Llangollen Basin

After all the build up and excitement for Christmas we are now into that bit that lies inbetween.

Presents have been played with, homes found for them (especially important if you live on a boat) and old tired things sent to the bin or bagged up ready for the charity shop.

The fridge is still holding it’s breath in, crammed full of left overs.

The cheese that hasn’t been touched yet, gradually getting smellier each time you open the fridge door.

The empty bottles clinking their way to the recycling bins.

The realisation that you forgot to do pigs in blankets which means there are even more sausages and bacon in the fridge than you thought. Is it physically possible to eat sausages three times in one day?

Intentions of going for walks never materialising.

The tickly throat that started a few days before Christmas actually meaning it now and needing drugs at regular intervals.

The second Christmas dinner not using up all the leftovers.

A good tidy up so that when family arrive there might actually be space for them and their things.

Trying to find a home for the third fire extinguisher, still not solved. But instead realising there is a small leak coming from the shower tray.

A cat who despite being bored of it here would rather be outdoors than in.

Planning food for five not two and wondering where you are going to put it all.

Wondering if the forecast weather will put a kibosh on arrangements.

Boats have gone and more arrived, even in the dark.

Gold Licence put off for a year. But a booking to go onto the Monty made.

Llangollen Basin

The big man visited us during the night and left all three of us plenty of goodies to open in bed. Tilly wasn’t too impressed by the refills for the lint roller, but Father Christmas must have known what she was getting as her main present as her stocking was full of balls. I’m really looking forward to see how many friends I can attract with the fat balls in trees!

In London my nephew Josh had set up a motion detected camera on Christmas Eve to see if he could disprove the existence of Father Christmas. Unfortunately for Josh the batteries ran out before anything could be detected and recorded, or was this just the magic of the man in red!

Scrambled egg with smoked salmon accompanied by some Bucks Fizz went down well before we opened our Christmas presents.

This year Oleanna had joined in with the present giving. I never thought I’d be the sort of person who’d be pleased to receive a mop and sweeping brush. These have telescopic handles and quite easily sit under the gunnel in the bathroom. The broom is especially designed for narrow spaces, what more could you ask for.

Mick’s quandary on the socks and sandals front was solved and here he is wearing his warm Pip made jumper.

I got a box of holes! All apart from two are big enough to get my arms in. They kept putting balls inside it and I kept taking them out. Why would I want balls inside a box of holes!

Before we got settled into cooking we headed off on a walk to the Chain Bridge and Horseshoe Falls.

The Horseshoe Falls was designed by Thomas Telford and diverts water from the River Dee into the canal. The last section of canal is very shallow and only the horse drawn trip boats can now make it this far, they have slight V shaped bottoms which must just fit down the shallow channel. When Thomas Telford was appointed as the general agent for the Ellesmere Canal in 1793 he had no experience of waterways and together with William Jessop they came up with the engineering that makes the canal so famous today. As a result Telford became one of Britains most famous engineers.

Plenty of people were out for a Christmas morning stroll along the canal and despite the drizzle gradually turning into rain we enjoyed ourselves. A few boats were moving, NB Harnser came down to the basin to wind and wave.

An Anglo Welsh boat came to moor, but the gusting wind made manoeuvres very difficult for them. Plenty of people came out to offer advice, but in the end they had succeeded in winding so returned back onto the cut where there wasn’t going to be quite so far to be blown!

Our Christmas dinner was exceptionally tasty, the duck one of the best we’ve had. All the accompanying veg made a mountainous plate of food and we have more than enough to keep us going over the next few days. A lull with another glass of wine to watch Dr Who before it was time to open my birthday presents and cards and blow out the candles.

My cake, a Queen of Sheba Cake, was maybe a little bit under cooked, the recipe I have is really quite vague as to temperature and cooking times. The advantage is that it’s meant to be gooey in the middle anyway, just this time it was bordering on runny.

