Back to Upton on Severn

Getting our mail is one of the hardest things about living on the boat. We get all the important stuff like bank statements etc. on-line or by email but some companies still insist on using snail mail, so every couple of months one of my friends fills a Jiffy bag and sends it on to us. We use the Post Restante system operated by the post office but you'd be amazed at how many large post offices we've been to where the staff have no idea what Post Restante is.  Thankfully the post office in Upton on Severn is fully clued up and when we went to collect our mail today the girl told us they have several Post Restante clients at the moment and had it all filed away in the back office. Very efficient!

We'd planned to go down river to Gloucester and just call in at Upton on the way to pick up the post, but that's all changed. No sooner had we pulled up on the pontoon than another narrowboat breasted up with us and then we were surrounded by plastic.  It's the Upton Music Festival this weekend. At  over £50 each for the weekend we'd decided it was too expensive and would give it a miss, but we've been reliably informed that we'll hear all the music from our moorings so have decided to stay here for a couple of nights.

The festival has been set up on the field opposite our moorings. We'll go over tomorrow and check it out properly but for tonight there's live music on in most of the pubs along the waterfront so we'll have a wander around after dinner, providing the rain holds off that is.

Catch-up from Birmingham

When we were in Birmingham we had a night out at the Prince of Wales pub. It's only just re-opened after being refitted.  It used to be a quaint old pub with real ales and good food but has been modernised beyond recognition.  It still serves real ales but isn't doing food yet, although that's planned for the end of August.

Roger took these photos of the Gent's loo as it's so weirdly decorated.

the urinals

the wash basins (on bales of straw)

The Ladies loo was very "pretty", all pinks and greys but the wallpaper reminded me of a scene from a Harry Potter movie.  It was covered with pictures of lace plates with kittens on them, like the staff room of the evil teacher Delores Umbridge, most disconcerting.  I'm not sure what the interior designer was on, but it must have been strong stuff!

Worcester Races

Mooring next to Worcester Race Course definitely has its advantages.  Not only did we have the Beer Festival last weekend, but last night it was race night.  We've been walking Chico on the race course but when we took him out before tea last night we had to go further up Pitcroft Park as our normal entrance was blocked off.  It didn't stop us watching the racing though.

This was the 5.20pm race. There were only 5 runners.  First was the favourite Allerford Jack at 11/10.
I felt sorry for the one who came last.  By the time they came past us for the second lap the poor horse was knackered and had to make a huge effort to get over the hurdles.  At least he finished, even though he was way behind.

We've had our 48hrs here so we'll be moving on again tomorrow.  The mooring warden comes round collecting the £3.50 fee at around 8.30.  So far he's knocked us up every morning, tomorrow I'm determined to be up before he comes. A lot of the boats who moor here leave before he turns up and so avoid paying the fee.

Bramble Jelly

I didn't bring many books with me when we moved onto the boat but I made an exception for this one which I've had since we were married 30 odd years ago.  As you can see it's a bit dog eared and most of the pages are loose, but the recipes have never failed me, unlike some by celebrity chefs that I've tried.

I didn't have much time to pick the blackberries yesterday so when I weighed them today there was just under 3lbs.  That's not really enough for a big batch but would do for a start.

The recipe I follow is incredibly simple, if fact the hardest part is sterilising the jars and washing up afterwards.

First, wash the blackberries then put into a large pan with half a pint of water. Slowly bring to the boil and mash down with a potato masher to extract as much juice as possible.  Once it's all gooey you need to remove the seeds and the easiest way to do this is through a jelly bag.  You can buy these at any good kitchen shop or online from Amazon HERE. Alternatively you could use a piece of muslin and a wire strainer/colander.

When it's stopped dripping (I left it for about 2 hours while we went shopping) you'll be left with some nice clear juice and a bag of mushy seeds which you throw away.

Before you start making the jam, put 2 saucers or small plates in the freezer, you'll need these later to test if the jam's ready for potting.  Wash your jars and lids in hot soapy water and rinse well, no need to dry.  Put the jars on a baking tray and into a cold oven. Turn oven on to Gas 2 and leave until jam is ready to pot.

Measure the juice in a jug (and make a note of how much you have) before pouring into a large pan. I've still got my old Maslin pan but you could use a pressure cooker pan or a large saucepan.

Add granulated sugar at the ratio of 90g sugar to 100ml juice.  I had 850ml juice so added 765g sugar.
Put the pan over a low heat and stir till all the sugar has dissolved. I've got a long handled wooden spoon that I keep just for this job.

Once the sugar has dissolved, add the juice of one lemon and turn the heat up to bring it to a rolling boil. DO NOT STIR as you will end up with the sugar crystallising out on the sides of the pan and your jelly will be "gritty".  You can use a thermometer if you have one, or leave it to boil for 15 mins before doing a test to see if it's ready to pot.

