February

is nearly over.  Lovely weather for walking - mostly and yesterday and today were no exception.  Yesterday I was thrown out of  a moving car and walked home.  Made a nice change from the usual circular walks and I got chatting to a fellow walker while we were headed in the same direction.

Today we walked to Middleton in order to look at a plot of land for sale.  Not that we wanted to buy it but we were curious as to where it was and it gave us a destination.  Coming home we diverted off the High Peak Trail and tried to find our way over the fields.  Suffice to say we entered the fields at the correct point and exited at the correct point but somewhere in the middle we lost the path and did some creative walking.  Which involved a fair bit of climbing over fences/walls etc.  Made it more exciting and adventurous.

I have been playing with stained glass at home and have realised that you need the correct soldering iron - none of dearly beloved's were suitable as they keep going cold and the solder won't run.  So I need to buy a specific one. 

The kitchen is the only place to work in and I have done my best to clear up after myself but the next time I am cutting glass I think I will put up a cardboard barrier to minimise the risk of us ingesting ground glass in future!

In March the boat finally starts to have the works done in the engine room that I have been waiting for all winter - so definitely no boating yet.  However there is that 3 day walk I am doing along the Wey and Arun canal which means I will still get my canal fix.

And now in glorious technicolour

Showing my age here?

Any hoo

here we have for your delectation - my unfinished bit of stained glass window decoration

 

We completely ran out of time so the welding is untidy.  I need to get some solder and flux and smooth everything out at home as I only had time to basically attach all the pieces to each other and fit the hanging loops - no time for finesse.  One more week and it would have been perfick.

I wanted the blue water element to be much darker blues purples etc and the top sunset to be more yellows oranges and reds but I had to use what was available.  Still I like it.

Works the other way up with blue sky and dark canal water!!!

And yes my fixation with having my stove in the 'correct' place has led to it not being a mirror image.

Quirky I call it

 

Then the ones I painted direct onto my portholes.  

(I have two 'spare' due to the fused glass bobcat portholes made by Bonnie. http://www.purpleglass.co.uk )

Can you guess what this one represents?

I will tell you. 

It is the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Harecastle Tunnel

The potteries

Rugeley/Willington power stations

Burton on Trent Breweries.

Then I thought dearly beloved needed to be represented as well.

I am represented by the bobcat portholes so here is his

May I introduce 

Ratty

 

I took photos of some of the other work done at the stained glass workshop

This one I think it is brilliant

On the left her father then she got carried away and included her mother.  

Both back in their hippy days!

 

I also love the curves on this one

and this one 

although I think this lady forgot to allow space for the fusing.

It all fitted perfectly until the copper foil was added.  

Which was a shame.

There it is - my foray into stained glass.

Absolutely loved it. 

 

Looking forward to installing them on the boat

 and 

looking through them 

whilst I float around England and Wales this year.

Goal reached with my fitbit

I decided on the 6th of January or thereabouts that since Christmas I had managed to achieve 10k steps a day that I would continue throughout January. 

I made myself a promise to do an Average 10k steps a day and apart from 4 days (3 of which were this week!) which were short of target on balance I have surpassed the remit. 

Yesterday and today I had to get my average up for this week so walked 15k steps yesterday in the bright sunshine and wind (before lunch) and 12k steps today no wind but constant drizzle (before lunch).

As fitbit only does a rolling 28 days I can't tell you exactly how many steps I have walked in the month but

1/1/16 to 3/1/16
assume min 3x10k 30,000
04/1/16 to 10/1/16  93,314
11/1/16 to 17/1/16  76,276
18/1/16 to 24/1/16  77,585
25/1/16 to 31/1/16  74,875 (and still counting)


Total steps 352,050 not bad for a couch potato!
I have exceeded my goal by approximately 42k steps!!!

For the rest of this year I no longer need to absolutely achieve the 10k steps (phew) but I will probably continue with the daily walk.  It has been good to get out in the fresh air over the winter and I haven't gone stir crazy. Plus in March I have agreed to join a bunch of women in walking the Wey and Arun Canal so I need to keep myself walking (match) fit.

So overall I would recommend to anyone that they get a fitbit of some description as the benefit of having a small dictator object making you get up and go is immeasurable. 

I used to be a time and motion kind of person
now
when I am at work I make a trip per teabag to the bin!
I don't try and carry 3 mugs of tea back from the kitchen but make two trips.
I take one item up the stairs instead of collecting up an armful.
When I visit the boat I park a long way away and walk
When I go shopping I walk the long way round town to get to the shops.  Or park at the farthest end of the store carpark - plenty of spaces out there in the sticks! 
I have discovered little alleyways I never knew were there.

And competing with family and friends always helps.

60th Wedding Anniversary

clearly not mine!

My parents have just celebrated their 60 years together.  As they were married in deepest darkest africa the Queen was not aware of this fact so no card from her.

We had a lovely family party over the weekend despite this omission by Her Majesty and my mother excelled herself with the catering as usual. 

My sister was disappointed to discover that there was no cake for tea.  Small boy and I had had the last of the latest offering when we arrived the day before and with all the cooking my mother was doing, baking took a back seat.  Only shop bought biscuits on offer too.  Horrors.  :)

I have started a stained glass workshop and two nights in I realise perhaps 40 pieces of glass to cut is a tad optimistic on my part.  We only have 5 nights altogether and one person has already started to copper foil her pieces.  I can see me having to maybe finish the soldering at home?

