The tunnel light shone on the roof of the tunnel. The nav lights glowed by the top front corners of the cabin. I sat still hoping my weight would assist at the bow. Once Oleanna had been lined up fully with the tunnel, Mick gave the engine just a little spurt of power.
It’s only 75 yards long!
The portside was getting quite close to the curving roof, should I just push it clear a touch? It’s never a good idea to fend off at the bow, Oleanna’s made of steel, she can withstand contact with brick, skin is less effective. I checked with Mick at the stern, no idea what he may or may not be able to see.
Mick’s back there somewhere
A blast of bow thruster, then the other way just a touch. A jot more from the engine. Oleanna glided onwards. A little scraping noise from the port side, was that the grabrail or the gunnel?
A green arrow on the wall indicated the nearest exit was behind us, ‘That way out’. Another 60ft and the arrow pointed the opposite way, ‘This way out’. Oleanna was still moving, if we got stuck now would anybody know?! A hire boat had pulled up at the end of the moorings on the west side of the tunnel, maybe they’d know if we’d made it or not.
Slowly and steadily Mick nudged Oleanna onwards, a burst of power to starboard, forward a touch, port, forward.
After 8 minutes the bow of Oleanna was back out in the day light. We’d been warned that the canal takes a sharp turn to the left on exiting so it would be good to start moving the bow over as soon as you could, using the bow thruster.
Mick was still kneeling at the stern, torch pointing forward. Then gradually the stern appeared into the light, so did Mick’s head. The bow being pushed across to miss the bank. As he stood up we’d made it through!
The sign suggests a passage time through the tunnel of 2 minutes at 2mph, well it had taken us 10 minutes! But we’d done it. No-one there but ourselves to witness it!
Oleanna’s smile slightly relieved.
We pootled to above Froghall Lock 1, this is the first lock down onto the Uttoxeter Canal, the first of 17 locks and 13 miles. Today you can only go down one lock where there is a basin you can moor in. Time for me to turn the windlass, Mick could do it on the way back, but I had to work this lock.
Lock 1 of the Uttoxeter Canal
The bottom gates leaked like a waterfall, no wonder as they get little use. Oleanna dropped down into the basin. Would there be room for her? On past visits I think there has always been at least one boat moored, one occasion three, but today we had it all to ourselves. Mick backed us in, tied us off, a silver propellor location reached. Not that we’ve taken the evidential photos elsewhere, but we think we’ve now been to at least 18.
In Froghall Basin
A little walk round confirmed that despite it being a lovely mooring it wouldn’t be safe for Tilly, a road passing quite close by. We broke the news to her gently. GENTLY!!!!!! I’m a silver propellor cat and you just don’t give a monkey about my welfare!!
We walked over to Hetty’s Tea Room to see if there was a menu we could peruse maybe for breakfast, none on display. Across in the car park were the three cyclists we’d seen at Wood Lock earlier, they’d been heading to Leek. We stopped for quite a chat with them. They’d enjoyed their bike ride and met various interesting people and had been all the way to Leek and back in the time we’d not even done half the distance. We think they had all spent time on life boats, one of them said he used to work on the Chiswick life boat, another did training on the Humber.
No neighbours!
We returned to Oleanna and grumpy Tilly. A big chilli was cooked up, enough for three meals, and a glass or two of wine to celebrate getting Oleanna through Froghall.
So todays journey at the top of this post should read
Cheddleton Visitor Moorings to Froghall Basin
A slight scratch
6 locks, 5.6 miles, 1 lift bridge, 1 river section, 1 burst hosepipe, 1 chimney removed, 2 horns relaxed, 1 boats pensive smile, 1 pram and cratch cover removed, 1 tiller pin removed, 1 gauge, 10 minutes in the dark, 1 little scuff on the grabrail, 2 happy boaters, 1 grumpy cat! 0 TV but good internet signal!
Up early and walking to the station, walking pole in hand for support. It was my turn for the dentist today and we’d decided instead of going into Bumingham we’d skirt round the city.
Who knew spark plugs were pink? I didn’t
I managed the 0.6 miles walk to the station reasonably well, it took longer than normal, but I was happy. Train then tram to Brindley Place. I had quite a bit of time on my hands, so instead of heading straight to the surgery I opted to see how busy the canals were.
Olympic watching in Brindley Place
A large screen was in Brindley Place showing the Olympics to rows of empty billowing deckchairs. Four five boats opposite Lego, others may have moved off this morning. Through Sheepcote Bridge looked a touch busier, but round Oozells street loop was empty.
Busy Bees
Ten volunteers were busy weeding and digging around the wooden bee sculpture, a hive of activity!
Then up to the dentists to sit and wait for my check up. I had a couple of things for Colin, they were checked over made note of, but no action required. Then he told me that he was moving to the West Country, family things, this would be my last appointment with him. Oh blimey, I’ve just got my trust back with dentists after a very long period of avoiding them at all costs, now I’m going to have to build up a relationship with someone else. I wish him well, family life seems to take over when you reach a certain age.
That octagonal building’s coming along
My hygiene appointment had been booked for Saturday, the nearest the could give me ten days ago, but a cancellation was available tomorrow morning. I checked I’d not be spending huge amounts on train fares and accepted it, this would give us two more days cruising rather than sitting around Rugby.
Bit hard when your dentist is leaving
Back to New Street. I’d actually managed to get in and out of the station this time without getting lost, quite important as I didn’t want to use too many steps. Ozzy still towers over the station, looked like a touch of theatrical oil might help with his mechanical knee.
Will I end up with one of these?
The train back was followed by trying to sus out the buses. But there was only one within half an hour that would leave me with a big walk back to the canal anyway, so I opted to take it steady and walked.
