The Travelling Freakshow

There's something stuck behind the gate!

2011-08-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Really hoped that the weather forecast wasn't real - it was for torrential rain from 10am til 7pm. Erk.

Set off early, as we were triple breasted and we were on the outside we thought we'd better set off early.

First Londony thing that happened was seeing a red double decker going over a bridge above our heads. Feels like home.

Dog totally ecstatic to be back on the canals, of course and performed a death leap off the boat as we approached the first lock landing.

Out of the first lock we had our second Londony thing happening to us. A prop fouling! Ace, we must be close to home! We were comforted by the smell of the canal -pooh! (and probably wee as well).

At every lock there was Something Stuck Behind The Gate. That's the Hanwell flight, for you. Thought it might make a good chorus for a folk song, think this flight deserves a folk song writing for it.

At the third lock we picked up a massive tree trunk, it got wedged right accross the front of the boat under the hull, we had to muck about reversing and levering it with the barge pole to get it off.

There were several sacks of old clothes deposited on the tow path here and there, future prop foulings, perhaps?

But it didn't rain. Phew!

It started when we got to Tescos and it was biblical. Now when we volunteered on the Pirate Club boats, the journey home down this canal after a trip was when you cleaned the boat. So that was my excuse. I felt a bit guilty so the boat got a proper scrub and Toby was drenched. I poked a hot tea out of the back-hatch at half hourly intervals and I think he just about survived.

Eventually arrived at a packed Little Venice at about 8pm. Collapsed, had dinner, wine and bed.

Runnymede to Brentford

2011-08-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Took the dog up into the Runnymede estate in the morning, through the woods. This is a beautiful place, sadly noise polluted by planes and cars.

By 9,30 am we were off. Over breakfast I'd figured out the tide times - we thought that even though we'd not booked, it might be worth getting to Teddington incase we could go out on the evening high tide. You are supposed to book Brentford Lock out of hours, but we know from experience that this isn't always the case.

I steered for most of the day - including hair raising boating through lots of kids in sailing dinghies at Sunbury, two of which managed to crash right infront of me.

We arrived at Teddington before 4pm, I went to see the lockie and he said we could go onto the tideway at 5.30pm. We were at the back of the queue so when our turn came, the lock was already full, so he put us in the super huge barge lock instead, with a trip boat. I was a bit dissappointed that they used the middle gates (instead of the end ones) to save water, but at least we can say we went through the barge lock!

Once onto the tideway, it started to pour down. We've not been on the River when the tide is high - it really does get high, swallowing the end of peoples gardens, the bottoms of roads and leaving park benches knee deep. And the rubbish! Quite a shock to see bin bags and bike wheels after the super clean non tidal reaches!

Bu the time we turned for Brentford Lock we were freezing cold. I made tea while we queued for the Thames Lock.

Once in Brentford, we rafted up - really busy here - no room! But we made it! Hanwell flight tomorrow!

Henley to Runnymede

2011-08-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

After a day at Taplow yesterday, I was ready to get on my way again.

Took the dog out in Remenham Wood in the morning. IMO, it is well worth the trip up the main road.

We set off by about 10am but were delayed by filming - a costume drama about rowing in Henley. We had to wait as we would've wrecked the authenticity of their film had we come hurtling past in our 2001 semi trad modern narrowboat.

We set a cracking pace all day and although we'd planned to get as far as Windsor, we decided to keep going and ended up at Runnymede. They've completely redone the moorings here since we last passed in May. We moored in the same spot that we had done with mum, but it was newly piled, with hardwood top and new mooring bollards. Very impressive. And no one was using it, despite it being August. Had a celebratory beer on the bench outside our boat and we were both in bed by 10pm.

How did we do that?

2011-08-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

Awoke moored in a cowfield opposite Moulsford. How did we get here? Jack Daniels magic carpet? I have no idea. All I know is that my cold is *really bad* now and all our clothes are *still* damp from our late night in Oxford.

Anyhoo, we are on schedule and that's a good thing! We had to get to Henley today. WEe stopped at Better Boating in Reading to get some diesel. We felt a bit sad to go tanking at past The Lynch - it would've been nice to moor there again.

Finally arrived in Henley on some visitor moorings. Toby will stay here all day tomorrow whilst I go to Taplow to do my monthly volunteering stint.

Oxford Isis Tarvern to Moulsford. (Ouch!)

2011-08-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in last blog post. Woke up feeling weird. Very weird. Toby muttered something along the lines of, 'help! bacon sandwich!' I agreed so I hiked up to the main road to purchase dead pig, white bread and dashed back to cremate it and shovel it into him (and me) Our dog was overjoyed that we were eating meat products.

Phew! It worked! We were alive enough to boat!

We stopped briefly a couple of times. First at Abingdon lock where the electric gates failed - but not for long - phew!

Then in Abindgon to go to the chandlers. We've run out of stern grease completely - managed to get a pot just in time. We saw friends there and wasted time gossiping then came to our senses - gotta go, gotta go!

We moored that evening near Cleeve, in a field that I've had my eye on since last time we boated up this way. We had to use a plank but it was worth it.

How to Not Do Things

2011-08-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

As we left Enslow, I put a message out on Facebook saying we were headed for Oxford. One of our friends in Oxford must've read this and messaged me. 'Meet in the Isis Farmhouse.'

We didn't think we'd make it there for some reason. Anyway, anyone planning rather long days boating, I have some advice for you.

Don't go to the Isis Tavern and drink three pints of cider. Don't then go onto the Co-Op and buy food. Don't go to your friends house in Oxford, cook vegetarian noodles, then serve Eton mess and don't drink red wine infront of their campfire at the bottom of their garden. Don't wash up then leave their house at 1.30am in order to go to a full moon bonfire by the Thames. Don't stay there 'til 3am, drinking more wine until it starts throwing it down. Don't walk home with rhubard leaves as headgear because you didn't bring any waterproofs. Don't wake up at 9.30am the next day 'feeling a bit weird.' Don't walk to the Co-Op and buy fry up ingredients because it's not possible to move the boat otherwise. Especially don't even though you set off *really late* stop in Abingdon to gossip with Workboat Pug for an hour (Ok, you did stop to buy stern grease I'll let you off).

Well, you know, just don't. And finally. Don't spill Rioja on the keyboard. It affects the speeeling. :/

Back, oh yes! Back!

2011-08-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Three weeks of waiting for news - then the phonecall came.

We made the most of our time away from the boat, we visited the Ivel and Shefford Navigation http://eawa.co.uk/ivel.html I made a grand total of 19 jars of jam. But oh we missed Rallentando. :(

A call arrived yesterday morning, the boat would be ready on Thursday. So I could wait no longer. Packed our bags, set the satnav. And we were back on Rallentando by the evening. How I had missed my boat. We had dinner on the bows, admiring the plants and trees around the marina. It is love.

We now have one week to get her back to London, so we won't be able to hang about. It will be like being on a hire boat holiday. We gotta get back to base!

Game over.....For now.

2011-07-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Felt a bit sad leaving our boat this morning. We will have to save the River Wey for another year.

Had to phone several friends to explain that the boat trip was off. Toby came to pick me and the dog and our stuff up at lunchtime and by 2pm we were back in Letchworth.

Had a long bath to wash the boatiness off. Back in civvy street for now. I will have to brush my hair and watch my p's and q's Toby will have to trim his beard. We both have the 'dead giveaway' boaters tans, though.

We haven't yet decided what we will do about bringing Rallentando back to Tottenham. I might stay here to keep an eye on things while Toby moves the boat with some relatives or friends. We could move it in stages, we don't know.

So an abrupt end to another wonderful boat trip. Do check back to see if/when we manage to resume our adventures as the Freakshow.

It never rains but it pours.

2011-07-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Woke up early this morning, knowing we have to make a decision on what to do about the boat. We had a long drawn out debate over breakfast.

Getting the local engineer to fix things - how long would it take? More importantly did we really want to annoy our fellow boaters by mooring on the seven day moorings with a droning generator. We decided we'd rather not subject people to that. So that was a no.

Turning round and going back to the boatyard? Again, how long would it take? It doesn't seem to be manned most of the time. Plus we need to be home soon. Gotta work, got stuff to do, gotta go up North and visit my family.

Tanking it home non stop? I looked on Canal Plan this site figures out how long it will take for a journey on the canals and rivers of the UK, it is excellent and amazingly accurate. It would take a week - or four days if you are the Finchers (sorry Alan and Cath!). We might have to switch off the fridge, but we'd manage. Ok, so that would be our plan.

And then, we received the phone call. Tobys Aunt, his dad wasn't well, rushed to hospital. Could Toby go right away? As she put the phone down, her sister called and offered her help and a lift. Then brother Ben. He was already on his way over.

So we had to think fast. Neither of us were happy to leave the boat on busy 7 day visitor moorings at the end of July. It isn't fair. I called the boatyard, they said, 'no problem, turn round, bring the boat, put her in our covered dock.' Good, a plan. So that's what we did, headed up to Kingsground boats. I would pack the boat up, defrost the fridge, collect our valuables and be ready for Toby to come and pick me up the following day. Toby would go directly to the hopsital with his aunt this afternoon. The boat could stay at Kingsground to be repaired and we would figure out how to get her back to London once the dust had settled.

I spent a lonely cold night in the dock - they are always freezing. I finished packing at 1.30 am exhausted.

I did receive a phonecall from Toby, his dad wasn't as ill as we'd originally thought and was being discharged. That meant that we were doing the right thing, moving off the boat for a while to look after him. It isn't a big deal for us anyway, as most of our belongings are there, we keep a small office up there and have our own huge room. I don't think anyone likes living on a boat when it is being repaired, I don't and I don't think most boatyards like it either.

RCR to the rescue?

2011-07-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

We moved the boat to Pigeon Lock this morning, in time for RCR to arrive and look at our engine. So we know now that our domestic alternator is borked. The boat is safe to drive at least, as long as you don't mind the annoying siren going off permanently. As the weather is so rubbish right now, we're barely getting an amp off the solar panels, so we know what that means, annoying liveaboards on a leisure mooring with a generator to charge their batteries. Ho hum.

RCR can't fix it as it's a domestic problem. They suggested the next boatyard, but there was no one there. So we thought we'd boat to Thrupp.

Once at Thrupp we spoke to a local engineer. He made some suggestions but we couldn't decide what to do - we thought we'd sleep on it. Ideally we thought we should get the boat home and our usual engineer (who fitted the last alternator) should do it. But in this dull weather that would mean about a week of running, with heavily rationed domestic electricity. If only it were sunny, it wouldn't matter.

I had to go to town for a Buddhist meeting, so I left at 4pm. Took a bus to Oxford, got on the train and ended up stuck outside Hayes and Harlington for about an hour. A suicide on the train tracks. Poor man, I wonder what made him do it? I made it to the meeting at about 8.30pm. Only one hour late. But I made it! :) Caught up with my friends, then dash back to Paddington, shovel in a McDonalds and back on a train to Oxford. At Oxford I caught a cab. I'd had to throw away half of the original (cheap) return I'd bought due to getting delayed due to the boat breakdown. I had to buy a super expensive ticket at the station to replace it. So when added up, it cost £60 in transport costs for half an hour of meeting. Am I mad? Probably! Was it worth it? Of course. :)

Keibi at Taplow again

2011-07-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

Taplow all day today, time for my monthly keibi activity, so onto the redeye train from Tackley to Taplow, via Reading.Had to get up really early - about 5pm, and it was about a 30 minute brisk march up the hill to Tackley station. Arrived at Taplow station at 8.30, but foolisly tried to take a short cut, along a footpath that I don't know. At 9.05am arrived at Taplow. Oh well.

We had a really busy day. Mr Saito (head of study for SGI Europe) was delivering a lecture in Friends House in Euston in London tonight and it's ticket only. No admission without a ticket. So we had to field endless calls from members who didn't have tickets, members travelling from afar with huge suitcases that they needed to store, members who thought the event was at Taplow and were trying to gatecrash with no ticket.

Finished at 6pm, exhausted. A member of my team gave me a lift to Waitrose where I stocked up on groceries, then I caught the train. Made it home by about 9.30pm.

Toby spent the day tinkering with the engine and couldn't determine the problem. Although the boat goes, we will call RCR in the morning.

Janes tearooms

2011-07-17T16:06:00.001-07:00

Plan today to boat to the quarry in Kirtlington. Course it was raining when we set off. What should’ve been a quick journey was a bit slow due to two Anglo Welsh boats adrift after the lift bridge. No one onboard, only a few thousand empty lager cans, a liberal sprinkling of tobacco and some discarded blonde wigs onboard. Hmm, but where were the stags? A mystery.

I jumped off and a crew member from a passing Black Prince hireboat helped me to secure the boats, then we were on our way. We passed the hire base where the Muddy Waters character boats were giving kids free rides up and dwon the canal, as Toby said, one of the awful truths of canal holidays is that the weather will not always do what you want.

