being put where they normally would go. The last I saw of the packets of mini eggs was on the counter top as the Milton solution dried.
Not in the mug cupboard
Just where had they gone! We had a proper Easter Egg Hunt on our hands. Mick had a look in the obvious places that they could have gone. Nothing!! A girl look was needed!
No
Nope
Just where oh where had they gone?!
Oops! Panic bought chocolate
Drawers were opened up. The shopping bag drawer now filled with chocolate!
Even Tilly couldn’t find them
Not there.
I really must get round to tidying these
Nor there.
Still no
What about……..
?
YES!!!!
The first place I should have looked, at least it was the last!
Hooray!!!
To walk off some of the chocolate we took our rubbish for a walk up the locks to the bin. The big containers have gone from the works enclosure at the top of the locks.
Easter can happen now
Then we decided to follow the route I’d taken yesterday, just cutting it short to avoid the boggy patch. As we approached Stoke Manor we noticed a black plastic bag on top of a post. Then we turned down the lane and got to Stoke Manor Farm. Here was another black bin bag, what were they covering?
There’s another walking person under the black bag
Public Footpath signs. Is this because someone is isolating and don’t want people traipsing through their farm yard? Is it fear? Well I have to say it made our mind up, we’d follow the footpath on our maps across their yard along the Public Right of Way.
Path to the bridge
We headed across the fields and took a different path to reach Bridge 99. The fields seemed to be just a touch greener today, maybe Mother Nature had been hard at work overnight.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 Easter egg hunt necessity, 2 bags of eggs, 2 bin bags, 0 Easter epic, 2.4 miles walked, 1 roast chicken, 0.75″ too wide, 1 pulled out sock, 1 nosy neighbour, 1 worrying car.
Firstly an Apology to the BBC. She and I would like to apologise to the BBC (and Gordon Buchanan, he’s my favourite) for suggesting that they hadn’t checked their facts the other day in relation to cats not being allowed out at the moment due to Covid-19. In fact the BBC had been given unclear information from the BVA. The BVAsaid they“had given information that related to both general guidance as well as specific advice for cats from self-isolating or infected households, but not made the distinction clear.“
“The article suggested that veterinary advice was to keep all cats indoors, but BVA has since explained that this advice is only in relation to cats in infected households or where people are self-isolating.”
We on Oleanna apologise for suggesting that the BBC hadn’t checked their facts. Sorry to Gordon, my favourite is the Polar Bear Family and Me, it’s dead good, luckily Gordon didn’t become their dingding!
So sorry to Adam, Gordon and their colleagues, we like the BBC.
I wish She and Tom would make my dingding wizz round like this. Gordon is great!
Another day of nine hours of shore leave in one place! She says I need to get good at spending time in one outside and it not moving so much, so I spent quite a bit of time snoozing today on the bed instead, well it was a warm day. I did say hello to everyone on the Geraghty Zoom before putting my head down. Tom listened to the cricket and guess what? England actually won!! Again!!!
Zoom!
I decided to see if I could get a better look at those wonderful chimneys back up the canal. With the OS ap now downloaded onto my phone I set off on a three mile walk.
Muddy towpath by the bottom lock
My route took me up by the locks. We’ve been a touch concerned about the amount of water leaking onto the towpath by the bottom lock at Hurleston. Mick this morning saw a CRT chap and asked him about it. The works at the lock haven’t as yet been signed off by the contractor, but apparently there is an artesian well by the lock and that is where the water is coming from. It does seem to be getting wetter each time we walk up there.
The quiet A51
I walked along the back of the reservoir and then looped round onto a footpath that runs alongside the A51. This led to a gate onto what must have been the original road still with cats eye down the centre.
Dead end road
A short distance on I got to view the front of Stoke Manor, a wonderful redbrick front with bay windows. It is apparently now owned by the County Council and has been split into flats.
Stoke Manor
Flat five does however have 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, so I doubt they are pokey places. The only interesting thing I could find out about the Manor was that during World War 2 it was used to house landgirls.
