Lockdown day 38 - Spot the cygnets

Really? No entries for Tuesday's quiz? Okay, but I hope at least that some of you (at least) enjoyed (at least) some of the songs I linked you to. I'll be giving you the answer in the coming days.

Spot the cygnets! This photo was taken three days ago, and the littl'uns are just about visible snuggled up next to Mum, while Dad awaits his turn to baby-sit. (Proper zoom was unavailable to me; I only had my tiny compact camera with me.) The next day, five cygnets were seen out with both parents while three eggs remained in the nest. This morning, both adults were squeezed onto the nest island and the kids were apparently cosied up with them. We watch with interest.

I ventured out of the marina for just a few minutes, just to see something different for a change.

"Hey! I'm a dad!"

*******

Lockdown day 37 - Revisit this day, April 29th 2019

This time last year - do you remember it? - we were returning up the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union, having spent a very enjoyable few days moored in the basin in the heart of the old town.

Not the best house in town! 

The weather was beautiful 

Okay, so we had some rain, and sun-painted clouds

What a fabulous place to live! 

Next, Marsworth locks...

*******

Doh!

Not a deer, a female deer, but an expression of frustration at an error in a previous post, pointed out to me by Val Poore, to whom my thanks. The link in the quiz on "A bit of a ramble" should have taken you straight to a piece of music, but took you instead to a log-in page. Not helpful. So, I'll try that again...

As I said before, here's a quiz question for you. What is the link between THIS SONG FROM MY LIST (see THIS post for that list) and a famous 1970s children's TV programme? 

IF you need a bit of help, try listening to this song from the list.

Answers in the comments box, please. No prizes, just a bit of fun.

Today's outlook

*******

Lockdown day 34 - A bit of a ramble

This post is rather more rambling that usual. Bare Bear with me. (I spelled it wrong first time. Clothes may remain on.)

During Saturday's coffee ritual - henceforth, Coffee Ritual - I was both enchanted and annoyed by the manifold fairies drifting like snow flakes over the marina pond, landing in my coffee, on my sunglasses and in my hair, and finally forming a scum on the water and getting stuck on the beaks of feeding ducks and swans. Of course, these fairies were the floating seeds of hundreds, thousands maybe, of  I know not what plant. Spiders were pretty fed up with them, too!

As I sat and mused on the fairies, the sky suddenly darkened considerably. Naturally, I looked up. I've worked out that there must have been roughly a square mile of sky visible to me from where I was sitting, and there were no clouds, except the one very small black one that slipped in front of the sun for a few moments, plunging us into a startling, relative darkness. What were the chances of that happening?

We've seen a number of good TV dramas over the past months, generally filling one or two hours each evening. New ones seem to be appearing at an increasing rate. There's The Trouble With Maggie Cole, Twin, Devs, Quiz, Our Girl, a replay of Outnumbered, Normal People (starting tonight), Belgravia (recording back at the house), The Nest, The Split, Last Tango in Halifax, Cold Feet. I think I'm getting a bit numbed by them, the result of which is that I can't remember how recently or otherwise they were showing.

Here's a quiz question for you. What is the link between THIS SONG FROM MY LIST (see yesterday's post) and a famous 1970s children's TV programme? Answers in the comments box, please. No prizes, just a bit of fun.

I was intrigued today to find that this blog of mine has a fairly regular single reader living in Peru! There are several others in an "Unknown Region". Odd.

Finally, two of Grace's photos post-sunset capturing a sliver of a crescent moon, and Venus, the evening star, both reflected in the water.

If you have any sky photos to match those, please email them to me at nbkantara@gmail.com, and I'll include them in future posts.

Lockdown day 33 - Trivial pursuits

Have you noticed how the lock-down has made us more interested in the minutiae of life? It's certainly true of me, but then I think it may be a bit of a tendency with me anyway. So it's good to notice the rapid growth of these nasturtiums. What we don't see are the numerous seeds that haven't even started to sprout yet!

The rest of these photos sum up a large chunk of my day as I take my daily walk around the marina or sit at the end of the pontoon and read or listen to music. It's a happy day, but all that I do is relatively trivial; the several jobs we could be doing on the boat simply aren't attractive. Fortunately, they're not urgent either!

