Category Archives: The Garden

His and Hers Loaves. 6th May

Lockdown Mooring 4A

My sourdough sponge had gone frothy overnight, so it was time to mix in all the other flours. Potato starch, Tapioca starch, Flaxseed all sorts, plus some butter and an egg. It all makes for a very liquid bread batter that is so very different to the last few loaves I’ve made which were vegan as well as gluten free.

Poured into a lined bread tin (GF stuff always wants to stick when it’s cooked) it was then left on the proving shelf to grow. The recipe I’d chosen I could have added yeast too, but as my starter had been so bubbly I decided to omit it and leave it to rise for longer on it’s own. The timer was set for 2 hours, the minimum.

With only one egg left I set off on the Egg Walk. Micks version of this may differ slightly from mine, but both versions have the same intention. Duck eggs and maybe some hen eggs. I walked up the locks, under the first two bridges on the Llangollen Canal and then climb up onto what was the A51 before the newer version was built.

Here people pull in to buy eggs and boaters have their cars parked. Today the red van had a fresh supply of eggs, medium and extra large, but sadly the centre trays were empty. No duck eggs.

I looped round onto the A51 and walked over the canal. Nantwich Vets Equine Centre looked like it has opened back up. Several horse boxes turned in along with various other vehicles, in fact there was a bit of a queue to turn in. The world is getting busy again.

I walked round the houses to see if there were any eggs here, but sadly the table wasn’t out. We’ll try again tomorrow.

A full circuit of the reservoir before heading back down the locks. This only equates to a couple of miles at most, but at least it’s showing some effort before starting work for the day.

At lunchtime Mick asked if I could make him a loaf of bread. We still have some bread flour on board, not much, but some. We also have dried yeast, so this was possible. My loaf needed longer on the proving shelf, so I wondered if they both would be able to go in the oven together.

Baking times and temperatures were different for the loaves, but I managed to work it out in the main oven. My loaf was baking first with the hope that it would have set itself before possibly getting disturbed when adding Mick’s loaf. If you happen to knock the tin of the gluten free loaf before it’s set all the air bubbles will pop, making it a flat loaf. My calculations worked and the usual extra five minutes out of their tins finished them off nicely.

Three quarters of my sketches got inked in this afternoon before noises from the flag bubble distracted me. Shrieks and engine noises. Just what was going on!

NB Plum appeared to be trying to get in to the off side for some reason. Then after a while we could also see NB AreandAre doing similar things. A tractor in the field? Then we could see why, a cow had fallen in the cut. It actually turned out to be two cows that had misjudged their footing and toppled into the canal. Plum and AreandAre were being used to stop the cows from walking away from where they could be rescued. After about fifty minutes both were back on dry land and the world calmed down. Sandra filmed the rescue, here’s a link to the footage on their facebook page.

This evening I decided it was time to use the aubergine we’d got in the veg box last week. An obvious choice was to make a Moussaka. I’ve never made one before, but we had everything required which would mean I could use the half tin of tomatoes and some more potatoes. Well it took some time to get ready for the oven, but that time was well worth it. Ever so tasty, it’ll be added to the repertoire.

No audible sound of the PPe bird at all today and no sign of the wheelie shoppers. I’ll carry on listening to bird song on the internet in hope to find out what it is.

Tilly watching out for the Wheelie Shoppers

If you are wanting a bit of a jolly good laugh this weekend I can highly recommend By Jeeves which will be on the Show Must Go On Youtube channel from 8pm on Friday. This was the show that opened the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough when it moved into the Odeon building in 1996. I did a little bit of work on the premier production when I first started working there, I put the flowers on the grass verges I seem to remember. This recording is from a production in the States or Canada I believe. Not your usual Lloyd Webber big musical, but Jeeves and Wooster brought together in a daft musical by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber. For those who worked at the SJT back in 1996 the show is in our blood, the lyrics resurface just as soon as the music starts. When a production of it was put on at The Old Laundry in Bowness a few years ago so many of us rushed to see it again. We’ll certainly be watching.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 duck eggs, 0 reservoir eggs, 1 circuit, 2 loaves bread, 1 sachet yeast, 1 sourdough, 12 inked in drawings, 1 pirate on a bike, 2 swimming cows, 1 tractor, 2 boats, 9 hours, 1 exhausted cat, 1st Moussaka, plenty of potatoes left.

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.