As we boated through Lower Heyford the siren in the control panel started to sound. I hate this - it tells you that something is wrong but doesn't define what it is. Can be something worrying like a snapped drive belt, or something daft such as rain in the control panel. Boat seemed to be ok, checked the drive belt, so we took the risk of continuing. Toby will have a look at it tomorrow.

Arrived in Kirtlington at 1pm, where we headed straight to Janes tearooms, Jane is a wonderful woman, who won smallholder of the year a couple of years ago, she runs this tearoom Sundays only, all the food is made by herself. Can’t recommend it enough.

Later on in the evening, took Rocky up to the top of the quarry and phoned mum and dad.

Back to the Bell again

2011-07-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

We left in the rain this morning – forecast said it would rain all day, so, we thought if we set off early at least we’ve plenty of time to dry out and relax before the pub later on.

It did totally chuck it down to start with. We didn’t see many boats, we also struggled with the gate at Somerton Deep Lock, because it wouldn’t close and I had trouble closing it, despite me literally hanging off it.

Once through this lock, the rain started to clear. We passed Bones and gave her a hand up through the lock as she is single handing. I note that her dog Boots is a two coat lurcher, very well wrapped up he was, compared to our rather damp lurcher. We arrived at Lower Heyford by about 2pm and weren’t there for long until Dave passed us. We will see him in the pub this evening.

Had a snooze then sent some graphics off via yousendit for Toby. The internet is really lousy in Lower Heyford, taking one hour to send 7mb. At least it went!

We had a fun night in the pub with Dave and his friend Pam. There was a loud stag party in there, all dressed as Spam(?) , most with blonde wigs. One of them fell asleep and within minutes his friends had stacked up sandwiches, reserved signs, menus, you name it on his head and shoulders.

The Great Western Arms

2011-07-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

We’re hanging around today – fix the solar panel frames, go on some nice walks and visit the Great Western Arms pub in Aynho tonight.

In the morning we took the dog across the bridge at Wharf farm, we had intended to walk into Aynho, but it suddenly got roasting hot so we turned back. I also had a mad cycling mission. We had no cash on us. I Googled the nearest cash machine and saw it was six miles away, in a Co-op supermarket in Croughton. Printed off some maps and got the bike off the roof, haven’t used it for ages, so oiled it up, pumped the tyres, put on sunblock, hi viz vest, cycle helmet and set off. The canal is fed by the River Cherwell so is in the bottom of the Cherwell Valley for most of its course. That means a relentless trip uphill away from the canal. Haven’t cycled for quite some time and the gears were stuck (my bike hates being on the roof!) so I got off and walked for some of the hills. Passed through a beautiful stone village – Souldern, took a wrong turning but this meant I spotted a barrow in a field next to the church.

Finally arrived at Croughton. The assistant in the Co-Op threw a fit when she saw me – she reckoned I had severe sunburn. I knew I couldn’t have as I was wearing factor 50. Peeked in the mirror I keep in my bag, could see it was my beetroot ‘hill –cycling face’ lol.

I took another route back, down some country lanes, which turned out to be better than the B roads. It was much straighter and mostly downhill. I passed the RAF base with its’ ‘golf balls’ and photographed them from one of the roads once I was further away. Also saw this unusual farm with a fortified tower.

No rest for the wicked when I was back, straight out for another walk with the dog. We went down public footpaths to explore the magnificent railway viaduct and saw a deer resting at the edge of a cornfield.

Finally my prize for an active day – dinner at the Great Western Arms at Aynho Wharf. We hadn’t booked and it was a Friday night. But they fitted us in, despite being full. Food was excellent, beer excellent and the staff warm and friendly. Can’t recommend it enough. Nice to dine surrounded by old railway artefacts (there used to be two railways stations on the two converging railway lines next to this pub).

Kings Sutton to Wharf Farm, Souldern

2011-07-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Amazing weather today, but unfortunately the forecast says it won’t last. To save time, instead of walking the dog separately , I set off down the towpath with him, with my windlass. The dog and I ended up walking almost the whole boat-trip today. He didn’t seem to mind, I didn’t mind and the canal was quite busy with boats, making it hard for us to jump back on board after a lock, so we didn’t bother.

Almost by chance we ended up moored opposite wharf farm near Souldern Bridge (on some piling). What a view!

In the evening we walked the bridleway to Clifton Village to the Duke of Cumberland’s Head Pub. It looked a bit frightfully posh for boaters, but the barman was friendly and welcoming and the garden is really big. Didn’t try the food – it looked amazing, mains are about £7.50 and are standard pub type dishes at lunchtime but in the evening, it’s about £15 for mains and very posh! They kept the beer well and the pub has two friendly dogs wandering around the place. Our dog was welcome.

They keep a pig out the back and the chef came out with all the potato peelings to feed it.

Returned to the boat at sunset and made a thyme, leek and chorizo risotto, I have a big thyme plant left from making the garlic tart so I’ve been Googling recipes to try and use it up.

Cropredy to Kings Sutton

2011-07-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

Left a very busy Cropredy this morning, we need to be back in Oxford by the weekend so we couldn’t hang about. The canal was ‘perfectly busy’ with boats, you know, when you arrive at a lock and there is a boat just leaving the lock so it’s all ready for you, well today, every lock was like that.

We stopped briefly in Banbury to empty the loo and the rubbish and once through Banbury, we stopped in Kings Sutton on the pilings, mainly because there’s a good internet connection and I needed to send work off.

Banbury to Cropredy

2011-07-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Last year I never got a proper look around Banbury. Mum if you are reading this, you would love it. We boated as far as below the town lock in Banbury where Toby waited for me whilst I explored the town. Really busy with boats queuing for the services and the lock, so that’s why we stopped here. Lots of charity shops and independents in this town. Last of all I went to Morrison’s to buy food, then had a look through the windows at Tooleys. A boat that we know -a wooden 1950’s Nursers butty from Braunston, named Hazel – is in the dry-dock awaiting repair.. That means she must’ve been sold - she spent lots of time on the Lee with her old owners. Arrived back at the boat and we set off. Just as well we’d stayed this side of the lock because it was totally full above.

We boated to Cropredy, planning dinner at the Brazenose, only to find it full. Both exhausted and hungry, we winded before the bridge thinking we’d have to head a few miles South to find a space, when a liveaboard on the offside popped out and suggested we use the Lt mooring opposite them as the mourners were away.

Phew! Bumped into Graham and Jane from nb Alnwick on the bridge, then into the Brazenose for a slap up feed and to say hello to old friends. Rocky likes this pub as they always make a fuss of him. We stayed til almost chucking out time and didn’t need any rocking to sleep once we’d got back

Super-quick London visit

2011-07-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Only a short hop by boat, this morning, from Kings Sutton to Banbury, (or rather just outside). I’ve a Buddhist planning meeting at Naomi’s tonight.

It didn’t take us long to get there. At teatime, the three of us walked to the station via Morrison’s (to pick up dinner for Toby). By 5.30pm I was at Marylebone and by 6pm, I was in this Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Baker Street, near where I used to work, (before I was a boater and had seen the light).

Lord only knows why I came here – my usual choice in town is sushi or a Japanese noodle bar – the burger was way too big so I left most of the bread. The corn on the cob was chargrilled to perfection but stone cold. They gave me enough onion rings to stuff a bin bag and they were so salty they made my mouth sore. It cost me £20 as well! Welcome back to London!

I left most of it. Next week I’m going to get into town earlier and go to Crystal in Wood Green, it’s a Turkish restaurant and its £7 for three courses.

Arrived at Naomi’s warehouse but she wasn’t there, let myself in using her key. The whole warehouse complex said ’party’ to me. You can easily tell when there has been a party at the weekend. It was carnage. Couldn’t work out why Ms Yong Yhaps’ room was so messy, though.

Then she told me she’d had a fire in there, fell asleep with a candle. She had to smash the window coz she couldn’t breathe. Eeek – she could’ve died. We had our planning meeting. I love Naomi – she plyed us with Nori and Chinese sweets from the Chinese supermarket round the corner. Love being away boating, but I know I’d miss my beloved multicultural London and my ace friends if I was away for too long. We set a subject for the meeting next week and agreed who would moderate and who would find something to read out.

Arrived back in Banbury at 11.40pm, Toby and Rocky waiting for me. Another successful mission.

Somerton to Kings Sutton

2011-07-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Last time we were in Kings Sutton I was coming down with some awful virus and had to get up at stupid O’clock to catch a train to York to meet a client. Thankfully this year, nothing as energetic, just had a little bit of work to do for another client.

But the weather was the same as last year, lots of rain then a beautiful sunset.

Lower Heyford to Somerton

2011-07-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Left Lower Heyford, need to be near Banbury by the 11^th so I can go back to London. The weather was still very unsettled and cool. We moored just after Somerton Deep Lock on some pilings.

The Bell

2011-07-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

We boated to Lower Heyford today, we had an urgent appointment with the pub and some boating friends this evening. Had forgotten how much slower narrow canal boating is, I reckon you go at double the speed on the River. It absolutely threw it down, we both donned our waterproofs, the dog got wet and sulked on our bed and we took turns inside as we’d been standing out for quite some time and started to get cold. A real dearth of photos taken today – too soggy!

We had a great time in the pub, caught up with everyone we’d met last year and planned some more meet-ups while we are up here.

Stratfield Brake

2011-07-07T15:41:00.000-07:00

We’d noticed what looked like a nature reserve and the new looking bridge just ahead of our boat that wasn’t marked on our map. This wooden footbridge leads to Stratfield Brake, a woodland trust nature reserve and it is worth a visit. There are woodlands and artificial wetlands and wonderful animal carvings. We also discovered that this is a shortcut to the main road and the big Sainsbury’s in Kidlington – great! Some things are hard to buy from small shops so I could stock up on certain things that we were missing - at last – brilliant!

Once I returned we set off and headed for Thrupp to meet boating friends. But Thrupp was absolutely chock –full so we ended up moored around the corner after the second lift bridge. We will see our friends later on in Lower Heyford.

That evening I made Otto Lenghi Garlic tart. I was so proud I took a photo. It is as good as it looks I can assure you

Back to the cut again!

2011-07-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

Took a walk past the caravan park this morning, intended to visit one of the villages but then realised it was quite a walk, instead we followed a footpath around the edge of a field then retraced our steps. Bablock Hythe is a large, modern caravan park with some of those park homes on it, can’t help but think how I prefer having a boat rather than a park home – if you’re going to live somewhere basic and small, then I’d rather have something I can move around.

Then a long days boating (for us) first of all we boated to Oxford, to Osney so I could do the washing. At Port Meadow we witnessed the strange spectacle of a cow mooing at the cows on the other side of the river, swimming right to the middle of the River then panicking and turning back. Silly cow could not read the environment agency warnings on how you shouldn’t try to swim across as the River is wider and deeper than you think. This reminded me that I haven’t swum at all on this trip, the weather has not been warm enough, which is a shame. At the laundry in Osney, In less than 90 minutes I’d done the equivalent of five normal machine loads (and dried everything), including washing the big rugs that we use to sit on outside and the cushion covers, bedding and towels. Pretty much everything got washed!

We set off back down the Thames, this time turning right into Dukes Cut. What a contrast. We came to our first lock, old, rickety, leaking and creaky. Welcome back to the cut!

It began to rain and we were so tired we ended up pulling in just outside Kidlington, before a wooden bridge, moored not very straight and on a bit of mud. It would do for one night.

To Bablock Hythe

2011-07-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

We made some headway today as we want to get to the Oxford Canal for a bit. Finally moored up at Bablock Hythe.

Ray the local legend of Lechlade

2011-07-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

Took the dog down this pretty wooded walk towards the Church this morning, all morning the bells were ringing and the town was very busy for a Monday.

When I did my final food shop in Lechlade I found out why. Went in the DIY shop to buy some brackets to fix the solar panel frame, the shopkeeper told me that it was Rays funeral, he’d sang in the choir or rang the bells at the Church for 70 years and he’d been born above that very shop, which is known locally as Ray’s shop, so a local hero, then.

I stopped at the junk shop, I wanted a butter dish that would stay cool out of the fridge, and I got wonderful heavy earthenware one that would be very practical for the boat.

We moored opposite the radio station for the night again, seeing as it was warm and sunny again, we got out the barbecue. We were treated to the most magnificent sunset and I took far too many photos of it.

The morning after

2011-07-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

As is traditional with camping, (well for me, anyway) I woke up with a crashing hangover at about 7am in a baking hot tent. So it was just like a proper festival. The dog was up first, probably coz the tent next door to us was making a cooked breakfast. I could hear them asking him if he wanted another sausage. Lucky dog.