Whilst I was in Bumingham Mick had been busy. Our house insurance runs out soon. Having lodgers the last few years has slightly complicated our policy and each year there have been different things we have had to abide by. For the first few years one night out of sixty one of us had to sleep in the house. Then we were made aware last year that we couldn’t have three lodgers at a time. This only comes up occasionally, but would be handy if we could accommodate a third person as there are three bedrooms. Mick tried last year to resolve this and ended up getting a quote from a broker, an extra £600! We opted to stay with just two. Today he found the right person to talk to at LV, the policy is £200 more, but it includes plumbing and drain insurance which we have elsewhere for £200!
More painkillers and another drug to counter act the side effects
He’d also been to Tescos to collect the click and collect order and a prescription of more pain killers for me. Just need a prescription for him and then we’ll be all drugged up and ready to go.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2nd visit to Tescos, 2 trains, 2 trams, 7000+ steps, 1 pole for support, £6, 10 volunteers, £600 insurance, 3 lodger possibility, 84 more pills, 1 tiresome towpath.
The boats on the pontoons reduced to two this morning, but by the end of the day we’d be joined by another two narrowboats and a little electric sailingy type boat. This had tarpaulins added to a frame over it so that the crew could sleep inside with some privacy.
The Geraghty zoom was a little depleted this morning, but we still covered subjects such as Strawberry eating squirrels, oppositional disorder and skeletons. Then it was time for breakfast, we’d nearly got everything but lacked a little on the bacon front. Being moored right outside an M&S foodhall is quite handy on such occasions, it’s just a touch expensive!
It all needed eating up, honest!
Mick was early, the shop not opening it’s doors until 11am and there was quite a queue. Yellow labels were around the shop, it would be worth me having a look before too long to see what bargains there might be. Whilst Mick cooked breakfast I scoured the shelves to see what we might have to eat this evening as we’d be at home tonight. With a lot of things less than half price I got us a feast.
Today Mick planned on heading off to explore Ealing stations that have been revamped with the dawning of the Elizabeth line. This being where he grew up along with being interested in trains it was an obvious way to spend his day. He caught the train out to West Ealing where the station has changed to a different road and platforms have moved through bridges. Then several buses took him to Ealing Broadway via Greenford. Ealing Broadway a very different sight to that I remember.
Ealing Broadway
Just before Mick left for his exploration a Police van had pulled up close to our mooring. Three Police Officers busied themselves putting a rib into the canal, no rush about it, it kind of felt like they were going for a Sunday jaunt up the Regents Canal. It took them time to get the engine mounted and even longer to get it going. Off they went and strangely enough they returned just as Mick did! Was this a coincidence? Or had he been on their jaunt too? Are the above photos his? Or was he on a mission with the police or helping with their enquiries whilst out on the boat?
I had planned a great day, for me. A bus ride down to the Thames and then some time at the John Singer Sargent exhibition at Tate Britain. Christine and Kathy had said how good it was, plus he’s one of my favourite artists. Then another bus journey was to take me to the National Gallery where the Last Caravaggio is on display, Caravaggio also another favourite.
My route was planned to make the best use of buses and therefore least amount of walking, however I’d be needing to walk around the exhibitions and my little walk into M&S today had proved to be quite painful with my knee. So sadly my very arty day was not to be, resting my knee more important.
Ends ends and more ends, what a Joy!
Instead I sat down and watched the second half of The Duke (2020), about the theft or borrowing of the Goya Duke painting staring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren based on a true story. This was as close as I’d be getting to the National Gallery today. Whilst I watched the court and the verdict I spent time weaving ends in on three pairs of socks for my sockathon. On one pair I’d started this process a week or so ago as there were a lot of ends! A LOT!! But the next four pairs are ready to have their photos taken and be popped in the post to their sponsors. So by the end of the 26th week of #pipssockathon2024 I have finished 26 pairs of socks. I also got a message from a friend who now sings songs with people suffering with Alzheimer’s, her socks had arrived and will be worn the next time she’s out singing, flashing her ankles at everyone. Thank you Cate!
The latest pile of socks
Well our sad git’s meal from M&S turned out to be quite a feast, posh chicken kebabs with caesar dressing, frites and some vegetables on the side. Not all of the frites were consumed, but we gave it a good try!
Frites with chicken on the side
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 Lizzie lines, 3 buses, 0 art galleries, 4 pairs totally finished, 1 very bored cat, 2 sad git kebabs, 4 portions of frites, 1 Mick and 3 police officers?
A couple of people had told us how we must visit Brookwood Cemetery whilst we were in the area, with a couple of days to wait for our lock passage we decided to head there today. A walk over the canal to catch the no3 bus to Ash Vale Station and then the train to Brookwood. The train journey was much longer than I thought it would be, but then the bus had taken us further away before we’d started.
The gate
The station has an entrance into the cemetery, but just where was it. Station staff asked if they could help and we were told to go down the stairs to the barriers and ask a member of staff there, they would let us out. We did this and the chap pointed towards a gate through a subway, when we got there he’d buzz us through.
Brookwood Cemetery was conceived by the London Necropolis Company in 1849 to house London’s deceased when the capital was finding it hard to accommodate both living and the dead. In 1854 it was said to be the largest cemetery in the world, it is now the largest in Western Europe. It was consecrated on 7th November 1854 and opened to the public six days later when the first burials took place.
The military cemetery
Next to Waterloo Station in London a dedicated station was built giving access to the cemetery. Trains with passenger carriages reserved for the different classes and Hearse carriages arrived at the cemetery on it’s dedicated branch line. The original London Necropolis Station was relocated in 1902, but this was demolished after being bombed in WW2.
There were two stations in the cemetery, one serving the none-conformist side (North) and the other the Anglican side (south). Apparently the southern platform still exists in the ownership of the St Edward Brotherhood. Wakes would be catered for at the stations.
