Bentleys and Double Glazing

Hi, nice to see you again.

I'm back on the boat earlier than I expected as my mum's operation was cancelled at the last minute. She'd been 'nil by mouth' all day, expecting to have her knee replacement late on Wednesday afternoon.  At 4 o'clock the surgeon came to see her to say they had a little problem as the surgical instruments they should have been using for her operation had arrived with a tear in the packaging which meant that they weren't sterile. She said there would be a bit of a delay while they got a new instrument pack but when that arrived it was the wrong one!  My poor old mum now has to wait until November for her op and in the meantime is still in considerable pain.  I stayed for a couple of days and will go again next time she goes into hospital.

I caught up with Roger and David at Boothstown Marina where we stayed for the weekend.. Someone on the marina has a beautiful car. I LOVE the number plate on this Bentley. 

We set off again this morning passing the landmark that is the Astley Green Pit Museum. We've been before so didn't bother stopping today.

This is the view from today's mooring, It was such a glorious sunny afternoon that as soon as we moored up and I'd hung the washing out we all went for a walk around Pennington Flash Country Park.

We still haven't lit the fire, although I must admit we've had the central heating on for an hour in the mornings and evenings. The double glazing really helps keep the boat warm.

Talking about double glazing, you may remember I blogged about how we'd made and installed secondary DG a few years ago HERE.  Just recently I've had quite a few emails asking for more details so here they are:

The self-adhesive magnetic tape can be purchased from Ebay HERE  We used the 12.5mm size. It comes as A & B polarity so obviously you need to buy both.

The perspex is 3mm clear cast Altaglas which was cut to size and usually comes with free delivery from The Robert Horne Group. Their phone number is 0161 872 8585 and we found the sales team very helpful.

I hope this helps everyone who asked.

Bye for now

A Quick Update

Hi, nice to see you again.

The Indian Summer lasted until yesterday and we had beautiful sunshine for our trip down the Cheshire Locks otherwise known as Heartbreak Hill. The view of Mow Cop folly over near Bosley was particularly good with the clear blue skies.

Most of the locks in this flight are in pairs although 3 were out of action either due to repairs being needed or being done.  The locks between numbers 49 and 59 were totally devoid of any lubrication and the paddles were quite difficult to wind up and down. Roger emailed CRT asking why this is and received the reply that the locks are regularly inspected and maintained by volunteers but it's blatantly obvious that they are only doing the locks at the top and bottom of the flight with those in the middle of the flight being forgotten about. At this rate they will need more repairs soon.

I love this lock-side cottage just above Wheelock

Before we left the Trent and Mersey canal we moored for the night at Dutton on the visitor moorings which have been installed on the site of the breach repairs.

The bank which was repaired is extremely steep

but the view is spectacular.

We're currently on the visitor moorings outside the Trafford Centre. When we still lived and worked in Manchester this used to be our local shopping centre and it's a bit surreal to now visit by boat. It does however mean that we see parts of the centre we'd normally have missed and I have to say these parts are rather grand with their marble statues and fancy bridge. It reminded me of Las Vegas!

The rain has been torrential overnight but as soon as it eases off we're moving on to Worsley where I'm jumping ship for a couple of weeks. My Mum's having a knee replacement operation today and I'm going to stay and look after her until she's mobile again. It'll be the first time Roger and I have been apart for more than 2 days for 38 years which will be a bit strange and I'm not looking forward to being trapped in a house but at least we're travelling with our friend David on n.b.Wye Knot 2 again so Roger will have some company.

I'll see you in a couple of weeks. Bye for now

Alrewas to Lawton

Hi, nice to see you again.

Our friend Rob and his girlfriend Louise are in the market for a boat and while they were in the area looking round boatyards they called in for a visit before we left Alrewas. They booked into the B&B at the George and Dragon and we spent a very pleasant evening together in the pub. We laughed and gossiped all night and drank far to much beer and as it must be 2 years since we last saw Rob there was an awful lot to catch up on, but it's the sign of true friends when we you just pick up as if it were last week. I hope you find a suitable boat soon Rob, we're on the case and will let you know if we come across anything suitable on our travels.

