Retirement with No Problem

The Wombles of Bridgewater as we cruise through Lymm

2010-03-17T22:34:00.000Z

Thelwall to Dunham Park, Altrincham, Bridgewater Canal, 5.5 miles 0 locks

Well I am gobsmacked about this canal, why I have not been here during the time I have been a continuous cruiser I don’t know. It is one of the nicest canals on the whole system from what I am seeing at the moment. Look at this Womble…

‘The Water Womble’, and it is too! The crew were scooping up rubbish as they went along.. I don’t think BW has a Womble on it’s system. The Bridgewater Canal is not overseen by British Waterways as it is owned by the Manchester Ship Canal people. They sure do look after it well.

So I helped out today clearing this lot up…

I was away for one of the towpath tidy weeks earlier in March when BW rope in volunteers to tidy the paths.. so this week it is my turn to do a bit.. having said that, there is very little to do at the moment!

We got to Lymm just before lunch and I took a wander mainly to get some fresh vegetables.. been struggling of late trying to find greengrocers along the way or even small supermarkets that sell any. Lymm is a fantastic little town, the cobbled streets have a variety of shops, butchers, bakers Post Office, well just about everything really.. except a greengrocer! The only ‘supermarket’ was a Spar, but knowing those they do not keep veg usually.. Luckily they did on this occasion having been refitted out of late, maybe they are trying to do better for the townsfolk!

There are plenty of moorings on both sides of the canal here.. the main town is on the offside, mooring there gave me a slightly shorter walk.

The Bridgewater Canal is wide and very deep, in fact in some boating guides it suggests wearing life jackets for non swimmers. We found out how deep when we were warned by a passing cyclist about a sunken boat just marked by a couple of ‘buoys’.. clear as this canal is, we could see the boat on the bottom completely submerged as we gently passed by..

Being very wide has it’s problems too, the canal for most part is along an embankment, almost since we joined it we have been higher than the land on one side or the other, it reminds me of the Shroppie with wonderful views across the Cheshire countryside.. the problems are putting in stop planks in case there is a breach anywhere.. these are stored near bridges to make things a bit easier to place them in the canal to stop waterflow..

At each site there is one of these wonderful little crane things. The planks would be put into the water one on top of the other. The only thing I wondered was whether there were enough here piled one on top of the other for the depth of this canal. Maybe there are places where it is purposely not quite so deep to allow the planks to do their job.

We have moored close to Dunham Park this evening. Owned by the National Trust there is plenty of walking to be done through the woodlands where I’d hopefully see fallow deer.. I’ll take a look tomorrow depending on whether we are staying or cruising.. not decided yet, I’ll see what the weather is going to do first.

Timing is everything as we cruise the Bridgewater Canal

2010-03-16T22:01:00.003Z

Dutton Hall to Thelwall, T&M and Bridgewater Canals, 10 miles 1 lock

The timing was perfect this morning. We were about a mile and half away from the southern portal of Preston Brook Tunnel..

Arriving here at exactly 11am.. we can only go through between on the hour and ten past. Just before this is Dutton Stop lock with a rise of just a couple of inches if that. Now we will have a lazy time, because we are in the longest ‘pound’ (a stretch of water between two locks) in the UK. It will be almost 40 miles until we see another lock!

After the tunnel and joining the Bridgewater Canal we called in Claymore’s Hire boat base for all the services today.. with both water and diesel tanks full, rubbish and loo tanks empty and a quick stop at Midland Chandlers for a new chimney inner, we veered right, the left branch to Runcorn looked inviting..

The best day of the year for us, the wind now round in the South and the sun on our backs as we travelled north made things that much better.

It has been a long time since I had been on the Bridgewater Canal, it is now so very well kept unlike when I visited last time all those years ago. Towpaths are without mud, hedgerows tidy and the suburban housing well cared for. For sure they have not turned their backs on this canal.

Lucy and Meg have enjoyed the towpath, taking no notice of a dog lying outside Thorne Marine at London Road Bridge in Stockton Heath. A handy water point here by the way.

This used to be the end of the Bridgewater Canal in the late 1770’s and here there were wharfs and stables as well as warehouses and canal companies. It would be later that the Duke of Bridgewater would complete his canal to Manchester.

After clearing the build up areas we found an ideal mooring, a little bit of open countryside at Thelwall not far from Lynn..

I really, really enjoyed today, gosh it has been a long awkward winter this year.. I think one of the most enjoyable things was first thing this morning when I walked Lucy and Meg before we set off.. a swarm of mossies attacked me on the towpath!! Hey, spring is really here!

Nearing the end of the Trent & Mersey Canal..

2010-03-15T23:01:00.002Z

Acton Bridge to Dutton Hall, Trent & Mersey Canal, 1.25 miles 0 locks

The sheep escaped last night. If it isn’t bad enough for the farmer who’s field of winter wheat, which was opposite No Problem this weekend, is slowly disappearing. He has trouble with seagulls. I noticed a flock of them eating the wheat, then in the afternoons moving to a new patch leaving a brown tell tale circle where they had chomped the corn.