We packed up and left by about 11am, there were still a couple of people passed out in tents, but most of the carnage had been cleared away. Back to the boat by early afternoon, where we waved our friends goodbye. Another roasting hot day.

Sue and Joes Wedstock

2011-07-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Today a wedding with a difference. Joe is Toby’s brothers business partner, together they run not only a chartered surveyors business, but also a plant nursery in Old Basildon (near Pangbourne) and today it is Joes turn to get wed – to Sue. They are surrounded by pasture and wanted to do a wedding with a difference, so the theme was a hippy wedding at a festival in 1969 and it would be in a field at the plant nursery. Groom wore a velvet suit and what could only be described as Mr Men shoes (bought from a vintage clothing seller from eBay) and the Brides wedding carriage was a bright orange VW campervan.

They had set up a proper festival, even a bouncy castle for the kids!

We guests camped in the field, we all had to wear fancy dress and Sue’s dad provided the music (mostly from 1969) Enjoy the photos. A wedding we will never forget. J

And mum, I know you wanted to see the plant nursery, so I’ve put some pics in just for you. J

Inglesham to Lechlade

2011-07-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Only a short hop today. We have a wedding to go to this weekend, we thought we’d leave the boat on the meadow at Lechlade. We just about managed to wind the boat without causing any damage. There was a dead tree threatening to put itself through one of our windows, but we escaped unscathed.

Our friends arrived in the afternoon, bringing our car, and other supplies for the wedding.

We had planned to do a barbecue, but it wasn’t really warm enough. So I made one of my standards, I had some duck in the freezer, so we had duck and lychee curry and sticky rice.

Phots are of where we moored at Inglesham, just so I can remind myself where we went for next time. We moored here following the lockies advice, a bit of a leap onto the bankside so if you don't fancy yourself as an acrobat, maybe it's not for you.

Caned the canoe

2011-06-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

Today was the mission that we’ve talked about for months. We really wanted to try to get to Cricklade in our canoe. So this is why we’ve moored so close to Inglesham. Before we set off, I took Rocky out for far too long a walk. Thought I’d follow the Thames Path further upstream. We were gone for nearly two hours as most of the walk is on the main road – unfortunately when the Thames Path was laid out as a national trail, not all landowners agreed to it on their land and at Inglesham It takes a spectacular detour.

So we set off to try to canoe to Cricklade only about 11am. Far too late as we later found out. We took a cool box of sandwiches, sausage rolls, water, all kinds of supplies, and spare clothes in dry bags, you name it. But we still looked very amateur compared to the kayakers in their helmets and safety gear, that we met coming downstream.

At Hannington Bridge we had to get out and tow, the water was only about 3 inch deep. Course the dog refused to get out, no way will he get his feet wet. But the trickiest bit to navigate was below Hannington Bridge, the River alternates between narrow, fast flowing, deep and reedy all the way across (meaning you have to barge through the reeds) to wide and so shallow you constantly run aground. The most difficult bit was a fallen willow – right across the navigation and just below the surface. It took us several run–ups to get over this obstacle and when much further upstream, I noticed our spare paddle had gone, suspected it might have been because of our frantic rocking and flailing about down here. Now I understand why the lockie said, ‘don’t forget to bring a saw.’

But this part of the Thames is very beautiful. You have it to yourself, apart from the odd kayaker or fly fisherman, the latter being amusing when you realise that he is paddling and you are canoeing through water that can’t be more than six inches deep. You pass manor houses surrounded by tumbledown stone walls, secret Churches and you are surrounded by wildlife all of the time. Pairs of kingfishers escorted us all the way and a juvenile kite watched us from a fencepost, only feet away.

What a contrast from the wedding cake plastic and the vast expanse of water and the showy houses of the Middle Thames. I think I’ll have this bit, please, you can keep the rest.

After four hours and less than two miles short of Cricklade, we had to make the decision to turn back. Both of us exhausted from paddling, we wanted to be back before dark and still with our arms. We vowed that NEXT time we come up here will be the time when we definitely will get to Cricklade.

Finally at Lechlade

2011-06-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

I love Lechlade. It's one of my favourite towns on this River. So great to be back.

We were both excited about our planned canoeing mission and we told every lockie on the way up about our plans to get to Cricklade.

I get the impression some thought we were mental. They all told us the River was low, there were many reeds and probably some fallen trees. One of them told us to take a saw!

We arrived in Lechlade at about 4.30pm, very late to go shopping for food so I dashed off. There's a chance we'll have a barbecue when our friends arrive. I did manage to get to http://www.cutlerandbayliss.co.uk/ before it closed. I bought lots of bacon and some burgers, some veg and bread, then to the Londis for other bits.

Then back to the boat for dinner, relaxing and then later on this amazing sunset.

Snooping and being suspicious

2011-06-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

So nice, here, we thought we'd stay another day and do some exploring.

On our map we could see marked a 'Signal Station'. It looks on the map a bit like the one at Rugby but in reality we couldn't see much. But there was a public footpath so we thought we'd take a look.

We crossed the weir at the lock. This lock still has the traditional 'Paddle and Rymer.' Weir. The flow is altered by adding or removing the paddles. Toby tells me as a child him and his brother Ben, being typical small boys thought they'd play with the tops of the paddles and the lockie came out and chased them away.

The footpath to the signal station is a lovely, old country lane. Must've been really old because Toby found a huge fossil there!

At the top of the lane we discovered that the signal station is now a business park. They haven't removed any of the security, though. It must be weird working in an office with two layers of barbed wire fence and a watch tower. We also found an information board for RAF Bampton Castle. I took a photo, we do this whenever we see information boards, so we can read them later and Google information.

As I photo'ed it, a woman asked us if we were lost. She seemed very suspicious of us and wasn't buying it when I said we were interested in local history (which we are!). Oh well. Nice walk anyway and excellent mooring, we've marked it on our map for next time.

Blew Canoe

2011-06-27T04:45:00.000-07:00

Quite an exciting thing happened today.

But first: I took the dog out around Chimney Meadows a nature reserve adjacent to where we were moored. Dear Baoter, you may have seen the Strictly No Mooring Signs painted on the pill boxes. Well, this is because this area is all designated SSSI. They've recently fenced the entire area off from the towpath and put up signs explaining that this is to stop the cattle wandering into the Thames, but mostly to keep peoples dogs from going crashing about in the grassland and flushing out the wildlife.

And the exciting thing? Well, We left our nettly thistly paradise still in the midst of heatwave. We hadn't been going that long when a gust of wind picked up the canoe off our roof and deposited it in the river next to us, the right way up! Oh my!

We found an excellent field mooring in the evening, above Rushey Lock, looks like a hay meadow, perhaps it is grazed from time-to-time.

Farmoor Biltong Emporium

2011-06-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

The weather had forecasted a heatwave today. All started quite cloudy.

Before walking the dog in the morning, I thought I'd investigate Farmoor. We'd run out of eggs. The Nicholsons Guide said 'stores.'

It was quite a yomp into the village, I eventually found a shop on the main road to Oxford. Looked like a normal shop from the outside but sold very odd stuff. Alongside the usual papershop fodder was alot of barbecue food, not your usual stuff, but coiled sausages that were bigger than dinner plates (actually probably even bigger than trays!) Plus a whole section of wall devoted to biltong and a freezer full of even more sausages. Then barbecue sauces of all descriptions and charcoal. Dear Boater if you are reading this and planning a barbecue, you could do lots worse than visit this store. I discovered this shop even has a website. http://www.tasteofsouthafrica.com/ So not your normal village store at all!

Before we left we investigated 'Farmoor Countryside Walk' It's basically a footpath going all the way round the reservoir and is worth the effort. About 4.5 miles.

As we set off the heatwave started. As it was Sunday there were many boats around and we had to pull in somewhere with thistles and nettles and do a bit of gardening. In the evening we took the canoe off and went exploring, looking for a stream that was on our map. We discovered it was full of reeds so no go.

Wind and Rain, Eynsham to Farmoor - i.e. not far!

2011-06-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

A windy, rainy morning. Took the dog out along the towpath.

Our main mission today was to get diesel, I think we are really running out. So we headed for the marina.

We passed DB Helianthus, just moored on the towpath outside the marina, she had a tree fall on her, must've only just happened, infact it could've landed on us when we'd been out with the dog!

But the boat is big and the tree looked quite light. I made a point of telling the man when I went into the office to buy diesel.

He told us that they were about to repair a widebeam boat. A dutch barge went out of control in the Thames and Kennet marina (near Reading), it was stuck on forwards. It crashed around, hitting several boats. It had not but a scratch on it, but the widebeam now has a deep 'v' in the side and the granite worktop inside has been pushed forwards about 8 inches and smashed. To fix it they will have to cut out the affected panel and weld a new one, before refitting a large part of the interior!

We got our diesel and headed only round the corner and through a lock to Farmoor, where there was a Rallentando sized space waiting for us on the visitor moorings.

Chinese Supermarket Guide to the Navigations of England

2011-06-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Time to leave Oxford, but not before I could find a Chinese supermarket and stock up. I managed to pick up some Nori (dried seaweed) and some garlic shoots to put in my fried rice. They didn't have any dried tofu though, hopefully our supplies will last.

I must, by now, know the location of every Chinese supermarket on the system.

The Buddha of Binsey

2011-06-23T03:25:00.001-07:00

I've been busy again, for the past few days - on arrival in Osney I took an unfeasable amount of washing to the launderette on Botley Road, imagine my joy when it was completely empty and I could commandeer the biggest machines and most of the dryers!

Monday it was time for keibi again, that's my volunteering at Buddhist, grand culture centre - Taplow Court. In my team is a guy who lives almost next to the visitor moorings. He told me about a member who runs a pub opposite Port Meadow and invited me to a chanting session there on Thursday morning.

Tuesday I went into London, first of all to see the dentist (eek) to have my temporary filling removed and replaced with a permanent one. I could feel pain after the first injection, so he gave me another, much stronger one. I walked around for most of the afternoon feeling like he'd replaced my face with a selection of inflatable pool toys. It didn't hurt, it felt most odd.

In the evening, a Buddhist discussion meeting and then back to Naomi's warehouse (where I stayed the night). Her housemates cooked a huge meal to celebrate the solstice. We drank red wine and had a bit of a late one!

Wednesday morning, a business meeting and a new design brief in the centre of town, then back to Oxford and back to the boat.

This morning was great, went to chant with the pub landlord (and several other Buddhists) in Binsey, a beautiful unspoilt village which is owned by one of the Oxford Colleges. I got to hear his story about how he took on the tenancy of the pub and transformed it and some of the disasters along the way (like when the thatched roof caught on fire).

They have a really great chapter here, in Oxford - I got details of the other chapter in the city and hopefully will be able to attend their womens meeting in Jericho next week. I love being an SGI Member, it's a network of friends, worldwide, I can be sure that wherever I moor the boat, some of those friends will not be far away. :)

The Rains

2011-06-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

Checked the weather forecast while out with the dog, didn't look good at all. So we pulled pins soon as I returned to the boat. We thought we'd aim for Eynsham on the other side of Oxford.

By the time we got to Osney bridge in Oxford, it was raining but we pressed on. We saw the (now infamous) aground boat at Port Meadow - I must be the tenth blogger to mention this, I reckon. He is very aground and won't be going anywhere for a while I reckon.

The moorings at Godstow nunnery were full (as usual) so we pressed on. We did make it to Eynsham in time for it to really chuck it down.

I took the dog out, anyway, I put my waterproofs on and walked into Eynsham village, to have a look (didn't get the chance last year). Will be back here tomorrow (will remember a camera this time), to buy supplies. As we walked back, two hire boats of stag party came past (at warp speed, naturally), they were already half cut despite the hire base being less than a mile from here. :D

It was too wet to do much, so we all stayed in, I read a book and they played this Mario game and that Mario game on the laptop. The dog slept.

I'm on a bit of a cooking fad at the moment, so I made a pork and lemongrass curry with rice sticks for tea, then I baked a whole jar worth of cookies. I went a bit mad with the ingredients so they are actually wholewheat chocolate cookies with fudge, white and dark chocolate chips and walnuts and banana chips as well. I predict they will last about two days.

I will upload photos (including the evidence that we did have a full jar of cookies onboard, once), when I've got a better internet connection.

This ditch and that ditch

2011-06-16T05:03:00.001-07:00

The Swift Ditch is the original course of the Thames past Abingdon, we took a walk in the morning to see if it was possible to get a canoe down there. The answer was no, many weirs and fallen trees.

But we did find the remains of what was the first Thames pound lock. You can make out the old lock chamber. The weir is cill shaped - could this be the original cill of the lock or not?

I wonder whether the next stream (full of weeds) is the old bywash?

