Brrrrr the hoodies are about..

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staffs and Worcs Canals

It’s been a bit chilly this weekend, but we have kept ourselves nice and warm.. I have been out and about with ‘the girls’ (Lucy and pup Meg) doing a few geocaches within a few miles of the canal.

Here Vic with his hoody working through the locks..

My hoody scared some young cows in a field today, they saw me coming and charged to the other side of the field! .. ha normally young cows swarm all over me and the dogs as we invade their fields, but not today.. definitely the hoody treatment works when cows are about!

We found another stash of wood over the weekend, so now we have enough ‘till the end of January.. I think the 10 bags we purchased on the Prees Branch of the Llangollen Canal are going to last us all winter.. there are still 6 bags on the roof and one in the coal bunker.. The wood burning stove is just burning wood!  No coal needed!

Oh I forgot to say, I put a new link in the left hand column of the blog.. If you subscribe to a newsreader, then I doubt you can see it.. but I found this link on Martin Clark’s excellent Pennine Waterways website.  Anyway it shows you when there is something on the television to do with narrowboats and canals.  Mind you I think, as I write, that most of the things on there are repeats.. but it’s worth looking at from time to time in case something new comes up!

Oh boy!  So pleased to see Jim taking a cruise on his narrowboat Starcross.. I forgot to say too that Jim knocked the door last weekend while we were moored at Gnosall, I was so pleased.  I have been watching the progress of his narrowboat getting a new engine fitted at Norbury Boat Yard over the last few months.. I really thought we were going to leave the area not ever meeting the man.. Here he is on the move again after his engine broke last August..

Hey that place looks familiar!!  There is an awesome geocache here too! Nice to have met you Jim.. see you again next year!

Well that is the end of my blogging for this year, it’s that time again when I take a few weeks break from the keyboard to concentrate on the family, and especially grandchildren and the magic of Christmas.

To all my family and friends, and to all others that read my blog, have yourselves a lovely Christmas, recover well then have a great New Year.

I shall be back writing on the blog again here sometime the first week of January…. No Problem

A Very Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year to you all xx

Smoke hangs low in the cutting at Brewood

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staff and Worcs Canals

Busy morning aboard with paperwork *yuk* before pulling the pins and heading off into the murky cuttings and embankments of the Shroppie.  Oh boy it was chilly, I am so pleased we have our wigwam for whimps (AKA pram cover).  It keeps the cold wind out, and it is low enough to go under all the bridges …. so far.

We passed through Wheaton Aston Lock today, goodness it has been a long time since we last did a lock, and with that done we soon reached Stretton Embankment with it’s aqueduct over the busy A5..

I say busy, well it wasn’t today, and it just goes to show how the leaves have suddenly disappeared from the trees after the last couple of nights of frost.  Not a leaf to be seen on the road side trees..

I needed to stop today at Brewood to collect some post.  I have never been into the village before.  What a lovely place it is too, it had just about every kind of shop that you would need, even a travel agent!  Very surprising in a village!  The visitor moorings at Brewood are excellent, and I moored close to the footpath bridge which gave me a short interesting walk to the village.

These visitor moorings were full in October when we came through here on the way to Wales, but today there was plenty of room.  The narrowboat stoves are working hard today and the smoke is barely rising up out of the sheltered cutting.

With homemade soup and bread tucked away in our tums we pulled the pins again and cruised for an hour then settled for the evening in time for me to take ‘the girls’ (Meg and Lucy’ for a stroll.  Mind you Lucy has been out on the towpath a lot today, I guess she has done about 3 and half miles.. Meg likes to ride on the boat.. she is not too sure about being out there without me yet!

Narrowboats turn Ice Breakers on the cut..

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staffs and Worcs Canals

It’s all over, it’s cold.. from Gypsy Rover on the Grand Union..

“At times we were pushing sheets of ice as big as the boat ahead of us and other times we were unable to steer as the ice just pushed us sideways unless we hit it head on and smashed it.”

and Moore2Life breaking ice on the Oxford North..

“During breakfast a few swans were breaking the ice by trying to walk up on to it. We threw out some bread to encourage them. Then later a couple of boats came crunching by. We set off following the path of broken ice.”

And us too on the Shroppie, we pulled the pins this morning amid a white scene, but the canal remained unfrozen as it had done over the last few days ..

This is one of those pics that you often see in ‘what is this?’ competitions..