I really hope his tomb contains him and not Hops and Malt
The first grave we came across was immediately of interest. Gates and a wall surrounded the memorial of Ramadan Guney (1932-2006). Originally from Cyprus, he emigrated to Britain in 1958 where he set up a music business. In 1983 he purchased the burial rights for over 19 acres of Brookwood Cemetery, he subsequently acquired Brookwood Cemetery in 1985 from it’s owner Mr DJT Dally. His aim was to restore the cemetery back to it’s original park like setting. More can be read about him here. An interesting sack covers part of his memorial.
Facing Mecca
We walked around the north west boundary, colourful and interesting graves none very old. Many sat skew wiff in their allocated plots, presumably facing Mecca.
Through a gate in a high fence, cordoning off the military graves, fencing keeping the dead in. Here Commonwealth graves all chalky white line up, immaculate grass between them. Next the graves of the Americans, crosses standing still, bright green grass, stars and stripes fluttering from a high flag pole, eagle above the door to the chapel where those who’s bodies were never found are remembered. All had died either in the UK or the surrounding waters. 69% of American bodies were repatriated at the request of their families.
More lines of graves, 1st and 2nd World Wars. Some dates from after the wars, presumably died from injuries. The wonderful cottage garden plants around the graves wonderfully kept. We walked up to take a look at the lines of Chelsea Pensioners, the majority passing away in the 1960’s.
No upvc windows here
Lunchtime, but where could we get some food? None of the residents would require refreshments. We should have thought about this! We walked down The Gardens, a line of semi detached houses built in 1897. Were these built for gardeners in the cemetery? If there hadn’t been several vans parked outside and workmen in modern clothing I’d have thought we’d been whizzed back in time.
Lunch!
Behind The Cricketers we found the Yurt Café where we enjoyed a slice of Lemon Drizzle cake and a lovely cuppa, far cheaper than a posh pub lunch! Now it was time to find our way back into the cemetery, after all we’d not even started to look round! No pavement along the road that splits the cemetery into it’s two halves, I was relived to arrive at the entrance.
Now with a vague plan on who we wanted to see and a route to maybe follow we walked on down Avenues. A real mixture of graves.
Why was Private CE Wilburn (from Gosport) in a corner with no-one near, his commonwealth grave stone much akin to those we’d seen this morning.
Elephant trunks of trees
Large boughs of trees surrounded the grave of the Peyers family, Adrian Christopher had been a tenor opera singer, appearing in several productions with Opera Scotland and at the Royal Opera House.
Penny Privett who’d died in 2022 sat amongst some Victorian graves, the lay out far more haphazard than in the northern cemetery. Huge large trees give the dead shade on a sunny day, a deer appreciated it too.
It took a while for it to spot us
Mausoleums were dotted around. The family Wood perfectly positioned for a film shot. The metal door partially open behind a gate, a slab of stone missing from the roof, no coffins to be seen inside, all so atmospheric.
A Hammer House setting maybe
Nearby John Singer Sargent (1856 -1925) rests, best remembered for his Victorian and Edwardian society portraits. His grave is Grade II listed even if it is far less elaborate than many others in the inner ring, the most expensive place to be laid to rest in the cemetery.
John Singer Sergant
Heading towards St Edwards where monks will show you round, sadly the church doors were locked and we didn’t have enough time for a tour so we didn’t knock on their door.
Some of the graves are now surrounded by trees, framing them so wonderfully. Were they planted with this in mind in decades to come? One family upstages itself, a simple knot on one gravestone, 6ft in front a huge angle spreads their wings.
This is the side I’d rather be laid to rest. The thought of having so many dead mates around you for company, the long grass and shade from the tall tall trees. Such a mixture of ages and eras. You could come to visit everyday of the year and see something different.
We crossed over the busy road again to the north cemetery. Different nationalities remembering their loved ones in different ways. One lady had so many fake and real flowers around her grave it was hard to see who she was. A sultan in his own plot had become overgrown with thistles, we’d not seen thistles anywhere else!
We headed back to the gate into the station. Pressed the bell to be let back in.
I do like an atmospheric graveyard, but what a place! We’d only really scratched the surface.
Large and small headstones
We came away wondering who was the first to be buried there. On 13th November 1854 the following burials were recorded. Mrs Hore’s two still born male twins from 74 Ewer Street, Borough. Elizabeth Costello aged 3 months from St Saviours Workhouse. Henry Smith aged 31 from St Saviours Workhouse. Charlotte Edwards aged 74 from Chelsea. An interesting article can be found here. I wonder how many people lie there now.
Some shore leave when we got back
Thank you Heather and Mick for suggesting we visited and John for telling us about the railway.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 2 trains, 1 gate, 5 miles walked, 1 dodgy knee, 56745645634789 graves maybe! 2 slices of cake, 2 pots of tea, 1 hour of accompanied shore leave, that’s a touch better!
Barley Mow Bridge Moorings to Eelmoor Bridge Moorings
Mick got our two hoses out this morning to see if they’d reach from the water point. They did. A topping up of the tank required for day to day use, but also needed to weight the bow down for the low bridges.
Everyone was on the zoom today, Sean back from keeping the sound working at the tennis in Paris. Subjects included ground up bricks, half sharing detectorists, Trump versus King John and Now We Are Six.
Gabions pinned into the bank
Time to carry on back towards the locks. We passed Tundry Pond, only just visible through the trees, more of a lake than a pond. Along the bank here gabions were used to shore up the cutting side, creating a terraced bank in 1983.
A rather fine house
NB Olive sat at the end of the Double Bridge mooring, it nearly got a stamp of approval from Tilly the other day and might be the most cat friendly mooring on the canal. A short distance onwards is a wonderful house. A lady sat in the conservatory. Try as I might I cannot find out who the architect was or it’s history, I just know it is a very fine house. There is however a photo of it on the website for RW Armstrong. Their website is worth a nosy at, some huge expensive houses that they have worked on.