But it was when I let Lucy and Meg out last night I heard them baa-ing away.. by this morning though they had gone, the farmer must have been out early!

We been a bit unlucky here close to Runcorn on the Mersey estuary, no sunshine but plenty of wind, almost gale force from the north, so we moved a couple of bridges to Bartington where, thanks to Traveline, we caught a bus into Northwich for a bit of a wander.. a pint and pie went down well too for lunch..

There is a huge long line of Black Prince boats moored along the towpath at the bridge on the British Waterways Bartington permanent moorings.. wonder if they pay?

Yet another fabulous mooring tonight overlooking the River Weaver towards Dutton Locks.. you can see how cloudy it is today!

I hope I have made the right decision not to go to East Anglia this summer via The River Nene.. late the other evening, it was almost dark, an Alvechurch hire boat from Anderton came past us faster than any boat has ever come past in 8 years.. absolutely flat out. Didn’t pull the pins out as I had a spring on the stern (two ropes, one facing forward one back), but put us on the bank almost.

I phoned the boat company straight away, got the answerphone, but never had a call back to apologise or anything which I was quite surprised about. I suggested they caught up with the lager drinking crew to slow them down. They didn’t even make the next bend with their headlamp on, smashing into the side of the stone edged canal..

Oh well, at least there can’t possibly be a faster boat come past this summer… well there better not be, decisions are made for a ‘canal cruising’ summer!

Wonderful mooring overlooking the River Weaver

2010-03-12T22:33:00.002Z

Moored near Aston Bridge, Trent & Mersey Canal

Blogger.com have decided to kick out people like me who host their blog themselves..

“FTP publishing will no longer be available after 01 May 2010
You currently have blogs that are published using FTP. You must migrate your blogs to a new custom domain URL or a blogspot URL.”

Oh no I won’t thankyou very much. I suppose I am of the old school, I like to be in control and have my files on MY server not on Google’s. There is no change for all of you that use blogspot, just people like me. Google want to keep everyones files on their servers.

It would never happen, but a scenario, if someone blew Google up then everyones blog on blogspot would blow up too, never to be retrieved.. so don’t forget to backup your blog posts once in a while!

Anyway, I have taken this opportunity to move to Wordpress. I rather like Wordpress, it is going to be much easier for me to publish blogs. I won’t bore you with the whys.

On another note.. it’s all happening.. The lovely haloscan commenting system that I have been using for quite a number of years has been bought out by another company called Echo, I hate it!

I have designed the template now on Wordpress, I doubt you will see much difference between what you are seeing now, I decided not to go for something different, I have grown rather fond of what I have..

OK, so it will mean a change of url, bookmark, news feed etc, but it will be worth it I promise you, and I will be much happier doing my blogs.

I’ll try and change it all over this weekend, watch this space!

The two tunnels at Barnton, and oh, those mushrooms!

2010-03-10T23:14:00.002Z

Anderton to Acton Bridge, Trent & Mersey Canal, 2.75 miles 0 locks

The first tunnel was easy, although the turn into it was rather tight for No Problem, it was when we entered the second of the two short tunnels around Barnton, there was another boat already in the tunnel!

A narrow width tunnel, room for only one boat to go through.. backing off there was a bit of a wind which pinned me to the bank, but there was not enough room between the tunnel entrance and a large tree/bush behind me along with an undredged edge.. It was difficult for the boat in the tunnel to emerge, but he was patient with me while I tried to move out of the way. It is a bit of a dogleg into that one you see.. I committed myself to the tunnel in the hope that late in the day I would be the only skipper on the move!

It was very quiet around the Anderton Lift area..

This lift takes boats from the Trent & Mersey Canal to the River Weaver below, something we had done not too long ago at the end of May last year, with some fantastic pictures from our great friend Les aboard Valerie..

I bet Geoff of Seyella has a picture of the mushrooms on his blog tonight, not looked yet have been feet up all evening watching the tele,.. he took great joy in getting his camera out as I packed 4.5Kg of mushrooms into carrier bags ready to catch the bus to Tesco in Northwich. My online grocery order the other day had been a disaster.. a bad internet connection made it difficult to shop online this time, and I wanted 10 mushrooms.. fine, except I put ‘10’ in the wrong box, and got 10 times 50gms box of mushrooms!

I thought there was rather a lot of bags as Mr Tesco passed my shopping through the window into the galley.. but I didn’t check until he had gone.. “If you can get them back to the store we will refund for you”.. phew! If only mushroom jam tasted good I wouldn’t have worried!

Most of our day was wasted by me and a certain bus company who provide a service to and from Tesco from Anderton every couple of hours, except on the return journey they decided to cancel the bus… grrrrrrr. Glad I had a bit of local knowledge and managed in the end to get myself back.

If I do it wrong again with Mr Tesco, I ain’t gonna tell anyone!

OK, OK the mushrooms.....

