Monday, October 26, 2020

Just keeping up

We certainly chose the right day to go out to Anglesey Abbey! Since then, we've had light rain, heavy rain, gusty wind, gale-force wind, Storm Caroline and the tail-end of Hurricane Epsilon. On the minority occasions when it's not doing that, it's beautiful.






But we've not been able to do a fraction of the work we'd wanted to do. I'd like to do another cleaning of the cratch cover; green algae is a pain. I'd like to pack the channel through which our stove chimney passes through the roof. Pack it with rock-wool, that is. And the paintwork would be better-off with a washing, waxing and polishing. It'd be better-off if we could finish the touching-up we started ages ago.

None of these jobs is essential, but it still irks us that we can't cross any of them off our ToDo list.

Jess is having a great time working at the Reykjavik Grapevine in Iceland. She's written 51 articles in the 7 weeks she's been there, travelled around a lot and really enjoyed the scenery. I'm not so sure she enjoyed the rather strong earthquake a few days back! She's just over half-way through her internship now, and she'll hate leaving.






NB Lyndsey Ann left the marina the same day that Jess flew to Iceland, and they arrived back yesterday. They had a good time, travelling when the weather let them and sitting out the rest. I can't deny I'm envious, but I still don't regret staying here in the marina. We weighed up the pros and cons of cruising, and the cons won.

Those wise readers who bought my "Hints and tips for life with your feet under water" , please note that there's a new post in the Addendum Blog - "Update to Chapter 1 – Hardware (bits and pieces)"



Those of you who haven't yet exchanged a mere £1.99 for the book, see what Towpath Talk had to say about it, and buy it here!


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Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Awesome Autumn

We were very much in need of time away from the boat - I'd never expected to say that. Last week, we consulted the weather forecast for this week, debated the accuracy of the forecast, which has been pretty poor lately, decided we'd take the chance, and booked to visit Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire. Yesterday was the day.


We didn't go in the house. It wasn't open, but we've been in before anyway. This day, we just wanted the space, the fresh air and the autumnal beauty. And we got that in profusion.


















The sun was out, the temperature mild, we picnicked in the garden, and autumn was awesome!

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Living in a ditch

I wouldn't say I'm bored, but the past couple of weeks haven't been particularly busy. Not physically, anyway. We got the front cratch board and window-frames painted, and they're looking so much better, and waterproof, too. But Grace is having to wait now until there's a meteorological window of opportunity to get the trellis and roses painted on the board. Time is needed to mark out the pattern, paint the trellis pattern, let the paint dry, paint the roses climbing up the trellis, let that dry, finish them, let them dry. There just might be such a window on its way, starting tomorrow. Maybe.

With no work to be doing on Kantara, we've both been spending a lot of our time writing. I am bound by marital law not to reveal the name or nature of Grace's work; mine is the novel I'm mentioned before. I've also been asked to contribute regularly to a new website for folk interested in boats, canals and rivers, so I've been crafting out a few articles for that.



It was launched just last week by Paul Massey on board Hannah the Narrowboat, and it's got off to a good start. Take a look at it now - okay wait until you've finished here. Perhaps you'll want to be a contributor!

Right, well, I didn't have a lot to say. You can go now. www.livinginaditch.co.uk




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Wednesday, October 07, 2020

Parallel universes

The theory of Parallel Universes (or alternative universes - the American Alternate Universes actually means "every other universe") is a theory to which I do not hold, great physicist as I am not. On the day the theory is proven, I shall eat my left foot, sock and shoe included. I shall, however, only do that in one of the other universes, not in this one.

Photo from forbes.com

But, scepticism aside, I've been thinking recently on this... In a parallel universe where the only difference from ours is that there is no coronavirus pandemic, what have we done, Grace and I? How much boating have we done? Where have we been? How badly sunburned did we get? (remember the heatwave, way back?) Did we get caught in flooding? How long did we spend moored up in unremitting wind and rain? (I'm sure you remember them.)

In this universe, we're already way past the amount of time we'd previously spent on a moored boat in one stretch. Our plans to go out regularly to touch up paintwork have come to nought because of  the several Storms with Names, and today's forecast doesn't suggest that's going to change in the foreseeable ten days - though I have my doubts that any meteorologists can actually see that far ahead, computers or no computers.


Had it not been for the virus, we would have been out on the cut for several extended cruises by now. So we would have experienced all of that weather as proper boaters, not the berthed versions we are now. But, as I've said before, although there are many out there happily cruising, we've not been inclined to take the risk of contracting Covid whilst parked out in the wild and windy moorings of the Peak Forest Canal, say.

But I know; one man's wisdom is another man's wussiness. I'm not ashamed, 😀

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