Sniff ...

Just waved bye bye to my little Panda on the back of a low loader.  Martin thinks might be a problem with the fuel pump as we could hear it whining.  May be gunged up with nasty fuel from Tesco's or more terminal.  He got his lad to push him back up the hill while he gunned it to confuse it into starting and he managed to get it onto the low loader under its own steam.  Promptly conking out just as it levelled out so only just enough oomph.  Looks like I may be calling Enterprise to get me out of a pickle.  Timing is impeccable.

Boating Fix - tick

Spent last night on the boat.  The stove got it nice and warm plus it stayed in all night.  However I got no sleep whatsoever due to really heavy rain ALL NIGHT.  Wasn't the rain per se that kept me awake it was the worry that the car wouldn't start in the morning for me to take fellow boater to the train station.  The car has been misbehaving the last week or so.  I think it might have been dodgy fuel from Tescos in Skipton.  Normally I fill up at Morrisons in Mansfield.  If the problem goes away again now that I have put a fresh lot of fuel in that will help with diagnosis which has been bugging us for two years now.  (Intermittant obviously).  It is as if it has air in the system but only happens when it is cold and wet.  Go figure.  Had a lovely meal out in the Ash Tree Pub to boot.  All in all a good 24 hours.

I could scream

Dearly beloved has swanned off to New Zealand for a month having cleverly just ordered two items to be delivered.  The first one offered a fantastic deal whereby it gets delivered to your local spar shop.  Wonderful fabulous I got sent the notification that it had arrived to my mobile phone went to collect it gave them the reference off the phone and job done parcel duly collected.  Second one was more problematical whatever it was was out of stock but eventually in stock and on its way by DHL.  They are notoriously useless, can never find our house, don't let anyone one know, and when you finally ask where it is, it is at East Midlands Airport and you have to fetch it within 48 hours of them failing to deliver it or it goes back from whence it came.  So of course it is normally well on its way, far far away.

However this time they have excelled themselves.  I was sent the link from himself in NZ and on Monday I checked it and it was at the depot.  So unlikely to be arriving Monday - I nipped out.  Tuesday I was in ALL DAY and playing around with the link discovered I could add my email address to the service.  I then get an email about 5pm stating it is still on its way so I advise them to deliver before 12 Wed or after 12 Thurs or to ring the landline or mobile.  Playing around with the link again I discover that apparently it has already successfully been delivered at 13.50.

The notifications go thus
Mon 12 12 11 - 13.13 the shipment has arrived at the import parcel centre
Mon 12 12 11 - 23.49 the shipment is being prepared for delivery at the depot
Tues 13 12 11 - 13.11 the recipient of the shipment is unknown.  The shipment could not be delivered
Tues 13 12 11 - 13.45 the shipment could not be delivered
Tues 13 12 11 - 13.50 the shipment has been successfully delivered.

The question is where?

At the time of the delivery I was actually sitting on the sofa with the window directly in front of me and no one passed the window to knock on the door!  We are on a dead end lane so no truck has been passed to turn around in our driveway that I wasn't aware of.  I was up and down like a jack in a box every time a car did go by so I know this for a fact.

Today I have been door knocking and no neighbours have it (and anyway they would have brought it straight up as normal) I have even been given the number of a house in another village with a similar house address to check they haven't got it.

I despair.

and so far no response from DHL as to what they have done with it!

No longer in your face

Can only be a good thing but I notice that the picture at the top has been resized.  The gremlins finally working for the power of good.

It has snowed here again.  I am not happy.

WASP

After only two years I have finally removed, cleaned and replaced the

Water and Sediment (Particle?) Filter.

It was lovely and clean really but cleaner when I put it back.  Hopefully the seals are fine and it wont leak and also that I have put enough clean diesel back in the cup so that there are little or no air bubbles to worry about when I next run the engine.  I believe the BETA is self priming and that it will only hiccup.  Not sure I am up to do anything clever if I have to bleed it.

