cruising plans

I have 20.5 days holiday this year. That doesn't sound much, but only working four days a week means that when I take 4 days holiday, I can have nine days off in a row. Just as well as there are several people who want to visit and go out on the boat. Funnily enough they all want to come in April - can't think why they don't want to come now!!!

So I have the pleasant job of working out when and where I'm cruising this year. I want to have at least one trip out alone, but the others can be with company. One cruise is already planned - to go up the Ashby Canal with Roger and Shirleyann Andrews. Shirleyann is the generous lady who made all my new curtains and seat covers, so the least I can do is to take them out cruising. My brother James will hopefully be visiting. If he is on his own we can go out cruising for as long as he has free. But if his lovely family come, then space is an issue as they can't all sleep on the boat overnight, so although we can still take the boat out, it can only be a day trip. Then there is my friend Mary who joined me for part of my Great Shroppie Cruise. She also wants to visit and go out somewhere. I love Great Haywood and Tixall Wide, so we will probably go there as it only takes one longish day or two shorter ones to get there.

I haven't yet decided where I will go for my lone cruise. I am toying with the idea of a challenge. Either by going out to the River Soar and so tackling my first broad locks and first river (with the exception of my boat handling course where I had a day on the Severn). Or by going up the Trent and Mersey towards Manchester and tackling the Harecastle Tunnel (very long) and large flights of locks, as well as cruising through urban areas like Stoke on Trent. Alternatively I am tempted to go down the Coventry and on to the Oxford Canal. So many choices and so little time!

I also want to visit my stepmother in Beaulieu for the last time before she moves house as that has been our family home since 1976! So if any of my other readers were planning a visit, you better let me know soon - or wait till 2012!

Belated Happy New Year

Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a while; my excuse is that merely surviving has been taking all my time and energy since November!

This winter has felt harder so far than either of the other winters I have spent on the boat. I think this is due in part to the freeze happening much earlier than usual and also that I am usually disgustingly healthy but have had 2 nasty colds in a row since my birthday. The current one is taking a long time to work through and I am not patient with my own illnesses or anyone else's for that matter either!

I finally managed to move the boat yesterday, for the first time since November 17th. It was such a relief to pump out and take on diesal and water. I was also delighted to turn around and so to be moored the 'proper way round' on my mooring. There is no right way of course, but for some reason I much prefer being moored facing Alrewas than Fradley - I don't know why, it just feels right!

Bonny has outdone herself by smashing her personal best for refusing to come back on a walk. Her previous record was six and a half hours, but Sunday before last she ran off at 7.45am at the beginning of our morning walk and returned at 6.30pm! I say returned, but she only got near home when I finally caught her; I don't know if she would have crossed the lock alone and come all the way back to the boat. What made it infinitely worse was this was a working day! So I had to take unpaid leave at a time when I really can't afford it. Usually when she run off she barks or pops out of the bushes every so often so I know she is OK. This time she utterly disappeared for all 10 and a half hours! So she is now permanently in bondage and I have made a vow to keep her on the lead until her second birthday in May. Meanwhile I will do loads of training with her. I don't know why I hate having to keep her on the lead so much. Apart from loving seeing her racing at full stretch after a rabbit / squirrel / anything that moves, I think it is because freedom is such a high value for me at the present. However her safety and my sanity are even more important to me so bondage it is!

On a brighter note, having filled up with diesel and done my sums I can now officially announce that my new fridge has just about cut my diesel bills in half! I now rarely have to run my engine in the morning and as long as I run it in the evening when I am drawing the most load - with cooking, washing and telly watching, then I am using around a litre and a half a day as opposed to just under 3! Just as well, as the EU has interfered again and we now have to use a different sort of diesel in our boats and surprise, surprise, it's more expensive. That coupled with the rise in fuel costs generally means my bills are rising uncomfortably, especially as pay rises are unknown in the company I am working for. What with VAT going up to 20%, my annual mooring fee due in February and my car heading towards senile dementia, life is challenging at present. But then, what would life be without challenge and risk?

Happy Christmas to all my readers!

We have been frozen in here at Fradley since the third week in November. There was a brief thaw for my birthday (thank you birthday angel) but now, like the rest of the country we are back in the deep freeze.

Because of being unable to move the boat for such a long time, I was forced to complete the most disgusting task that I have undertaken on the boat so far. That of manually pumping out my black tank - known to most of you as a poo tank! The hardest part was pushing containers full of effluent all the way to the BW station where there are facilities for disposal of said excrement. I managed to do around 100 litres and I was wasted afterwards! However I can now pee and poo in peace for the next few weeks. I have a tank full of diesel thanks to 'Mayflower Graham' who sells diesel in a can. Water is increasingly becoming an issue as all the remaining taps have started to ice up and stop working. As long as I don't use my shower, I can stretch to another week before I run dry. I'm not sure what I'll do then.

I was due to drive to Sevenoaks on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with my family but a combination of 9 inches of snow here and temperatures forecast to drop to around -10 means I can't leave the boat without risking damage to the water system and engine, not to mention a scary drive around the M25 on Friday! So, with regret I have had to cancel those plans and stay aboard instead. However I won't be alone as my friends on narrowboat Huff n' Puff have invited me to Christmas Lunch with them. Bonny will be delighted to spend time with her boyfriend!

