Lockdown day 25 - Books and blogs and bits and bobs

I think I've reached an age where my train of thought often leaves the station without me. Today, this is the result.

BOOKS
I'd far rather that this pandemic had never happened, of course, but I'm wondering if the social distancing and shut-down are the reason for a sudden spike in my book sales. People are turning to books to ward off boredom, perhaps. Several other Kindle publishers are thinking the same thing. So, if you're in need of a good book to get carried away with, please try my latest.

They chose a narrowboat, and canal life changes things.

It changes people, too. And dogs.

"Buy it, especially now in these stressful times. It will transport you to a world where self-isolation is a real pleasure." (Valerie Poore)

Valmarp

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully wistful and rather beautiful novel

Reviewed in the United States on 22 March 2020

Verified Purchase

I was lucky enough to Beta read this book, but I loved it so much I bought the 'improved' version on publication and have read it again. It's a wonderful story of a journey on a canal with a dog, but that is in part allegorical because it's also the story of the journey of a couple's relationship, with each other and with their dog. It is full of lovely dialogue, beautiful canals, charming, colourful characters and a totally gorgeous spaniel. I can recommend it highly for anyone and everyone: boat lovers, dog lovers, character driven novel lovers and simple old fashioned story lovers. It's set on the English canals, where life is as wonderful as it can be. Buy it, especially now in these stressful times. It will transport you to a world where self-isolation is a real pleasure.

And/or take a look at my previous ones in the Kindle Store.

The writer of the review above is Valerie Poore, herself a blogger and prolific writer of books, and you can find hers in The Kindle Store, too.

Her BLOG, largely about her life in a Dutch barge in Rotterdam, can be found here. Enjoy!

My BLOG... oh, you're reading it.

(That was the books and blogs bit. This is the bits and bobs...)

I've signed up to Foodsmiles St Albans' One Plant Promise, a challenge to grow this year at least one plant to eat. Grace planted Nasturtium seeds in a trough at the front of the boat, and the first shoots have burst through. When they're fully grown, every part of the plant can be eaten, especially as part of a salad. I'm a little anxious now that I've discovered that "Nasturtium" is Latin, and means, quite literally "Nose twist"!

The breeze on the Marina pond under the late-afternoon sky yesterday...

and the same water this afternoon with no wind.

And these are just snaps I took while I was doing the longest possible walk around the marina site today.

Before I finish this, I'll go and see if there's a sunset...

There was!

Lockdown day 3 - Spring arrives on the socially distancing marina

I've just come in from a wonderful half-hour or so sitting at the end of the pontoon, looking across the almost mirror-like marina pond under a warm, clear, blue sky, drinking coffee and listening to some of my current favourite music. Jan and Ed came back to Emma Jane a couple of days ago to make social distancing easier, and they're parked up next to us as usual. But they're inside the boat, and we're safely socially distanced. There seem to be very few people around. I can see one man on the other side of the water.

Well, we did our Paracetamol hunt yesterday, visiting four smallish supermarkets and one pharmacy, and coming home with two packs of caplets. We'd have liked it to have been four, so we'll keep our eyes out on those restricted shopping trips for food. Once again, the supermarkets were remarkably well stocked with almost everything, and shoppers were casual and sensible.

In the afternoon, we went for an hour's walk. It's not difficult to avoid people when you're living in the heart of the countryside, and the canal towing-path and a local footpath together offer some lovely walks of up to several hours duration. One Dutch barge passed us. The canal was very quiet. The weather was lovely - as it is today - and we only had to hold our breath on a couple of occasions when we passed other walkers. After the rough weather we've all had over the past weeks it's so good to experience the spring. The swans have nested here again, on a tiny island in a remote corner of the marina. They knew what season it was!

This really is the place to be at the moment, and I'm feeling very privileged, very grateful.

My new book has had its first review already! It was written by fellow blogger and author Valerie Poore, and I couldn't have hoped for a better write-up.

Check out Val's books. She lives on a barge in Rotterdam, and she writes about her years spent in South Africa as well as her boating experiences in Europe - very different from ours.

And don't forget "Out of the sunrise", will you?