North bound, hopefully
As we rounded the most southerly bend on the canal we turned towards the north east, now heading north for the remainder of the year, dependant on what happens with the problem at the locks tomorrow!
A buzz, a big buzz. Following and buzzing around us was what looked to be a 2 inch long orange bee. You know how sometimes a big Bumble Bee takes you by surprise, well this was twice as big! Maybe a Queen Common Carder Bee, but they don’t seem to be big enough.
Padlocked shut
The swing bridge padlock opened easier than on the way up, I suspect I was the last person to use it. A walker assisted as I pushed it back to open up the footpath by locating the big hinge over the padlock loop.
The Fox and Hounds was doing a roaring trade today, all outside tables full, one small cruiser on their moorings, later this sped past us when we were moored up, heavily laden with passengers.
Fishing!
Today the fishing season has started again, quite a few rods across the canal some at moorings. Thankfully as we came in towards Reading Road Bridge the mooring was clear, just a family feeding the swans.
With a shopping list of sorts we headed into Fleet to stock up on a few food items and to visit Screwfix, we know how to spend a Sunday afternoon. Mick was in need of some more gloves for engine servicing and I’d noticed that they sold castors with bolted on wheels that we might be able to use on our pull out cupboard.
Fleet Road, the main shopping street was a bit of a surprise. Lots of restaurants, Turkish barbers, Waitrose, M&S Food and Sainsburys. There was also a Millets. I’ve been trying to find a present for my brothers birthday, here was the perfect thing, just as on his wish list. With National Trust membership we also got 15% off.
Castors and a new fishing rod
Next door was a pet shop. I pop into them frequently to try to find a wood handled fishing rod toy for Tilly, the present one mended many times and currently held together with gaffer tape. Not one but four to choose from!
Sainsburys was used for a top up shop, then we crossed the road to Fleet Essentials. This we thought would be your typical stuff shop with plastic boxes and plant pots out the front. Inside it was a tardis of just about everything, no bananas, but everything else. Tools, circular saw blades, wool, a plastic box for our new hose, WD40 in three sizes, lamp shades, picture frames. Well worth a visit should you come to Fleet.
A walk round Waitrose to see if there was anything worth having with a reduced yellow sticker on it. Nothing jumped out as a good buy.
A different route back to the boat took us past an area cordoned off by Police. The 70’s building on the corner had sections of brick façade at first floor level. One of these sections had fallen off, a huge pile of rubble on the pavement below. Really hope no one had been underneath!!
Would her smile get under?
Back at Oleanna, I stowed our purchases as Mick flattened everything on the roof. Ahead of us Reading Road Bridge, 6ft low. We approached slowly, would Oleanna’s smile fit under the bridge? It looked tight, but we managed it. But would we fit under Pondtail Bridges? 2 inches lower?
Heavy thoughts time
I headed to the bow to help lower it that bit. Maybe 2 inches spare. From the stern Mick thought the previous bridge had been lower.
Today our chosen mooring was at Eelsmoor Bridge. Right at the end of Farnborough Runway. We pulled in to the furthest end of the moorings. I did a cat recky check. A path headed through the trees and friendly cover towards the runway. Here sat in amongst traffic cones were cars, plane spotters. I could see the buildings of the airport in the distance, my brother Andrew having had quite a lot to do with the buildings here in his previous architectural life. The mooring passed, but we knew Tilly wouldn’t be keen on the planes taking off.
At least they’re not big jets!
Mick checked flight radar, the last flight due out at 8pm. Over the three hours prior to 8pm we must have had around 10 jets take off, one for Palma, Nice and Paris, others unknown destinations. Tilly had given up on the mooring long before the third plane took off.
We sat down to enjoy roast pork as the skies turned silent. As this happened other noises cranked up. Cars with their music thumping away came and went across the bridge behind us. Then motorbikes would arrive, crank up the revs and zoom off down a service road as fast as possible, returning at great speed, crossing the bridge and zooming off up the road. So not the quietest of nights. We won’t choose to moor here again.
0 locks, 7.2 miles, 1 swing bridge,1 giant bee, 2 limbos, 4 castors, 1 stick, 1 fishing rod , 1st day fishing season, 10 jets, 6 motorbikes, 1 expanding and contracting car, 1 minus a Mrs Tilly stamp of approval mooring.
There were a couple of things we’d missed yesterday on our shop, so Mick valiantly headed all the way back to Lidl! Some double cream and dark chocolate baking necessities for next weekend! I sat and updated the blog before we moved up closer to Leamington Spa to do a couple of things in town.
Clare and Graeme were only a few bridges up ahead, they fancied listening to a pianist in a church this morning whilst we were busy, then the plan was to team up again to work our way up the locks ahead. Well that was the plan!
I stood up from the dinette table, all of a sudden it felt like we’d got ten bags of coal on the roof and Oleanna was very top heavy. I fairly quickly realised that it wasn’t Oleanna swaying, it was me. I steadied myself and carried on with the setting off jobs, slowly. Stepping onto the bow to untie the bow line I still felt wobbly. Was this vertigo? It felt a bit different. As we weren’t moving far I stayed up front and sat down, ready to moor up, less to do, hopefully less wobbly head.
He he!
There were loads of boats through Bridge 41, the most we’ve ever seen. We pulled in behind the long line, NB Lottie Jane a couple of boats ahead. Mick stood waiting at the stern for me to tie my rope, I needed his assistance, the thought of stepping onto the bow again not appealing. Time to sit down.