Thursday was not just St George's Day, Shakespeare's birthday and the date of his demise, but it was  also Dandelion Day. Only those of you who have ever had the pleasure to make their own country wines will know that this day is the day to pick the flowers with which to make dandelion wine. For those who didn't know, dandelion wine is superb.

(fivegallonideas.com)

I witnessed no ducky violence today. It was all very lucky-ducky, lovey-dovey. Now we wait for the ducklings.

I've mentioned music a lot over the past weeks, and I've been asked what music it is that I listen to so often and enjoy so much, so I've shared some of it HERE for the enjoyment (hopefully) of readers. Maybe you might make polite comments in the comments box at the bottom of the page!

To end the day, Grace's photo captures one of the most dramatic sunsets we've seen.

*******

Lockdown day 32 - Rediscover this day, April 24th, 2014 - a Google Street View

These photos are not, strictly speaking, mine. Nor do they actually belong to April 24th, 2014. They were taken by a Google Street View cameraman in September 2013, while Grace and I were moored at Stoke Bruerne with our friend Michelle. The View of Stoke Bruerne didn't appear on Street View for six months, at which point, on April 24th, I screen-shot these stills and added them to my photo collection.

We're moored almost at the tunnel entrance, where the Street View stops. If you start a virtual tour HERE you can turn around and walk back past us - the first boat moored right out of the woodland shade - and down as far as lock 18 by bridge 54. It's a lovely experience on a beautiful day.

Strangely, there are no more photos for that day - actually, for several days - though we've been to Stoke Bruerne often since then, and taken dozens more.

*******

A huge apology!

We've just recently had a chat with Phil and Jackie from NB Achernar, and Phil said he'd commented on one of my latest posts. I'd not seen the comment.

Back on Kantara I looked anxiously for settings in my Blogger account that might be causing comments not to be displayed. What I found, to my horror, were numerous comments awaiting moderation - and they dated back to 2016! The box was empty where my email address should have been and once was, hence I was not being notified when people commented.

I am mortified! My apologies go to you all, especially to Vallypee, who has been a frequent commenter over the years, always with something positive and encouraging to say. Thank you, Val.

I have no idea how this moderation setting got changed. It was dim of me not to realise that something like that might have happened. I just thought no-one wanted to communicate with me - even after I encouraged readers to comment just a few posts ago.

"I have no idea at all why this is,  but this is the first blog I've ever written (out of two!) that simply doesn't attract comments. Okay, fair enough, it's not obligatory to comment, any more than you have to like it. But, during this time of isolation and loneliness for many, I thought it might be good if folks used the comment facility to add your own... well, comments... relating to my various ramblings, to share your own experiences, your thoughts on what I or others have written. I'd be part of those conversations too, of course. Shall we give it a try?"

I've now tasked myself with reading them all, and replying where relevant. Normal service has been resumed, and future comments will now be received gratefully.

Sorry though, Phil. Yours really isn't there! 😕

Lockdown day 30 - Rediscover this day, April 22nd, 2016

On this day four years ago, we were on the return journey to Yelvertoft, having been down through London via Paddington and Limehouse Basins, and and onto the Lea and Stort navigation, turning at Hertford on the Lea and Bishops Stortford on the Stort. We'd been out since 17th March, and had a brilliant time.

These photos follow our passage through Berkhamsted, a favourite mooring of ours.

The Rising Sun, Berko.

 This fella lives here, has done for years. We see him every time we go through. He's very tame.

FREE house great BEER welcome INSIDE

And on this day, April 22nd  2020...

Cows and trees, two of my favourite things!

"Paint the gaps" indeed!

*******

I was chuffed to hear yesterday from Janet Richardson, the editor of Towpath Talk magazine (The UK's Number ONE read for all waterways users), that a review of my latest book is to be appear in their June edition. She kindly agreed to me using it in advance of that.

Take a look and buy it from Kindle Books HERE!

£2.50 - That's cheaper than a pint, and it lasts longer!