Dreams

I find them fascinating.

Last night I dreamt I had gone to a singing festival with a friend of mine on the narrowboat.  There were lots of narrowboats and the site was very busy.  I spotted a gap that just fitted my boat and stepped off holding the long centre rope and promptly got distracted talking to someone before I heard a shout and realised my long line was very long indeed.  So while I was standing by the gap the boat had carried on around the corner and before we could haul it back had got involved in a bit of a fracas with at least two other boats.

Going out onto the water (as you do) so we could see around the corner my boat was nowhere to be seen and then it arose from the depths.  Oh dear.

Initially it didn't appear to have taken on too much water but then it became apparent that the front above the bedroom had been stove in by one of the boats as it had passed over the top (again I hadn't realised up to that point that my boat had a wooden top but hey ho).  It was no longer water tight and I would have to have it completely gutted and an opportunity to redesign the internal layout.  Hope the insurance pays out.

Unfortunately at this point I woke up.

Poor old thing

I called to the boat today to insert new licence doo hickeys and she is so besplattered she looks dreadful.  I have left her like that as there is no point whatsoever in removing it as the next car to drive past will just cover her again.  I appear to be the only boat moored next to potholes!  Ho hum.

Will definitely be giving up that mooring come springtime let me tell you.  Will not be wanting that to happen to my new paint job next winter.

We have obviously been having some sunshine in October as the smartgauge was again showing the E03 error which it only does when supposed input into the batteries exceeds 15v  We know as we have tested it that it isn't really 15v and it also only does this once the batteries are showing at 100%.

Getting the hang of it now.

We rushed out the door this after and skedaddled down to the resevoir.  Quick change and out to the boat.  Rigging up was the hardest we have ever had to do as whoever put the boat away last time must have been a right numpty.  Still we were up and away clean as a whistle.  I attempted to do a triangular course around the bouys but they weren't in quite the right place for the wind direction.  Did an imaginary course instead trying to use the safety boat but he went and moved!  I included gybing and feel that I have got my confidence back a bit.  Rob mainly wanted to crew to rest his leg so he only had a go right at the end of day and brought the boat back in perfick.  We done two hove to 's one each and think we have got it sussed.

So I may yet put a sail on Bobcat!!!

sailing and wind

I know I know you can't sail without the damn stuff but I think you can have too much of a good thing.

On the plus side we have got capsizing out of the way.

Wimp alert - I chickened out of helming in the really nasty stuff but I did at least stay on as crew.

I think I redeemed myself in the afternoon by taking over again and completing the alongside manouvre ok.

I have practised my reef knot so I can do it with my eyes closed.  Hopefully granny will never rear her ugly head again.

Yeah right I hear you cry.

Sailing

A change of pace.  On Saturday we had the first of our learning to sail days on the resevoir.  Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Dearly beloved thinks that we should go down one afternoon this week (he will take time off work) so we can practice on our own.  Hmmm we can do beam reaches and tacking.  Not sure we can do the leaving and returning to shore.  Could be interesting.

Second almost solo engine service

Slight hiccup in the procedings when the oil sump pump gave up the ghost after only removing half of the oil.  I called RCR and they took it away with them and tried to fix it at home last night but ended up having to get me a brand new one.  Looks much better made than the old one, to check all was okay he finished off emptying the oil but I did everything else so almost counts as a solo effort.  The RCR man had a lady with him in his van today -  turned out he had forgotten it was his day off hope he didn't get too much of a hard time for finishing off the job he had started yesterday.

Toss her of the day

goes to the specimen steering the ex "fully restored probably not much left of the original" working boat Stafford through Atherstone Locks on 22 9 11.

I should have known from the way he let the paddles drop with a clang.

But I still offered to close his gates for him and he just looked up shrugged and carried on.

He had one of those kerchiefs around his neck that symbolises "real boater".

