I've been bowled over by the huge, very positive response to the pictures I've been posting recently on Facebook and Twitter. For many months, I've simply been sharing ordinary photos of canally, boaty subjects, and I've put them in some FB boaters' groups as well as on my own profile. Most of them have appeared on this blog over the years, too. But in the past week, I've been working on photos with computer software, and it's these that have prompted this massive reaction.
Spending as much time on the UK's inland waterways as all the other stuff of life will allow us!
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Is it a picture?
Sunday, September 27, 2020
A commercial break
Friday, September 25, 2020
We're not going out...
But there is no need to scream and shout;
We are not going out.
Once upon a time, we were simply a tad untidy, but now...
Sarah and Trevor returned yesterday, having been to Stratford-upon-Avon. They'd had a good cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it, but our illustrious Prime Minister was due to address the nation that evening, to announce new measures to reduce the spread of the virus, and they didn't want to risk being locked down in their boat somewhere out on the cut. They'd hurried back, just in case.
As it happened, Johnson didn't impose the lockdown, but hasn't ruled out the future possibility. We're glad to be here, but a bit annoyed that our efforts over the past few days have been rewarded with a downward turn in the weather. We awoke this morning to 16° in the boat. What a blessing the Bubble stove is!
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Dyno-Rod on steroids
and joined a holidaying couple on NB Lesley Ann, making our ascent pleasingly more sociable, and simpler.
Two locks from the top, there was a problem. A sizeable team from CRT were directing boats to moor in the pounds between the locks, all the way down the flight. Ahead of us, a number of people were looking over the bridge at something happening in the lock above us.
Our pound started to rise, then to overflow the gates behind us.
What she saw, she described as Dyno-Rod on steroids.
We were there for... two hours? Two and a half? I really don't know. I was pleased for our locking companions who'd left a day in hand to get to their hire base on the Market Harborough branch, but there were other hire-boaters waiting who were getting a bit anxious about the time. There were no excuses for Mr Grumpy, though, the boat-owner who seemed to think that the length of time the unblocking job was taking must have been down to the total incompetence of the CRT, and who made sure everyone else knew it. The poor fool.
They fixed it. The blockage had been caused by willow roots that had broken into the pipe and been filtering leaves and other detritus until it blocked the water entirely. Well done, CRT!
The peace was wonderful.
Monday, September 21, 2020
Braunston was busy...
Wednesday morning graced us with a warm, sunny sky, and we set off down to the junction and turned west towards Braunston. We'd been passed by very few boats in either direction, so we anticipated an uninterrupted journey through Braunston Tunnel and down the locks.