I had planned to check on possible presents here in Leamington Spa and visit a new mural which from photos looks amazing. But that simply wasn’t going to happen. Was this vertigo or something to do with the tooth I’d had taken out last week? My gum is still quite sore. Mick bobbed into town to do the things he needed to do and I called my dentist for advice. The receptionist booked me back in for an appointment this afternoon.
Bloom
The news was passed to Clare and Graeme, Clare bringing me a get well soon purple iris. They would stay today too.
Arrangements to get our new Bully Boy Battery delivered to us was simpler than we’d thought. A boat yard we will be passing was very happy to receive a large heavy package for us and keep it safe until we arrive. We just have to get there now.
Mick and I caught the train back into Birmingham, so much for me saying goodbye to the city yesterday! A walk to catch a tram across town and then a sit down in the waiting room at the dentist.
Tram
Colin checked around my mouth. No normal signs of an infection, but the clot itself didn’t look normal. I was given two options and I opted for pills, he agreed. Three days of antibiotics, started straight away before I left the surgery. If I had any concerns I was to ring. No alcohol for me for the next week.
One good thing about the day was being able to admire the gardens at Leamington Spa Station. A few years ago we’d been on a tour around the deco station. The architecture, chrome and lovely doors are just one side to the station, the flower beds and hedges another. The topiary steam engine is still there plus these wonderful flowering shrubs, with such delicate flowers. Does anyone know what they are please? Sorry for the bad photos.
Back at Oleanna, Tilly gave me a head nudge then complained about being cooped up for two days in a row! Mick cooked dinner and I cast on sock pair 20. Hopefully my head will start to improve in the morning.
0 locks, 0.4 miles, 200grams dark chocolate, 200ml double cream, 1 bag carrots, 1 new broom, 1 wobbly head, 2 trains, 2 trams, 9 pills, 1 green engine, pair 20 cast on, 1 mural left for next time.
Hang on! I thought they said they’d tied up that BUMingham outside!?! Too few bricks to be BUMingham. Maybe She can’t navigate so well anymore.
This doesn’t look right!?!
Our neighbours were due to depart around 9, so we needed to be up and dressed. Tilly was given the rules and the back door opened up for her to explore. There may be trees here and quite a lot of friendly cover, but the towpaths of Birmingham are busy with runners, cyclists and woofers. NO chance of a stamp of approval here!
We had a cuppa onboard Oleanna and pointed out moorings to Clare and Graeme in their Pearsons guide. They are headed towards Crick and had been concerned about how long it would take to get there. A look on Canal plan last night suggested they’d need to do under 2 hours of cruising a day to arrive in time for the show. They could take it easy and hopefully we’ll be able to catch them up too.
See you soon!
As NB Lottie Jane moved away Tilly was encouraged back on board, we untied and pulled Oleanna up onto the last rings on the moorings. A space large enough for a boat infront of us, so no git gap. The doors were opened again, Well this outside isn’t as good as the last one! A slow morning, catching up on blog writing, this was at first slightly problematical as Oleanna’s router seemed to have died last night, Mick occasionally resets the router and last night it didn’t power up again. Time to teather to a phone.
Taking it to bits, but would it go back together again?
The theory was that the switch was maybe faulty, so he took it to bits to see if a piece of wire could be used to get it working again, but it was deemed too complicated to try, turning circuit boards over, disconnecting everything and then it still may not have worked. Time for a new router, the last one had served us for seven years after all.
Not just a simple case of buying one off the shelf, it needed to work on 12 volts, which doesn’t tend to be noted on the Argos website or the outside of the box. Would they allow him to open the box to see? We both went for a walk into the city, I had some secret mission to do myself, it being May!
I left Mick to it and headed off towards the Bull Ring. Here there were so many people! Just what were people queueing for? Wing Stop had a controlled queue that zigzagged round, the store full. Chicken wings must be a favourite round here.
Look at those!!!
Another queue was outside a new cafe EL & N, it has only been open for three weeks. Billed as the most Instagrammable cafe in the world it is very pink! Flowers cover the walls. I peeked in through the window at the wonderful looking cakes. No I didn’t go in, no lables for anything glutenfree. A later look on their website and despite a huge menu with the usual thing about allergens, there were only two items on the whole menu marked as gluten free, plus they automatically add a 12.5% service charge to your bill! But should you want a cubed croissant and can cope with gluten this looks like the place to go, certainly many thought it was worth queueing for.
Cambrian Wharf used to be filled with boats
I picked a few items and several birthday cards, May is very busy for birthdays, then dropped into Tescos for a few bits before heading back to Oleanna. My route took me around Cambrian Wharf. The mooring durations have changed in Birmingham this year. The pontoons used to be half longterm moorings and half visitors. Today only three boats were moored up, it’s now all longterm mooring, although the space alongside the top Farmers Bridge Lock is 4 days. Most of the central moorings are now 4 days during the main season (April to October) and 14 during the winter months. Where we are moored is 14 days all year. Double check the signage, a quick glance may have you thinking you could stay for 14 days as 4 day moorings are not often seen on the network. The new mooring times will be reviewed again next January.
New!
Mick had been shown a router at Argos, but not been allowed to open the box to check if it was suitable for our needs. So there was nothing for it but to get on a bus to a Currys. Here the shop assistant took the wrapper off and opened up the box. Marvellous it ran on 12volts, SOLD! However when back onboard Oleanna it required a a different power plug which fortunatly Mick was able to sort. £85 and slightly quicker and still able to use the same external aerial. He had considered a 5G router, but they are still a touch too expensive.
This evening yarn has been selected for sock pair 19. I’m hoping to create something Joyous and musical with this pair, maybe adding a little bit of embroidery ontop.
0 locks, 40ft pulled up, 1 puzzled cat, 1 farrrr too busy outside, 1 rendez vous planned, 1 dead router, 1 supermarket order altered for collection, 2 buses, 1 alive router, 4 birthday cards, 1 bag of secret things, 0 treats to eat, 3 leeks, 1 pot humous, 2 rows or 3? 2.