PC or not PC, that is the question

Wow! We went to Sainsbury's yesterday. Just to do the week's shopping, I assure you. This was not panic buying on our part, but our twentieth step into the supermarket showed it to be far from super. We had never before seen so many empty shelves. Fortunately for us, everything we wanted was available in relative plenty, though I do confess to having taken the very last two-pack of tissues, which was hiding behind all of the empty boxes.

The interesting and useful thing is that out local Co-op rather small supermarket is very much more super. The only shortages they suffer from are toilet rolls and paracetamol, though these are both restocked daily along with everything else. In truth, the only reason we did our shopping at Sainsbury's is that we had three large bin-bags of recycling we were pretty desperate to get rid of, and Sainsbury's, though it's a twenty-five minute drive away, has our nearest recycling facility. We thought we might as well get the food in while we were there.

Back on the boat, we continue to pass our time reading, writing, knitting, doing jigsaws, fixing a few things the fixing of which is a bit/a lot overdue, and trying to find a break in the rubbish weather when we might go for a decent walk.

"Out of the Sunrise" is now published, the failure of the Kindle publishing machine having been overcome by my persistence - fifth time lucky - and has had a few sales already. With my tongue close to the inside of my cheek, I'm wondering if the story might be too non-PC.

• The lead male character in this book is not politically correct
• The lead dog is male
• Some of the characters are sexist
• All of the characters are White Caucasian.
• The only religion depicted is Christianity
• The only Christian denomination is Church of England
• Male and female characters do not play an equal part in the story
• The vicar is a man
• The dentist is a woman
• So is her receptionist
• Injury is caused to some of the animals in the story
• All of the human characters are apparently omnivores. Those who may not be don’t advertise the fact
• None of the characters are apparently LBGTQ (but they can be if you want them to be. I won’t mind)
• None of the characters speaks out against human slavery
• Christmas is called Christmas
• A spade is called a spade

I hope this won't put you off buying it. My beta-readers gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up, so they weren't offended. One of those readers was Valerie Poore, herself an author rather more prolific than me, and well versed in the art of writing. I'm very grateful to her for her thorough reading of it, and the several useful criticisms she made.

Maybe this book of mine might help you pass your self-isolation time enjoyably!

Out of the Sunrise

a boating adventure with Billy the Dog

We're on our way...

Okay, okay! If you're reading this, Val Poore, I know I once said that my favourite season is the one I'm in at the time. And I know I probably said something very similar about the weather, but I have to fess up now and say that this "hot spell" is just too much.

I sympathise with the fridge. It just can't get cool enough, and it's running its pump continuously. Which is where the similarity ends actually, because I simply don't have the energy to keep active! I'm really aggrieved that I've not been able to do the regular walks I'd been enjoying so much. Sunday, however, was exceptionally cool. The temperature was only 28°, and a decent breeze made it feel cooler still, so I took advantage of that, and walked for almost two hours, a circuit via Crick. I didn't take many photos because I was concentrating too hard on a podcast in my ears.

I arrived back at the marina to see Grace still working on the second Roses & Castles panel. She was in the shade on that side of the boat, and was intent on completing it very soon.

And in fact it wasn't long after that that the final stamens were added to the roses, and the job was done!

Kantara is complete!

I spent a while on Twitter the next day quite unintentionally convincing fellow Tweeps that I'd lost my marbles. The thing is that I was convinced I'd seen an eagle. It wasn't far away, and it stayed in sight for several minutes, wheeling and soaring, and I do know what an eagle looks like. Warwick Castle isn't far from Yelvertoft as the eagle flies, and I knew that they'd had eagles fly away from their display team. When I learned that Stan had been recaptured in 2012, and Nikita was back, too, I had to cast some doubt upon my sighting. Google could find no more escapes. Though it has to be said that if anyone who had an eagle illeagley lost it, they wouldn't be in a good position to report it missing.

Regardless, I did see an eagle. A bit of research led me to believe it was a Sea Eagle (aka White-tailed Eagle). The photo from Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, who report that the bird is making something of a resurgence in parts of the UK.