A handful
The chimneys are so tall and from one angle they resembled a hand. Very fine indeed and worth the stroll to see them.
Just how many pots?
I then followed the footpath through Stoke Manor Farm out onto freshly sewn fields. A sign asked me to keep to the footpath which wasn’t so obvious. But I soon could make out where others had walked before me, from one tree to the next.
Okay
The earth was soft and warm beneath my feet, the small sprigs of green starting to rise towards the sun. Just a scattering of green across the landscape. Maybe I’ll have to return in a few weeks time to see how it’s doing.
Keeping to the path
I could have crossed over at the next canal bridge but decided to continue to the far end of the fields where Barbridge sits. My map suggested that the path should continue between two houses, but my way was blocked.
Green shoots
A couple were busy in their garden, so I asked them which way the path went, it turned out to be on the other side of their house. I thanked them and then very quickly discovered the path had become a bog!
The Boggy Firs
One of those hop skip and jump moments, hoping that speed would mean I could levitate across the top, my weight not breaking the surface. But gravity knew better and my trainers sank into the mud!
Muddy feet!
I soon rejoined the road then the towpath and headed back southwards, making a note of a stretch where there might be tree cover should the weather get very hot before lockdown is lifted. Who knows if we’d get into the side here, but it might be worth a try should we seek shade.
Posts all over the place
The white posts on the reservoir had been photographed by the C&RT chap Mick had spoken to this morning. However he hadn’t asked about them. There are quite a few sets of posts, possibly three lines of them down the embankment each heading off on a different bearing.
Not all in straight lines
This evening we’ve had the nearest meal we can have to an Indian Take Away as every place we’ve seen in Nantwich is now closed. Two dishes from Morrisons, along with my first sag aloo ( I made enough to last a second meal) and an attempt at gluten free chapatis.
Potatoes at the ready and chickpea flour weighed out
Rolled out
The chapatis I made with gram flour (chickpea flour) some oil, cumin and fennel seeds and some water. This makes a dough/paste that you then roll out and fry in a dry pan. They ended up looking a touch drier than normal chapatis, less stretch which is to be expected with a lack of gluten. They were tasty and softened up a touch under the t-towel that kept them warm. I may try a different recipe next time which has arrowroot in it, or maybe one with yoghurt, we’ll see.
Yummm!
0 locks, 0 miles, 3 miles walked, 10 on zoom, 2 handheld cameras, 314 Boothferry Road in Dhaka, 1 boat moving, 1 cat out past curfew! 21 pots at least!, 2 soft fields, 2 muddy feet, 24 posts at least, 4 chapatis, 2 mains, 1 side, 1 rice, 1 test match victory, 1 phone call, 2 boaters sleeping on things.
Rules were read and Tilly was free to explore to her hearts content. 9 hours! We were expecting lots of footfall today along the towpath, but it wasn’t that bad. C&RT are trying to discourage the masses from filling the towpaths, especially those that are narrow and where 2m distance is an impossibility.
Their first poster was far too wordy and you would have had to be seriously bored and nosy to stop to read it.
Yesterday they put out another version which is a touch more to the point in a polite way.
The other message they put out yesterday was to not visit or move boats over the Easter weekend. This was to discourage people with boats in marinas coming out for a jaunt over the holiday weekend. We also felt that the instructions were for every boat owner including us. Stay put, so we listened and did. We only saw two boats moving today, they both winded and returned, one pulling in just past us, the other pausing for a while before carrying on back towards Nantwich.
Up to scratch
Mick cooked us a very nice breakfast, well I had some bread, there were eggs and bacon that needed using too so it would have been silly not to. It was even a two course breakfast with a Hot Paw Bun for pudding. No need for lunch today.
Forget-me-nots
Mick got the chairs out and tucked himself away in the garden. From Oleanna’s gunnel to the worn path it is over two meters, then my tape measure ran out of it’s 5 meters before it got close to Mick. So I reckon the bottom of our garden is about 6/7 meters away from the boat. This now means that Mick can happily listen to the cricket and I can listen to other things, well I know what’s going to happen with the cricket. There will be lots of twists and turns to the plot before the nail biting finish.