A lovely day all round.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 over full stockings, 1 horseshoe, 10 CD’s, 1/3 by Kate, 1 broom, 1 mop, 11 pairs socks, 1 tumblehome fitting tree, 19 holes! 5 balls, 1 very tasty duck, 27 noisy ducks, 1 new Dr, 4 empty bottles, 1 window vac, 2 overly full boaters.

The big man in red has successfully visited Oleanna for the first time and been very generous.

Happy Christmas

from

Mick, Pip and Tilly

xxx

Llangollen Basin

Today has been busy. After realising last night that we had no birthday candles, they had been culled when we moved boats, we had to buy some today.

Most of the day has been spent chopping, bubbling, stirring, baking, rolling, cutting, baking, crumbing, steeping, saucing, mixing, baking, cooling, eating, slicing and icing, with a little bit of wrapping up too!

The majority of time consuming jobs have been done, so tomorrow we should just have to pop the duck in the oven and roast it.

Happy Christmas from all three of us.

We are even ready for the big man.

Llangollen Basin

The sunrises here are rather wonderful, as the sun starts to rise above the hilltops it casts an increasing golden glow across the western hills. A wonderful sight to wake up to.

We knew that some shops would be open tomorrow, but the really important one wouldn’t be. We also had to make sure we got our Saturday paper for the TV guide.So after our cuppa in bed we headed into town to finish our food shopping. The shops we wanted were all close together and busy. First Dee Valley Green Grocers. A small shop that had taken over much of the pavement and a couple of parking spaces opposite and orders lay in boxes waiting to be collected up the street. Certainly a popular shop, one lady was disappointed that they had no fennel, but that was the only thing missing that we could spot. That was our first heavy bag on the bike.

Next Porters Deli. Some gluten free oatcakes and then which cheeses? I ended up going for two favourites, Cornish Yarg, Mature Wensleydale and then an unknown Mature Caerphilly. Thinking about it I should have got some Shropshire Blue too, but we can’t let the cholesterol levels get too high.

Mick popped into the bakers whilst I stood in line at Gwyn Davies, the butchers. The counter was heaving with meaty goods. I had my list and was going to stick to it, just the choices of smoked bacon or not and which sausages to get. I wonder if they bring the retired butchers in for such days with their knowledge and patter. Most customers were known and when my duck was brought from the back it was accompanied by two more for those spotted waiting in line. Once the butcher had my name he made sure he used it, ‘Is that duck okay for you Mrs Leckenby?’ ‘That’s a nice piece of gammon Mrs Leckenby’, ‘Just four rashers of smoked Mrs Leckenby’, ‘They wouldn’t be a secret recipe if I told you what was in them Mrs Leckenby’. My Mum, the Mrs Leckenby would have loved him, this Miss Leckenby did too. Another heavy bag to add to the bike and we were done and back at Oleanna for a late breakfast an hour after we’d left.

Mick set about getting sooty and swept the chimney for the first time. Taking the baffle out of a Bubble stove is far far easier than on a Squirrel. The hole stove got a good hoover out before he laid a fire for this evening. I set about rationalising the kitchen. We are both as bad as each other, things don’t always get put away and the worktops were getting quite cluttered. So things went back into cupboards and plenty of space was made for all the cooking that will be happening in the next couple of days. I even decided to reclaim the cupboard that was the Finesse cupboard, most things found new homes and some bits went in the bin, hope we don’t end up needing them!

Next I set too sorting out the dinette bed. When Oleanna was built we asked for this to be able to turn into a small double, which it does very easily. Only thing is that one section of the back support was fixed, leaving one end of the bed six inches narrower than the other, very awkward to get a sheet around if nothing else. I’d had a look at it a few weeks ago and bought a piece of foam to plug the gap.

The back support was fixed in with two screws at the top, then a couple more at the bottom which went into a piece of 2×2 which was in turn fixed to the base. I’d originally thought we’d need to add a spacer behind the support to hold it in the right place. But because it was cut to fit at an angle all it needed was to be rescrewed to the 2×2, which was now loose, this all fits back where it came from and stays put without being screwed into position.