Yummo! 3rd May

Lockdown Mooring 4A

With some gluten free bread on board, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes etc and it being Sunday, there was only one thing for it…. a cooked breakfast!

Because of us having a potato mountain on board I decided to have a go at making some hash browns. This turned out to be a very good idea. I grated up a few small potatoes and a half onion left over from a few days ago into a t-towel, then I squeezed out as much water as I possibly could, a surprising amount. Then in a bowl I added a good amount of salt and pepper and about half an egg, enough so that I knew it would help bind everything together without becoming a potato omelette. This was then handed over to the breakfast chef for cooking. Cooked in rapeseed oil for about 3 minutes on each side until golden.

They were certainly worth the grating. As Rick Stein says, ‘Yummo!’

I decided to stretch my legs in the late morning sunshine and see how the fields up towards Stoke Manor were doing. I walked this route a while ago when the footpaths were hard to make out across recently sewn fields. Today I set out to do the route in reverse.

Walking along the towpath up to Stokehall Bridge you could see the effect of the recent rainfall. The towpath plants have shot up, cow parsley reaching for the sky. The well trodden path a curved dip between the green edge of the canal and the trees. Normally this would have been mowed by now, but C&RT are only mowing near locks and moorings, places where you need to be able to see what you are doing. I wonder what they’d look like if there wasn’t quite so much footfall?

I crossed over the canal at the bridge and climbed over the stile. From here the green field had a very well marked footpath straight across towards the manor. The crop now sprouted by around 8 inches in little tufts above the earth.

Where the two paths meet I could see which was the more popular route, the other route ending with a 12 ft quagmire. But the path was marked, was the yellow colour from feet brushing through the crop, or has the farmer sprayed or rolled the line to mark the way?

Approaching the manor the trees now in leaf framed the building well.

The footpath becomes a narrow channel through the friendly cover of cow parsley and grasses brought me to the farm yard and back onto the road. I was glad to see the footpath sign has been revealed again, shame the one at the top of the road still had it’s black bin bag wrapped around it!

Returning by the reservoir the cocky cockerel had escaped again and was strutting his stuff around the garden. A couple of boxes of eggs his good ladies had laid sat waiting to be bought. I’m still holding out for some duck eggs.

Tilly spent much of the day out in the fields, we don’t get to see much of her at the moment. She returns for a few biscuits and the occasional drink during the day. An odd restorative kip and then she is back out hunting for friends. We have turned into a B&B for her. At least with the stove out this evening she curled up on my knee for some warmth. I wonder what she’ll make of it when we get to cruise properly again?

The ability to draw had returned this afternoon, so I worked my way back through my sketches, removing gurning chins, improving hands. Sadly I was missing a good photograph of the movement director to add to the portraits on the last sheet. Hopefully Dark Horse will be able to provide me with a better image of him, then the pencil stage will be done, unless I get notes from Amy.

Thank you Ann for the link to the National Trust bird song. Sadly the PPe bird doesn’t feature. Mick has down loaded an app BirdNET to see if we can identify it with that. He’s tried several times to catch it’s call , but when he does get it it is upstaged by other bird song. We’ll continue and hopefully managed to identify it.

This evening we have worked our way through a few more potatoes and enjoyed a large roast chicken and fresh veg to accompany them. We didn’t eat the whole bird, the left overs will last us most of the week. With still half of our veg box left to consume I’d better look at buying some new jeans the next size up!

0 locks, 0 miles, 12 tomatoes, 4 rashers bacon, 4 hash browns, 8 mushrooms, 3 slices toast, 3 eggs scrambled, 4 slices black pudding 1 hours walk, 2 bridges, 1 field, 2 paths, 12 eggs, 1 cocky ‘un, 15 sketches complete, 9 portraits, 1 still to go, 1 cat B&B, 1 elusive bird, 2.1kg of chicken, 1 bag of potatoes completely eaten!

PPE Bird. 2nd May

Lockdown Mooring 4A

The alarm was set early. Mick got up and set off on a bike to do the paper round. We’d got a Click and Collect at Sainsburys this morning between 7 and 8am. Some substitutions were going to happen on our order, a larger bottle of vanilla extract, Shiraz instead of Merlot. The best one though was instead of Rice flour (have to admit I didn’t think they would have any and I’d ticked the substitutes box) I got a bag of pudding rice! Maybe I should grind my own flour.