I walked back up the locks and sure enough he had left lock 5 open as well.  I sincerely hope that other boaters going through all the locks after him all closed their gates as on Tuesday someone had left a paddle up and emptied the long pound.  There are restrictions on these locks for a reason.

Even if he doesn't ever close the gates behind him he could still have said thank you.

gripe over.

Bread of heaven ?

View the other night at 'ducks corner' on the Ashby.

No sniggering in the back there !

Fellow Bloggers sighted

Today it was the turn of NB Valerie.  As I went past I gesticulated madly and caught Jacquelines attention.  We managed a brief exchange of words.

Now if there hadn't been a boat behind them that was just about to leave I might have invited myself in for a cup of coffee !!!  However I think this would have caused major mayhem so probably a good idea I didn't attempt the manouvre.

Have not quite made it to Atherstone as the rain defeated me just before Hartshill.

Stopped for lunch in Nuneaton as I suddenly had an urge to make bread on board.  I've been carrying the machine around for months.  Unfortunately I found out that I didn't have enough flour and that the instructions were at home.  I looked up a recipe online and rushed out to buy some more flour.  I ended up in a Polish shop and I found flour ok but wasn't sure which was plain and which self raising, then I spotted some which clearly had pictures of bread on the front.  That's the kiddy I said to myself.

Hmmm not so sure.  The bread is still in the bread maker and has an hour left to go.  It is being made with some normal flour, some strong bread flour and some Polish flour which is of a slightly weird consistency.  Should be interesting as I also reduced quantities from the recipe a ince my bread maker is only small and I didn't fancy a loaf trying to escape.

Will post picture of the result.

Internet update

The nice people from India called me to see if my internet connection had improved at all.  It had but only from 3 mins online to about 15 mins before shutting down.  So I let them take over my puter and hopefully they have made things all better.  Whilst checking out my browsing for improvement I discovered that somehow they had locked my numlock on and this had also affected her keyboard she put a virtual keypad on my screen for me to use and then I took her on to my blog and showed her why my location kept changing.  She said is that a caravan?  Near enough I suppose.

I have managed to get the numlock turned off.  Which is a huge relief.

Didn't manage to get the boat to the car due to excessive shallowness but have with the kindness of strangers got my car to the boat.

aw bless

I like a challenge

The towpath changed sides so now the wind would be blowing us onto the mooring so what do I do?  I choose to moor at Gopsall Wharf on the non towpath side.

It had bollards but only two.

I made a leap of faith and got the middle rope on bollard one and commenced pulling the boat in.  Unfortunately the back end couldn't go any further back due to a tree which meant the front end decided to go to the towpath side.  Don't know why - nothing over there but reeds!

Still with the help of a visitor and by joining my back rope to the front rope it was long enough to pull it back around.

I then went knitting cos the wind was very strong.

One middle rope goes to the back bollard and then to the back of the boat.

the back rope goes to same bollard.

Other middle rope goes to front bollard and joins the front rope back on the boat.

I lay in bed as the wind rocked us to sleep wondering just how I was going to manage it in reverse.

Of course I had an audience.

and it all went like soft sweet music despite the boat being this distance from the side.

Just before the terminus is this rather splendid off line mooring.  Not quite long enough for my boat though.

Sang my little heart out in the rather kinky tunnel.

Both ways.

Interesting weekend's entertainment

Breezy or what ?

I delayed setting off until the afternoon but I still had a problem leaving my mooring.

Picture the scene.  I was pinned to the side by the wind - but the canal in front of me made a 90 degree bend to the left.

I decided that if I just moved forward when I got to the corner provided there wasn't anyone coming the other way the wind would blow me around the bend.

On the non towpath side around the corner are moored boats.

The wind far from helping me around the corner just wanted to move the boat sideways.  So I ended up bow to bow with the moored boat opposite with my stern resting on the bend.  Luckily for me there WAS a boat coming the other way and they stuck their bows on my stern and pushed my back end around.

So thank you to whoever you were I was so all of a fluster I never made a note of the name of the boat.