2010-03-10T10:31:00.000Z

Thanks Geoff…

“They’d had a Tesco delivery at the water point, and there’s an amusing tale relating to mushrooms, but you’ll have to go to Sue’s Blog to read about it…”

Can’t keep anything quiet on the Internet! I’ll tell you about the mushrooms later, suffice to say anyone for a year’s supply of mushroom soup!!?

Shortest cruise day ever as we try to leave Anderton!

2010-03-09T22:31:00.003Z

Anderton to Anderton, Trent & Mersey Canal, 0.2 miles 0 locks!

Only two short tunnels today, and I wasn’t worried as my trip through Harcastle last month went really well, my confidence is really so much better now in the dark tubes..

It took three trains and two buses to get us back to the marina, all of them on time, so connections went smoothly. Lucy and Meg are very streetwise and behaved impeccably throughout making it so easy for us.

Using the services that are now repaired at Anderton we took the opportunity to order Mr Tesco to come and replenish the fridge and larder before cruising off intending to do a few miles today towards Preston Brook and the Bridgewater Canal.. but …

Just as we went through the first bridge I spied Geoff and Mags mooring up Seyella on the 24 hour moorings.. “That will do for today” “OK” said Vic..

No pics in the camera yet.. well I didn’t expect such a short cruise, no doubt back aboard now after a week away there will be some tomorrow as we attempt to break free of Anderton!

A day in the life of.. and Lillie is good and bad

2010-03-04T23:21:00.005Z

~~Moored~~ Denmead, Hampshire

Lillie has been the focus of the day, a very important part of daily life in this family here in the south.. she isn't here tonight.. And no, Lillie is neither a dog nor a child, Lillie is the family car that I am using! The centre of all that goes on around here.

I don't have a car living as a continuous cruiser on the boat. Some do though like Andrew Denny who, unlike me, has to work and needs his 'Lillie', mooring Granny Buttons in one place then finding a bus or train to go back to a previous mooring to fetch his car back to the boat to be able to go to work.

I had thought that while I was away from the boat and minding the two grandchildren and two dogs for my eldest daughter Wendie while she went skiing with hubby Dan, I could do the school run, take four dogs for a walk straight down the garden, over the field and into the forest, get back, have breakfast.. update the Nene Guide, complete the move to the new server which will host this blog on Wordpress rather than Blogger (OK don't panic.. not yet!), plan the cruise to Liverpool in April and then put my feet up until the evening school run.... Wrong!

Oh, I caught them, by the way.... Wends and Dan,

On the webcam in the bar at Courchevel in France !

I had gone to the small town some 15 minutes away to drop off Kiera to the secondary school, then back to drop off Niamh (pro. Neeve) to the primary school in this village, can't do it the other way round as Kiera starts some 20 mins earlier.. home then for breakfast - not! Lillie conked out not 100 yards as I turned for home.

It was quite scary actually, the engine cut, power steering non operative, glide to a halt trying to get in the side somewhere.. I was in a 30mph limit area and behaving.. what if I was on the motorway at 70+. I walked back home grrrrr..

Phoning the trusty family mechanic "I'll be there in 30 mins".. Wrong!.. More like 5 hours later!

Mechanic guy gave me a lift back to Lillie and she fired up... am I a dumb blonde.. what had I done to make her fail, now she wants to work! "What do you want to do? Shall I tow it back to the garage?" I was pondering thinking of my school run.. one to pick up at 3.20 and the other at 6pm as Kiera was rehearsing for a production of Bugsy Malone.. As I pondered Lillie conked out again and wouldn't restart.. "Ah there is a problem" said the trusty mechanic.

I waved goodbye as she was towed away..

The two girls are tucked up in bed tonight.. we got them home in various ways.. I have planned tomorrow with buses and shanks pony for the school runs, I'll only rely on me not Lillie.. not heard anything from her, but at least she didn't stop in the middle of nowhere this morning so I am grateful for that..

I expect that I have made some of you readers smile at some stage reading this.. for sure 'tis different from me, but that's life, or just a day of it!.. Hey, I am smiling too you know!

The school run is hectic, but I did it!

2010-03-02T21:21:00.001Z

South of England, not onboard No Problem at the moment

It was a bit hectic this morning on the school run. It’s OK for all those Mums who have been doing it all year, they know exactly where to park and drop off, and there is me trying to dodge cars and people with a couple of kids in the back saying “There grandma, stop there!”

Yeah fine, but I only got in this car this morning, and hey these cars have all mod cons which need to be remembered.. drop the clutch to turn it on, and it isn't even a key as I used to know, just a piece of plastic which you push in to the ignition, nothing to turn!

Oh and the handbrake, that is also push button.. “Put your foot on the brake and press the button”.. Oh what! But then I did all that, and even then looked around between the seats for the handbrake lever!

I'm down south at the moment looking after granddaughters Kiera and Niamh, Mum and Dad have gone skiing AGAIN..

Mind you last night Wends felt so guilty about leaving the little ones it took a lot of effort on my part to persuade her to pack. They deserve some time away, they work like trojans and look after their family leaving me unworried and proud..

I have to get the lunch boxes correct in the morning, I was going to do them tonight, but it will be better fresh..