A disappointing gluten free chocolate swirl, too much potato flour

At 10 am we settled down to see all the Geraghty faces across the globe. Today we had giant potatoes, various reviews of Twelfth Night, some cinnamon buns being made and discussions as to when people would feel safe about returning to work or school. How many families are having similar discussions?

After lunch it seemed that everyone from this stretch was heading for eggs. Barry and Sandra stopped and had a chat through the hatch before they headed up the locks and we soon followed hoping for some duck eggs for a treat tomorrow morning. We’d hunted around to find all the loose change we had so that we could pay.

Will coins be something we reminisce about in times to come?

In a world where contactless payments and bank transfers are far preferred to handing over coins and notes, will actual money become stuff of the past? Or will we still need coins in our pockets to pay local small businesses? Sadly there were no duck eggs, so we decided to make do with what we have on board and come back early next week to see what is on offer when we need fresh supplies.

As we walked back down the locks a boat was descending. A touch more reverse was needed so as not to hit the bottom gates. Mick helped with a gate, then we decided to leave them to it, to-ing and fro-ing to get through the bridge at the bottom.

Today I was hoping to get the improvements to my drawings finished, but it turned out to be one of those days when my drawing skills had packed up and left the boat. I persevered but may have to revisit them again tomorrow!

Mick spotted a rather flush faced chap in the hedge. He managed to get a good photo of him too. It sounded like he was singing his heart out straight into our side hatch. It looks like this Goldfinch and his mate may have a nest in our stretch of the hedge, here’s hoping Tilly doesn’t find it!

There is another bird here that we haven’t as yet spotted. The call is as if it is shouting out ‘PPe PPe PPe, PPe Ppe Ppe’. We both stood at the hatch trying to get a recording of it, but we ran out of patience just before it sang again, it’s obviously watching us from somewhere! The bird song this evening filled our world as the sun started to set above the reservoir.

The other boats around us have moved off today. We considered moving back to Lockdown Mooring 4, but have decided to stay where we are. The view from the galley is better with the gap in the hedge now that everything is getting fat and green. The view up to the reservoir is better too. This stretch of towpath also has fewer stones, so less likelyhood of bicycles pinging stones at Oleanna’s cabin side. The other day we had one perfectly aimed at our hatch which came in and landed at Mick’s feet!

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 duck eggs, 9 cinnamon buns, 9 Geraghty households, 1 each! 1 bumping boat, 1 pooh boat gone, 1 Pooh boat arrived, 2 Goldfinches, 1 mystery PPe bird, 2 big plates of salmon and spinach pasta, Yum.

Rustling In The Hedges. 1st May

Almost Lockdown Mooring 4

Since we’ve been mooring here we have occasionally seen a couple walking along the field alongside us. The first time was at dusk, they walked along the towpath and then bobbed through the large gap into the field. The lady had a face covering/scarf wrapped round and the chap had a wheelie shopper. They entered the field and walked back along the hedge, never to be seen again that evening.

Maybe the ladies face covering was due to the virus, or was it a disguise so nobody would recognise them? Just what were they doing with their wheelie shopper in the field? Certain possibilities came to mind, but in the morning there was no evidence in the field of a freshly dug hole.

We’ve been keeping an eye out for a boat with that wheelie shopper. But we now know most of the boaters around us and none of them fitted the bill. As we stood one day waiting to cross the main road into Nantwich, the same couple appeared from under the aqueduct and walked northwards with that wheelie shopper, no disguise that day.

Then this morning the lady crept past the gap in the hedge again, we’re right along side it now, maybe the chap had already passed by with the shopper and I just hadn’t noticed him. Just what do they do in there? Our four legged spy refused to go and keep an eye on them, she went out eventually but didn’t give us any information when she returned.

Mick headed off on the bike to pick up a parcel for me. A very helpful local lady had offered to help with post should we need and I’d been running low on paper for my illustrations. I’d hunted round on the internet for ages trying to find one place that stocked the same paper I’d been using along with a new sketch book for panto. This had proved impossible. So I hunted round the Fred Aldous website to see if they had the equivalent weight paper as I’d been using. An A4 pad and two sketch books were ordered, one for panto and the other for #unit21. No excuses now I had to do some work, well …. after a walk.

Lots of paper to fill with drawings and ideas

On my way up to the reservoir I had a quick check in the field, no obvious signs of any activity again. Maybe it’s a short cut !?! Up at the reservoir the hawthorn was bloomin. No eggs for sale today and the raft that we think divers had been using to inspect the dam has now gone, leaving the water for the ducks.