I was very picky about where I was going to moor as the wind was now pushing away from the towpath so it had to have pilings and I had a piling hook already attached to my middle rope.  It had to not have any large trees overhanging !!!  In the end where I found was reasonably sheltered so it was easy.  Plus I have the joy of small giddy shetlands on the otherside of the canal.  All in all well worth the scary beginning.

Ashby Canal

Here we are on a new canal (well to me anyway).  Had a lovely walk - visited a site of a medieval village - to be frank not sure I found it but I did find a fantastic UK chasers course and imagined I was riding around it.  Would have loved to have done it for real.

lack of internet

is very liberating

t'internet

Have had a long chat with technician at 3.  God knows what that will cost me.  Hopefully it has cured my connection problems.  Heres hoping.

Cropredy 2011

Been there done that.  I feel not quite as good as last year but we had better weather this year so that must count for something.

Boat adjustments

I have removed the bathroom door and Dearly Beloved has taken it away in his car today.  I bought a bed spread/table cloth (large) from the festival that is now hanging in the door way in it's place.  Looks brilliant and access to the basin is instant. With the idea that everything on a boat should have two uses it also provides storage for the pin that we need for the motorbike ramp that up to now has just been lieing around looking untidy.  With the help of two cup hooks it now plays the role of curtain rail!

As the cloth is so large I also don't need to do any sewing.  I have just folded it in half lengthways and then draped over the rail with the extra overhang being about 2 foot so no danger of it falling down mid shower!!!

We also have music on board as the speakers etc are now connected to the cd/radio.  Woo Hoo

Storage in the boat is gradually starting to make sense and items never used are being disposed of. 

All in all today has been very productive and I am now about 6th in the queue to go up the Claydon Locks tomorrow after a gentle cruise up from Cropredy.

Monday 9 to 5

But even so better than a normal 9 to 5.  Napton Locks were slow, but made a joy by the people on the boats fore and aft.  Help with the locks and cups of coffee.

BW came to close the flight at 4pm but let the four or five boats waiting in the last pound through.  They are all racing (I use the term very loosely) to be in the queue at Claydon Locks for when they open between 10 and 2pm tomorrow.

I have managed to get to where I intended to today so I am happy with that.

Not saying the summit pound is low but the towpath is level with my portholes!

I think I may be cured of my earwig habit.  I was down to one live one indoors day before yesterday and one live one in my mop yesterday.  I will not put out any bunting just yet.

So nb. Balmaha have them as well I wonder if we have both been on the same canal.  Llangollen or Shroppie are the ones I am blaming.  I will go and check out their blog!

Well I do declare

The absolute injustice.  Now I may have been sharing my bed with him all night but there was absolutely no need for him to nip me because I had the audacity to turnover in the morning to read my book.

Now I thought I had got the upper hand in the earwig fiasco and had stopped the 'treatment' as I felt the aged p's might kark it if they inhaled too deeply!!!  So to be nipped by one on Thursday morning was not the way I had planned on getting up that day.  All squeally and flappy all over the place.  Most embarrassing.

After two very hot days on the boat the day of the trip into Coventry was wet and miserable so I was alone at the helm most of the time.  We arrived in the basin around 2.15pm and set off into town with their bags intending for them to treat me to a slap up lunch and a wander around the cathedral perhaps after having ascertained the time of the coach to London.  Next thing I know they buy me an egg mayonnaise sandwich, a cup of coffee and they are on the coach and gone by 3pm.  Rats off a sinking ship have nothing on them.  Fair weather boaters!!!

Today the weather was lovely again and I think I can add to my boat blogger spotting list that I have passed Adam and Adrian off Briar Rose unless it was a different Briar Rose of course and just someone who looked a lot like Adam.

After mooring up I rescued a boat that had come completely adrift with the help of passing boaters.  One lot pushed it over so I could grab the bow line which still had the pin attached but had disappeared leaving the boat attached at one end.  The centre line was too short (also with pin attached)  for me to grab and get back on land so I had to wait for another passing boat to finish the job.  Between us we managed it.  Wonder if the owner will even notice?