Alrewas is still one of my favourite villages. Here's a small selection of the very desirable houses.

This is Jasmine Cottage

very well know amongst boaters as the owner has a small stall selling home-made jams and pickles and home grown veggies. She had some lovely courgettes but as Roger thinks they are "Devil's Food" I had to resist the urge to buy some.

 The cottage by the bridge has 2 beautiful porkers in the back garden. I'm not sure what they were looking for but they were digging a huge hole. Maybe they were looking for truffles?

We finally said goodbye to Rob & Louise and Alrewas on Saturday afternoon and headed back up through Fradley. We passed Bruce and Sheila on Sanity Again and had a quick chat in passing. Sheila was hard at it kneeling on the roof doing the cleaning while Bruce was supervising. It seemed the wrong way round to me but Roger thought he was right, must be a man thing!

The Indian Summer is still with us and although the mornings have been a bit chilly, by afternoon we've been sweltering and I've even dug out my shorts and T-shirts again. Long may it last....

Just past Great Heywood we came across this little chap sitting sunning himself. At first I though it was a stuffed one as they usually fly off just as I get the camera out but it very obligingly sat there until we'd gone past before whizzing back off up the canal.

A bit further on we came across this prolific sunflower. Have you ever seen so many flower heads on one stalk before?

I've had lots of compliments about my flowers this year. It's the first time I haven't grown anything edible, apart from herbs that is, but we were in France when the majority of tomato plants were on sale and I couldn't find any suitable dwarf varieties when we came back.

Instead I've got a tub of Dianthus which have been a bit slow getting going but are coming into their own at the moment

plus 2 tubs of Begonias which have been very prolific and have flowered all summer

I also have 2 tubs of Marigolds which have also been extremely successful and which attract lots of honey bees

My herb trough has had a good year too. It's crammed full of Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Oregano, Spearmint and Chocolate Mint. If I get a chocolate craving and don't have any stashed away I sometimes pick and chew a Chocolate Mint leaf which tastes just like After Eights. Not as good as the real thing obviously, but not a bad substitute and without any calories.  I've already started cutting and drying some of the herbs ready for the winter. It's really easy to do and there are little bunches hanging up all round the boat.

 Today we came through Harecastle Tunnel.................BOO!

It's not my favorurite trip by any means but I managed to stay outside for most of the way, until we got to the really low bit when my bottle went and I had to go inside. If I had to drive the boat through I reckon I'd be OK, but I'm really glad I have a man who can to do it for me instead. We did it in exactly 30 minutes and emerged into the glorious sunshine again before setting off down "Heartbreak Hill". We're now moored in a lovely quiet spot and Roger is fishing while I cook the dinner and type this. Life is good, roll on tomorrow................

Bye for now

Hopwas to Alrewas

We've had a very busy week, although we haven't traveled very far, spending last weekend in Hopwas where our son and his partner came to visit bringing our 7 week old grandson for his first time on the boat.

Our next stop worthy of a mention is Alrewas. I LOVE this village with its chocolate box thatched cottages, superb butchers and the George & Dragon pub which must be our absolute favourite on the whole system. Sadly it's changed hands since our last visit as landlady Ruth lost her battle with cancer last year. She was a lovely woman and sadly missed, but the pub is carrying on exactly as she ran it and the food is still amazing and such good value at £6 for 2 courses. Portions are large and the veggies are fresh and seasonal. What more could you want?   Oh and the beer's pretty good too.

Despite the other attractions, the main reason for us staying in Alrewas is that it's the perfect place to pick up a hire car. Enterprise at Lichfield sorted us out with a nice little car on Wednesday so that we could pop back to Manchester yesterday for another of my hospital check-ups (all's well) and to visit my mother. She's waiting for a knee replacement early next month and I'll go and stay to help with her recovery but as she doesn't have internet I may be offline for a while. In the meantime, we're probably going to pay one last visit to the George today and head off back towards Fradley tomorrow.