My designs were all very ornate and I chose the simplest to do.  You can imagine at 40 pieces for the simplest what the others were like!  However I am still going to do these designs by painting them direct onto my portholes.  Bobcat will be very pretty in 2016.

January 2016

Well I have decided that I will attempt to write at least one post every month.  Then I looked back at last year and discovered that I had actually done that!  Except for January 2015.

Well what can I say.  I woke up this morning and there was frost on the ground and the cars.  Now this is my first frost of the winter and I liked the fact that it was also on the first day of 2016.  There may have been a frost in November as I believe there was also snow but I was in New Zealand enjoying the sunshine so as far as I am concerned it didn't happen.  Dearly beloved is still living it large in New Zealand and for once was one of those who get to see the New Year in first.

He had his birthday out there and we decided that he hadn't got a year older until his birthday had passed here in England.  The things we do to cling on to our Youf.

While I was down on the south coast and then in London over Christmas we enjoyed dry warm weather and I escaped on Christmas day morning and did a two hour walk up and down the Thames on both sides.  Up to Putney over on the footbridge and back on the South Side I got my narrowboat fix as there was one looking so tiddy tied to one of the enormous boats.  Just before Wandsworth Bridge I got a call from my mother to say hurry back we were due at my Brother's earlier than expected!  Needless to say I got back at 12pm (half an hour after the call and was washed and changed in 5 minutes) and we arrived on time.  Others arrived later.  So glad I had missed out on the kitchen dramas and my Dad whittling about when to leave.

It therefore came as a shock to read about the floods up north. 

A friend of mine is looking after a farmhouse up on the hills above Hebden Bridge - I don't know whether anyone has taken up her offer of a dry place to stay but as it is a bit awkward to get to probably not.

and York what a disaster.  So sad the Jorvik centre got flooded but glad they managed to hold off the water and save the precious artifacts.  I remember taking my son around it when he was little and finding the smell of the pigsty preferable to that of the hovel!

While in NZ we travelled around the treetops near Rotarua on zip wires.  Loved it.  Hopefully we will head to Wales and play on the one there sometime this year.

I don't often visit the canal forum website these days but I had a quick peak yesterday to see if there was anything about the floods and boats since the news don't really focus on that aspect and was very surprised to see a photograph of Bobcat so that a newby could see how to get a motorbike onto a narrowboat! 

I is famoose at last!

Hopefully since himself is finally retired he and I will travel together more this year and the motorbike will finally make itself useful.

So there we have it the first post for 2016

May it be a fun year all round.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

So Sad but this lovely boat is up for sale - not mine I hasten to add

I don't know how to do 'here' links so....

http://nb-windsong.blogspot.co.uk/


Beacon Boats do a lovely fit out and this is no exception.

End of 2015 boating season

has come early this year.  One month early to be precise.

On Saturday I biked to the boat from home on my lovely new proper electric bicycle.  N'elli.

39.78 miles (mostly downhill from home and the few uphills were no problem with the electric assistance) Still had two bars showing on the dial and 17 miles estimated further available cycling if I wanted !

Took 3 hours 50 minutes actual cycling.  5 hours including stops to read the map, take on food and water etc.  Very pleased with myself as not too knackered and the sun came out as I arrived back on the boat.  Glad it didn't come out any earlier or it would have been too hot with all my layers.

The charger on the boat doesn't work.  So luckily dearly beloved came and fetched me yesterday from the winter mooring in the van.

Sunday was a fabulous sunny day for the last hurrah and I barely left tickover all the way as I didn't want to get there too soon.  When I did get there it was almost impossible to moor.  At the second spot I at least managed to get both ends attached even if my back end was miles out.  After watching the horse whisperer at 7pm I went out again to try and get a little bit closer in.

Monday I put everything that was coming off ready at the front of the boat.  Switched off the water, removed the shower diverter and opened all the taps.  At 11am I went out and with each passing boat adjusted (heaved on) the ropes and got nearer to the side such that I could finally just take a large step (leap of faith) off the back.  The front being perfectly in.  When dearly beloved hove into view with the van I was pretty exhausted and a fellow moorer had said I might have better luck further up.  We loaded the van with bicycle etc before untying and moving further up.  Aargh worse than before ...

But the fellow off the boat we were trying to moor behind came out and with his knowledge and knowhow and muscle we edged the boat ever closer.  We tied the bows firmly and I had to use reverse and forwards gear to good effect.  Dearly beloved skimming the resultant silt build up away to the front of the boat with a shovel each time I neared the side. With each backwards and forwards manoeuvre we inched our way ever closer.  The boater also put his boat in reverse gear so that his boat was sucking the silt away from my location as well.  A bit of local knowledge is an amazing thing.  Took us exactly an hour to get the boat in but as he says the silt will now set like concrete under the boat so there will be no movement when other boats go past.

He said a previous boat was brought in fairly quickly by use of a landrover and winch.  The build up of silt from between the boat and side completely flooded the area.  CRT don't seem to want to dredge this location at Spode House even though they did the section at Fradley recently.  Maybe soon?

Over and Out for Another Year.