Well it is the top of a yule log!..It should last ‘till Christmas as long as the weather doesn’t get any colder!

The tops of the logs on No Problem’s roof were an amazing sight this morning.. nature sure does do a wonderful job.

But we hadn’t gone far when we met ice, and No Problem turned into an ice breaker just like others all over the country.  I would not have moved today through that lot, but we have a meeting on Thursday of next week on the Staffs and Worcs canal, and that means cruising for the next few days.

Although we were lucky today filling out tank for the last time this year at just 51.9p a litre, I have noticed the price of red diesel creeping up and up over the last six months, and see that Chas of NB Moore2Life has had to fork out a hefty 63p a litre recently.  Chas has evidence of red diesel retailers actually thinking of pulling out of selling to boats too ..

“..we stopped to fill up with diesel. T. F. Yates was charging 63 p a litre which is less than Rose Narrowboats but more than the supply boat Gosty Hill. Seems that if you can get it for less than 60 p you are lucky these days. Mr Yates was thinking about packing up next year when diesel is set to jump up to ‘road prices’. Claiming that many boaters will get their fuel from the likes of Tesco in containers and pour it into their tanks. I do not want to think about the environmental damage that could occur when it spills into the waterways.”

I have to agree with Chas, and where, anyway, would people store these containers I wonder? Lucky for us today then Chas .. 51.9p is around the same price as we paid in December 2006, and even December 2005 was only a few pence cheaper at 47p.  I doubt we will get our diesel at 51.9 ever again!

The works Christmas Do takes us away from the Shroppie

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staff and Worc Canals

The weekend of the works do it was, and once again everyone had a great time.  I am always pleased to be invited to this one, although each year the staff at the shop seem to be getting younger and younger, or is it that I am getting older and older!!.. But I enjoyed a dance or two with Vic..

But it was a great party time, here some members of the family on one of our tables this year…

As you can see, everyone was having a great time!

While writing this I am trying to download a whole folder of pics that I took, but my connection is very slow tonight, just 1.5kbs!  I’ll get there with it!

On Sunday morning I looked out of the hotel window before going down to breakfast, we always stay at the hotel near the ‘do’ for the night you see.. and this is what greeted me ..

Blowing a howling gale and pouring with rain it was .. The ‘do’ itself was at South Parade Pier across the road there.. but there was no chance on getting my traditional wander along the sea front this year.. As you can see, not a soul in sight..

So the rest of the day was spent relaxing at daughter Wendie’s house, well I say relaxing.. ha!..  The hangovers were quickly over and any try at having a bit of a rest was errrrrr dented by the grandchildren who were not going to waste one moment of time that their grand parents were visiting..

Poor Vic being covered in teddy bears and the like by young Niamh on Sunday afternoon!

On Monday it was time to return back to the Shroppie.. and we had quite an unfortunate time trying to get back.  Due in to Stafford at quarter past two in the afternoon, we eventually got there very exhausted at ten to seven that evening.  We were delayed very badly.. in fact we ended up over 4 and half hours late, and by the time we had got back to No Problem we had been travelling 10 hours!..

It was nice to be able to relax a bit yesterday along the towpath with friend Annie of NB Moore2Life.  Ann had kindly made her way to No Problem to ‘dog sit’ Lucy and Meg while we were partying.. thanks Annie xx .  I spied a kingfisher prowling along the far bank looking for a fish or two..

From one extreme to another.. and now after all the hustle and bustle of the weekend I prick my ears while writing this, and not a single sound can I hear..

Norburys awesome embankment and more wood

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staff and Worcs Canals

Golly, we did collect a lot of wood the other day..

And there was more further back on No Problem’s roof.. In fact it took us just over 3 hours today to cut it all up into logs and lay it more neatly on the roof.  We were lucky with the weather too, just a couple of squally showers this afternoon had us scurrying into NP for cover.

But today we did a bit of cruising as well, here on the Norbury embankment.  You can see the road in the left of the photo, which shows just how high the canal is. 

The road actually goes under a bridge just where I was taking the photo from.

There are a lot of pillboxes along this canal too, all part of the Second World War anti invasion defences.  They are all different, and I often wonder why.  Some are square, some round and some built more like the shape of a threepenny bit, or as I call it being a southerner, a "THRUPP-nee" bit.  But this particular pillbox I think was oblong. I say I think because it was well camouflaged..