Next I cut a six inch piece of foam to fit the gap, using my trusty 33 year old bread knife. It is slightly raggerdy edged, but this is liveable with. It fits the gap nicely and who knows I may even cover it someday to match the dinette cushions. Next I fitted a fitted sheet onto the cushions and pinned where a new seam was needed. With the dinette back in sitting order and my sewing machine out from the depths I then ran a line of stitches on the sheet to hold it into it’s new slightly narrower size. We can now have guests to stay. Good job as we’ve got some next week!

Tomorrow there is lots of precooking to do for the big day, including Christmas sausage rolls, Christmas biscuits and my birthday cake needs baking. We half expect to see our friend Frank turning up as he used to in Scarborough, timing his arrival just as things were coming out of the oven!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 late breakfast, 1 bag King Edwards, 2 lemons, 12 brussels, 5 onions, 2 red, 1 tree, 1 red cabbage, 5 carrots, 4 parsnips, 14 sausages, 1 gammon joint, 1 duck, 4 streaky, 4 thick smoked, 1 black pud, 1 loaf, 24 oat cakes, 3 treat cheeses, 1 Saturday paper! 1 load of washing on the whirligig, 1 chimney sweep face, 1 pair white gloves, 1 galley sparkling, 6 inches makes a difference, 1 complete 4 foot bed, 1 outside well and truly used up, can we move on now, pleeease!

Llangollen Basin

With the tracking number sent from Australia, I only had to read out four digits before Paul pushed the parcel through the enquiry office window for me. He apologised again about not letting me have it yesterday, but I was grateful that he wouldn’t be giving away my Christmas and more importantly Birthday present to any Tom, Dick or Henrietta. This is the first office I’ve visited at this time of year where there hasn’t been a long queue waiting to pick up parcels, not one other person on three occasions, it’s felt like our own personal parcel service.

A check next door at Stans for anything else, one small packet today, the bumper parcel from my brother hadn’t arrived yet.

I took the opportunity of not having Mick with me to have a wander around the tourist tat shops, but that was exactly what they were. Not one thing either useful or beautiful in there worth buying, though that wasn’t stopping other people.

Back at Oleanna I had a forage for greenery. Around the bin store was some very suitable ivy, long trailing bits and then a holly tree had new growth with few spiky bits. Our garden shears did the chopping and I came back to the boat with a couple of bags full to make a wreath. Watkins and Williams had sold me some waterproof cloth tape which I used  to bind the lengths together to get a good base. Then I joined these round into a circle and added more pieces to fill it out. Most shop bought wreaths would have looked a bit small on our cratch, mine is about 2ft diameter and a bit flamboyant, but what would you expect from a Theatre Designer. Many hours of my professional life have been spent fixing fake ivy onto scenery, so it’s nice to be able to use the real thing and it have cost just about nothing.

A message this evening came through from Richard on NB Mountbatten (the coal boat). Mick had let him know that we wouldn’t be able to make it out to Trevor today and nobody else had made the journey, preferring to keep their space and get coal delivered  from town. Richard said he would come to the basin by van should anybody want anything. If we’d known he’d be doing this we’d have waited to get coal from him, we have however ordered some diesel to top up our tank. Come the new year he will mostly be doing deliveries by van around the stoppages, so we shall have to be around certain places to be able to meet up with him.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 parcels, 4.5m waterproof tape, £1.85 for a giant wreath, 1 clean fridge, 2.5 stool covers completed, 1 knitted waistcoat top to make, 200gms  wool on order, 1 tree full of bite sized tasty neighbours.

Llangollen Basin

Today we had a better look around some of the shops. Tilly has a favourite wet food of the pink variety in gravy, this is proving to be a rare thing in Wales along with a few other bits and bobs. So we walked to the Co-Op to see if they would help fill the gaps, they had gluten free bread at nearly a pound cheaper than the wholefood shop, but that was the only thing to cross of the list, so maybe not worth the walk. We bought a loaf for the freezer and it will do nicely for stuffing and bread sauce next week.