A touch of a lie in then Tilly sampled the towpath. Hedbum Bridge! Far too many woofers and the wave of walkers along the towpath after a train arrives isn’t conducive to feline fun. Plus there is very VERY little friendly cover! The flower beds are very well kept in the park!
I’ve actually braved it twice!
We had a slow morning. I spent quite a bit of time trying to sort out lodgers in the house in the coming months. We get quite a few returning actors who want to stay with us which is fantastic. The only problem comes when someone who would stay for 9 weeks is taking their time thinking about it and someone else wants to book just 3 weeks which would overlap with them. We obviously would prefer someone for 9 weeks, but at the same time if they don’t want to stay we’d rather not have the house empty.
Next on the agenda was to hunt out the bakery we’d visited five years ago, it was coming up to Easter then. Saker Bakery on Market Street also has a shop in Todmorden and is most definitely worth a visit. The shop was full, we joined the queue. The menu board outside advertised the loaves available today, Black Russian, Sour Dough, plenty more and at the bottom were Spiced Buns.
The aroma filled the street, trays of freshly baked buns. ‘Two Hot Cross Buns Please’ everybody’s first line. Some added a loaf. One Japanese lady only want the one bun, but as she wanted to pay by card she had to up it to two. I suspect Spiced Buns are not just for Easter, as from this bakery they normally come with a CND logo on them rather than a cross, but today the chap didn’t have time for this so had resorted to mostly crosses , he did have 400 to do! Mick opted for two buns and a loaf of wholegrain with molasses.
Flour
Next it was to Valley Organics. Here was full too, I knew exactly what I was after, Chestnut flour and some Tapioca Starch. Tapioca is used in a lot of gluten free baking as it adds a chewy texture to things. Chestnut flour makes wonderful gf pastry and this is the only place I’ve seen it for sale (suspect on our next visit to the Gloucester Sharpness canal I’ll find it too).
Hebden Bridge
We then had a wander about, the market was full of interesting things nobody really needs. There was a new (to us) cheese shop, we’ll come back to have a closer look and another bakery that had some fantastic looking vanilla slices, sadly they stayed in the window, but Mick did buy himself a pork pie.
Vanilla yummyness
Back at Oleanna Tilly tried and tried to go outside. We managed to put dog walkers off using our ash bin for their pooh bags. Tillys and our toilet were refreshed and we smartened ourselves up for an evening out.
Portsmouth!?!
The 592 bus heads between Burnley and Halifax, we caught it and headed towards Todmorden following the canal and river all the way. The hire boaters that had arrived in Hebden this morning were working their way up the locks, wonder how far they got before dark? It was also interesting that most of the river is corralled in by walls. At Tod the bus veered away from the canal and river heading up another steep sided valley towards Burnley. The sun shone on the hill tops as the road wound itself up the hill.
We hopped off at The Staff of Life pub where we had a rendez vous. Two friends from Croydon College, a couple of years above mine, Alan and Doug. I try to meet up with Alan when we are near and Doug helped us down the Rochdale 9 into Manchester five years ago.
Alan, Doug, Amanda, Pip and Mick’s hand
We had a very nice meal in the pub. The others had walked over the tops to get there so deserved their pudding more than we did. We then walked down the hill a short distance to Eagles Cragg Brewery. Here they open their doors on the last Friday and Saturday of the month for themselves and anyone else who like to join them sampling their ale. Mick had already sampled some at the pub and had a second pint, sadly they haven’t managed to filter a beer yet for them to have a GF beer, but the chap said that maybe next month they’d have one.
There was a DJ playing half of my Dad’s record collection, so the music was good, just a shame it was really quite loud which made it hard for us to carry on our conversation without shouting. After a pint Mick and I headed for the bus stop, just outside and made our way back to Hebden Bridge. If you find yourself in the area at the end of a month it’s well worth a visit.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 2 hot cross buns, 1 special loaf, 1 chicken supreme, 1 gammon steak, 2 college friends, 1 girlfriend, 1 Mick’s hand, 2 bags flour, 100,000 all-time views of the blog!
Has it really only been two weeks since I got back from Panto land? It feels like a lot longer, but then it also only feels like yesterday!
Now where did we get up to last year?
There has been the obligatory Morse watching whilst being pinned to the sofa by Tilly. Four episodes including, in my opinion, the best one, Masonic Mysteries where Morse is framed for the murder of a friend and no matter which way Morse turns there is another surprise for him.
Tilly has kept a close eye on my yarn tension
More socks have been knitted for Dementia UK. Not sure exactly how many pairs I’ve knitted this year but it’s somewhere over 30 and my fundraising page has just topped £1130! Thank you everyone who has donated and I hope those of you who have a pair of socks have cosy toes. At some point I’ll update the page I set up for my Sockathon, there’s quite a few pictures to upload.
Cards of the Christmas and other varieties printed, scored and folded
Boating photos from this year have been whittled down, a short list of about six presented for final vetting to Mick and Tilly for our Christmas card. Would the old printer upstairs upstairs be up to the job though? With a full set of new cartridges and a morning spent assisting the paper into the printer every couple of sheets the card factory got to work.
The first veg box since my return contained a lovely looking bright orange squash. What to do with it? I hunted round for a couple of recipes and decided to try two out, both requiring roasted squash. So the whole squash was roasted in one go and then divid up for the two dishes, Mushroom and Squash Lasagna and Squash Winter Herb and Crispy Butter Bean Pie. The latter involved three bulbs of garlic which were cooked before being added into the mix. Both will be made again, the pie for a special occasion as it takes a while to cook, but was very tasty. I’ll add links to the recipe pages.