I hope you all get where you are hoping to be for Christmas and that you receive all you want.

photos as promised

Photos rarely do a scene justice and these are no exception. I awoke this morning to a scene from Narnia! As you can see we have had a fair amount of snow and even more ice.

Bonny loves the snow and burrows her head into it, but she is less keen on the ice as she gets sore paws! At present we have ice like glass on our mooring path and so it feels like a risky adventure everytime we leave the boat. But isn't it beautiful?!

Winter Challenges and Opportunities

I can't believe it was only a few weeks ago I posted those benign autumn photos! It is suddenly winter here, as it is nationwide and everything has changed. The colours have been bleached out of the landscape and everything is beautifully monochrome - photos to follow.

It is the change in my day to day routine that really marks the change of season for me. At present the canal is frozen and no movement of the boat is possible. So instead of cruising up to the water point, sticking a hose in my water hole and then effortlessly reversing back (well, generally), I now have to barrow a couple of plastic containers across the lock either to our tap, or if it is frozen, all the way to the BW water point. Then back to the boat where, with the aid of a funnel, I carefully transfer every precious drop into my tank. If the freeze lasts for more than a week or so, this will be a daily chore and in the dark as well if it's a working day.

Then there is the business of keeping warm. At present I am using nearly 2 bags of coal a week and of course they need to be lugged down to the mooring as well as regular supplies of logs and kindling. I know some people cope with coal alone, but I find it difficult to keep the fire going all night without a log or two in there with the coal. If the fire goes out in the wee small hours, the tip of my nose usually informs me pretty quickly! Then I have to decide whether to get out of a warm bed to rebuild the fire or to leave it and risk frostbite when I get up in the morning! It has got down to -7 here at night so I have moved my bed through to the saloon, to be close to the stove.

I am still managing to get into work, although it is getting harder as our road doesn't ever get cleared or gritted. But if I don't make it in, I don't get paid and so I have to trek in somehow.

You would think it is a pretty miserable existence at present, but I do not find it so. For a start, I love the stunningly beautiful scenery, together with that special sort of silence we only get when there is thick lying snow. I also find that life focuses down to the basic essentials of survival and that relieves my mind of all the ordinary worries and anxieties that normally niggle at me. There is also a feeling of achievement in coping in the extreme weather, together with a real community feel among all the live aboard boaters! We smugly smile as we pass each other as if to say 'look at us, aren't we tough!'

I guess it is like every other part of life, it all depends on how you look at it. If I focus on my fears (like being snowed in at work - looking out of the window, very possible today) then life is hard and uncomfortable. But if I see it as an adventure and a way to get in touch with my natural, instinctive / animal self, then it is all good!

fradley pics

I thought I'd post a couple more pictures of our mooring in the autumn as it is so beautiful. I love this time of year. Yes, it can be damp, cold and muddy, but with all the hire boats gone and very few other boats moving, it feels like the canal is all ours.

It is also a treat to wander up to the junction of the two canals and pop into our local, which in my opinion is pretty much the perfect pub! This is where I will be having lunch with my whole family (almost) on my 50th birthday next month. They are visiting my mooring for the first time after a couple of nights in a cottage in the Dales, courtesy of my brother James - bless him! I'm so looking forward to the holiday cottage as I will be able to have my second bath this year!!

My friend Shirleyann sent me a whole set of new curtains and seat covers for the boat. She picked a perfect pattern and made them beautifully. Here is Bonny showing her approval of the seat covers!!


And lastly I thought you would like to see Bonny flirting with her boyfriend Bernie. He is very patient with her, but sometimes she is rather exhausting to be with, especially as he is ten years old and she isn't two yet!

rocking and rolling

I had an interesting day yesterday. On my way to work I had to drive through a bit of a puddle and on reaching the dreadfully busy A38 in rush hour, my engine started coughing like a 40 a day smoker. I knew it was going to cut out and so I tried to get off the dual carriageway. I just reached a short slip road and got round the corner when my car died half way over a canal bridge. there I was, in the rain, on a blind bend, that people coming off the A38 usually take at some speed. I left Bonny in the car and I stood in the rain directing cars around mine. The reactions were interesting. several drivers (all men) shook their fists or made other rude gestures as if I had chosen to stop there for fun! Others looked quite terrified as they swerved round me, including a coach driver. By then I was convinced it was only a matter of time before someone hit us and was fairly terrified. One man stopped to see if he could help, but with no tow rope between us, he gave up and left. after the longest 15 minutes of my life, 2 retired men in a 4 wheel drive stopped. They offered to tow me, showed me where my tow point was - no, I had no idea! I was so shaken that one of them drove my car for me and they towed me all the way to Barton Marina and wouldn't accept anything in return. I was so effusive in my thanks that I think I quite embarrassed them! So, thanks again to my Good Samaritans - you may well have saved my life, or at least my car!

During the day my car recovered from its asthma attack but the wind started to get up and by the time Bonny and I returned home, it was blowing a gale. All the boats on the mooring were rocking and rolling and the trees were bending right over. I spent some time anxiously watching the trees and wondering what would happen if one fell on my boat. However, probably due to the rocking sensation, coupled with my emotional exhaustion after the fright in the morning, I slept like a log. I woke to a world scrubbed clean and the sun creeping above the horizon. All the boats were still firmly tethered and upright and I celebrated seeing another dawn!