Stan’s was checked out next, here they do a meat version of pink cat food (other cat foods are available in abundance) in gravy which Tilly will have to cope with, at least half the box is the same as her preferred box! In the cleaning section we spotted tubs of Pink Stuff, which should be in every boaters stocking. The Post Office is in Stan’s but I decided to leave asking if anything had arrived for us as we are due our next known parcel there tomorrow, so instead we headed to the Enquiry Office next door.

My bestest friend Emma in Australia had ordered something from Amazon which was due to be delivered yesterday, it hadn’t arrived then (or so we thought!) so today it was worth checking. We climbed the steps, rang the bell at the counter and waited. The same cheery face greeted us that we’d seen yesterday. One parcel I’d ordered had arrived by Hermes (not taken by the PO), it had however been signed for but no-one could find it originally. It turned out that my Post Restante had all been beavered away in a high up cupboard in Stan’s that only one member of staff knew about. This chap, Paul, asked f we’d managed to find it as he’d had a check through his parcels too. Today we were only expecting one parcel, from Emma. I showed my driving license, but no nothing here, ‘Sorry’.

Paul then went through the few parcels under the counter that had come from Amazon and read out who they were for. ‘Bevan’, ‘Jones’, ‘Snowden’, ‘Rhydderch’. Hang on did he just say Snowden? Would that be Emma Snowden? Well yes it was. We all agreed that this parcel was almost certainly for me, maybe Emma was planning a trip over from Australia to deliver it herself. Or somehow she’d forgotten to put my name on the address. Some form of proof was needed for Paul to be able to hand it over to me. He went off to scan the bar code to see if it came up with her home address, which I could tell him, sadly this didn’t work. If I could get the tracking number then he’d happily hand it over. But despite a text and a messenger, Emma was sound asleep in the southern hemisphere. It would have to wait for tomorrow, at least nobody else would be able to pick it up!

Another couple of pet shops were checked for pink food, but none came up trumps. Everyone was very helpful, if we called before Friday Carol would get us some in next week. Tilly will be making do with what we can get and certainly not moving onto the more expensive foods that Houdini was allowed in her last few months! Porters deli came up trumps with a few bits we’d not managed to find elsewhere, so I can do my usual stuffing and a slightly healthier version of bread sauce. The array of cheeses was vast, we’ll definitely be returning later this week for a few bits of Christmas treat cheese.

Two pairs of glasses were mended whilst we waited at the opticians at no cost. A very productive trip into town, apart from the parcel!

Back at the basin more boats have arrived. Tilly spent much of the afternoon running around like a loon and declaring the basin hers. Mick got on with adding to our Christmas lights. The new set nearly do down both sides of the roof and the shorter set are now wound around inside the pram cover. Oleanna most definitely has the best lights in the basin. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can make us a wreath for the cratch window as the huge expanse of glass is crying out for one. I think I’ve spotted just what I need along the track behind the basin.

Mick also spent a bit of time today playing with our TV aerial. Moving it along the cabin roof, gently twisting it’s orientation and we now have some TV. ITV is good, BBC not quite so, but we may be able to watch Dr Who on Christmas Day, fingers crossed.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 more boats, 0 parcels, 0 pink poultry food, 20m lights added, 1 cheese shortlist, 1 parcel wrapped, 2 pairs of glasses, 1 Paul, 1 Carol, 2 boaters feeling like locals, 1 tracking code, 1 basin claimed from the woofers!

Llangollen Basin

Mick had a trip to Wrexham whilst I beavered away doing secret things yesterday and Tilly well she just spent the day being outside. This outside is quite good. There are trees, plenty of friendly cover and just out of sight from the boats there are bouncing friends! I’ve been warned not to use this outside all up too quickly as they won’t be changing it for a while.