The South Bay
One evening I was invited to a reading of a play that a local lady is hoping to produce. Earlier in the year I’d been approached to see if I could give some advice on it’s staging, but without a script this was impossible. It was nice to meet some new Scarborough faces, but the best bit was walking down to the top of St Nicholas Gardens and looking across the bay to the harbour where numerous boats had their Christmas lights up.
When we moved back to the house from Oleanna we brought all the dinette cushions with us. The covers desperately needing a wash or maybe even replacing. The seat cushions that we sit on the most have also lost most of their cushionness, so I measured them up and placed an order for replacements. The dinette makes into a bed, so any cushions apart from the one that isn’t normally out have been replaced with new firmer more suitable foam. We also had an odd cushion which we have never really understood why it existed, why hadn’t it been added onto one of the back cushions? This and the wedge shaped cushion that goes into the corner have now been made into one piece. Having just written this I don’t understand why it is wedge shaped and not just rectangular, I’ll have to look at it when the cushions go back on the boat, then remember for next time. At the moment I have a few samples of fabric but the final discission hasn’t been made. This will be a project for the new year.
Look who popped up as a screensaver. On the Marsworth flight back in our yellow days.
Why have the cushions gone in the wardrobe? Well a certain Second Mate/Thug has been enjoying clawing the old cushions, thankfully the one which has been affected the most is being replaced! I can’t help it if I have to find myself things to keep me occupied when the outside doesn’t move every day!!!
Mick has just about sorted out his planned upgrade to Oleanna’s batteries. Doubling Oleanna’s amp hours, but will there be enough room for him to be able to move them indoors? A visit in the next couple of weeks is on the cards to check on her and have a measure up.
It’s handy having quite a stash of yarn in the house
During November I’d joined a knitting challenge for Dementia UK, soon I was running out of things to knit! Mick just so happened to ask where his winter hat was. Ah that might just still be on the boat! Emergency hat knitting, this ended up being two hats one inside the other for extra warmth.
It just fitted in the bike bag
Then preparations for Christmas were started, the London Leckenbys were heading up to join us for a pre-christmas meal. Normally we don’t put decorations up for another couple of weeks, but because they were coming we had to get busy.
Last years boat Christmas tree has just about survived the year after a repot with some human made compost, so this has been brought in. But a bigger tree was really needed for the living room, where would we be able to get one from without a car? Nowhere that we found would deliver and the nearest veg/florist didn’t look like they’d be stocking any. One option left, a trip to Sainsburys with our trusty bike as sherpa.
Over several days Mick busied himself in the garden putting lights round bushes. I headed to the snicket to give the ivy a trim. Two wreaths were put together with lights and on the first day of December our decorations were up and illuminated!
Christmas baking. A batch of some rough puff pastry was made, a new recipe I wanted to try out. Then some Lebkuchen, these are my current favourite Christmas biscuits, especially when you poor the heated butter, treacle and maple syrup onto the spices, qworrr!
Christmas shopping this year has meant a walk down to the harbour, thankfully on a very nice sunny day before the snow arrived. I’d placed an order online and been told to ring the doorbell by the bow of a ship! I was taking ‘Buy it off a boat‘ to the next level. The doorbell was nowhere to be seen but thankfully a couple of people were stood on the bridge. My order arrived at a side door, the chap having to climb slightly up a harbour ladder to pass it to me safely, the tide was out at the time!
Buy it off a ship!
The coal man arrived along with snow and hail, Scarborough having a dusting of the white stuff just in time for the London Leckenbys arrival.
Who’s coming?
It has been at least ten years since the London Leckenby’s have visited us in Scarborough, us having lived on boats for much of the last ten years. This trip would also be their first by train, Andrew normally drives them up, but he’s still recovering from his stay in hospital. Quite a bit of work was needed to sort trains due to strikes and engineering work. Tickets were booked with only a couple of days to go. At Kings Cross they loitered for the platform to be announced, confirming the advanced knowledge we’d given them. Also knowing which carriage was likely not to be reserved helped, so they headed straight for it and thankfully got seats on what became a very very full train.
Nearly as good as my Mums Yorkshire Pud
Sausage rolls on arrival, sorry Frank forgot to take a photo! Then an afternoon lull, a walk to the beach not taken up as the pavements were really quite slippy. We caught up on their news and then got going with our Advent Saturday joint of roast beef with all the works. I’ve almost mastered gluten free Yorkshire Puddings so that my Mum wouldn’t know the difference. She’d certainly have been pleased that we had a slice each as a starter with gravy (not with the meat!) helped by the veg being a little reluctant to brown up.
Crackers were cracked, wine drunk, plenty of food eaten. Pudding, a warm Dorset Apple Cake accompanied by some Wensleydale Cheese, not quite ‘Apple Pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze’ but very nice and worth repeating.
Jac, Pip, Mick, Josh, Andrew
A lovely time was had by all. It was really lovely having them back in Scarborough.
Sunday morning and it was time to check that their return trains would be running. Well Transpennine Express did what they seem to do best and cancelled their first train. Mick came up with a couple of options for them. Their return journey was going to be 5 hours rather than the 3 on the way up, due to engineering work. It was decided that they’d head to the station and catch an earlier train, either to York where they could loiter in the pub, or to Hull where they could catch their the train earlier on it’s journey than planned. This meant quite a quick breakfast and exchange of presents before a cab arrived to whisk them back to the station.
Bye bye!
Almost 24 hours in Scarborough, we wished them a good journey and wished Josh good luck for his forthcoming interview for University. I’ve got my fingers crossed for him as I’d like to visit the very good chilled medication shop we visited last summer when on one of the Great Ouse tributaries. Their journey back changed again due to more cancellations, they had a good journey around the country arriving in London ten minutes earlier than originally planned.