A bit of a different blog for you to read, I suppose this is part of my life, and not a mention of a narrowboat... well almost not!

You know who your friends are at Middlewich...

2010-02-24T20:06:00.001Z

Middlewich to Billinge Green Flash, 4 miles 1 lock

We waited all morning for Geoff and Mags with Seyella who were moored some way behind us.. well there was a wide lock ahead, the two boats would have fitted in side by side. Then by went a BW working boat, and not long after Seyella.. I quickly pulled the pins to follow Geoff down to the locks, but……. “We’re going down with the working boat!”… “Oh what!! We been waiting all morning for you!”.. Shaking my fist in the air, I bantered such words as “bugg*r off then”,”we know who are friends are!”.. and here is the proof.. the pair of them in the lock..

Sheesh!

But before that, we said our fond farewells to our travelling companions of the last three weeks or so…

Chas and Ann, and little Molly aboard Moore2Life. We often travel together first meeting in ice, would you believe, at Banbury in 2003… It is noted in Chas’ book which he has published online here..

“Got to know Vic & Sue on No Problem. Sue had gone off and found an Internet Cafe and set up a quiz about the Canal on her web site. Turned out that she knows a lot about the network and has designed her own web site for her business. Sue encouraged me get on the net. ‘Car Phone Warehouse’ provided the phone and lead and after a considerable learning curve and by the end of the week we were on line.”

Gosh that seems so long ago now!

Oh and Andrew Denny’s observations when we met a couple of weeks ago….

No Problem and Moore 2 Life are a cute pair; although unrelated they seem to travel as a caravan (in the traditional sense, of a group of people journeying together), and often even share dinners - especially Sunday roasts - together.

I never thought of it as travelling as a ‘caravan’ perhaps we should be selling pegs and bits of heather or something, but it is nice sometimes to have company during the winter months when the evenings draw in so early.

We caught up with Geoff and Mags at one of the flashes or wide waters which are in evidence along this part of the canal.. due to subsidence of the banks the water has flowed into the fields making huge lakes..

Its was awful, the sun was shining on the windows… I would HAVE to do them today. But not before a peace offering of Mags’ fabulous home made ginger cake and the usual cuppa aboard Seyella… Ah, that made up for before.. all forgiven now..

Where there's a will, and it would have paid not to have been so lazy at Middlewich

2010-02-23T21:06:00.002Z

Elworth to Middlewich, Trent & Mersey Canal, 5 miles 8 locks

Oh dear, I really didn’t want to. Any other time I wouldn’t have done it, but I had to do it!

The wind was howling and the ice on the canal looked uninviting, but we need to get to Anderton by Thursday for a rendezvous.. Back and forth to free us from the ice and we were off. Once on the move my mood changed somewhat, it is always OK once on the move it’s just the thought of it, leaving that cosy saloon after a hearty breakfast can be hard sometimes..

Eight locks to do today, and if any of them were like the last 16 of this flight then it was going to be another tough day.. and they were!

But a little respite was waiting at Rumps Lock in the shape of Geoff from Seyella who arrived on foot just before us, opened the gate and taking the windlass out of my hand as he saw me struggling to raise the paddles.. great stuff.. All that was needed for me to do was to crack a paddle (lift a paddle slightly) to refill the lock for Moore2Life who was following behind.

I nipped into the handy Chandlers beside Kings Lock in Middlewich for a length of rope.. I snapped one the other day.. my fault, I wrapped it round a bollard and I think NP was going just too fast and it just snapped.. it was quite old and maybe I asked too much of it, anyway Vic has spiced the new one tonight ready for use tomorrow.

I made the effort to get out Alex’s ratchet windlass not long after… oh why had I been so lazy and not dug deep before.. easy peasy on this one that I couldn’t even turn with an ordinary windlass. It works the same as the ratchet in the toolbox and fits into the end of the winder on the lock mechanism. This makes it so easy to get the paddles up! I would seriously consider getting one if you have problems.. especially with ‘Heartbreak Hill’!

If you leave your email address in a comment, I will pass Alex’s phone number to you to obtain one. For sure this is not going to the bottom of the box again!

Mooring in Middlewich by early afternoon we ventured across town to Seyella which was moored on the Wardle Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal some three or four bridges up from the canal junction, it was shorter by a good quarter mile that way instead of back along the towpath to the junction and walking up..

Scrummy choccy cakes and tea were on offer, it was great to see them both today. We will be moving with them towards Anderton for a couple of days, Meg and Lucy are going to enjoy the company of their Meg too..

PS Sorry Andrew for calling you Andy… oops hope writing that again didn’t make you itch too much..

It ended up a bit of a rush in the ice to Wheelock

2010-02-22T19:41:00.002Z

Hassall Green to Elworth, Trent & Mersey Canal, 2.25 miles 8 locks

It was suppose to be a slow start this morning until I found out that the Post Office at Wheelock was only open in the mornings until one o’clock… there were a lot of locks between us and them!