Relax

I gave in and on Saturday instead of boating I took the wrong sofa back to Ikea and got the correct sofabed -  it fits perfectly.  Due to this unforeseen hiccup in my boating schedule I was unable to go to the IWA festival on the Sunday.

Still I managed to join the convoy today coming away from said Festival and hang around Glascote Locks for over an hour.  I was lucky in that by the time I caught them all up there were only six in front of me.

So where do I get boric acid powder?  Or flea foggers?  According to t'internet they are what I need to get rid of these pesky earwigs once and for all that I appear to have picked up on the way back from Wales.  Now I am not blaming the welsh you understand but no one else I speak to seems to be having a problem with the little darlings.

I am developing a nervous twitch and am possibly overdosing on cockroach spray, fly spray and any other toxic thing I can get hold of.  Do not light a match in my boat.  In fact I have set the fire alarm off twice with the fumes.

Hic

they are coming to take me away ho ho he he ha ha those nice young men in those clean white coats they are coming to take me away.

Boat spotting - managed a quick hello to Wand'ring Bark.

Nincompoop of the biggest order

Io soy un idiota.  Hice mucha investigacion.  Pero he comprado el sofa de Ikea mal.  Esta 4 pulgadas de demasiado largo y no es un sofa cama!

Oy mi vida.

Todavia coincide con la silla de oficina e tambien puerde asiento de 2 ou 3 personas.

Estoy aprendiendo espanol ahora.

Managed a quick day trip

To show himself's father over from NZ what it is all about.

I wish I had an engine bay that gave me ready access to the whole of the engine like what I asked for from that pillock Bryan Limb.

I have been doing Holiday Cover for the last two weeks at Waynes World and he was concerned that I wouldn't have enough work to keep me occupied while they were away so they bought me a new heavy duty shredder and instructions to shred all old reports over three years old that hadn't been turned into jobs.

I now have RSI and a wrist in bandages - BUT I managed to do them all.

On the down side gear changes make me whimper.

I knew it was getting to me as when I was posting letters on Thursday evening I had a strange feeling that something wasn't quite right.  Then I realised it was because the postbox didn't whirr and grab the letters from my hands!!!

Ships Cat

RIP

Somethings look like a good idea on paper ...

After my marathon day yesterday of 4 hours boating, 8 miles cycling, don't know how manymiles in the car (okay I admit I got a bit lost in the car!) I thought I would stay put and get some work done.

This I duly did along with some cleaning (I do a lot of displacement activity when I am working!) (Which is sometimes a good thing as I get a lot done)

I then thought rather than vegging in front of the tv and wasting all that good effort in the last few days cycling, carrying water for miles etc etc I would go for a lovely walk in the woods on the other side of the canal.  The map showed a truly splendid bridleway going through it (as well as a footpath).

So at 6pm I shut up the boat and walked back along the towpath to the bridge, a smidgen of road work then a farm track followed by this bridleway across the field and into the woods.  All going well so far.  I found the bridleway marker but no obvious way across the field.  This has always annoyed me when farmers plough across paths.  I double checked the map, worked out roughly where in the woods looked like the entrance and straight across the crop I went.  At the brow of the hill I could see a slight indentation in the crop showing that I was heading in the right direction and that at least one other person had been that way.

Rickety bridge across stream that I wouldn't have liked to get my horse across especially with a gate on the otherside (no fence just a gate).

Nevermind didn't look like anyone actually brought their horses in the woods anyway.  I reached the turnoff in the middle of the woods and took it, now to be fair I may have turned too early but it looked like a nice wide path albeit totally overgrown with brambles and fallen branches.

Tramp scramble ouch later and the path completely disappeared.

I kept going following animal tracks.

I really don't think any horses or humans have been in there for a very long time...

I found lots of these.