We're now on our way to Debdale Wharf for the zinc-spraying of the hull. We left the marina on Tuesday, stopping in the early afternoon at Bridge 27, where I finally got round to having a wander through the woods, then at Welford Junction (see how dry the grass is on the bank!), and this afternoon at Foxton Locks. Tomorrow, we'll do the short trip to Debdale, and we'll leave Kantara there on Sunday morning. She comes out of the water on Monday morning, and work commences. We'll head for the house, where work will also commence - decorating! Whoopee!!

Out and about

Val Poore (VallyPee) commented on my last post that her weather in Rotterdam has become warmer and sunnier, and "we are emerging from our holds and doing boat stuff. Lovely!", and it's been like that here today, too. People are out and about where they had been staying in because the weather was just far too cold and dreary. But today, folk have been cleaning and polishing their boats, taking their dogs on extra-long walks, standing around chatting together. A few boats have gone out for a weekender; Foxton, Welford, Market Harborough. We'd have done the same, but we're happy to be here doing a few jobs towards being ready to set out for the Lee and Stort Navigations.

The weather was fine when we got back on Monday, too. Terns screeched at trespassing gulls, swans floated stationary in the middle of the pound, a kingfisher sat on a pontoon post and watched blue tits and great tits feeding at a nearby bird-table. Reed Warblers warbled in the reeds, and the Buntings... bunted nearby.

But Tuesday was very different, and birds and humans alike retreated from the cold, overcast gloom. The swans abandoned the water to graze on the marina banks, ducks sheltered from the wind under the pontoons. We found the warmth of the boat a good reason to stay in.

It rained on Tuesday night. It poured continuously, and we awoke to the drumming on the roof which signals "torrential". Turning over in bed, I noticed a distinct list to port, but I was comfortable where I was. I could deal with it later. We weren't sinking, there was no emergency. Then there was a hammering on the roof of Cream Cracker next to us, and Neil's voice calling out urgently to Darren. I got up and threw some clothes on, and hurried to the front of the boat. Neil was there before me, loosening our bow mooring rope. The water had risen no less than six inches overnight, and the rope - just like Cream Cracker's on one side of us, and Emma Jane on the other, and probably the ropes of most of the craft in the marina. We'd never seen the canal this deep; so deep that it was touching the bottom of the pontoon walkways, and our step/jump down out of the boat onto it was noticeably higher.

The rain continued through the day. Time to go to the cinema, to see "London's Fallen".

"After the death of the British prime minister, the world's most powerful leaders gather in London to pay their respects. Without warning, terrorists unleash a devastating attack that leaves the city in chaos and ruins. Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) springs into action to bring U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) to safety. When Asher falls into the hands of the sinister organization, it's up to Banning to save his commander in chief from a horrible fate." (IMDB)

Action-packed, gripping, very entertaining. Built on the ludicrous premise that the leaders of the world's largest nations would all attend the funeral of the British PM. The Americans just don't get the idea of Prime Minister, do they? They think he's just a President who lives in a small house in a London backstreet.

Just before we left to go to the cinema, we heard the sound of several emergency vehicles speeding down nearby lanes, and wondered what the problem was. As we drove into the village, we found out. A normally small stream that runs through Yelvertoft had burst its banks, flooded a dip in the road to the depth of several inches, breached the doorways of a number of houses, and trapped some elderly folk who had to be rescued by raft. As did the staff and children of the primary school! Cars couldn't pass through the flood. One had already come to a halt part-way across it. Fire crews were at work attempting to pump the water away. We turned around and left the village via another route.

(Northampton Chronicle)

(Rugby Advertiser)

(Rugby Advertiser)

(Rugby Advertiser)

(Rugby Advertiser)

So off we went up the A5, only to find that a stretch of this road, too, was covered in inches of run-off from the fields. Not enough to stop traffic, but enough to slow to a crawl even the largest lorries. A flood in a dip in a country road forced us to cross it by putting the off-side wheels of the car up onto the pavement on the wrong side of the road, and drive through on a tilt. It was crazy!

Returning from the cinema, there were no problems. Even the Yelvertoft flood had subsided. It all went as quickly as it had arrived. Boats in the marina were back at their normal level. Very strange.

And today.... lovely again! I feel that cruise coming on soon!