(Readable on all devices)

*******

Lockdown day 29 - Every picture tells a story...

so they say, and I think this one simply tells of a boat at mooring. It tells of a boater with a tidy mind, organised, particular.

In fairness to reality, this next picture will say nothing to you without a sound-track. To me, it tells the tale of my coffee ritual being disturbed by a loud, repetitive sound, loud enough to push past my earphones and the music they were playing to me. I paused the music, stood up and looked around. I recognised the sound now; a ukulele being strummed confidently through the same four chords over and over again.Turning in the direction of  the disturbance, I took this photo. I know who it was. I think he sang to his accompaniment from time to time, and was clearly enjoying himself. Good!

I sat down, unpaused my mp3 player and turned up the volume.

Looking out across the water from my pontoon perch, I cast my eyes across the many trees that line the far side of the canal. They're beautiful. I love trees. They're in bud and early leaf now, but I love them when they're bare and skeletal, too, perhaps especially when they're dead. This picture brings to mind my art lessons when I was at the Grammar School.

I was twelve years old, in the First Year, and Mrs Harris was my art teacher. Now, I'm no artist. I'm the one who had to pull out of a family game of Pictionary because Grace thought my drawing of a shoe was a cauliflower. (Naomi took my place, and the two of them went on to win.) Grace is the artist of our partnership. So you can understand my dislike of art lessons.

This came to a head, however, when the lovely Mrs Harris took the class out onto the school field one sunny day and told us to draw a tree of our choice. That would have been bad enough (I was anxiously looking around for a simple one; small perhaps or, better, reduced to very little by a lightning strike), but the problem got even worse when the mad woman told us to draw it "by drawing the spaces between the branches"! I don't think I actually wept tears, but it was touch and go for the entire, totally unsuccessful hour.

(I have since found a tree that I could probably draw quite well, though it wouldn't be by the "paint the gaps" technique.)

The story of this one is very simple on the face of it. But there are nuances for me. The story is of life on a narrowboat, a simple life and a largely peaceful one, often in places of great beauty. But the subtext is about distancing, isolation, restriction, uncertainty, sadness, and not a little anxiety. And we're not alone in this, of course. Many are far, far worse off.

What picture would tell your story?

Take care.

Lockdown day 27 - Rediscover this day (Warning: Contains images of a sexual nature)

I have no idea at all why this is,  but this is the first blog I've ever written (out of two!) that simply doesn't attract comments. Okay, fair enough, it's not obligatory to comment, any more than you have to like it. But, during this time of isolation and loneliness for many, I thought it might be good if folks used the comment facility to add your own... well, comments... relating to my various ramblings, to share your own experiences, your thoughts on what I or others have written. I'd be part of those conversations too, of course. Shall we give it a try?

*********

It was dismal and cold yesterday, and we had the stove alight again. Today, however, we're back to the warm, sunny weather we'd got used to over the last couple of weeks or so. The birds are certainly getting into the spirit of Spring. On my morning walk, I encountered a couple of mating peasants pheasants, though she was clearly not that enamoured of the idea. After just a few seconds, she literally ran out from underneath him and, after a few paces, took off and flew away over the nearest hedge. He was totally discombobulated, and rather unsure as to what to do. Embarrassed, he flew away over the wrong hedge.

Ms Pheasant may have found the coupling unpleasant, but she's lucky she's not a mallard. Whilst enjoying my coffee ritual this afternoon, I witnessed what can only be described as anatine rape. I was shocked out of my reverie by a shemozzle in the water not far from me, and looked up to see a male mallard on the back of an almost totally submerged female, holding her head down under the surface with his beak. This continued for what seemed like many seconds, after which he simply dismounted and swam away. She spent quite a while spitting out water and sorting out her ruffled feathers. I hope she has words with him. I was appalled.

From Google Photos today - "Rediscover this day April 19th 2014"

It's Stoke Bruerne again.

I remember it well. We were there for three days while Grace was taught the skills of painting traditional Roses and Castles by master painter Terence Edgar.

which resulted ultimately in Grace painting new roses and castles on Kantara after she was repainted.

Now that's a proper job!

*********