Lots of nice mooring to be had out here, my kind of mooring, quiet, rural and with a good 3g connection. We set off about 11am, for Oxford. We moored up a couple of hours later, on the outskirts of Oxford, between a railway bridge and a road bridge, because it looked like there were more streams and cuts to explore. I stayed onboard and the guys took the canoe. They managed to get quite a long way, discovering a marina and finally admitting defeat when turned back by several large weirs.

In the evening we went to the Isis Farmhouse for a drink. I love this pub. Great choice of bottled ales and ciders by small-time producers, everything has to be delivered by boat (no road access) and most of the punters (if they didn't arrive by an actual punt) came by bike.

Very odd opening hours too - according to the local rag the owner is a part time psychiatrist. Perhaps that's why the pub is closed Mon-Weds?

More Noing

2011-06-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Headed to Abingdon this aft. Needed a pitstop to stock up on Soymilk and ale and meat products for our guest.

Very busy when we got here. I love the waterfront in Abingdon, it's really attractive, but the town has some disappointing 1960's shopping centre bits so I didn't hang around.

We moored against the railings on the waterfront, Abingdon was proper packed with boats and boaters, I wonder if it's because Bob (of nb Chiswick) who died last month? His funeral is tomorrow, he will be taken on his final journey, on his boat from Abingdon lock, to Sutton Courteney. Poor Bob. Like alot of places on the Thames, if there's no boat there already, boaters assume you can't moor there. Well, couldn't see any 'More Noing' signs, it was marked in our Thames guide (no, not the Nicholsons Guide, the proper guide. We could just about get the boat in as it was shallow and I had to perform a death leap to get onto the bankside.

One of the Charity shops in Abingdon is great though, with a proper retro section. I bought a maxi skirt which I intend to wear to the next wedding , it's in a couple of weekends time, on the land adjoining Tobys brothers plant nursery, in Old Basildon and has a hippy theme. We have to dress in hippy clothes and camp in a tent, it's a private festival. Went to Waitrose and stuck to my shopping list (for once) no time to waste gotta get back....

On our return, more boaters looking for somewhere to tie up for the night, asking us if they could moor there.

We set off again, I cooked some rice on the way, doing fried rice for tea, needed to get it cooked and cooled before we tie up or it'll be too wet to use. Discovered that I could check the rice's progress whilst in Abingdon lock because the bowline reaches all the way to the cooker, even when it's looped around a bollard. Bet Nigella never has to think about stuff like that.

There was room on the 24hours moorings above Abingdon Lock either (and no one sharing bollards either teehee - reckon they could've fitted another nb in there had they done so). But we didn't plan to moor there anyway. We found a spot on Andersey Island, it is formed by the original channel of the Thames (now called the Swift Ditch) and the new channel. It is really beautiful, very biodiverse. Took the dog out immediately and admired it. We've not got the best spot of all here, the path runs close to the boat and I think there's a wasps nest near our stern end. (Eeek). A Dutch Barge moored further up has the best spot and they know it. They were sitting in their wheelhouse all glowing with smugness. Next time that spot may be mine bwahahahaa.

Cooked Kho Pad Moo - it's Thai pork fried rice. Just found it on Google. I did it to use up some BBQ pork belly that we hadn't eaten on our barbie yesterday. Very nice it was too. There is a 3g connection here (oh yes!), so here I am updating my blog while the boys play Mario Cart on the other laptop.

The First successful Barbecue of the Season. OR: Is there a Next???

2011-06-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Instead of moving on, we thought we'd take advantage of the lack of a gale force wind and the sunny weather and location and have a barbecue.

So that meant a trip back into Dorchester to buy some meat products. Toby hates retail environments so in order for him to accompany me, I had to assure him that Dorchester does not have a Next, or anything remotely like it. Not even a Next Concession, or a Next Shelf in the Co-op. It's not that he doesn't like Next, it's that it reminds him of civilisation, of busy shopping malls etc.

Back at the boat, I marinaded and we got the barbie going. This time it lit properly, we didn't get blown away and all the food cooked perfectly.

The only thing that was overdone was the sunset photography. Do you know anyone who doesn't overdo it when taking photos of sunsets? I might need another harddrive, just to store the sunsets.

www.ecoboat.com The eco friendly boat workshop company.

2011-06-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast was good for today, so once everyone was up in the morning, we took a walk along the Dyke Hills, then crossed the River Thames at the pooh sticks bridge, in order to climb Wittenham Clumps. AKA Mother Dunch's buttocks. Mother Dunch allegedly lived in the Manor House at Little Wittenham. I wonder if she was the J-Lo of her day to have such a magnificent arse that these hills were named after them?

Wittenham Clumps is managed by the Earth Trust http://www.earthtrust.org.uk/Places/at-little-wittenham/Wittenham-Clumps.aspx and you can do all sorts of eco aware workshops such as ~~yoghurt weaving~~ buiding your own shelter etc. A local farm grazes their animals here and they run some of the workshops, one of which appeared to be going on when we visited. On closer inspection they were digging up thistles.

Toby says I am a massive cynic because I thought, 'what a brilliant idea,' get someone to do your backbreaking farm tasks FOR NOWT by repackinging it as an eco workshop. Why hadn't I thought of that?

SO.... I'm going to register the following URL, www.ecoboat.com I'm going to offer the following workshops -

Thetford Cassette Toilet emptying followed by a bog seat cleaning workshop (we use eco friendly chemicals of course).

Washing up aboard (with Ecover)

Vegetarian Cookery Afloat -Skills include using Google maps to find Waitrose, there you have to buy the ingredients and then you have just one afternoon to navigate there and back by canoe and cook the meal, which I will judge.

Laundry Workshop - Again this demonstrates the use of Ecover and also navigational skills. You learn how to locate the nearest launderette and take a boatload of washing to it. Points deducted for any splashes.

Rufus

2011-06-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

We're moored near the mouth of the River Thame. This is definately a fvourite spot of ours, since last year. The guys took the canoe into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorchester_on_Thames via this River and I walked with the dog. Dorchester is really pretty and not blighted by cars, it has a bypass. It has an abbey, which is impressive. And look at the poppies in a thatched cottage back garden. Wow!

On the way back, I walked over the Dyke Hills, (an Iron Age Oppidum), which Rocky loved, I think the Dyke Hills, translated into dog is 'Massive Long Rabbit Warren.' He ran himself ragged trying to catch them.

On returning to the boat we seemed to have a new friend, Rufus, the dog. He just appeared and he wasn't going anywhere. Rocky was most unimpressed. We phoned his owner and they were most unbothered. 'He knows his way home,' they said. Rufus staked us out for about a further two hours, sitting on the bankside staring through our doors and whining, then he gave up at about 8pm and went home.

The Aftermath

2011-06-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

Such an 'after the wedding' day today. We all had sore heads, not everyone had made it back to the boat (!) and it just poured down all day. Him indoors' friend (a wedding guest) waved goodbye to his partner because he is staying with us on the boat for the next week. She can't stay, which is a shame, she works in education and is just too busy right now with students finals.

The Wedding

2011-06-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

The big day finally arrived. Ben and Lou's wedding, that's Ben, my partners Brother, who lives in Goring. They were to be married in the local Church.

In the morning we moved to the visitor moorings - we have friends staying onboard and wanted then to be able to find us easily. I trimmed Him Indoors' beard, trying to make him less Boatman and more Bestman. I have to say, once in his suit he looked quite dapper, he suits a suit, he does.

The reception was held on the Caversham Princess. Here are a selection of photos from the day.

It was a great wedding. By the time we'd all been booted off the boat at 10.30 and everyone had decamped to The Swan, where most of the guests were staying, it all got a bit messy. We knew there'd been another wedding locally and Lou was able to swap notes with the bride!

Back to London - again

2011-06-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

And to my dentists to see him about this cracked tooth. :-O It didn't hurt despite a HUGE chunk falling off.

We had moored at Cholsey so I walked to the station (about a 20 min walk). Cholsey is on an old Branchline. Big station. I collected lots of leaflets about the local area and now know that Agatha Christie is buried in the Churchyard here and that the local restored trainline to Wallingford has Guinness trains and you can hire them for parties. I like the idea of drinking the ale on the trains that they run here!

Only a 55 min trip to London and I made it to Tottenham High Road for 10.30am for my appointment. The dentist put in a temporary filling and I'm coming back on the 21st for a proper one. .

Ran errands in town, went to chant with a Buddhist friend in Stamford Hill and then straight onto a Buddhist planning meeting in Seven Sisters.

By the time I'd trained it back to Cholsey and stepped back on the boat it was 11.45 at night. Pleased to be back.

Pauls visit

2011-06-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

We just waved off Paul (Him indoors Aunts' foster son) after a pub lunch at the Bell in Crowmarsh Gifford. I hope he had as good a time as we did.

First day he was with us, he went to him indoors brothers plant nursery in Old Basildon. They unloaded a forest of mature trees from a truck. Yes, you heard that correctly. A forest. I don't have photos of said forest so Paul if you are reading this, we'd like the photographic evidence so I can post it here. Needless to say they were all exhausted, so the following day, we boated up to Cholsey, moored overnight and had a barbecue at the nature reserve. At Cholsey there is the site of an old ferry, a beautiful field of pink poppies and also something more sinister. We were told that this was the old grounds of Fairmile asylum. This complex is now being turned into luxury apartments. A quick Google turns up countless creepy 'Urban Explorer' photo albums. I particularly like this recent one. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=9d1877c26dd4a217f4ba3847b71b8458&t=61355

As we moored up for the night, this fascinating home made canoe/ camping craft passed us. Now this, I love. In the more pioneering days of boating as a leisure activity, I'm told this sort of sight was more common. But isn't it brilliant? He has everything he needs, shelter, shade and even a sail!

Now I don't know about anyone else, but our first barbecue of the summer is always the 'Awkward First Barbecue of the Season.' We never get it properly lit. This year was no different. We have a http://www.portablebbq.org.uk/grilletto-son-of-hibachi/ barbecue - if you have one like this, I don't recommend you use briquettes, the barbecue is too small for them to really get going. Especially ones that have been languishing in the bow locker all winter. *Sigh* I had to do a pyrotechnics demonstration, squirting more and more barbecue lighter fluid on the thing, in order to encourage it to light. It was a bit feeble but at least I didn't have to resort to the oven, like last year. I've since bought a bag of lumpwood charcoal. better luck next time!

Goring with a not boring view

2011-05-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

A brief pitstop in Goring before we picked Paul up in Pangbourne. Rocky and I climbed the hill opposite the visitor moorings - what a view!

Mapledurham - we'll give it a miss - thanks

2011-05-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

After Reading, we pondered stopping at Mapledurham. We emptied our bins and our loos and our recycling. We had an ice cream.

Mapledurham is only open weekends and Bank Holidays and only for a few hours at a time. But the entire place appeared to be full of toddlers. A quick Google told us that Peppa Pig and Ben Ten were in residence. We were about 38 years too old for that, So we moved on.

On the way from Mapledurham to Pangbourne, we passed one of my favourite houses on the Thames, this 'enchanted' looking cottage perched halfway up the hill. Looks like it should have a witch in residence!

So we boated to Pangbourne instead. Foster son of him indoors Aunt is coming to stay in a couple of days - I needed to do laundry and stock up on food.

I saw an amazing butterfly on the ground on the way back from the shops.

We were kept awake by the Caversham Princess trip boat in the evening - in a couple of weeks we'll be attending a wedding reception on the same boat - keeping other boaters awake I expect.

Reading

2011-05-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

We've been moored up here in Reading for a couple of days now, we're near the leisure centre, (just before the bit by the fields where they hold the Reading Festival ). It's free to moor here, reasonably quiet (more later) and fine as long as you don't mind goose poo (there is lots!).

We left Sonning on the 27th, (yesterday) first stop was Tescos, where we did a big shop and bought an RAC membership (much needed as friends are borrowing our car whilst we are away). Wish I'd had my camera ready when five hire boats came by, all crew in fancy dress, one pirates, one vikings, one Baywatch, one fishermen and one Royal Navy, lol, they looked brilliant!

After Tescos another pitstop at Better Boating one of the few places on the Thames where you can just about afford to buy diesel and is worth a look if only for the shop.

Then we shared the next lock with three skiffs, each flying a Dutch flag, with occupants in red and white. They are on a rowing holiday, twelve boats in all, and sure enough we saw Reading Rowing Club flying a Dutch flag, further on, the boaters were arriving there, to leave their boats for the night before the next leg in the morning.

In the evening I made black pepper tofu and rice, from my new veggie cookbook, Plenty very very good. We only eat meat about twice a week now, so we're not really vegetarians, it just means that when we do we buy the nice, organic, free range meat instead. I'm having alot of fun learning new veggie recipes.

I thought I might have a rough night due to noise from a party in a marquee in the garden of one of the big mansions across the river AND a boaters party on this side but I was out for the count within minutes.