To test for a "set" you need one of the saucers from the freezer. Pour a teaspoonful of jam onto the saucer and leave for 1 minute to cool. Then push a clean finger through the jam. If it wrinkles as you push it, it's ready.  If not, boil for another 5 mins and try again.

Once it's ready, remove the pan from the heat and pour the jam into hot jars.  Seal the top with a wax disc and cellophane wrapper. I also save the jar's lids and re-use them as well as the cellophane.  If you don't seal the jars while the jam's still hot, you must wait until it's stone cold to do it.  Sealing lukewarm jam will result in it going mouldy. I don't know why, it just does.

My 3lbs of blackberries gave me 3 smallish jars plus a bit left over which we'll have tomorrow.

Back to Worcester

I thought you might like to see how high the flood waters rose here at Upton, back in May.
The pontoon we were moored to last night rises up the pole

and in May someone called Dave marked the level with a painted line. That must have been scary!

As Upton floods regularly, new flood defences have been installed since we were here in August last year.  On the outskirts of the town they have built a long raised grassy bank to keep the waters back.  In times of flood they close these huge steel gates across the road. There's another one on the other side of the road and  when closed they butt up against a rubber seal to keep the water back.

Over the weekend my eczema flared up again and I only had a very small amount of cream left so at 8.10 this morning I phoned Upton Surgery to see if I could get a doctors appointment and prescription.  The receptionist was very helpful when I explained that we were on a boat and only in Upton for a couple of days.  I got an appointment for 8.50, walked the mile and a half there, saw the doctor, got the prescription filled, walked back home to the boat and was sat drinking coffee by 9.20.  Great service or what?  We haven't needed to see a doctor since we've been living on the boat so I wasn't quite sure how it would work.  All I had to provide was a postal address, so they knew which health authority to bill. They didn't ask for any form of I.D. and just registered me as a temporary resident/holidaymaker.

After lunch we set off back to Worcester, stopping on the way for water at Diglis lock.  While the tank was filling I went blackberry picking so tonight I'm going to make Bramble Jelly.  The next lot of blackberries I come across have been ear-marked for Blackberry Ripple Ice-cream.

Oat Cookies

This morning I just fancied a croissant or Danish pastry with my early morning coffee, so I walked into town to the Co-Op.  What a disappointment, their oven had broken so they weren't able to bake any.  When I got back to the boat I knocked up a batch of these Oat Cookies, not quite the same thing but just as good with coffee. They only take half an hour from scatch and they're high fibre too, which I suppose makes them a bit healthier than the croissants.

Oat Cookies makes 12

100g butter (block or spreadable)
50g sugar (brown gives best flavour)
2 tblsps runny honey
100g wholemeal self raising flour (ordinary white SR will do but not as high fibre)
100g porridge oats
70g dried fruit (use anything you have, this time I used cherries and almonds)


Weigh the butter, sugar and honey directly into a pan and melt over a low heat, making sure the sugar is fully dissolved otherwise the cookies will have a gritty texture.

Weigh the flour, oats and fruit into a bowl and mix together well, especially if using glace cherries as this stops them sticking together.

Add to the pan and mix well. The mixture will be quite wet and sticky but this is normal.

Put heaped desert spoonfuls onto a non-stick baking tray (or line an ordinary one with baking paper) and flatten down a bit with the back of a spoon.

Bake at Gas 4 (house oven) Gas 5 (boat oven) for 15 mins. till just browning round the edges.  This gives soft cookies, if you want crispier ones leave another 3-5 mins.

Leave on the baking tray to cool for 5 mins then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

These were the cherry and almond ones but I've also made them with crystallised ginger, raisins and standard mixed dried fruit. Whatever you add to them, just make sure it adds up to 70g. I suppose you could even use chocolate chunks if you wanted to be a bit naughty

Enjoy!

Drama in Worcester

We had a touch of drama this morning.  Roger was eating his breakfast and looking out of the side hatch when a small film crew arrived on the bridge above our mooring.

 The actress was supposed to be quite distressed

and attempt to throw herself off the bridge into the river

The producer/camera man filmed it all from just behind our boat

Now while all this was going on, people were still walking to and fro across the bridge.  I was amazed that only one woman stopped and tried to help/stop her jumping off the bridge.  Everyone else just walked straight past!  She took some reassuring that it it was only a film and was quite shocked and upset. It would have made more sense if the film crew had stopped people crossing the bridge while they were filming.

After lunch we set off again downstream.  The river attracts a different sort of boat and there were lots of "gin palaces" moored everywhere.

Some of them are huge. This shows the scale as the narrowboat was a 57ft hire boat.

We enjoyed our cruise down to Upton on Severn although in places the banks are so high you can't actually see much other than trees.

When we arrived at Upton on Severn there was only one mooring spot left, tucked in against the bank but still on a floating pontoon.  Can you see how high the mooring poles are?

Upton on Severn has the dubious reputation of being the most flooded town in the UK.  It's been flooded 70 times in 40 years.  At least I'll sleep happy tonight knowing that if it floods tonight we have another 20ft. to go up.