I missed some!

Sorting out stuff here in the house to take back to Kantara next week, I found two more books about canals which Rod gave us, which have to be mentioned.

Another large volume by the very prolific Anthony Burton, this one spans 200 years of the history of the canal system. Says Mr Burton,

"Canal Mania reached a peak in 1793, in which year no fewer than 21 new canals were authorized by Act of Parliament, and story of these "1793 canals" forms the core of this book."

The book is superbly illustrated with colour or black and white photos, drawings and diagrams, and the history is detailed and fascinating. Every narrow boat should have one!

For those interested in traditional canal food, there's Favourite Boating Recipes - Traditional Cabin Fare.

With 34 recipes and numerous canal photos and drawings, this is a useful little book for the cook who likes to experiment. Recipes are simple, but are modernised, inasmuch as some of the original ingredients have been replaced with others which are more easily sourced than those our predecessors used - tomato puree, for example, mango chutney and curry paste. Tasty, nonetheless!

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On Tuesday, Grace and I did a basic First Aid course, organised by our friend Ray - who's been a well-qualified first-aider for years - and held in our church. It was very useful, and covered most of what we think we need to know as boaters. What wasn't included we're learning from appropriate web sites and books.

As I said at the start, we're beginning to work our way back to the boat now. Who knows what the weather has in store, but I'm feeling very envious of Nikki and her partner on NB Miner Bill, and the Slees on NB Epiphany - and others - who are tweeting their travels, and reporting some lovely weather recently. So it's a matter of collecting together all we think we're going to need on the boat this year, stuffing it into the car, and moving home again. It'll probably take two trips - at least!

NB Kantara, here we come!