As I reached the boat house with it’s slipway I could see the familiar shape of NB Mountbatten heading from Barbridge to Nantwich. That would explain why some of the locks had been empty when I’d walked up the flight, Mountbatten comes down the flight and heads up to Calverley before returning southwards. I gave Mick a call so he’d be aware of Richard delivering coal to us. This will be the last time we see them for a while as Mountbatten is heading to the Erewash canal for some work on her base plate.

The towpath alongside the moorings has had a hair cut whilst we were away yesterday. A fresh cut edge visible towards the hedge. An expletive was heard from the boat just behind us ‘SH*T’. The lady was most probably correct in her observation, and I suspect there will be a patch of grass that will grow greener than it’s surrounding due to the substance she had been stirring.

The rest of the day was spent improving some of my drawings. My original plan had been to do new drawings rather than amendments to those already existing, so I could choose which was best. But sadly the new pad of paper I’d bought, despite being of the same weight isn’t as white as the original pad. So when they are photographed the background would be different.

So as I’ve only three sheets left of the original paper I’m saving those for the drawings that need the most work and just rubbing out where needed on the originals. I now need a really fine pointed rubber to help edit faces that with just a slight line in the wring place end up gurning out from the page at me!

Half of the spinach from yesterdays veg box was wilted into a chicken curry that I’ve adapted from my Hemsley and Hemsley cook book. Peas instead of green beans, a chunk of ginger added and served with basmati brown rice. Very tasty it was too.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 bike ride, 1 reservoir walk, 3 buckets constantly stirred, 3 sketch books, 1 hail storm, 6 improved drawings, 1 pair glasses, 1 lady, 1 chap, 1 hedge, 1 field, 1 wheelie shopper, 1 mystery, 1 silent spy.

Delivery!!! 29th April

Lockdown Mooring 4 to Bridge 95 (pick up point) to not quite Lockdown Mooring 4

Sorry Tilly! We’ve a rendez vous.

Today we had our first food delivery coming to the boat from Morrisons. We’ve not used them before so waited to see what happened with substitutes etc. Mick received an email listing things that weren’t available and what we would be getting instead.

After the last few weeks of sunny sunny weather I’d included a few things for a barbecue. Our mooring means we can hug the hedge and still have at least 7 meters between us and the boat for people to pass. But on the substitutes list they had swapped salmon steaks for some that are already cooked and some Halloumi was coming with added chilli (it might be nice on a barbecue!). As the weather has changed it won’t matter anyway. My choice of white wine was swapped for another, but so long as it’s not Riesling or Liebfraumilch it will be fine.

So after breakfast we pushed off to cruise not quite a mile to the pick up point. We pulled in as close to the gate by the bridge as possible. Here is an ideal spot for a delivery, a layby and gate to reach the towpath, except the towpath is mostly concrete so it took quite a bit of effort to get spikes in. Now we could settle.

The delivery arrived seven minutes into our allotted slot. The chap was relieved to spot us so easily and quickly, he’d thought it would be tricky. He chatted away as he unloaded the crates at his van and then brought our shopping to us in plastic bags. Having the hatch to the towpath meant it was easy to see what was in each bag. So I verbally sorted things, those items that can sit in the cratch for a few days and those that would need to come in and be dealt with before being stowed.

The wine cellar has moved for a few days, but is now restocked and we now can all go to the toilet as we have a fresh supply of cat litter for both bucket and box. I hasten to add we had only been running low on stocks, and had not had to reuse it!

With it just starting to rain we decided to make a move and return to our mooring before it got worse. No winding hole until Nantwich ahead of us and a big sign on the wide stretch just behind us saying no winding we decided to reverse the third of a mile to Poole Hill Winding Hole to turn. Back to Hurleston to wind again in the heavier rain.

Lockdown Mooring 4 had been taken by someone, a familiar boat from a week or so ago. The 48hr mooring now had three boats on it, all nicely socially distanced, leaving enough room for us between them. We pulled into the first gap, gaining slightly different views from the windows.

In our old boating life we would automatically pull up and share a ring leaving no ‘git gaps’. But in this new world it’s better not to share rings if you can possibly help it, leaving a ‘good gap’ instead. However we had no choice today, both ends of Oleanna had to share rings with long outies.

Tilly was warned that should she think we were still the end boat she’d be getting on someone elses boat and they have a woofer! The rain put her off somewhat anyway. No amount of head nudges would make it dry up.