Bird box
I had intended doing a little bit of work today but instead I decided to catch up on some listening. Pre-boating days I used to listen to radio plays as I made models at the top of our house in Scarborough. I miss that, so instead of reading something myself I listened.
The first two installments of The Community Hall Roof Fund, written preformed and produced by Venerable Bickers. Link available on Spotify. This is of course a pseudonym for a friend of mine in Scarborough. He was a very good sound technician, so the quality of the recording is very very good as are his sound effects. It’s a little bit Ayckbourn meets Monty Python and has several references which takes me back to my Stephen Joseph Theatre days. A very amusing listen, I wonder where it will take us next?
A Grebe
Vanessa Brooks is a writer/director and founder of Seperate Doors which champions learning disabled actors. I have worked with Vanessa in the past and hope to in years to come. She is producing short stories, introduced by leading playwrights such as Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country’s Good and Jonathan Harvey, Beautiful Thing and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.
The Lagoon is a much lighter piece, set partly on a cruise ship, it had me chortling out loud.
Inspection island
All are very much worth a listen. I may be biased as I know both the writers, but I hope you enjoy them too. I’m very much looking forward to the next episodes and stories which will come over the following weeks.
There’s Oleanna
The afternoon was finished off with a walk up to the reservoir and around it’s circumference. A haze blurred the distant views but I was glad to be away from the Blackthorn blossom which seems to have given me hayfever. A cockerel had escaped and a poor lady brandished a large net on a pole in the hope of catching it.
A dip in the bank
Central on the water is a floating island which looks like it is being used for inspection purposes. The white poles we’d noticed from the canal are quite sturdy. Paul from Waterways Routes confirmed our suspicions of their purpose ‘they are probably surveying markers to see if the embankment is slipping’.
Posts lined up
They cluster around an area where the bank is lower than elsewhere and a wall of armco has been added on the water side in the past. Perhaps after the Toddbrook Reservoir incident any slippage is being monitored more carefully.
Sunny daffs
Daffodils were out enjoying the sunshine and Peacock butterflies rose into the air dancing with each other deciding whether they fancied each other enough. A lovely walk on my own whilst Mick listened to England fighting back at the cricket.
Lockdown Mooring 2 to Nantwich to Lockdown Mooring 4
Us
‘No Tilly, sorry’ was a phrase used a lot today. She just didn’t understand that every ten to fourteen days there will be one day where she isn’t allowed out. She was adamant, shouting at the back door, she’s forgotten all about BUMingham! I know we’d asked her to use shore based facilities and for the last ten days she has only visited her pooh box twice, today she could go as often as she wanted, But I’d rather go outside! Her four legs stayed crossed for much of the day, giving in mid afternoon, I could hear her relief.
Tractors
Another warm, but overcast day to pootle into town. At the green double decker bus kids were playing with a hammock, glad I wasn’t the one lying in it! Then there is the field with what looks like hundreds of old tractors, someone’s collection maybe. All these sights will soon disappear as the hedges and trees are starting to turn green, the Blackthorn is certainly in full flower which is just wonderful.
Under Nantwich Junction Bridge
Several boats had already passed us this morning, we passed them as we arrived at the embankment. There was a space just where the ramp comes up to meet the towpath so we tied up, collected our bags, a bike and the long shopping list and walked into town. It seemed busier than ten days ago, more cars and more people out walking. Last time we’d walked into town Mick had suggested maybe the pavements should become one way, everyone sticking to the left footpath (where two are available) to help with social distancing. We kept to the left, occasionally having to swerve into the road to avoid others.
Once in town we split up for a two pronged shopping attack. Whilst I headed to Morrisons for the majority of the shopping (single shoppers only), Mick went to pick up our meat order and then to Holland and Barrett.
I joined the queue at Morrisons, barriers snaking the line back and forth. I can’t help but people watch, some people just don’t get social distancing. There were a couple of young ladies who seemed to be together. One lady was fidgety as she smoked, swaying back and forth in the line. The gap between them and the old chap they chatted to infront varied between 3ft and 5ft, nowhere near 2m (sorry for mixing units). The chap didn’t seem bothered by it even though he had said to them that he wasn’t meant to leave home, being over 70, but he was now coming out more than ever!