Today, I went back into Reading to buy baking beans, I'm going to try making the Garlic tart in new cookbook, perhaps tomorrow. This is the recipe if you want a go yourself, or alternatively I can come and breathe on you on Monday morning. Then we went to the canoe shop where we'd got our canoe last year and bought a shorter paddle (for our more vertically challenged guests) and a better Thames guide (because the Nicholsons one isn't that great).

Sonning, rain, conference calls and four hours walking.

2011-05-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

In the morning, I took the dog to the romantic netting fields, then took myself into Sonning in order to find a post office to post a magazine to a client. Unsurprisingly, the only sign of what was once the Post Office was a pretty cottage named 'The Post House.' Sonning High street does not have a single shop left in it, but mum you would've loved it as it is a chocolate-box-pretty village (despite the constant downpours). The pic at the top of this post is of a commemorative gate dedicated to a school teacher from the Reading Bluecoat School who drowned in the Thames. Not sure I think of that? Is a gate going out onto the River is encouraging people to drown or what? I hope they keep it locked?

We'd planned to get all of our work done before we set off this year but life's never that simple. Have been freelance for eight years and whilst we love the freedom, with this freedom comes unpredictability. I have to say I'm used to it, now, it doesn't ruffle my feathers at all.

Last year we had 3G dongle woes on the Oxford Canal, there's no 3G after Banbury as you go North and by the time we'd got to Wormleighton I was standing on the top of bridges balancing my laptop on my head in desperation to get a signal.

This year I've unlocked my dongle (hur hur hur) and I've been collecting sims for different networks. We've also got a high gain ariel. I've already noticed a difference.

So when we took on a project for to design girls shoes for *insert name of famous toy company here* to be sold in *insert name of famous supermarket here* in March and the final submission was a whole week before we set off at the start of this month, it all seemed like it would work out fine.

What happened in reality was that we were passed onto three different employees before we'd even submitted our first lot of work!

It then took six weeks for the client to arrange a conference call and by ingenious way of fixing my phone on the inside of a porthole (so it wouldn't cut out), using headphones and putting it on speaker phone I actually managed a 45 minute conference call with them, to review what we've done so far and they never suspected I was on a boat, LOL.

So far so good, but I expect I'll be drawing shoes til the middle of next month!

Following the conference call, we took the dog out again and I walked on, into Reading, had a look around and eventually came back to the boat. Worked out I've only walked for four hours today, no wonder my legs ache!

The romantic poppy fields err I mean the romantic orange netting fields

2011-05-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

After three nights on The Lynch, we decided to move on. We thought we'd do just a short hop to Sonning. We set off in the afternoon, moored on the EA moorings above the lock.

We took Rocky out soon as we'd moored up, he had a bad case of cabin fever. We headed towards the nature reserve on the way into Reading. It reminded me of Tottenham Marsh, lots of wild flowers and 'oh look, poppies, how lovely'.' When we got closer we discovered the poppies was a load of that orange netting that BW is very fond of. BAH!

The Lynch

2011-05-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

We've been moored on The Lynch for three nights - this is one of two islands between Shiplake and Sonning Lock. It's a popular spot because it's free, peaceful and it's an island so you can pretend to be a castaway for a bit.

The first night we got there, I did a big handwash in the bath, I have a spin dryer onboard so it's quite easy to get things pretty clean and dry. Course for the first time in weeks it actually rained so we were surrounded by damp laundry as I couldn't hang it out.

It was so windy, we had to be careful where we moored. During the time we were there I was on the other side of the island (where we had moored last year) and a huge bit of ash tree came crashing down, fortunately I was nowhere near it.

The island is a bit full of nettles in the middle but also quite full of banded demoiselles, when you walk through the centre they all fly out of the comfrey at once and you feel like you've discovered a magical fairy paradise.

We couldn't be bothered to use the canoe, again because of the wind, so the dog got a bit bored, being stuck on the island. He's not the kind of dog to go off exploring on his own, he sulked on the sofa instead.

A tad on the windy side.

2011-05-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

Woke up several times in the night because it actually rained and the noise woke me up.

Did not get up at six as planned, him indoors got up first and laughed when he found me and the dog sprawled on our backs on the bed cabin later on.

After a walk through the nature reserve near our moorings we decided to set off, plan to moor on one of the islands after Shiplake Lock. The minute the key went in the ignition - tropical style downpour - typical. But like a tropical downpour it didn't last. After five cups of tea (him not me) we were on our way.

A very windy day indeed, lost our coriander pot just before the railway bridge (that's one recipe I've got to alter now) and we nearly lost me on the approach to Shiplake Lock. Got water after the lock, epmtied the bins and after another mile (ish) of boating we were at The Lynch, an uninhabited overgrown Thames island and a favourite spot of ours.

Nice to be moored somewhere that we don't have to pay!

Henleys Half-Cut Bridesmaids.

2011-05-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

We're moored up in Henley now and I'm waiting for the sub captain to come back from a fruitless trip back from London.

We set of from Medmenham this morning, I took the dog out towards the campsite to recce it incase our friends want to get together and camp there in the future. Looked pretty good, several natural sandy beaches so good for kids.

We decided to head for Henley so Sub Captain could go and pick up his repaired laptop from Currys in Tottenham. I wanted to look round Henley, I missed it last year.

We went through the bridge headed for the moorings nearest the station then did a u-turn when we realised they wanted £9. NINE QUID! Absolutely no way is a tight Yorshirewoman like me going to fork out that much to moor.

So we're now on the other meadow as you come into Henley and a lot nicer it is too.

I had a nice afternoon in town, did a weekly shop in Waitrose during which I recieved a very angry call from him indoors, his laptop isn't ready after all and he has trailed all the way into London to find this out.

I named this post after the scores of Thames launches you see hurtling up and down the river in Henley of a Saturday, all which seem to be transporting drunken bridesmaids from this wedding or that wedding. It's like a more glamorous version of Stobart spotting.

Edited to add, just after I finished this post I was outside with the dog eating one of my cookies when my tooth broke and I swallowed the bit that came off. :/ Next stop dentists, I reckon.

Water Research institute Medmenham

2011-05-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of websites such as Abandoned Britain. Today, I got my own chance at snooping around an abandoned site. Took the dog out up Ferry Lane in the morning, as I mentioned the local Man dem started a fire past night, it seemed that the firemen had had to break their way into an old abandoned office complex to put it out. Well I'm going to let the pictures tell their own story. Seems the site was sold for development years ago, but nothing has happened in the meantime. What a waste! Look at the huge amount of unused land!

New article about the fire here Article about the institute here

The 'St Albans Special Edition' Tom Tom.

2011-05-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

No boating today. Him indoors has to be measured for a suit for the imminent wedding we are attending in Goring next month. His brother is getting married, he will be best man and before anyone asks again, no he won't be shaving his beard off.

So we arranged for his dad to drive down and meet us for lunch at the Dog and Badger then from there they would drive to Newbury to get measured. We gave him the postcode for the satnav, we arranged to meet him at the dog and badger pub at 11.30am.

11.30 came and went, 12.00 came and went, as did 12.30. He finally showed up at nearly one. The darned Sat Nav insisted on trying to send him to St Albans (as it always does apparently), then it stopped working, so he used a map instead.

I wonder if the TomTom is possessed by the spirit of St Albans and tries to send you on a pilgrimage every time you use it?

Medmenham Man dem

2011-05-19T03:06:00.000-07:00

Mooring our boat in Tottenham (as we do), we're familiar with the gang culture among some local 'yoot' . They tend to name their gangs after the location and either 'boyz' (which I find quite odd, because it seems so camp and 'boy band'), or 'Man Dem.'

We moored in the slightly tongue twisterishly named place Medmenham this afternoon. We hadn't planned to, but when emptying our loo at a lock we bumped into Nb Zodiac - we know them from CWDF and they mentioned they were stopping there.

Well it did look nice, so we copied them and moored up there too. (After running aground first of all, but I didn't tell you that). We had noticed from the map that there is a pub on the main road - we needed to meet him indoors' dad tomorrow - we could give him the postcode for his satnav.

We had a wonder up the village street (Ferry Lane), we admired the memorial erected when the ferry was declared public (LOL). We admired the restored cannons in someones garden and a wall of flowers. We couldn't get a drink in the pub, though, does not open all day.

And the man dem say you, why a post about gangs?

Well, we took the dog out in the evening when we saw a black plume of smoke rising from behind the trees, from the direction of a boarded up and fenced off 'water research centre'. Looked like arson to us and fire engines came, lights blazing and sirens blaring. Didn't think that such a pretty village as Medmenham would have it's own 'man dem', but there you go. And it makes a great tongue twister too!

Face Slashage

2011-05-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today (as part of my 2011 regime to take better care of my health), I had a mole removed from my face. Was a bit worried about it as it seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, so off it had to come.

The operation was simple painless and straightforward, what I didn't like was the smell of my own flesh burning when the doctor cauterised the edges of the wound, or the enormous dressing he put on afterwards.

The actual wound is less than 8mm accross, the dressing covered half my face.

I ran a few errands in London and put up with the stares, then arrived back at Marlow about 4pm

I stopped off at Boots to buy a much smaller transparent dressing on my way back, I was having visions of a huge square white tan mark on my face for the whole of 2011 - I'm not at all vain, but that would look so daft!

Eco balls

2011-05-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Haven't done any laundry since we left and it was now reaching monumental proportions.

There is a dearth of laundrettes in the Thames Valley, so service wash it was, I think most people have a 'little man' that comes and takes their laundry for them, so I set out in search of a little man to do mine.

I found these dry cleaners on Bridge Road Eco Dry Cleaners

Bit confused by use of the word Eco as there is nothing 'Eco' about dry cleaning fluid, nor tumble drying. But I'm not gonna diss them - they were fast (ready same day) they gave me a free laundry bag (I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing) and they weren't that expensive.

Then following pick-up, back to London again for a Buddhist meeting. Tomorrow morning I'm getting my face slashed in Palmers Green (more later) so I'm staying at Nims warehouse tonight after the meeting. Toby decided to leave for a Cliveden Island again and we arranged to meet in Marlow tomorrow evening.

Keibi, Bapseys Pond and paranormal goings on.

2011-05-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

What's keibi, say you?

I'm a Buddhist, our national centre is at Taplow Court, it's kind of next door to Cliveden. This year I committed to helping in the offices and reception there for one day a month for two years , 'called keibi' and today it was my turn.

There are six of us in each team who meet every month. Keibi number one (our leader, I guess) was finishing today after five years, but the rest of us (two of us new and three just starting their second year) will carry on.

I caught the train from Marlow to Taplow. Considering how close they are to each other it took a while as I had to change trains twice, then walk 20 mins to make it there for 9.

As Taplow is a stateley home, although we aren't really open to the public (apart from on open days, when you can get a guided tour and we serve cream teas), we do get lots of visitors, many from overseas an usually quite a few Japanese as we are a sect of Japanese Buddhism. So there is always a Japanese speaking tour guide on duty and also a greeter.

So when two men arrived in the afternoon with this page about Bapseys Pond printed off from the internet, I called the greeter to help them. I didn't know anything about Bapseys Pond, the estate is quite big and the pond is quite hidden from the lie of the land. The greeter then took them to see it and then came back a while later speechless and as white as a sheet and I couldn't work out why.

The two guys were Iranian and they were very keen to know more about our Buddhism, I managed to pull some literature together for them by which time the greeter had just about compose herself enough to go and take them to see the Gohonzon (The mandala which we chant to).

Later on I caught up with her and found out why she was so shocked. She said they had seen an apparition of a woman coming out of the pond. She said they then asked to see the Gohonzon where they chanted for half an hour and then they left. No wonder she was so shocked!

After all that excitement I was overjoyed that Toby had moved the boat to the EA moorings in Maidenhead. Home in just 20 minutes!

Back to the boat

2011-05-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

I arrived back to the boat worn out and alcoholically poisoned (probably) about 4pm on Sunday.

Him indoors had had a leisurely weekend moored on an island at Cliveden Reach whilst I paraded around Torquay in a bright blue full length satin Bridesmaid dress. *shudder*

No rest for the wicked though, got to do Keibi at Taplow Court tomorrow.

Marlow-London-Torquay

2011-05-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

Caught the train back to London with mum this morning. She is going home and I am going on a hen weekend in Torquay (eeek!) .

Put mum on the 13.10 train back to Leeds then awaited further instructions by the departure boards. Our friend Jess is using our car whilst we are boating and it was she who was picking me (and another hen) up in our car. I waited for her call.

Turns out the other hen had been standing right next to me in the station for 20 minutes.

After a manic five minutes as Jess kept driving past the station too fast to pick us up, she found a place to park and her partner came to meet us. He will be man-sitting whilst I am away. :D All I had to do was provide the pizzas.

It took us over an hour to get off the Marylebone Road. We arrived in Marlow gone 3pm, time to drop the man-sitter off and have a quick cuppa then it was my job to keep Jess awake and driving by yakking at her nonstop (I can't drive), so we could all get to Torquay in one piece.