Leaving in a hurry at 10.15, if all went well we should be there in time, just 10 lock miles, but a lot of ice to have to shift to make the lock gates open so cold had it been last night! Gosh those locks were heavy, well the paddle gear was, I was almost into the ‘big box’ to retrieve Alex’s ratchet windlass.. but I was on a roll, going ahead to set the next lock ready while the previous one emptied.. some were quite close together you see.

Easy…… just two hours and we were within 5 minutes of the Post Office to collect a parcel that I had arranged to be sent there. There are plenty of pubs around here, one called the Cheshire Cheese.. I have always wondered why they call pubs ‘something’ Cheese. From my childhood I remembered going to the New Forest on most weekends passing the Angry Cheese and the Happy Cheese on opposite sides of the road at Ashurst close to Lyndhurst.. Unfortunately The Angry Cheese burnt down in 1989…. makes you wonder why doesn’t it?

The wind was so cold in the early afternoon we decided to stop for a late lunch close to the very small Paddy’s Wood and put the pins in for the night.. Mmmm it’s nice and cosy inside No Problem..

White.....................................AGAIN!!

2010-02-21T12:19:00.000Z

Moored Hassall Green, Trent & Mersey Canal

It is becoming very difficult this year to take any pictures that don’t include white! Wanna nuther one?!

A huge dump in around 5am this morning.. Being a continuous cruiser is becoming difficult to actually do.. the winter stoppages for maintenance stop us from passing easily along the canal, and what with ice and snow, making any plans this winter has been near impossible.

I’m not frustrated really, although it sounds like it, just seems we make our mind up to do something and then within one day that goes out the window.

The winter stoppage program was started very late this year due to the January freeze, so these canals are not going to be fully open on time again at the back end of March when they should be… It is effected everyone who continuously cruises. Poor Geoff with NB Seyella has planned his post Christmas route carefully as he enjoys his 10K city runs, the next of which is in Liverpool.. but he can’t get there by boat for the start.. linky..

Cheshire Locks are not a Heatbreak in today's sunshine

2010-02-20T23:22:00.000Z

Church Lawton to Hassall Green, Trent & Mersey Canal, 3.5 miles 11 locks

The old boaters called it Heartbreak Hill as there are 31 locks in just 5 or so miles down to the Cheshire Plain from Harecastle Tunnel. These locks are very close together at times passing through some very pretty villages...

Also known as The Cheshire Locks, all of them were once two side by side to increase the time top to bottom for working boats, but now many of the ‘pairs’ have gone into disrepair and are unusable.

I found going downhill was quite hard, most were empty probably due to leaking gates, but the paddles on the lower gates are soooo stiff and the gates stuborn to open, for sure I have aching shoulders tonight.

We have moored this evening just after Hassall Green Lock where there is an interesting bistro as well as a grocers and post office all canalside..

In the middle of nowhere too!

So that is 18 of them done in the last two days, today being the best of the two with plenty of sunshine to keep us smiling.

It’s a tad noisy here with the M6 in sight, but that is the nature of this canal, from industrial days a natural corridor of transport.

The potteries, Harecastle Tunnel and who dunnit?

2010-02-19T22:12:00.002Z

Yesterday Wedgewood to Stoke on Trent, Trent & Mersey Canal, 6 miles 6 locks
Today Stoke on Trent to Church Lawson, T&M, 4 miles 6 locks

Now then, who killed Archie Mitchell? Before I post the blog this evening the answer will be known!

I dropped my PDA yesterday along the path that surrounds Westport Lake just to the north of Stoke on Trent, our mooring of last night. If only it had landed on the grass. I was very upset.. of all places, it is very rare that I carry it around on a hard path, its usually across the countryside where I follow my trusty Memory Map software on it showing me a route along a footpath. I was looking for a geocache you see, and it just slipped out of my mitted hand.. darnit!

I was surprised at Stoke on Trent as we cruised through yesterday, it is really quite flattened. All the old potteries and industries now just barren land.. but we did pass Longport Marine, we knew this place well as it was where we bought our first narrowboat, No Problem1..

There is still a lot of potteries on the go, and a lot of little wharfs which seemed to be saved. I do hope some of these will be restored and kept for passing boaters to admire..

Westport Lake is quite nice, what I call an ‘urban relief’. A place for the city dwellers to go and relax.. but the wildlife knows that and this morning were all mustered at the car park end of the lake waiting for yesterdays left over bread from todays arrivals…

Meg enjoyed being outside people watching as usual!

I was nervous this morning about Harecastle Tunnel. I don’t really know why, I thought I had overcome my fear of them when I went on the tour at Dudley Museum that takes you through that magnificent tunnel, but I need not have been nervous at all..

A fill of the water tank as we waited for two working boats to emerge from the tunnel entrance. You will notice that there are full sized gates at this entrance. This is to allow huge fans to extract fumes and smoke from the inside of the mile and threequarter tunnel. I enjoyed the trip!

A few more locks to go this afternoon, and with the cold wind really biting we called it a day at Church Lawton with the intention of moving on a bit tomorrow..