My lovely fella
Sunday evening Mick and I headed out for what has now become our annual Chinese meal. Crispy aromatic duck a necessity to mark 21 years of us being together. A lovely way to round off the weekend.
Us out for a Sunday walk
It feels like we’ve already had Christmas now. The big day isn’t for another three weeks!
Have we peaked too soon?
0 locks, 0 miles, 3 snow showers, 5x50kg bags of coal, 2 veg boxes, 1 squash, 2 celeriac, 1.8kg top rump, 15 Lebkuchen, 1 Lasagna, 1 pie, 20 sausage rolls, 2 trees, 4 stars, 100m of flotilla lights, 1 bored cat, £1132, 30 plus pairs, 4 Morses, 2 wreaths, 4 new cushions, 3 weeks early, 21 years.
You may notice a couple of changes to the blog. Firstly the blog roll, this had stopped rolling as bloggers posted their posts, so we’re trialing a new plug in, not quite as clear as the old version sadly. Secondly Mick has added code to the blog to hopefully change the default colour of the writing to black without me having to change every paragraph each time I write a post. This was done with assistance from Copilot. I hope it works!
The pontoon was quite busy with comings and goings. A bike or maybe a shopping trolley came past a couple of times, the noise of wheels on the ramp very recognisable. Then soon afterwards there was a very strong stink of sewage. Blimey it stank! Where was it coming from? Mick stuck his head out of the hatch and could see a cassette being passed onto a boat. Could this have been the source of the stink? No proof, possibly just a coincidence. Thankfully the aroma passed after half an hour or so.
Then whilst reading in bed I kept hearing what sounded like small quiet wheels on the ramp, maybe someone was being considerate as they passed us. I twitched the curtains. There was a chap stood quite close to Oleanna. I opened the curtains some more, he looked up and down the pontoon and said, ‘Oh sorry I’ve got the wrong boat’. I closed the curtains.
A while later around midnight, I heard the noise again. I really wanted to be able to see without opening the curtains. Tilly assisted, a cat can get away with being very nosy. Once she’d got bored of being a voyeur she, as always, left the curtains ajar. The chap was stood just three feet away from our window. If he was peeking in I could certainly peek out! I opened the curtains wide.
‘Ah Babe … does it cost to be here?’
‘Firstly I’m NOT your Babe! What are you doing?’ He said something about looking for somewhere in the morning, well only quarter of an hour ago he’d got the wrong boat! ‘Well it’s full as you can see and I’d like you to move away from our boat!’. He turned, I said ‘Goodnight!’, he replied ‘Goodnight’ as he started to walk up the ramp. By the time Mick had opened up the hatch there was no sign of the chap anywhere, hopefully he’d gone.
Tilly and I stayed awake for sometime, trying to make a mental note of what the chap looked like, listening out for anymore noises on the ramp. Thankfully we eventually both went to sleep.
A very settled boat
The small cruiser in front of us had been showing interest in heading to Lincoln, they hadn’t realised that you need to book Cromwell and Torksey Locks in advance. Current manning of such locks is based on bookings and if there is no-one in the book for a certain day there may be no-one on duty to penn you through. We also suggested that they should have an up to date chart, parts of the river are very shallow and just sticking to the middle doesn’t always work. They had a very old Nicholsons. This morning they’d rung Cromwell and been told they could go anytime, the tide was so weak at the moment it wouldn’t make a difference. Off they set. Mick pulled us forward so that we no longer overhung the pontoon.
A tasty collation
A newspaper and a touch of shopping was required, also some shore leave for me to access how my toe was holding up. It was already rather hot outside, inside Waitrose was wonderfully cool. We picked up a paper and scanned round the sad git items for a cold collection this evening. It ended up being quite a financial outlay, but we’ll have yummy things for the next few evenings and not have to turn the cooker on.
After lunch Mick set off to Newark Castle Station to catch a train back towards Nottingham. Time to look round the signal box at Lowdham Station. The chap from Lowdham Railway Heritage started with a bit of a history of signalling on the railway. In early early days the signaller would time how long it was since the previous train had passed. The next train could be let past at slow speed after 5 minutes had elapsed or at full speed after 10. This was fine as long as the train in front never broke down but if it stopped for any reason a following train would plough into it. Not good. So signals were invented making use of electrical connections down telegraph wires alongside the track to the next and previous signal boxes. This enabled the signalers to communicate via a series of bell codes to see if the line was clear or not and set their signals and points accordingly.
There followed a demonstration with one chap working the signal box another two pretending to be at other boxes along the line. A delayed coal train had to be shunted out of the way to let an express passenger train through. There was also a goods train to be shunted into sidings, a train stopping at Lowdham station to be dealt with and level crossing gates to be opened and closed as necessary. All very busy. The signaler got a little bit lost at one point but the other two knew what should be happening so kept him on track.
An enjoyable but hot afternoon.
Back on Oleanna the day got hotter. The fan from last year had been plugged in meaning Tilly had to take diversions along the back of the sofa to get past it, fans are scary things! Curtains were kept drawn on the sunny side of the boat and when the sun had moved over to catch the port side I damped one of Tilly’s towels and hung it over the mesh in the side hatch hoping to cool any breeze that came in.
Flight
This afternoons viewing was a Denzil Washington film, Flight (2012), where Denzil is a pilot who turns up for work still drunk from the night before and high on coke. He somehow manages to crash land the plane after mechanical failure saving nearly everyone on board. The investigation that follows shows him in a different light to the hero he is hailed as.
Tilly the hot princess
This evening at around 9pm the aroma from last night returned, not quite as pungent but it lingered for much longer. No signs of anyone doing anything with cassettes today.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains, 1 walk to Waitrose, 2nd pair socks finished, 52 sts not 48, 1 wonky heel to be pulled out, 1 very hot day inside, 1 prowler, 1 stinky stink.