We finally arrived at the hotel at 7.30pm

Cliveden to Cookham and Marlow

2011-05-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

The last day of mums stay. We boated to Cookham in the morning, only had a brief look around, a beautiful village, spoilt, like many villages by a race-track of a main road going right through it.

We then boated to Marlow, mooring on the free EA moorings below Marlow Lock.

Mum and I had lunch in a cafe called Burgers (that didn't seem to sell any burgers), then we had a look around the town. For those of you into cooking there is a fab kitchen shop here - gadget-tastic.

Windsor to Cliveden

2011-05-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

I love Cliveden and I knew mum would too, so that's where we headed.

The Cliveden moorings are excellent and are a great base for visiting the grounds. We had a great day here wandering around. We had a cake and coffee in the cafe.

On our return to the boat, we got the tealight lanterns out and all sat outside on the bankside drinking wine until it got dark.

Happy Birthday Mum!

2011-05-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

Mums birthday this morning, so we both took a stroll over to the monuments at Runnymede. I wanted to show my mum the 'Steps of Death' these are actually called the Steps of Individuality but I don't recommend you try walking on them if your sight or health isn't what it should be, hence the name.

We then set off for Windsor. The dog was very confused by the sight of a coach and horses in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

When we arrived I treated mum to birthday lunch at Patisserie Valerie. My tip to you. If you eat at this cafe and sit outside, make sure you sit on the side which doesn't have the cake window behind you. Because you will be forever interrupted by small boys and ravenous middle aged women, pushing their way between the chairs and tables to get a better look at the goodies on show there.

We decided to not stay the night here, too busy, moved the boat to the EA moorings by Dorney Lake.

Kingston to Runnymede

2011-05-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

Had a rough old night, but seems I was the only one to suffer! Everyone else slept like a log.

Like a terrier fixating on a rat, I had fixated on a group of teenagers, who were just minding thier own business giggling and chatting on the bankside til 1 or 2am?

In the morning I took the dog out in Hampton Court grounds, it could've gone very quickly pear shaped as I only just noticed the deer and rabbits before the dog did and put him on the lead. I very nearly became known as 'that woman with the out of control dog!' Phew!

Anyway, mum and I went into Kingston for a look round that turned into a four hour epic shopping trip/day out. It's worth knowing that there's a Monday market in Kingston, at the bus station.

Also lots of charity shops. And a TK Maxx where I finally bought a huge stainless steel pot (for jam making) and a little one to replace the camping pan that I've been using to cook veg on my stove top.

I had planned that we go to Walton, today, but we were so tired we carried on boating until we arrived at Runnymede.

Bulls Bridge to the Thames

2011-05-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

High achievement day.

Set off for the Hanwell flight at about 10.30am, no need to go earlier as the Thames lock would not be open until 16.45 and none of us fancied the 5am opening! Once again I think we've been lucky with this flight. It is notorious for water problems and rubbish, but again there wasn't much evidence of this. Ok, there was rubbish behind three of the lock gates but it didn't impede our progress. We shared with a couple on nb Solomon, also headed for the Thames and arrived at Brenford with three hours to spare. Mum and I had a kip, then I made an enormous apple pie. I am rubbish at baking but I bought a bag of apples from Costco a week ago, and they went wrinkly and horrid in about two days. So I hate waste, so I made a pie. And it came out the oven just as we entered the Thames Lock and it wasn't that bad.

Both Toby and I were excited to be on the Thames again and the weather was just perfect today. We are now moored up at Hampton Court park and plan to visit Richmond in the morning. Enough of cooking, so I heated up some pizzas in the oven, mum is in bed and I won't be far behind.

Portobello Road and Paddington to Bulls Bridge

2011-05-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

After a restless nights sleep (moored at the wrong end of the basin on a Friday night, duur!) mum and I decided that seeing as we were in Paddington, we ought to visit Portobello Road, because it's only a short ride away- ten minutes - on the Number 23 bus.

I lived there in the early nineties and always like to go back.

Being Saturday it was completely packed to the rafters. We avoided the touristy bits and walked North to Goldborne Road where you can see proper junk for sale at reasonable prices, rather than the expensive repro stuff that the tourists look at. A lovely sunny day, lots of people outside the Portuguese cafes, eating pastries or fresh seafood.

We returned to the boat by 2pm and set off for Bulls Bridge, passing a narrowboat from our hometown, Knottingley.

Arrived at Bulls Bridge at about 6.30pm. This is the last 'ugly' mooring of mums trips, tomorrow the Thames and prettiness.

Mum experiences Hackney Hipster Hate

2011-05-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

Took Rocky out in Victoria Park this morning, which always entails me being dragged from tree to tree as he spots squirrels.

Then I walked to Bethnal Green to catch the tube to meet mum at Kings Cross. Mum is joining us for a week as a birthday treat and I have written her a packed itinerary for her visit.

First days plans were to spend some time in Hackney. Now I know all you shiny boaters (I know you are reading) like to tank it through Hackney in a mad dash to get to Cheshunt or Limehouse, but I am telling you that you are missing out. Hackney is now a really interesting place to visit and mum and I decided to see more. I bought this book http://www.independentlondon.com/ a few weeks ago, I have to research retail for work and chainstores don't cut it, too boring. If you are reading this blog and want to do the same, the book has useful maps, so you can find these neighbourhoods from where you are moored.

So we walked through Victoria Park to Victoria Village, first stop Ginger Pig butchers for bacon and sausages. Then to a potters workshop - Caroline Bousfield where mum fell in love with a ceramic bird bath. Then a toyshop , named The Toybox where I talked her out of buying a large cuddly dalmation (dad'll thank me for this). We then walked down a leafy street to Broadway Market. Broadway market is a Hackney Market street situated close to the canal, Toby and I often tie up for a quick pitstop on trips through London. We met in the Dove pub, here, ten years ago. Unfortunately the best day to visit is Saturday, when the market is on, but it was still busy with people.

We had an excellent lunch in a Turkish Restaurant quite close to the canal bridge, any veggies reading this could do worse than plan a lunch stop by this street as quite alot of the locals are vegan or veggie (moor near Pritchards Road Bridge - the street can be found North of this Bridge).

Our lunch was only slightly spoiled by a 'meeja' type in skinny jeans droning on about his film project. I think mum is now suffering from Hackney Hipster Hate.

Toby picked us up from just below Actons Lock and we headed off, all locks set in our favour :) and moored at Paddington for the night. That evening we spent 45 minutes (this is not a joke) looking for a shop that sold sherry.

Tottenham to Hackney

2011-05-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

Mum is coming tomorrow and seeing as Hackney has gone all chic these days, I thought we should spend a day there, so our first planned overnight stop was Victoria Park.

I always enjoy the journey through London

n, we've been on the River long enough now, to know plenty of boaters and many of them waved us goodbye as we passed them.

We saw this stupid sign at the Olympics site. Why can't they just say, 'towpath repairs' like a normal person?

We headed for Victoria Park, we'd heard from other boaters who came through a week ago that it was very full, but we spoke to Liz from the coalboat and she said there was a bit of space left, and there was just one space left for us, exactly our size! We moored just beyond this funny tub, with snorkelling seal on the side.

Setting off day!

2011-05-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Butterflies in my tummy because today is setting off day. First things first so I went to Naomi's warehouse at 8am, to chant with my fellow Seven Sisters Buddhists. Then cycle back to the mooring and run around like a loon, making sure we've got everything.

So, we collected all the mains hook-up cables up from the bankside, put the canoe and my bike on the roof and then we were off. Bye bye mooring, see you in August!

Preparations

2011-05-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we're off again, tomorrow. I bought a Gold license because we plan to spend much of the summer on the Thames, The Sub Captains brother is getting wed at his local church (by Goring lock). We plan to visit the Oxford Canal and the River Wey and return to London for August.

I made a huge list of things to do before we could go. Unfortunately we didn't get the Alde (gas central heating boiler) fixed, our engineer is unwell. It doesn't really matter when we're on the move as we get plenty of hot water from the engine.

So, as well as checking our batteries, having a general tidy up, including taking a whole car load of junk to the house in Letchworth, so our guests have a bit more room to spread out, we had to do other jobs such as cut the grass and this year we took a photo of the makeshift winter cover, so we can remember how to put it back together on our return. As you can see we had to empty our cassettes as well.

Grove House

2010-11-02T02:19:00.000-07:00

Awoke in the morning after the roughest night ever to find the boat had mysteriously righted itself. How strange. The pound did not seem any fuller.
We went for a walk up to Grove house, following the public footpath from the canal accross the small footbridge, behind where we had moored.
Then around the edge of the Grove estate, the edge of the golf course, through the woods, though very muddy, rusty and golden autumn colours. We popped out of the woods at the back of a walled garden, where workmen were packing up a roadshow, stages, excercise bikes, wonder what that was for? Then we stumbled upon a rather fancy air raid shelter, it looked quite grand. Toby went inside, couldn't see much but did say there were several rooms inside. I took amusing photos of him emerging. There was also Giraffe topiary peering over the walled garden.
Then back down the hill, accross the ornamental bridge and through another part of the estate, where the path plonked us back on the towpath near the footbridge again.
We moved only a couple of locks this aft, into Cassiobury park a favourite spot of ours since we got the boat, because of Whippendall Woods.
We walked around the woods this evening admiring the colours. Always wanted to be here for the autumn, and timed it perfectly. Lucky us. The dog wore his-self out chasing squirrels and is now inverted and on the couch.

Getting the hell out of Hemel

2010-11-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

Although we'd originally planned a three hour journey at most, to Kings Langley or Hunton Bridge, the weather was so nice we pressed on. Wanted to get to Watford to the woods while the trees were still golden and in leaf.

We hit a small obstacle at the lock above where the old paper mill is being demolished. A low pound and a boater letting water down. He didn't know much about boating, I'd soon figured, because when I told him we wanted to lock through, he closed the gate paddles and then started heaving on the lock gates when they were no way near ready. After chatting he admitted he was doing a boat up for a friend, it was always moored in this pound and it has run aground and was listing badly. As this pound is so problematic, I wondered why he didn't just get his friend to move it?

At Kings Langley we caught up with the coalboats Archimedes and Ara and a few locks later, we'd bought a couple of sacks of coal from them, exchanged gossip and overtaken them when they did a delivery in Hunton bridge. They'd set all the locks for us, so we did the same for them, they headed to Rickmansworth but we moored up, just before dark at Grove Bridge with a magnificent view of Grove House on the hill. I felt less smug about this mooring when we developed a mysterious list at about 10pm, I went out and wrestled with ropes and pushed out the boat, but nothing helped. I did go to bed but woke up at about 1am, the dog having a barking fit, couldn't get to sleep as I felt like I was gonna fall out of bed. So I dragged myself and a sleeping bag onto the couch and treated myself to a rough night.

Last day of October

2010-10-31T02:11:00.000-07:00

The clocks went back last night but we are still not home!
Woke up with a 'medium to rough' hangover but managed to stick us both back together with a fryup. Then Alan and Cath Fincher popped round to pick up the goat chain they'd left on the pilings near us way back in July. We had to move on, so it was a shame they couldn't stay very long but we wanted to get to Hemel Hempstead. It rained all day, but we were lucky again, all locks set for us and only one low pound which wasn't really a problem as I stayed on the bankside with the dog and Toby hovered infront of the next lock.
Once in Hemel, I went out right away, for retail therapy. Theres a good TK Maxx in Hemel and I'm still in need of more woolies. I walked through the underpass under 'the magic roundabout' Hemels famous attraction and nearly drowned as some of it was six foot underwater. But I had wellies on, the bit I needed to walk through was only about a foot deep so I waded!
Hemel was dead, all the shop staff were whinging because of the clocks going back and them still being at work. Went to M&S to get something easy to cook for dinner and by the time I left it was getting dark, barely a soul about. So, shopping finished, I waded back through the flooded subway and back to the boat.