So Stacy dunnit!… I don’t believe that, I think she thought she did!

Will it, won't it.. hooray it did at Stone

2010-02-17T22:57:00.002Z

Stone to Wedgewood, Trent & Mersey Canal, 4 miles 7 locks

My purse is a bit lighter tonight…

Our first lock today was Yard Lock at Stone, I love this one with it’s little tunnel horse bridge alongside..

The lock is under the bridge, but we need some water first at the BW Service block. These blocks are often in keeping with the rest of the surroundings along the canal. Inside most can be found equipment to pump out the black tank (thanks to Brian for pointing out black not grey)

“Sue, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(waste)) or empty loo cassettes.”

As well as water sometimes there are showers, loos and even washing machines. Here at this one just the basics with the refuse bins nicely enclosed around shiplap panels..

Limekiln Lock, then the next one along has a very low bridge just before it for the use of the person working the lock. Although these are very handy they can cause problems with chimneys and for us our ~~wigwam for wimps~~ back pram canopy..

Vic is taking a good look while No Problem waits for the lock to fill, this was going to be a close shave. I edged forward very slowly watched by a few gongoozlers (people who like watching canals and boats) who, as the stern of the boat was coming closer to the bridge, gave their opinions ducking down to take a closer look “No it won’t” “It will”.. “It might you know”….. Round of applause from them all as NP slipped under by centimetres!

My old Nicholson Guide only shows two locks at Meaford. I suppose if I had been more attentive I would have noticed that the lock numbers on the pages jumped from number 30 to 33.. so there were two more to do, and out of one of them came a very cheery crew aboard the hirebat Osprey with lots of waves and mentions of this blog. “It’s great to see Lucy live” someone called over. It’s always nice to meet readers as we cruise along!

I love the Meaford flight of locks, one of the prettiest flights on this canal.. heh, even though it was snowing once again by the time we had reached the top..

Pins went in just before Wedgewood, and it wasn’t too late to go have a look. We came out with nothing in a bag. Very good you might think.. but.. Well we have been looking for a new dinner service for quite some time, and found something we really liked.. we will pick it up in the morning!

Lucky at Stone, but we are moored

2010-02-16T23:25:00.005Z

Burston to Stone, Trent & Mersey Canal, 1.5 miles 1 lock

A big day for me today.. I suppose it’s like me going to the dentist.. petrified! But so I am at having the optician ask me not to blink while she fires a load of air at my eyeball. Is it the anticipation of the pain you think you are going to have but don’t?

I didn’t get myself an eye test for years, in fact in excess of 10 years I suppose, but I have been trying really hard the last couple of weeks to look after and not lose my reading glasses that I get from Poundland for errrr, heh, £1. I am dreadful with glasses, I have quite a few at £1 each and they get left just everywhere!

They have always done me well to be honest, and I was really amazed today when the optician said that the glasses that I am using at the moment are smack on for my eyes! WOW.. I had told her you see, that I just bought the 2.5 strength reading glasses off the shelf in the past.. of course informing her that I didn’t get an eye test for 10 years as well..

So I came away well chuffed.. mind you I had already chosen my £25 frames including lenses from the shelf in the shop.. some of the ‘designer’ glass frames were topping £300. My days of being a professional and needing to look good with glasses in the public eye are gone.. I need the ‘to look good’ bit still of course, but only use the glasses when I am relaxing on No Problem.. cheapies would do. But I didn’t even need those!

So that is the reason we stopped in Stone today, lucky we were, there were very few mooring spaces.. Buses are very frequent both to Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford, three an hour no less, and it was Stafford where my appointment was.

It is very loud here tonight.. NP is lit up by the towpath lights, and the noise of the roads is echoing around outside.. but there is a nice feeling here. It has been a long time since we moored in the centre of a largish town, I quite like the change from our normal remote choice.

It was over 30 years ago since I ventured into this pub.. we have passed in more recent years, but I can’t remember going in to The Star. We did tonight though.. an excellent meal. The pub floors are on several levels. I remember reading about that sometime ago, and sure enough there were steps up and down all over the place. Just a pity there is no sign outside facing the canal naming this lockside pub.

We are off to Wedgewood for our next mooring.. I don’t know if the factory is open nor if we will go visit.. tomorrow is another day, we’ll see.

All is quiet at Burston then whoosh bang, what a display!

2010-02-15T22:30:00.003Z

Burston to Aston by Stone, Trent & Mersey Canal, 1.5 miles 1 lock

Well here is a big I spy…

From the front, Moore2Life, No Problem and Granny Buttons..

All was quiet then on Saturday morning, I took the opportunity of our mooring to have a good walk across the countryside towards the east. Problems though with the new high speed train line. The footpaths that normally crossed them are no more.. just blocked up with no signs to say from preceding stiles. Enjoyable enough though, but missed the opportunity to visit the local pub for lunch having been out an hour longer than planned..

A very quite mooring you might think.. but later that evening..

WOW what a firework display, and just 100yds from the boat. You can just about make out the bonfire, the flames of which were showing way above a three story building! The fire was quite a long way from the house though as I found out the next morning when I walked along the towpath. The display went on for a couple of hours with a break in the middle, it was fantastic!