I caught a glimpse of what I thought was a rooftop in the distance and scrabbled my way towards it, excuses at the ready and it turned out to be this ...

I was very pleased indeed to see it.  I climbed up the wall at the side hoping that there would be a passing boater that would point their bows onto the weir and then deposit me safely onto the otherside of the canal.  There wasn't so I had to come back down again with only nettles to hold on to.  Ooh er missus.

This is what I had to delve back into.  Luckily I had my explorers hat on however I didn't have my machete which I very much regretted.  Still I had remembered to bring a bottle of water so it wasn't all bad.

Keeping the canal on my right I finally popped out into the field and spotted the good ship in the distance.  So near and yet so far.  If you look carefully you can see the bridge I needed to cross.

Having reached the bridge and looking back across the field I can see that perhaps I would have been better off doing the route this way round!

Must remember I no longer have a horse and that I can use footpaths.

Still I have had an adventure and you can't beat that sort of walk.

I would like to advise others coming through Audlem not to buy from the little shed as according to Alison at Adderley Wharf Farm Shop (see Windsong blog) they are the bane of her life.  Apparently the conditions the food is prepared in leaves a little to be desired and he gets his eggs (large and double yolkers) from some market on a Wednesday.  They are from battery hens that can't be supplied to supermarkets.  Alison has had environment health type people round to check on her so food from there should be perfectly safe.  So hang on until the Adderley Flight.  You can phone your order ahead and it will be ready for you when you arrive at the top lock.  Alison 07947 389098 and Simon 07710 312747.

Sven der fender

is no longer a defender extraordinaire.  However he is doing sterling work as a Shroppie shelf supporter

His previous position has been taken over by

Black Betty

Bam ba lam.

Blogger spotting

Windsong - tick

2011 annual school reunion

This year held at Helen's Welsh Pad.

Despite the grey clouds in the background we missed any showers on the Saturday and as none of us had been sensible and brought sun tan cream we got a tad burnt.

Sunday being travelling day it didn't matter that it flung it down in spades all day.

Try stacking this lot in the supermarket.

Delish.

I look forward to the homemade ginger and spring onion sausages she had made only last night!

On the Audlem flight around lock 15 I think there is a tiny little building on the lockside.  About the size of a small garden shed.

This is a little shop for a butcher.

Love it.

Reminds me of the little shop on the mine where I grew up that was in the bottom of the electricity sub station.

Health and Safety?

Nah.

Shshshsh I have also been to the

No it wasn't there.

But it was where it was supposed to be.

As I approached I did wonder if I was actually going to get out again.

I found it very disturbing.  I went in full of the joys of spring and came out severely depressed.

However life goes on.

It was so hot I had to break out the shorts.

I was messing around at the stern of the boat when a boat going the other way to the locks which were set for them appeared to be having a domestic.

After a while I was aware the man was on the phone telling someone where they were.  Initially I thought maybe they had broken down.  but when I heard him say to his wife that no he wouldn't leave her I realised that something more serious was happening.   I padded down the towpath in my bare feet to offer some help - perhaps to wait at the bridge for the ambulance.

In the end I had to keep an eye on his wife in the boat as she had lost the end of her thumb in the ropes.

I offered to look after the dogs while they were at the hospital.

I rigged up a long line for them while I did some work.

cute huh

Reminds me of 

compare the meerkats dot com.

I took them for a long walk and dropped them off in their boat at 9pm so they should be knackered and go to sleep until their owners return later on.

Still at least I am no longer thinking of nuclear war.

Shall I shan't I?

Shall I?

no perhaps not

So I was lucky on the way up the Llangollen as all lift bridges were operated for me.  On the way back I caught them all.  Ho hum

And then today I thought I would call in at Swanley Marina and get some diesel.  Ships Cat and Bobcat decided to go boating without me and without diesel.

In my defence it was windy and with great good luck I had managed to reverse back to the diesel point, leap off with back and middle ropes get them both around a bollard step on board and a quick forward thrust and back into neutral (or so I thought).