Health and Safety nightmares

2010-10-30T01:53:00.000-07:00

Wok up this morning to find that It was so dark in the cutting last night, we weren't moored on our own but there were plenty of boats around us, including Mabel Stark, a CWDF members boat. I didn't knock coz I'd seen on Facebook that she'd been out the night before and was probably having a lie-in.
At the lock at Cowroast the dog was annoying me, running around and we had rubbish and recycling to deal with. So I (big mistakenly) chained him to the handle at the top of the lock ladder. The boat was in the lock but the bows were on the other side of the lock and the bows were where the rubbish bag was. So Toby pushed the bows over to me. At that instant, an enormous cat the size of a bear came out of the lock cottage. Our dog went into orbit, or more like he tried to leap onto the bows of our boat, but fell in. Thankfully I'm a really quick thinker and from community boating, I've learnt that the biggest danger is the boat crushing whoever has fallen in the lock. So in the blink of an eye, I had to detach the dog from his lead, so he didn't hang himself, then push the bows away with all my strength. THEN, pull the dog out. What a nightmare. I will never ever chain the dog up within falling in distance of the lock ever again.
The rest of the journey was much less stressy and the dog was unbothered, even sunbathing as I worked us through the locks.
We saw our friends in the Riser, having a pint on their return from the allotment as I worked our boat through. We made plans to see them later.
Took a walk around Berkamstead castle with Toby and the dog, then I went into the town. I could really feel that I was back in the South and really near London. The cars were all 4WD Chelsea tractors, the footwear was all genuine Ugg (as opposed to fakes)and you could smell money. Good charity shops here, though, probably because of the money!
I went to Waitrose, I'd wanted to do a prawn curry but there were no raw prawns, so I bought chicken instead and we had a warm chicken and bacon cesar salad for dinner. Yet again I've missed the organic butchers, I really look forward to it being open the next time I visit.
We then had a great time in the pub, many a pint of Riser was imbibed and we shared stories of our cruising exploits.

To Tring

2010-10-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

Today was a long days boating, (for us!)
The weekend was coming up and I wanted to be in places where we have friends so we can meet up for a drink. So we had to get a move-on and get to Tring, so we could be in Berkamstead for Saturday, in order to hook up with our friends who moor their boat there.
The first obstacle encoutered was a large rottie wandering about on his own on the towpath. Obviously a boat dog, but I can never get over the selfishness of some dog owners. My dog hates rotties and I put him on a lead but I was scared as my dog started to growl. I shouted for the dogs owner, in the direction of the moored boats, but no one responded. In the end we managed to walk last but it could've gone wrong. Phew!
We seem to have developed good lock karma - all the locks were set for us, but it was a really windy day and we struggled with the wind a bit, especially at Long Itchington where I had to pole the bows off the mud because the wind was pinning us against the bankside.
My heart fell when we got to the Marsworth flight to find them all set against us, but then we caught up with the boat infront and they agreed to share. They all looked really knackered and they seemed to have a 'crew member' onboard who wasn't doing anything much at all. I saw him make soup. I saw him read magazines, but despite being the youngest and tallest of all of them, he never came out and helped. Perhaps they knew something about him that I didn't?
We filled up at the top of the flight, by which time it was dark, we then navigated the Tring cutting in the dark, I'd recommend this to anyone to do, it was really magical, the boat headlight picking up the golden leaves floating around us. We moored up and had dinner and went to bed.

Toby is back!

2010-10-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to report today apart from Toby coming back and me and the dog being ovejoyed. :)

Home alone again

2010-10-27T01:38:00.000-07:00

In the morning I dropped the laundry off for a service wash and in the afteroon I took the dog with me and we walked Toby to the station and picked the washed/dry/clean laundry up on the way back. The dog was most distraught at Toby leaving us and dragged the lead all the way back to the boat.
He was even more gutted when I shut him in the boat so I could go into 'the buzzard,' to buy food.
I highly recommend the butchers in Leighton Buzzard - I bought Gloucester Old Spot bacon and molasses cured bacon and both were amazing. I then went to Waitrose and seeing as I was alone and feeling lonely, I treated myself.
For dinner I had a half bottle of Fleurie and made myself smoked salmon kedgeree and had a mini cream trifle for pudding. This is called, 'making the most of it.'

Back to the Buzzard

2010-10-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

I wish I'd not paid as much attention to the forecast. They revised it to be 'light rain' all day and it was anything but.

We didn't move so far today, only into Leighton Buzzard, Toby is going to London tomorrow to put the car in for it's MOT (and a total engine rebuild that is going to cost £££) so that it'll be ready for us on our return.

Canalplan AC says we have ten days boating left to get home, lets see if we take as little time as that hurhur.

It wasn't a fab day by any means. But it did give me the chance to try the dogs new coat, he gets very wet and cold in the Spring and Autumn, so I bought him a coat. For the first hour he wore it he looked mortified, but then cheered up, I think because he realised he wasn't getting soaked.

We arrived in 'the buzzard' too late to drop off the lanudry, so I made a quick dash into Tesco. We are now moored a bit further up, just past the new flats.

MK

2010-10-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

A really cold morning this morning, ice on the roof when I went out at 6am to empty the ashpan. Brrr! Time to get back to Tottenham methinks! Was at my desk and working by 6.20am. Wanted to get a good few hours in before we set off. Finished my project, uploaded it and we were off by 11.05am.

We'd initially thought we would boat for about three or four hours, but it was so sunny and warm for most of the day, we kept on going until it got dark. I really enjoyed the trip through Milton Keynes, it's the third time Rallentando has been through MK, since we owned her, but the first time it was dark and the second time I wasn't onboard!

Photo is of the trees in the sunshine at MK.

It's going to rain tomorrow so I'm pleased we made the most of it!

Does he bite?

2010-10-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

We booked a table in the White Hart in Grafton Regis today, to meet Tobys dad for Sunday lunch. I got the impression it might be pretty good as they were almost fully booked, when I'd called them, we were the last ones they'd managed to squeeze in. So at about 11.30 we left the canal at bridge 57 and ascended the steep hill to the village. I wheeled my mountain bike as I'd be making a trip to nearby Yardley Gobion after lunch. There is a Costcutter in the modern estate at the North East side of the village, so I could buy bread and milk. Course there was nowhere proper to chain a bike, no one cycles in the countryside! But I managed to chain it to two bits of fence.
The pub was quite small and had odd, modern decor (Chocolate brown high backed leather chairs and paintings of cappucinos),which was at odds with its beamed and thatched Old Englishness. It was definately more of a restaurant than a pub, but they kept the beer well.
There is also a resident parrot. We didn't need to ask the cliche, 'does he bite?' because we'd only been there five minutes when said bird nommed a small child on his lip - child has now learned that pressing his face against the bars of a parrot cage is not a good idea. Small child screamed as most of the adults in there struggled to keep a straight face at the slapstick.
The food was quite a contrast to the Hungry Horse in Hillmorton (last Sunday and last time I had a roast). Everything was homemade, everything was fresh and nothing had seen the inside of a freezer or a microwave.
Once we finished I snuck off to pay as its the only way you can actually get to pay as Tobys dad insists on paying everytime.
I then cycled down a really steep hill to Yardley Gobion. The turning for this village is opposite the farm and wharf and was where we had terrible trouble accessing this road from the canal last year as landowners had blocked all routes (one public footpath stile had a pile of horse manure infront of it). I'd had a good whinge about it on my blog and on CWDF. There is now a sign at this road junction from the council stating they are changing access. Seems like they are forcing the landowner to chop a bit of hedge down, so people can actually get to the canal from this village. Yes!
I went into the village, bought my bits n' bobs and returned via another public footpath and bridge (to avoid the steep hill). It wasn't blocked but I did have to throw my bike over a five bar gate.
We're now working again, we've been for an evening walk with the dog and I don't think it'll be long before the stove goes on.

Picture is of the

view from our boat - gorgeous Grafton Regis

Tunnel-brella

2010-10-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

In the morning we took the dog up a public footpath to Littleliff farm. It is on the hill overlooking both railway line and canal and as we discovered, derelict. Quite sad as it would make someone a lovely home.
We set off at about noon, planned another long days boating, needed to make some progress as we have to get back at some point. We also thought it might be nice to meet Tobys dad and I'd put a star on the map to moor at Grafton Regis, 'next time' and there was a pub there, so that's where we were headed.
A sunny day apart from when we were about to enter Blisworth Tunnel, it threw it down and then we were saved by the tunnel-brella. Toby amusing himself by shining his torch at the many nooks and crannies where springs from the hill gushed forth, whilst making spooky noises. The dog sulked on the bed. It was freezing in there and we were pleased to emerge t'other side into blazing warm Autumn sunshine.
Soon we were at the top lock and the gongoozlers surrounded us. I set the lock and made a dash for the canal shop in the pub, but of course they didn't have any bread, it is out of season now. At the second lock, Toby unchained the dog (there is often a cat wandering around in the actual village so we never let the dog off around there), still plenty of gongoozlers (which means lots of help) and it wasn't until we got halfway down that the flight was set against us and the help had evaporated. So I went ahead with the dog to set the locks and Toby finished up each one and before we knew it, we'd cleared the flight, in just over an hour.
We arrived at Grafton Regis and I remembered why I'd put a note in the map book. This spot is gorgeous, a hillside of sheep rolling down from a stately old farmhouse (with an old wooden boat resting on it's side in the field). The view out of the windows on the towpath side is good too, more rolling hills with dotted sheep.
Not that fantastic an internet connection, but we worked a solid six hours once moored up and I managed to send all of it off using the uploader.

I've posted a few of pics from our walk this morning including the poor derelict farm, Toby on the bridge and some teenage angst graffitti

To Bugbrooke

2010-10-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Woke up at about 9 because the dog was on the bed, jumping up and down and trying to push me out with his nose. It worked. Pretty cold this morning so fired up the Alde and pulled on every bit of knitwear that I could possibly find, I probably looked like a Clanger I was so knitted. Had intended to work today, but it was sunny outside, we need to make progress so it might be better to work Saturday, when the weather is forecast to be wet.

It took us a while to get ready, so tired, so staggered around, made bacon butties, two cups of tea and finally the engine went on at 11.15 - as I left the boat to lockwheel with the dog, the blogger Brian (nbharnser.blogspot.com) passed us and shouted, 'are you the shoedesigner?' 'Yes!' I hollered back.

We were in luck as we shared with nb Avanti for the whole of the Buckby Flight, although there were boats in front of us, setting everything against us, we worked through the flight quickly.
At the bottom of the flight we broke the journey to go to the Canal Shop where we met 'canal shop man' from cwdf and bought bits of wire and fuses and rubber gloves and no end of boat 'stuff'.
Back to the boat for a chicken baquette, then we set off, me steering for once, I've not steered much this journey, so I determined to do more. Finally moored at Bugbrooke just as the sun was setting. Pretty cold outside, stove is on, we're going to have a curry and a bottle of Gran Reserva. Yum!

Mission Possible #2

2010-10-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Another absolutely mad day.
Todays lesson is that if you decide to do a journey you've never done before, don't leave the map book behind (or at least give it a glance in the morning). My train was at 10.24, so I figured if I left at 9.30, that would be aaaages, plenty long enough.
Got the bike off t'roof, squirted WD40 at it, pumped the tyres, did not forget my lights and hi viz vest knowing it would be dark on my return.

Set off down the towpath, all the way looking for suitable spots where Toby could moor to wait for my return and just before Bridge 10 (where we'd been unable to moor last year because of the towpath refurbishment) I saw rings! Quickly phoned Toby to tell him, carried the bike over bridge 10 and the little footbridge over the other canal arm and set off again down the towpath. I came to a main road at the toplock. This must be it, I thought, (or so I thought), looked for Long Bucky station on my phones' satnav and nothing came up, assumed it was a mistake (silly me, should've known then!).

So I set off down this long road. For about three miles, some hills so steep I had to get off and walk. Seemed a long way, but finally came to the turn for Long Buckby, but instead of going under the M1, the road went over it. (I should've definately known then!). Then I saw a sign for Watford. Watford? And another sign saying Long Buckby 2 3/4 miles. 2 3/4 miles? Eh? Again the road got so steep I had to walk for a bit. It was now 10am. Would I make it to the station? By now I knew I'd gone 'the wrong way', but I decided to press on, knowing I'd get to Long Buckby eventually. Down a hill, then up a hill another couple of miles and I finally arrived at said village. Checked the time. 1020. No WAY would I be in Twickenham by 1.00pm. Phoned Client. Explained. I know they think I am quite mad and they were fine about it. I spotted some local yokels and they told me where the station was - as I finally approached it, I realised I'd really gone the long way round.

I asked in the ticket office where the bike park was and I was told 'there isn't one,' pah! Everyone except me had a car! Chained the front of the bike to a lampost, the back to a fence. At least I'll see it when I get back!
Finally arrived at Twickenham at 1.20pm, not bad. Stayed working at clients office until 4.00pm, worked like a demon and got everything drawn up and signed off before I left. I'll be going to China to look at the samples in November. By 5pm I arrived in the West End, I wanted legwarmers for my arthritic knees and wasn't dissappointed. Also bought some ridiculous cable knit thigh length socks. I will look like an absolute lunatic when I wear them, but will be warm and toasty. I then went to Selfridges to buy make up and pretend to be normal. It freaked me a bit, all this fever pitch retailing and glazed expressions. You can spot these miserable looking types everywhere who live to shop. Lovely clothes but dead shark eyes. Poor them. So seeing as I was in London I treated myself to Wagamama - a chicken gyoza fix. I love chicken gyoza - one of my food cravings - but I'd rather be eating them in Hong Kong where you can get 10 and some soup for about £3.
Back on the train at about 8pm, arrived Long Buckby 9.30 and then set off the other way (i.e the correct way) back to Long Buckby Wharf. A bit daredevil because I had to guess from a map book I'd looked at 24 hours ago that this was the right way. It was absolutely pitch dark, very hilly and very cold. No one cycles for commuting reasons round here, I reckon. I went like the clappers as I was freezing. Arrived at Buckby Wharf then down onto the towpath and arrived back at the boat by 10pm. Phew! I did it!