Lucy and Meg were fine with all the noise, and believe me it was noisy, but Molly on Moore2Life was out of her mind with it, trying to jump in the bath to hide at one point as well as trying to get to the back of any cupboard she could get into according to Annie.. It was unfortunate we happened to moor in the wrong place for her.

Moving off today for the short cruise to Aston we passed this bridge which has had some work done to it to protect the off side from boats slamming into it..

There isn’t room to finish that brickwork off in the middle with a rounded ‘wall’, and I can see that if boats don’t come through here with total care then they are going to knock the edges off very easily and damage their boats. It remains to be seen next time we come through.

Aston Marina came next on the right.. blimey what a mess that is in at the moment.. there is piles of mud everywhere, and maybe only 10 boats or so have taken a berth although it was opened last October. Mind you it needs an awful lot more work. The video on their home page is futuristic, a very good model, with loads of miniature narrowboats all with boarded up doors.. take a look!

Mr Tesco (click for how) brought us some fresh groceries this afternoon, a very handy pull in for him by bridge 90, load up his trolly and straight into the galley after I had taken the pane of glass out so he could pass it through.. how easy is that!

The little houses here are silhouetted against a lot of light pollution, it won’t be long ‘till we venture through Stoke-on-Trent. It’s been quite a while since we cruised through a big city..

Hoo Ray! Hoo Lock and it's raining!

2010-02-12T22:26:00.000Z

Great Haywood to Burston, Trent & Mersey Canal, 6.5 miles 3 locks

The post had arrived this morning and I picked that up before hot footing it to the butchers to top up the freezer for the next few days.. then….

Pins pulled, we were off!!

No Problem is cruising!

I remember back in the early 70s when I planned our first narrowboat holiday how I would love to go through a lock called Hoo Mill. The name intrigued me, it was going to be a must to go through some time.. It is still the same now, I got so excited this morning at the prospect of going through my most favourite named lock..

We were soon in our stride and popping along in the rain.. yes rain, no snow today. There was ice on the canal, but a boat ahead made sure it was well crunched. My turn to do the next one then at Weston on Trent..

Lucy and Meg wait as well as No Problem for the lock to empty. These handy bridges make doing the locks a doddle along here, and I am enjoying doing at least one lock a day (My New Years Resolution). Normally Vic does the lot leaving me on the tiller twiddling my thumbs!

We’ve moored at the pretty village of Burston. I haven’t been here before, so will take a saunter over there tomorrow to take a look, in fact we might go have lunch at the pub in the centre of the tiny village.

A late boat way after dark came past and listening to the engine go into reverse, realised that it was going to moor behind us, so I popped out to see if I could help in the dark. I called out enquiring if help was required, the reply came “Well I was going to Sandon a bit further along, but seeing you here I thought I would stop” I couldn’t see who it was, nor could I see the name of the boat, but recognised the voice!

His glass of wine was perched on the back hatch, and having moored up Andy Denny fetched it onboard No Problem where I joined him in a with a glass while we caught up on news past and present, and various other subjects.

It amazes me how in such a short time we can get through so many words between us both!

It sure was good to get going today, we seem to have been just been going round in circles of late.. now we have a mission!

Thin ice, thick ice, no ice, lots of ice.. but Great Haywood is reached

2010-02-11T20:02:00.000Z

Milford to Great Haywood, Staffs & Worcs Canal

Gosh we need to get cruising.. Yesterday didn’t help waking up to yet more ice. It took a devil of a job to get No Problem to leave the mooring. Everytime I tried the boat just wanted to give up and stay put into the side!

‘Tis a heavy boat, the only way was to break a big hole through the ice across the canal at the stern, then once out in the middle full blast the make the bows crack a line towards the middle.. phew done!

Not far though, there was more wood to pick up from what we had left the other day… that was hard work too, very heavy big bits up a slippy incline. With that done, down came the snow.. enough was enough and we retreated to the cosy salon for the rest of the day.

Great Haywood today..

The lovely cafe just by Haywood Lock, always open come rain or shine.. or snow and shine..

Yes we did eventually make it here today despite more ice on the canal.. Luckily a day boat from the local boatyard here at Great Haywood came past us.. hooray, a path through. It was difficult though, and as we got to Tixall Wide another narrowboat was coming in the opposite direction.. with no direction, and we both followed the thin line of broken ice.. the two boats rubbing together in perhaps one of the widest stretches of canal in the country!!

Both crews laughed.. well it was a bit thick out there. Settled tonight though, and hopefully tomorrow we will be on our way for some serious cruising.. that is if…..

To and fro and it's back to Milford again

2010-02-09T20:14:00.000Z

Great Haywood to Milford, Shropshire Union Canal

It’s not really how it seems.. one move forward, and now one move back, but we wanted to go into Stafford today so Vic could get an eye test.. oh and some books for him to read.. teehee that sounds odd!