As the afternoon went on the sun made an appearance. The skies turned from dark grey to bright blue and Tilly ventured back out, returning damp at the edges.

I’ll stay here if it’s raining thank you

During the day I received a friend request on facebook along with a message. I’m glad the message came as the penny wouldn’t have dropped otherwise. Thirty seven years ago I occasionally trod the boards with a local amateur dramatic group, Rowntree Players. I appeared in three pantos, Puss in Boots, Babes in the Wood and Humpty Dumpty. The request had come from the chap who played Humpty Dumpty, I have to say he wasn’t very round. By the end of the day I’d managed to find a publicity photo with both Gary and myself. Lovely to hear from him.

We seem to have ended up with a lot of potatoes. We already had an almost new bag under the steps, we now have a very new bag in the cratch and tomorrow we are likely to get even more as we have a veg box delivery. So instead of sweet potato wedges tonight with our chilli we had normal potato wedges. These were a hit, not quite chips, but the next best thing for a while.

This evening we watched the first episode of the new Van Der Valk. We like crime dramas and he does have a really rather lovely boat, so it ticks lots of boxes. Wonder when we’ll be able to go to Amsterdam next?

0 locks, 1.75 miles, 0.33 in reverse, 2 winds, 3 flags to 1, 6 boxes wine, 10 litres litter, 1 disturbance, 4 occupied, 1 slightly confused cat, 7 amended poses, 1 big jump, 37 years, 1 humpty dumpty, 1 button band nearly knitted.

Closing Down. 27th April

Lockdown Mooring 4

Today notices from C&RT have been coming into our inbox regarding the closure of lock flights due to low water levels in reservoirs. Levels have been kept low at reservoirs on the Leeds and Liverpool and the Macclesfield due to essential maintenance works. Now with the lack of rainfall, the levels will remain low, so not enough water at the beginning of the boating season to sustain normal boat movements.

As we’re not meant to be moving anywhere anyway it seems sensible for measures to be taken to conserve as much water as possible. So all the locks between Wigan and Bingley, and either end of the Macc are being padlocked and ashed up tomorrow lunchtime and measures are being taken so that vandalism won’t be possible.

So when the lockdown ends (which I don’t think will be anytime soon) we won’t be able to cross the Pennines by any route, the need to do so no longer exists for us, but it would still have been nice to be up on the Leeds Liverpool again. Another thought had been to spend some time on the Macc, but the poor old Macc hasn’t had any luck in the last few years.

Where we go, and when, will stay on the back burner for now, there are other things we need to do whilst the canal network closes down around us.

This morning I decided I’d be making some bread today whether my starter was ready or not. I’ve been watching it closely and it definitely runs to a timetable. Nothing happens for a couple of hours, then it gradually rises over the next hour and a half. At some point in the next half hour it gives up bubbling and sinks again. It hasn’t been as bubbly as I’d liked, maybe my expectations were greater than its own. Maybe what it has been doing is all it will ever achieve and I’ve just been wasting flour. So this morning I fed it and returned the jar to the proving shelf. A timer was set for three hours time.

I re-read the synopsis for panto and took notes. The writer for Rapunzel is the same chap who wrote Aladdin and there are similarities. Along with a tower with one window and no door, I will need to create a Town Square (obligatory), a pub, a galleon and a medieval jousting match.

My calf muscle has been rested for a few days so I decided to see how it would fare walking up the locks whilst the hours ticked by for my starter.

As I approached bridge 97 I could see there was some sort of kerfuffle going on, flapping of wings etc. I carefully walked up the bank to see what I could see. Two male Pheasants sparring with each other. No females standing on the sidelines, just a head bobbing stand off.

One chap looked pristine whilst the others feathers around it’s neck were bedraggled, he certainly wouldn’t have been my choice in such a state. Heads bobbed up and down and only occasionally did claws make contact. Stunning looking birds.

Once they’d made enough room for me to pass I carried on over the bridge and up the flight. Sandra from NB AreandAre had told us about an egg farm at the top of the flight. We already knew of the lady with her few hens, but on the other side of the Llangollen just a bit further along was a whole farm.

A red van was parked with it’s back doors open, a honesty box and prices on the eggs. Medium and Extra Large hens eggs along with some duck eggs. We currently have quite a few eggs on board so it was just as well I didn’t have any money on me. But we’ll be back when we need some. Apparently he normally has around 30 dozen to sell a day. His ladies looked quite happy out the back too.