I didn’t poke my head in that one!!

We have now turned south and will be making our way in that direction over the next couple of months, I have enjoyed the northern stretches of the Shropshire Union Canal, and I hope that we may return to spend the winter of 2008/9 in this area.  Having said that, our plans may change before then. 

That is one of the most wonderful things about living aboard a narrowboat, nothing is set in stone.. literately!

Christmas is just round the corner.. Shroppie thoughts

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staff and Worcs Canals

When I flip the calendar over and it says December, thoughts are on Christmas with the family.. the works ‘Christmas Do’ which we are always invited to, Olympia Show Jumping and of course, the Christmas period itself that we spend with the family ‘dan saff’.

Time for me to put an order through to Mr Tesco to deliver ‘dan saff’ so that I can make home made soups to stock up their freezers, plus ready meals for a family with no time in the world to cook.. as well as boxes of Scoobie Do cookies to make with the grandchildren.. I also have to order the err booze beer refreshments for the holiday period.  All to be handily delivered a couple of days before the big day.

So that is what I have done tonight.  You can book a Tesco delivery up to 3 weeks before you want it delivered.. and you can change that order up to about 18 hours up to the delivery time.. so I can add some stuff later or change it if I want.

Met up with a friend today who has a collie of around 10 months old.. oh my… big pals are Meg and Jake.. Meg has been well crashed out tonight after her 2 hour walk/play with Jake.. she is snoring tonight!

Charles Moore is the new website advisor for Nabo.. congrats on that Chas .. and he emailed me to say that NABO have a survey to collect views on the new British Waterways Customer Services Standards, which I had a lot of reservations about in November

I found it a bit long winded, and there is no present or gift for completing the survey like there is on a lot of other sites.. but we should all support those organisations who are doing their best to make things better on the waterways for us all, so if you have a mo, and like clicking your mouse, mosie over to NABO and do the Survey for your area.

If you miss this Blog, I have a link on the left for you to complete the survey later..

Meg is zapped and strange goings on aboard No Problem on the Shroppie

Cruising Shropshire Union and Staff and Worcs Canals

The weekend was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be, and there was plenty of opportunity to get out and about between the showers.  Where we were moored we must have been in a sheltered spot because the wind was not as bad as the weather men had said it would be.

Poor Meg, the now 6 month old border collie, got zapped three times with an electric fence on Saturday.. I do wish the farmers wouldn’t put them across footpaths.  It caught me unawares you see, because just as I sent the dogs over a stile there, right in front of them, was a two stranded electric fence.  The top strand was just 2ft high, the bottom strand 1ft.. Lucy, the older dog, recognised it for what it was.. but not Meg.. she hit it, leapt up in the air and landed the other side of it.. then, because she must have thought it was a punishment, came running back to me straight through it again!

At least I could put her on a lead at this stage, put my foot on it while lifting Lucy over, then Meg.  My turn followed.. and that all worked, but we had to do the same on the other side of the small field to get out!

I was nearly successful with that, except Meg still was frantic that she had been told off, and even though I lifted her over the fence.. she came back to me before I could get over myself and zap again! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I doesn’t help a young dog this sort of thing, problem is they think they are being punished, and Meg hadn’t done anything wrong.  She will get over it I have no doubt, but it doesn’t help.

She was much better today after we moved No Problem along the canal, certainly taking her away from the area has taken her mind off it.  

Anyway, she enjoyed a good play today while Vic and I piled the roof high with more wood again.  I am a bit stiff tonight, but I am not surprised, my back has not quite recovered from the other day lifting wood.. but we have enough now to take us well into the new year.  We are only burning wood, coal not needed with this super wood burning stove.

Strange goings on today, Vic saw a photo opportunity..

Don’t ask!! Well you can ask what was on the end of the pole, I will show you that..

‘Tis my walking stick strapped on the boat pole with a ‘t’ piece on the end!

I ain’t telling you what I was doing though!  I shall just keep it as a mystery I think.. But if anybody really, really wants to know then leave a comment with an email address and I will tell all.. I am hoping Annie, my friend on narrowboat Moore2Life, might be able to guess which bridge it was and what I was doing at that bridge!

Just watching the News on the tele, it’s good to see sense prevail and Gillian Gibbons is coming back from the Sudan..

Martin pointed out that the October Picture Album was not showing, I have fixed that now. Thanks Martin