The bus stop is a very short walk away from the canal by Milford Wharf you see, so it is much easier to find a bus stop there than at Great Haywood. Anyway I needed to make a loaf and the engine would have to be run..

With the wind whistling around Tixall Wide our mooring at Milford was much calmer, I love this little turnover bridge which takes the towpath from one side of the canal to the other.. pretty one this is.

We’ll collect a bit more wood on our way back to Great Haywood tomorrow, there was still some left from where we filled our roof after the ice melted last week.. just gonna top up the front cratch.. then I think we will be off towards Stone and some positive boating for a change.. I have given up planning anything of note until this recent cold snap finally goes and the leaves start to appear on the trees.

On a boaters note, the water point that used to be at Milford Wharf just opposite where we are moored is no more, which is a pity, it was taken away a few of weeks ago according to locals. Used to be a handy that one when passing.

British Waterways is to become a charity and will be asking the Government for that status next month… I find that hard to take in somehow..

Clever animals and Mr Tesco's colly at Great Haywood

2010-02-05T20:53:00.002Z

Moored Great Haywood, Staffs & Worcs Canal

Most amazing.. the Canadian geese land in the wide here at Tixall.. (correct spelling this time Tony ) in the late afternoon.. quite normal towards dusk.. but then about 11pm they all take off in the pitch black and off they go. This had happened two nights in a row. How on earth they can see at night like that I don’t know.

Talking of strange animal behavior, my girls Lucy and Meg have dried food constantly at their disposal. They are far from greedy dogs, and it suits them to have small meals throughout the day. Lucy is unreal.. if Meg’s bowl is empty she will sit right by it and squinney and whine, staring at one or other of us to get our attention to that fact. Once Meg’s bowl is refilled, she then goes to her own and starts eating that! It does make me laugh when she sits there bolt upright staring at Vic in the chair, especially when East Enders is on.. nothing catches his attention normally at that time!

Great Haywood Junction on the Trent & Mersey Canal..

We had popped up from Tixall Wide to meet Mr Tesco for some needed supplies and took the opportunity to put on water, visit the butcher and the Farm Shop for a cauliflower.. Yes a cauliflower. Well Mr Tesco had brought me one you see, but I had to pay a premium price for it.. £1.45 or I could have gone for a bigger one at a massive £1.80.

Well when I got it I couldn’t find it among the foliage! “No way do I want this thanks, it won’t even do one meal!” “No problem, I’ll get it refunded”.. That was OK, but when I signed his bit of paper to say he was taking it back it said “Brockolli”… Gawd, I had to laugh.. “Hey it was a cauliflower!”.. “Well I can’t spell that” “Ya can’t spell broccoli either!”.. ha, we both rolled up!

And yet more ice as we cruise to Tixhall Wide

2010-02-03T15:52:00.002Z

Milford to Tixall Wide, Staffs & Worcs Canal, 1.5 miles 1 lock

I couldn’t believe it this morning when I pulled the curtains.. ice! Yet another good covering good grief! It was so cold too when I took the girls out for their morning walk, but it didn’t stop us filling our wood stocks to the brim for the woodburning stove.. It was just round the corner you see, I had spied it the other day, we just had to wait for the ice to melt a bit or narrowboats to break through it.

So we spent all morning cutting and chopping and storing… hard work and I knew I had had a good workout.. Vic has crashed this afternoon, he did really well…

Just one lock today, and as per my new years resolution ‘twas me who did it.. well nearly, look at sir again, he’s off the boat, he can’t help himself doing something!… The only boat on the move this morning, and this time it was us crunching the ice..

Just gonna relax now for a day or so and catch up with Chas and Ann aboard Moore2Life and hear all their news.. We’ll have an evening together tonight probably..

Happy Birthday Tra la la la

2010-02-03T10:24:00.000Z

Happy Birthday Wends… Have a great day and an even better on on your night out! xx

Free from snow and nearly from ice at Milford

2010-02-02T21:55:00.000Z

Moored Milton, Staff & Worcs Canal

Lazy day today, but hey look….

No snow!! Don’t look to the right of No Problem though, that is thick ice.. it looks like it has melted but that is the remnants of the rain we had this morning sitting on top of it.

We walked the dogs on Cannock Chase returning just after lunch when I heard a crunch, crunch and sure enough a narrowboat appeared from behind us.. not too bad for him because that is where we had broken the ice a few days ago, but he did struggle to get round the corner once past us in the virgin ice.

That opened the flood gates, and two more boats appeared from the Great Haywood direction, so hooray we are off tomorrow!

Just trying to get the blog moved from blogspot and set up on my own server again, so one or two problems have reared up. One main one is that readers having a problem with the RSS feed in a couple of the readers. If you hare having trouble trying to discover the feed, type in http://www.choiceforum.co.uk/blog/atom.xml That is where the feed can be found.

It is interesting reading some of the comments from the last blog about continuous cruisers now being given ‘travellers’ status by the Government.. have a read by dropping down to the last blog post’s comments. Another reader of the blog sent me an email with a very detailed description of what might actually happen.. He might put it in a comment?