My calf had survived the journey, so I’ll be taking more short walks for a while.

The timer was just about to go off when I returned. Time to make necessary flour for a loaf. Oats and sunflower seeds needed grinding up and adding to various other starches and flours. I hoped that Maple syrup instead of coconut palm sugar would work. My starter had reached it’s normal maximum, so I poured off enough for the loaf, mixed everything together then put it into a t-towel lined bowl, wrapped it in plastic bag and left it to rise back on the shelf.

The recipe said two hours maximum, but hardly anything had happened. I decided to leave it the three and a half hours my starter normally takes to rise and this proved to be a good idea.

Whilst it did it’s thing Mick worked his way though tax returns all of which mean he owes the tax man nothing again. I dealt with emails about my sketches and ideas for Dark Horses next production #unit21. So a day pretty much like the old days, three projects in one day.

The timer went off the oven and cast iron pot were hot, time to see what baking my loaf would turn out like. The previous recipe had been using sorghum flour and had been a lot firmer, this was with buckwheat and had been like a thick cake batter. I carefully turned it out of it’s bowl onto grease proof paper and scored the top. It started to relax, so I quickly popped it in the pot and into the oven, fingers crossed.

The end product looked not quite as risen as I’d hoped for, but it still showed much more potential than the last loaf I’d made. We’ll have to wait for the morning to see how it has turned out. The remains of my starter have been put into the fridge with the hope that it will pop back into life for the next loaf.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 flight walked up, 10 flights closed, dozens of eggs, 1 last feed, 1 sketch to redo, 5 amendments, 2 uv or not, 9 scenes, 2 boats again, 1 set breakdown, 3.5 hours, 1 loaf with potential, 1 very large friend!

Thirteen for Twelve. 24th April

Lockdown Mooring 4

‘Nine and a half hours Tilly and we want to see you at least twenty times today please!’

This sort of fell on deaf ears, well she is a cat! What did I expect!! After an initial roll around to leave her scent Tilly disapeared for a few hours, nowhere to be seen. Calling for her mid morning didn’t work, or maybe it did as she returned about half an hour later to say hello and have a drink, followed by a snooze. I think she was still a bit pooped from yesterday.

Work for me again today. I wanted to get the initial sketches completed so that Amy can peruse them over the weekend, then I can do any amendments that she’d like along with things I’d like to do. Improving hands is top of my list! By the end of the day all sixteen drawings had been scanned and emailed to Leeds.

Mid afternoon an email from Will at Chippy Theatre dropped into my inbox with a synopsis for Rapunzel attached. A Zoom meeting will be arranged to meet the Director next week. This year John Terry is having a break from panto, so David Ashley is taking the reigns.

My sour dough improves with each day time feed, but as the stove is no longer alight it isn’t doing quite so well overnight. I gave it a feed at around midday. It takes a couple of hours before anything starts to happen, then it starts to bubble up the sides of the jar, expanding with air. After about three and three quarter hours it seems to reach it’s peak and within another twenty minutes it has sunk again. I’m hoping that it shows an improvement tomorrow so that I can make a loaf of bread again. But I have to be patient.

During the afternoon I’ve been messaging the greengrocer from the market. They do fruit and veg boxes so we’re going to give one a go. No idea what we’ll get, but when we last did a shop with them at the market I spent around £17, so I’ve ordered a £15 veg box. Their website suggested there were no slots left this month, but because they deliver to a house close to the canal near here we have been added in. Very exciting, just hope we’ll be able to eat it all.

This evening the C&RT boaters update arrived keeping us up to date with what the trust are doing. This is a weekly thing anyway, but today it informed us that around a third of the Trusts staff have taken furlough leave, operational staff remain at full strength to look after the network and support boaters needs. They are starting to do aquatic weed management, I wonder if that will happen here?

They are also extending current boat licences for a month from their current expiry date. So our licence which should run out at the end of March will now last us until the end of April next year. Wonder how they are doing this for Gold licence holders?

I so wish I could stretch like that, it looks so good.

Tilly decided to come home for a snooze during the afternoon. Waking with an hour left of shore leave she sat at the back doors gently reminding us she was there. Mick and I looked at each other and decided that it was actually dingding time and the back doors today would remain shut!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 walk round the reservoir, 1 leg rested on board, 2 calls from Val, 16 sketches scanned, 0 car accident that wasn’t my fault, 20 page synopsis, 3.75 hours optimum rise, 1 veg box sneaked in, 13 months for the price of 12.