On Monday morning our nearest neighbours moved off, a chap who’d turned up on Sunday quickly moved over into one of their spaces so he could plug in and yesterday afternoon NB Mariah arrived, we’d been neighbours at the start of the snow in Ellesmere, they were soon kept company by a hire boat joining them on the far side.

This morning we were woken by an engine being turned on, before 8am. This did mean we got to enjoy the stunning sunrise. Here running your engine is limited to between 8am and 6pm, this must have been part of the planning stipulations when they built the basin as several houses overlook it. The next boat along despite looking like your average narrowboat has a C&RT number and this was the one with it’s engine running! Two chaps with life jackets took their time before the boat finally moved off. They were soon followed by another. So all our original neighbours had gone.

We considered moving into a corner, so that Tilly could come and go from stern and bow, but our current position meant we could access the yellow water tank easier.

Two trips into town for us today, first to collect parcels, the second for some food from Aldi. We walked along the river footpath, a very pleasant walk. The store is almost opposite the basin, but there is just the small matter of crossing the canal, railway and river to get there, so the walk is quite a lengthy one. A new bridge wouldn’t go amiss for boaters. We’ll be taking a bike with us to act as a mule later in the week. A set of new Christmas lights was purchased, the ones we have are fine on the cratch, but don’t quite do the job on the roof. Now we may have more than enough lights.

When we returned there were another two boats winding and mooring up. The corner near us was getting quite busy, especially with dogs. We quickly decided to change our mooring so as to be able to keep some distance between dogs and Tilly, not sure who’d be worse off if there was a confrontation! A quick chat to the new boats explaining why we were moving was in order, so that we could reassure them that they didn’t smell.

So we pulled out and nudged up to where we’d originally planned to moor. Now we can get on and off the boat at both ends. TV reception hasn’t improved, we are gradually working our way through recorded programmes. I suspect by the time we leave our PVR will be almost empty.

Whilst we’d been in town our coal delivery had arrived. Five 25kg bags of coal had been added to the roof and a new red gas bottle sat in the well deck. We’d hoped to have been in when they came so as to give them the empty gas bottle, but that was still in the locker. Gas bottles have a deposit paid on them when you first  buy them, then when you buy a new bottle you swap it for an empty one, the deposit moving onto the new bottle. So now we have four bottles, where to put the fourth the gas locker will only hold three?!

Mick spent much of the afternoon moving coal bags around and gas bottles. When we first got a third bottle the new full one went in at the top of the triangle in the locker. This has to be moved to get at the other two bottles, meaning that to get rid of an empty bottle a full one would have to be lifted out of the locker and then swapped with an empty one. Anybody who has moved a full 13kg bottle knows how heavy they are. So after a bit of thought Mick has changed over how the bottles will work in the locker.

The three bottles sit in a triangle. The top one (A) will now be connected to supply the boat along with the right hand one (C for connected). The third (B for backup). A will be used first and foremost, when it runs out C will then be turned on until we have a new A, the supply will return to A. This means that on average use only one bottle will need to be lifted in and out of the locker, A. C will every now and then need replacing but B should only come into play should we be iced in somewhere away from gas supplies. This all makes sense to us. But right now we have a forth empty bottle getting in the way. The shop may want it back, or we may have just gained  means of getting a deposit returned, except it isn’t a Calor Gas Bottle! After consulting with Brian from NB Alton, we now know we can’t swap it for a Calor Gas bottle, oh well.

So they think they fooled me, but they only moved the outside  that was just outside the boat. The rest was exactly the same! It’s a big shame she won’t let me bring friends home, she squealed with joy when I brought a bouncing one back a year or so ago. I so hope she doesn’t get bored here, or worse go beyond being bored and venture further afield than normal.

0 locks, 4 pontoons away, 5 boats gone, 6 boats arrived, 125kgs coal, 13kg gas, 0 phone call, 400 LEDs, 5 parcels, 1 envelope, 1 outside (they are not fooling me!), 3 bouncing friends, 0 pine nuts, 11 perfectly cooked chestnuts in the ash pan, 1 exploded chestnut in the ash pan!