When I started to pull in my ropes before the wind took the boat too far away I realised that it was in forward gear still and now too far away to reboard.  A quick untie of ropes,  gradually losing hold of the back one.  By now people were aware things were not going well.  I managed to pull the boat far enough around before having to let go the middle rope.  The boat finally came to rest across the canal and would probably have carried on round and into marina and caused mayhem in there but the walker on the towpath finally realised I wanted him to put it in neutral.  The boater from the marina got hold of the front rope and I ran up and over the bridge.  Phew I was very lucky, neither of my two ropes ended up around the propellor and there were no other boats to get bashed around.  The boater advised me to get diesel elsewhere, they apparently had tried to get diesel before returning their boat to the Marina and ended up having a domestic because of the wind!

I will be having words with both cats shortly.

Airs above the ground

So here we are doing our bit of flying in an narrowboat.

She wanted to play all on her own so I let her.  Much quicker coming back and less banging around.  I preferred to keep the boat nose to the towpath side as I noticed distinct flexing when the other way around!

We moored up in Trevor Basin and as it stopped raining at 3pm decided we would stick to plan A and walk to Llangollen.  Having decided half way there that we would take a bus back I said why not go all the way to the Horseshoe Falls only about 1/2 mile further on.  How wrong I was.  When we got there we spotted a sign saying Llangollen 2 miles.  All in all we must have done about 8 miles which nearly killed me.

I love buses, they are so quick and comfortable.  We made sure the driver would give us plenty of time to get up out of the seats in case we had seized up and limped back to the boat.

Fran cooked for us while I did some work and then we watched Erin Brockovitch as she hadn't seen it yet and I hadn't watched it for several years.

Next day was much better weather wise and we had a lovely trip back to Chirk.  Fran enjoyed herself so much that she decided to leave after rush hour and would cook for me again.  I am indeed blessed.

So we walked to Chirk Castle, got in for free as it was so late in the day

and madam got stuck into the dressing up.

A thoroughly enjoyable three days, I wasn't a billy no mates and I got to do a bit of culture vulturing.

Fran says the sleeping arrangements were perfectly fine but as she had just come from a wet camping/walking weekend in the Dales it is all relative.

She also coped admirably with the fact that two days before she arrived the water pump had packed up completely and I was rationing her to half a saucepan of water to wash herself in! 

What a little trooper.

The perennial question

has been answered.  I found this floating past my boat when I came back from a walk around Chirk.  I managed to fish it out complete with it's seat and lid using just the boat hook.  I think it may be full.  Now what do I do with it?  No doubt people passing my boat will think it is mine - perhaps I should have let it float away and be someone elses problem.

Nasty nasty.  I am assuming it got blown off the back of a boat on the aquaduct?  It is very windy today and it doesn't appear to be broken in anyway so I'm thinking not 'thrown away' perhaps just lost in transit?

Montgomery Canal

I know they don't like to encourage you to hog the best spots

(all moorings along here seem to be marked 24hr, 48hr or 72hr even in the middle of nowhere)

but this is taking the biscuit.

On my way back I will moor overnight near the junction and bike down the Montgomery Canal.  It is only 7 miles long I believe and the exercise will do me good.

I stopped for a day in Ellesmere and had a good wander around.  It was lovely not to have to boat and I think the cat appreciated it as well.  The water pump (which has not been well since the big freeze) was sounding a little odd in the morning so I took the bed apart to have a closer look at it but it wasn't leaking or anything just making a bit of a fizzing noise.  I did a load of washing and it appeared to shut up, after lunch I went for another little walk in the park and when I came back it had died.  I think the electrics on it are cooked.

I have a spare one ready but will probably cope with water in containers until I get back onto home territory and just hope I pass enough water points on the way or I may be reduced to syphoning some out of my full tank!

Of course I am expecting visitors.

Cat done me a favour

Ha ha

She didn't want to come in for breakfast thus delaying my start until 11.30.