Remote Control. 23rd April

Lockdown Mooring 4

An alteration to my routine was called for. I tend to get into work in the afternoons and because of that and wanting to listen to what is being said at the daily press conference from London I keep missing out on a walk. So I decided to rearrange my day a touch, heading out for a walk returning for lunch, then I could get on with work.

Today I plotted a route to walk, around three miles with the aim of seeing a house I’ve not noticed from the canal before, Wardle Old Hall which sits at Bridge 101 of the Shropshire Union Canal. Most of the route I’d be covering I’ve done a few times now but that can’t be helped, so I chose to cross over the canal and return across the fields to Stoke Manor.

Recently people have been saying how clear the water has been looking with the lack of boat movements. Sadly that is not the case here. Boats still move for shopping, water etc, but there is far far less movement than there normally would be on the Four Counties Ring. Instead of the canal clearing so we can see the fish and what lies below our hulls the canal is growing murkier and thicker. Last night we’d noticed a layer of scum which was starting to collect trapped by the bridge hole behind us. Today the start of weed was very evident along my route up towards Barbridge.

There was lots of activity on the side of the reservoir. At least eight Fountains employees were cutting the grass and trimming the nettles working their way round the two boats now moored there. I did a double take as one lawnmower was moving around by remote control. I’ve seen the little robot mowers before in peoples gardens, but this was a fully grown up big cutting machine a chap walking alongside directing it with a joy stick. At least he was getting his excersise without having to man handle the big mower along the slopes. I was then surprised to see another chap walking his way round the steeper sections of the bank with a mower, maybe the big one is too heavy to get to the top.

Onwards towards Barbridge I walked, the earlier time of day meaning there were fewer people about. I got just past Stokehall Bridge when a muscle in my left calf went ping! Damn!! This has happened before, several times, normally during the colder months. I took a few steps further, not as bad as it’s been before, but I shouldn’t antagonise it more than I had to. I’d managed a mile and was turning round before I’d reached my goal, a hobble back to Oleanna.

Wild Garlic. I’d like to find a patch of it away from the towpath and make some pesto

Another four sketches were achieved, some closer images which require better faces. Some looked good, others not so. The play works it’s way through all four seasons and I was a little bit unsure as to when we went into Autumn, a quick text to Amy and that was sorted.

My sourdough starter was fed and returned to the proving shelf whilst the excess was mixed with several different flours, milk, cocoa and chocolate.

Baked in the oven for 25 minutes, then left a short while to cool just enough. The result was good, but could have been a touch better. I’d had to substitute the main flour for rice flour which tends to be a touch thirstier, so this may have dried the mixture out a touch too much. Next time, if I’m allowed to use so much chocolate again, I’ll reduce the amount of arrowroot and add a touch more milk to see if that improves things.

Listening to the press conference we both commented on how badly Matt Hancock was delivering his spiel today, he had no idea of what he was saying, he can’t have read it before hand. We listen to what is being said at these conferences and find ourselves commenting at the TV, our comments are getting louder and LOUDER each day!

We’d not seen Tilly for most of the day, she’d returned home for a drink and a short snooze mid afternoon, but now cat curfew time was getting close. A quick call along the towpath didn’t work, so I hobbled down through the gap into the field. More calls. She wasn’t along the left perimeter where she’s popped out from the last few times. I called and called.

Maybe she had gone to climb the trees in the centre of the field?

Was that a Crow over there? On the other side of the field? It was too big for a crow. It moved so it wasn’t an inanimate object.

I got Mick to pass me the camera and zoomed in on the black shape walking away. That black shape had four white paws and holey tights!

TILLY!!!!!!!!

NO acknowledgement what so ever, just a swifter walk away from me. At least we knew where she was. Should we leave her to come home on her own? No, we knew she would now be tiered, tired like a little kid who won’t go to bed giving you all the excuses that you can see straight through. Oh for a remote control cat! We could turn her round and bring her back straight across the field!

Instead Mick put his shoes on, decided that going to the right would be the shortest route around the boundary to get to Tilly. Off he set. Ten or so minutes later I phoned him. Tilly was on the other side of a hedge from him doing the toddler thing and meowing about being busy! No point in trying to pick her up because she’d find enough energy to wriggle herself free and then be far FAR too busy to come home. Words of encouragement were the only way forward.