If you're in Alrewas this morning (Friday) there's a coffee and cake sale in the pub between 9.30 -11.30 in aid of Macmillan Cancer

Bye for now

It's definitely Autumn

Well it's definitely Autumn here on the boat. The days have been gloriously sunny but the nights are now quite chilly. I've put the secondary double glazing back up for the winter as I got fed up having to wipe up the condensation in the morning. As usual it's made a huge difference and we no longer have misted windows or puddles on the cills. It's still not quite time to light the fire, although Roger's swept the chimney and I've polished the stove ready. I'm determined I'm NOT lighting it until October and in the meantime we're using the Eberspacher central heating for an hour in the mornings and an occasional hour in the evening and so far that's been enough.

Other signs of Autumn have been this beautiful day-flying Garden Tiger Moth that found it's way inside the other day. It was huge, with a wing span of almost 3 inches. Roger caught it and let it go outside.

We've also seen lots of Ink Cap mushrooms on the towpaths. According to Wikipedia they're edible as long as you eat them as soon as they're picked but I think we'll give them a miss.

This morning was quite foggy early on and the solar panels and flowers on the roof looked like they'd been decorated by the fairies. It never ceases to amaze me how clever spiders are and there were some magnificent webs draped with dew.

Bye for now

Back on the canal

We've left the Thames behind for this year and are now back on the Oxford Canal.

You may remember back in June last year we had a bit of an incident at Lock 28 when the bow stem post got stuck in the damaged Babby plate as we were going up.

Roger reported it to CRT and we were pleased to see that it's been replaced

CRT will be needing to do a bit of a repair at Elkingtons Lock this winter as the lock beam has started to disintegrate as the wood is so rotten.

The same lock also had a stall selling fruit and veg. The plums were delicious and I also bought courgettes and some tiny pumpkins which I'll stuff and roast for dinner one night next week.

I suppose this is one way to avoid paying mooring charges? I wonder if the boat was craned in or did they sail it in and then fill in behind

The canal's been extremely busy this past week and there are LOTS of hire boats about. I suppose it's because the prices have dropped a bit now that the school holidays have finished.

We've come down the Napton Flight and as usual the buffalo herd was in the fields beside the locks.

They really are splendid looking beasts. If you're interested, you can buy buffalo burgers and ice-cream from the shop beside the Folly Pub at the bottom lock. 

We're now moored in Wigram's Turn Marina for the night as we've come to visit our friends John and Joan on n.b. Tagine Queen.

Bye for now

Lovely Weather For Ducks!

Well the sunny weather's certainly disappeared round here, hopefully it'll perk up a bit and we'll have an Indian Summer. We haven't needed the heating on yet but if it carries on like this I think we'll be buying coal early this year.

We're now moored in Oxford and have just got back from having a rather poor lunch in Marco Pierre White's restaurant in town. I was very surprised when we went into town to see how many shops have shut down. Oxford used to have lots of lovely little independent boutiques and shoe shops but most of these seem to have disappeared and there are lots of empty properties with To Let signs on them. Even the huge Primark store had very few people buying anything.......and that must surely be a sign of the times when even they are struggling.

When we came through Henley I noticed that a lot of the moored boats were covered in tarpaulins and this didn't just seem to be in an attempt to keep them dry.  The we came across these 2 boats moored next to each other and the problem became clear.

This one had a spike rack on it's back deck instead of a tarpaulin

and this is the reason why.  They're really having big problems with the Canada geese pooping over the moored boats.

Further up the river we passed through Marsh Lock with it's weir and fish ladders

It's nice to read that there are now over 20 species of fish in the river, unfortunately Roger hasn't managed to catch any for a while. I can feel a trip to an angling shop for some new bait coming on.

Bye for now