Joining the snaking queue at Morrisons
Then there was the chap who leant on his trolley, smoking his roll up. A bit of tobacco straggling out the end was picked out, he then took another drag. Fingers, mouth. He may think he’d not touched the trolley with his fingers, but he had. Once his fag was finished he put on a pair of gloves for protection!
We wear gloves when shopping, mostly to remind ourselves not to touch our faces. There is still a need to wash your hands and disinfect things you touch, they just help to keep us aware until the next sink is within sight.
Holland and Barrett were closed today so Mick arrived before I’d got into Morrisons. We conferred across the queue, Mick headed to join the queue for Aldi. This meant that should there be things missing in Morrisons he could hopefully pick them up across the road.
I finally got into the store and was handed some disinfectant on a papertowel. Was this to clean my hands? The trolley? Both got a wipe and I started.
Look at all that!!
Stocks were pretty good, only expensive eggs though. The trolley quickly filled up. Our two pronged attack worked, a phone call before Mick had reached the check out and he got eggs and tinned tomatoes. A few other things were missing, but nothing that meant we’d starve. Sadly it looked like we’d be running out of space in bags and on the bike, so no easter eggs! Instead a couple of bags of mini eggs which would fit round other things in bags.
I elected to use a self scan conveyor. Less contact with the shop staff until you realise the cabbage you picked up doesn’t have a barcode! I could sort my shopping as I scanned without pressure. Fridge bag as normal and a bag we’d not need to touch for at least three days, this one can stay outside without being disinfected. All good.
Back at Oleanna the new system of disinfecting things was carried out and the spare items stowed in the cratch, so we wouldn’t have to squeeze past them in the coming days. Hopefully this will be the last time we’ll have to visit a supermarket for a few weeks. We have secured two deliveries over the next three weeks and will place an order with Clem’s the greengrocer from the market, maybe have a meat order delivered too.
Mixed and ready to rise
Cranberries, apples and spices
As Mick moved us along to the winding hole I made a start on the very important job of making Hot Paw Buns. I mixed up the sticky dough as we crossed the aqueduct, pausing alongside NB Mountbatten to buy some kindling. A quick shower before we arrived back at the water point and then the fruit and spices were added to the dough and left to rise a second time as we pootled our way back towards Hurleston.
Pausing mid cut for kindling
We’d made a note of a mooring we fancied trying where the towpath is quite wide closer to the junction.
Not bad!
Here gives us the option to sit out at a good distance from anyone on the towpath. Tilly gave it the once over, checking out the freshly ploughed shore based facilities. This would do, she got so distracted that when she finally came home for dingding she’d forgotten to go, so the only option left was her pooh box!
Long shadows
The Hot Paw Buns with their special filling were ready for us to sample for pudding whilst they were still warm. The marzipan paw print had gone slightly dark in the oven, but was still very very tasty.
Paw prints in marzipan for the final rise
Baked, glazed and ready to eat
This evening we joined in with the 8pm applause for all those who are looking after us, NHS, farmers, shop workers, carers, lorry drivers. People waved from the top of the reservoir, other boat horns could be heard and applause too in the distance. This week the wardrobe department from the ENO have been busy in their homes making scrubs for the NHS Link. Sarah the first lady in the time lapse was at college with me. I believe there are more wardrobe departments and props makers using their skills across the country doing this too.
Where does this go?
0 locks, 5.18 miles, 2 winds, 2 straights, 2 pronged attack, 1 chicken, 1 pork pie, 9 sausages nicely defrosted, 0 market stall, 0 Holland and Barrett on Thursdays, 2 supermarkets, 2 queues, 4 boxes wine, 1 Indian, 4 bars chocolate, 1 loaf, 1 sad gits mince, 1 full water tank, 4th mooring with a garden, 1 pooh field, 8pm BEEP BEEP!