A while later I hobbled back to the gap to see what progress had been made. They were on the opposite side of the field now, Tilly was leading the way home following her scent, the longer way round the field. I tried shouting, but neither Tilly or Mick could hear me. Back to chopping veg up for a stir fry.

Then half an hour after Mick had set off I could hear his ~~no quite so~~ encouraging words just on the other side of the hedge. Time for me to take over.

As she popped her head out from the sideways trees I could see just how exhausted she was. Luckily she knew the best thing to do was come inside and have some food and a drink. Then she took herself away into the bedroom where she curled up for the night only to be disturbed once by us making the bed up.

I wonder where she’ll get to tomorrow!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 remote control lawnmower, 1 miles there, 1 ping, 1 hobbling mile back, 1tsp maple syrup, 4 sketches, ? more figures just to impress, 12 brownies, 2 shouting boaters, 1 shouting cat lady, 1 cat just visible, 0.75 miles walk for Mick, 1 totally exhausted cat, 0 lap sitting tonight.

A Month Of Sundays. 22nd April

Lockdown Mooring 4

All back to the new normal today. Game of pen, followed by feline shore leave rules, breakfast, towpath murder etc.

At times in the old normal, it was hard to determine what day of the week it was, ‘Today is Thursday?’ is one of the phrases that was used quite often on Oleanna. Somehow we knew we’d reached the mid point of the week, but not quite certain which side of it we were on. Our Saturday newspaper would help a touch, anchoring one day a week for us.

But things in the new normal are not quite the same. Every day feels like a Sunday, we are of course correct one day out of seven. Now that we have had a whole month of the new normal I decided to unwrap the pork joint we’d got and let it rest in the fridge all day to roast this evening. I actually know it’s Wednesday but today it could be Sunday.

Troubles towing after turning the corner

More work for me whilst Tilly went out exploring. She found a friend and brought it back to sit on the towpath next to Oleanna. For once she didn’t bother to consume it as a snack and just left it for passersby to admire. One lady wasn’t too impressed! Maybe it will keep people away from us.

Quite a few more boats moving today, including two that came down the locks. It turned out one was towing the other. Wonder how far they are heading?

Mick had a walk up to the reservoir this afternoon. We’ve been keeping an eye on the damp patch of towpath below the bottom lock at Hurleston. A C&RT chap had said it was due to an artesian well alongside the lock. Most of the time we’ve been here the lock has been left full, but the other day the last boat to go through the flight came down, leaving it empty over night.

The following day we walked up to have a look and compare the towpath. There was still a little trickle seeping out but the whole area was far drier than when the lock had been left full. We’re considering sending the photos in to C&RT as to us it looks like there is a leak.

Mick returned from his walk with a box of eggs. At the top of the reservoir there is a house that keeps chickens and the lady charges £1 for half a dozen. We’d seen other people walking with egg boxes and now we know where they’d come from.

My sourdough starter had a feed this morning. I’m using the 1:1:1 method to try to get it back rising and frothy. 1 part starter, 1 part water, 1 part brown rice flour. It has turned the corner and grows for the first three hours then deflates. It just isn’t growing enough yet to bake with. So I decided to give it a third fee today to see if that would help. I’ve retained the excess to make some brownies with tomorrow. Thank you for the link to the scrapings method Jerry. I need to get my starter fully frothed then I’ll give it a go.

As the joint cooked I was going to watch Orlando a broadcast via the ICA. The information about it suggested that it could be useful for a project that might happen next year as the film incorporated projection and live costume changes. But sadly even though our internet seemed to be fine the picture froze. After a few minutes I decided that it wasn’t an artistic element of the film and gave up.

0 locks, 0 miles, 6 eggs, 3 chutney recipes passed on, 3 feeds, 1 mouse for all to see, 9 hours shore leave, 2 new neighbours, 5 sketches, 1.5kg pork joint, gas mark 7 for 50 minutes, 10 more scored lines, 1 vast amount of crackling, 1 month, 31 Sundays, how many more to come?

PS. Who’s daughter lives in the house that we walked past with Tilly? You didn’t leave your name.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna

Category Archives: The Garden

His and Hers Loaves. 6th May

Oh Yes They Are! 5th May

Yummo! 3rd May

PPE Bird. 2nd May

Rustling In The Hedges. 1st May

Delivery!!! 29th April

Closing Down. 27th April

Thirteen for Twelve. 24th April

Remote Control. 23rd April

A Month Of Sundays. 22nd April