This meant that all lift bridges and locks were done for me by very kind people that I wouldn't have met if I had left at 8 or 9am!

So yah boo sucks cat.

Wrenbury

So having done 9 locks using the technique of stepping over the half open bottom gates (I saw a woman do it and she was shorter than me so I decided not to be a chicken) I have got these locks down to a fine art.  However I had reached my target stopping time of 1pm so am leaving my first proper solo lift bridge for tomorrow morning. (ie not an electric one) I will go and inspect it shortly.

Damn damn cat

Was supposed to get back to the boat on Saturday afternoon leaving home at 12.30pm, with all shopping etc ready for the big push to the aquaduct.  Bloody cat ran away before I could get her into the box and hid in someone elses garden until 7.30pm missing her lunch.

So we then kept her in over night, trapped her under the bed in the morning after breakfast and she scratched me, bit and scratched Rob before she calmed down and in the box she went.

She then crapped in the box halfway to the boat so I had to stop and dispose of the offending items (keeping her in the box by the scruff of the neck) all in all I was not best pleased with the little darling.  However we appear to be friends again.  Although I am still cross about the delay.

I now have a new gas bottle, some diesel in the c/h tank and a fully serviced engine.  In the end I did empty all the oil out before Rob got to me so all he had to do was change the oil filter with his special tool and refill the engine.  I had to sacrifice my water jug as extra storage.  Next time I will be able to do the whole service myself.

We got back to his house around 10pm stopping for fish and chips on the way home.  Probably the best chips we have ever had so he is making a note for revisiting when out and about on his bike.  Unfortunately nowhere near us normally which is a shame.

I am not that pleased with where I am moored at the moment as it is a tad busy which means I am banging about on the shelf.  I am hoping that it will all calm down soon.

Gearbox oil change - tick

Today I am mostly waiting for himself to bring me some oil for the engine service.  As I had the time and also wanted to move the boat about 200 yards nearer where he can get the car to I decided I was going to be big and brave and attempt the gearbox oil change having run the engine for only 10 minutes (we have enough oil for the gearbox) all by myself.

Being a woman I also multi tasked and washed my towels.  I managed to hang them out to dry without getting them covered in oil!

I would make a start on the engine oil but haven't got enough containers for the old oil to be decanted into. 

Whilst the engine was available I did my best to get it a bit cleaner.  Despite being covered over with a sheet it still got a bit dusty from the carpentry work during the fitout and all the nooks and crannys are a mess.  Maybe I should invest in a long thick artist type paint brush to really get into the difficult bits.

Anyway I am very pleased with myself.

Salt anyone?

A little bit of wind today ...

but nothing I can't handle.  Mooring up for the many locks was interesting I adopted the quick exit from boat clutching windlass, middle and back ropes and hurling the ropes turned around the bollards quick fast modus operandi.

Curious neighbours

Most of the locks on this flight come in pairs but everysooften one is out of use. This is a pain when someone has offered to help set your lock and then you come out of your lock and find the next pair is a singleton.  at least she did come back and set the single lock filling for me which meant I knew noone was coming up and was able to stick my bows into the lock entrance.  Unfortunately the non towpath side ones often have snotty messages on the ends of the gardens and no bollards.

Some of the closed off ones look perfectly operational, some are completely filled up and grassed over with a pipe running through but this was my favourite.

Sometimes it is not the potential frolicking that is important just that you know you can.

Lovely moorings and pastures new

What a relief to see the back of the Bosley 12.

Offside mooring - good for cat frolicking.

Pastures new - I turn left onto the Trent and Mersey and head north.

Couldn't work out what the jangling was about then realised it was not on the towpath.

No idea how many cows but hundreds.

I sincerely hope not milked by hand some of them looked like they was busting.

You know the bucolic scene of the cowherder straw and baler twine?

Not any more ...

Lovely spot, lovely day - no more of that awful wind, shame I have to move on tomorrow.