Mission Possible

2010-10-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

I had a deadline, so that entailed being at my laptop at 7am. We also needed to be the other side of the Braunston tunnel by Thursday morning because I have a meeting in Twickenham and need to get the train. The nearest station was probably Rugby, but we have to keep going South so we migt actually arrive back at our mooring, so I decided on Long Buckby instead.
By the time we pulled pins I'd worked solidly for 6 hours and was already worn out.
Once in Braunston, we went to the marina, to do (what looked like a half ton of) laundry. We bought solid fuel and gas and asked if we could moor but were told to moor outside. Braunston is always chock-a-block with boats and today is no different.
While the washing was on I raced up the hill to buy some bacon, had a conversation with the butcher, (he reckons the share boaters are 'idiots', I didn't have time to ask him why), then raced back to the laundry room for drying. Time was running out to for us to clear the lock flight before dark, so I had to pack away washing that wasn't really dry.
We didn't start up the flight til 5pm, but were really lucky as it was quite busy, all locks set for us and about half we could drive straight in. Cleared the flight in a record time of 1 hour 10 mins and once we entered Braunston tunnel I went inside to sort the damp washing and put the airer up in the back. By the time we got out the other side it was dark, so we moored up almost immediately.
My work wasn't done yet, though! Washed up, put the stew on to reheat, booked my train to Twickenham, did my emails and figured out how the hell I'd get to Long Buckby station which isn't near the Wharf. I checked the map book and Google maps. It was about 3 miles, mostly by road, I decided that I would cycle.

Internet Dongle Revelations.....

2010-10-19T17:29:00.001-07:00

Tuesday started in a promising way - lots of sun, meaning our flat batteries got some charge after being caned overnight by a fridge newly full of food that I was freezing.
Took the dog for an exciting walk round the back of Tesco's (well he seemed to think so).
Then it started to rain at about 11am. We didn't order this weather!
Moved on at 3pm as we wanted to get most of the way to Braunston before it got dark. We were lucky that the entire Hillmorton lock flight was set for us, we and another NB ascended in double quick time.
Moored just after Barby Straight and as I type this it is now 1.23am. I have worked solidly since we arrived here and am now going to bed.
Title of this post is because after what seems like weeks of dreadful intenet access I now have a solution which does not involve blutacking various dongles to the canoe (which happens to be the highest point on our roof) or waving cables about or swapping sim cards.
My phone works as a dongle :facepalm: Why did I not think of this before? Not only that but it picks up a much better signal than any of the dongles do. Inside of the window. It is also picking up 3G where I could not even get a reliable 2g connection. Thank you Nokia for saving me. xxx

Rugby - home of the mural - allegedly.

2010-10-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

In order to get our friends back to Rugby station for thier journey back to London, we set off at about 10.30am, bacon sarnies in our bellies and raring to go.

We showed our friends how to work the locks at Hillmorton and Toby also set one of the paired locks for a family on a private boat who really did not look like they'd done much boating before. Infact they dithered so much with mooring up for the lock that a single hander came and stole the lock from them, before they got off. I guess he needed it more.

I disposed of the rubbish and poo bags and on we boated. The approach to Rugby is interesting in that there sre many murals in the bridge holes, obviously done by school kids and depicting Rugbys history.

What they don't mention is that Rugbys history has now been flattened to the ground. Toby and I walked our friends to the station and after waving goodbye, I took a detour to the retail park and could see that the impressive factories that used to be there by Rugby Station (I had a client there a few years ago), had been razed to the ground. A shame as the buidings that will replace them won't be as impressive or strong. I wish people would removate (Salts Mill in Saltaire is a good example), rather than crush.

I then had an evening of boat toil - I defrosted the fridge - oh joy. I made a soup with what had been left in the freezer - pea and pancetta and it was yummy. I went to PC world, Pets at Home and then Tesco. And finally deposited all of our recycling at Tesco.

Meal on a stick

2010-10-17T00:40:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning with an iron hat so totally failed to get out of bed. Damn you Port! Everyone else went out for a yomp and I pulled the covers over my head and stayed put.

At 2pm, we'd decided to set off (well I think I vaguely noticed the engine going on and the boat mnoving), but I stayed in bed until about 4pm, when I then dragged my sorry arse outside onto the back deck and ate an apple to settle my stomach.

Well it worked, just in time for us to arrive at the pub on the Wharf at Hillmorton.

Not my usual type of boozing establishment, it was a 'Hungry Horse' and the menus looked like they used the same graphic designer as the BNP. (I.e. Garish, tabloid and shouty).

Everything we wanted to eat was not in stock (supplier problems said they), so I went for a Roast Beef dinner and a spike/pole thingy with ten Yorshire Puddings on it, just so we could all point and laugh. If I admit this on my blog, will I actually be allowed back into Yorkshire after committing this heinous crime? The type of cuisine in this pub I would describe as 'teenager with a freezer and a microwave.' It was ok and I suppose we should be grateful to find a pub that serves food at 7pm on a Sunday night.

Back in Braunston

2010-10-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

In the morning we took our traditional walk up along the disused railway line. I really wished I'd brought a knife with me as there are troops of shaggy inkcaps (delicious wild mushrooms) growing up here, not seen so many anywhere else!

I did take photos of them, though, especially like the way they emerge out of the ground, like little aliens.

We headed to Braunston and arrived about noon. Went to the swindlers almost right away (that's Chandlers) , its the first time we've managed to catch this branch of Midland Chandlers when it is open. Spent far too much money in there and arrived back at the boat to discover our friends had arrived and were waving at us from the pub opposite.

We had a couple of pints in the pub then I went to shop for dinner. The butchers was closed (I'd left it way too late). But I still managed to rustle up sausages in apple gravy, we burned some of our lovely ash logs and I drank waaaay too much port. When will I ever learn?

To Puddlebanks - or almost

2010-10-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

I worked 'til about lunctime then we set off to get a bit nearer to Braunston. We'd failed to flag the coalboat down yesterday - we were dithering, so we had to go buy expensive diesel from the hire base instead. It was quite a challenge mooring there but Toby didn't screw up. He knows how to park a narrowboat.

We broke the journey so Toby could take the dog for a walk then we headed for a favourite spot - the disused railway line after bridge 101.

I love this spot - no noise pollution and you can see quite a long way.

Napton

2010-10-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

I had to work so we stayed in this mooring all day. It is busy here as there are several hire bases nearby and we witnessed some family tiffs on some of the hire boats. In the evening we walked up the hill to the windmill, no photos because I forgot my camera - boo! Napton is a stunning village with fine looking houses around the green. There is also a shop where I bought cake (one of the major foodgroups!).

Still 'doing a Rod Hull.'..

2010-10-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

Left bridge 124 today as could not handle the flakey internet signal.

The water pump was also making the weird noise that it does when we're about to run out of water. Graham from NB Alnwick advised me that the internet signal does get stronger the nearer to Braunston you get (then it dies - as we found out last year!), so we set off to Napton. By the time we got to Napton top lock, my phone had even stopped working. We filled up with water, mustv'e been very empty because it took quite a while.
Then down through Napton locks to Napton. We stopped near the engine arm as I *thought* there was a good signal here but my phone was telling porkies. After an hour of doing a Rod Hull, again, we gave up and set off. The grey skies cleared into a gorgeous sunny evening. The locks to Napton were old, leaky and creaky and quite hard work for narrow locks, but I didn't mind. We emptied the loo and moored up on the visitor moorings after Folly Bridge and discovered that there was a useable internet connection here - what a relief - uploaded the work at last! yay!

Sort it ahhht Vodafone.

2010-10-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

After a frustrating night of farting around on the roof with USB cables and dongles and blutack (doing a Rod Hull, I call it) and completely failing to get a useable internet connection,we left Wormleighton this morning in search of pastures new

And prayted for a better internet connection - we ended up moored not very far away, on the other side of the hill! Still barely useable internet :( I am going to have to invest in some technology to boost the signal when we get back. It was still a nice spot to be at with horses in the field opposite, but I spent most of my time here sulking because it was taking me a minimum of two hours to upload 4mb of work!

You would think that with the £6billion of tax the goverment has let Vodafone off for, that they'd have a few bob spare for a few more masts?

Wild Hare

2010-10-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

We left Claydon because we needed to press on as we are meeting friends in Braunston at the weekend. We boated through the now collapsed Fenny Stratford tunnel, past the marina (Toby remembers this place from being a child and says it hasn't changed) and moored at Fenny Stratford. I had intended to get my bread and milk from the shop at The Wharf Pub, but we must be going out of season now, because they had no bread at all. So I got on my bike and cycled into the village where I found a Co-Op. As we left the moorings we saw a couple I recognise on a boat named Wild Hare. Tobys Aunts next door neighbours had a boat built a couple of years ago but I never expected to bump into them here as their moooring is quite a way away! We moored at Wormleighton because there are the remains of a medieavel village (now just some lumpy ground to be honest) and a beautiful hill. Toby took the dog up the hill before it got dark and returned with some fantastic photos. I worked but the internet signal was barely useable so I don't think we will linger here for long!

Claydon

2010-10-10T00:30:00.000-07:00

We headed for Claydon this lunchtime, partly because we'd heard you could actually get the internet from your boat.

A pleasant days cruising, we particularly liked the moorings where most of the boats were old butties, some wooden and there were old wooden caravans on the bankside. We laso saw Steve Haywoods boat Justice. (Steve is a columnist for Canal Boat), Toby commented that the reason he might be so grumpy in his column is because his mooring is underneath trees - Justice was covered in leaves!
The lock flight was pleasant and easy and we moored up above the bridge. We then set off to go down the public footpath which is marked on our map and goes over the bridge near where we are moored. But we discovered the farmer has put rolls and rolls of barbed wire, obviously doesn't want us there. So annoying.
So we walked down the lock flight instead, then came back. Lovely warm evening and beautiful sunset. Would be nice to stay here but am running out of bread and bacon (crisis!) so I reckon we'll go to Fenny Stratford tomorrow.

Last night in Cropredy

2010-10-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

We didn't surface until about 11am - even the dog was tired and didn't get up. Had bacon and eggs and staggered around Cropredy, walked as far as the big manor house at the other end of the village, quite a mangificent building with its own dairy but a peculiar trench ni the back garden, full of water. What could it be? Surely not a moat?
In the evening we patronised the village pubs again - Red Lion first which serves Tim Taylors Landlord which is a favourite of mine! Then onto the Brazenose Arms and live music.
We finally staggered back about 12.30. Move on tomorrow.

My Beautiful Launderette (or is it really a pub?)

2010-10-08T00:21:00.000-07:00

Finally left our mooring spot below Bourton Lock today, but before we left I did a quick Google of the pubs on our route, to see who did and didn't offer wifi as the signal for mobile internet is pretty rubbish out here. Was impressed to find that most pubs did offer wifi and one had a shop and two even had a laundry room. What a brilliant idea!
We chose to move onwards to Cropredy where there is one of these multi purpose drinking establishments, it didn't take us that long to get there. As we emptied the loos and rubbish before the bridge, we saw Graham from NB Alnwick and it wasn't long before we were on his boat, gassing about anything and everything and preventing him from painting the engine.
After Graham left we took the dog for a walk then I packed the laundry and we headed for the pub at about 6pm. We were in the pub (The Brazenose Arms) until 1 am! Because it was really good fun in there, we met lots of boaters, the landlord and the barmaid are boaters as well so there was lots to talk about. The food was great and Rocky was fussed over and given all the meat scraps from the kitchen. A great night and we decided that rather than move on tomorrow we would come back for the live music night.
We arrived back at the boat a bit worse for wear but with a bag of clean laundry. Win!

Super Mario Towpath Mountain Biking

2010-10-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

I lay low most of yesterday and also today but I had to go and get some bread and a few other bits and bobs. So in the late afternoon I took my bike and endured a hair raising journey down the towpath to Tesco Extra in Banbury. It really did feel like I was in one of those computer platform games, the most difficult level being the one with the crab apples in muddy puddles with intemittent towpath subsidence. Nearly went in a few times!

Ill Again :(

2010-10-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

Ugggh woke up this morning to discover my virus had come back. No tummy ache anymore but felt really weak. I had a ton of work to do, so we decided to stay where we are. Although it was quite a noisy place to be, near the M40 - we had a great internet connection.