Friday 29th February 2008

Problems
1) No one proposed.
2) Our Blog address has changed from http://www.balmaha.blog.co.uk to http://balmaha.blog.co.uk Someone has nicked the "wee willy winky" from Balmaha.

Of course no one will find us unless they do a search for Balmaha and how this affects Feeds/Readers I've no idea.

C'est la vie.

Mo

Sunday 17th to Sunday 24th February 2008 Bridge 14, Harbro’ Arm

The start of the week was characterised by hard frost (inside as well as out) and minus 6 overnight. We bought a max/min digital thermometer to see exactly what was going on but it didn’t bring much comfort.

Claire and Tezzer dropped in for lunch and took V away with them. Not because I can’t be trusted with her but because she was doing some in-town shopping the next day and to return a useless power supply I’d bought for the computer.

The evening was spent mostly listening to music of the variety and at the volume that I am usually prohibited from enjoying when sharing the boat. That’s not my only confession, I used her Winnie-The-Pooh hot water bottle on my own that night.

Despite ice at 22mm thick I took the boat down to Union Wharf for water and met V off the bus. Goodies, like a 40 amp relay and giant electrolytic capacitors accompanied the good lady along with yummy edibles for our elevenses.

Kept busy by laying the auxiliary battery supply cables to the dinette and wired a charge/discharge switch to the start battery’s alternator. Now we can use the computer for three or more hours without discharging our sorely depleted domestic batteries or using the laptop’s internal battery.

Come Tuesday, come Steve A. On our doorstep at an unearthly hour, he’d crossed the country just to see us on his way back to Exeter. All housework stopped while we messed about with a couple of PCB repair jobs. Boys toys then appeared all over the dinette table and our fingers poked at the innards of an oscilloscope and an HF rig. If Graham is reading this then don’t get too excited, we only pondered the workings of both, nothing got fixed as it happens.

The next day Steve modelled a rather fetching scarf before we split, he spinning wheels for Exeter while we spun the prop for Foxton.

Ice was on the wane so little further damage was done to the blacking. Found more wood on the way, surprising what you can discover when you forage around behind the reeds. This is all 2006/07 wood from wind falls and BW trimmings, there’s been nothing of note from this winter’s gales.
Met Ann and Molly doing “the walk” as we approached Foxton and seeing signs of life at the boat yard we pulled in for diesel, coal and engine servicing parts. Flippin diesel’s shot up again, 65p now, was 60p two days ago, someone’s having a laugh (in Whitehall no doubt).

Chas has introduced the idea of joining SOWs to get some proper protesting done, must look into this and see if they have the potential of forcing better value for money on the waterways. I’m not in favour of spending more to get what is needed but I am in favour of getting the best from what has already been given. Rant over for the time being.

Helped through Foxton locks to the summit by Chas and Ann and stopped for a tea break at the top before heading off into the sun. Sun? More like heading off into a cold wind.

The summit between Foxton and Watford heralds a new voyage of discovery, no mason’s marks here but we can find brick layer’s engravings. Most of the bridges up here have numbers scratched into a brick above the towpath to signify the plot numbers of the land that the canal passed through back in the 1700s.

Our cruising south must have looked odd to boaters and walkers alike because we stopped under each bridge while I scanned the bricks for these signs made 200 years ago, photographing them from every angle.

I wonder if this phenomenon is reproduced on other canals around the country. Someone let me know.

Thanks go to Mary Matts and contributors to OUCS magazines for the information on brick markings. The Old Union Canal Society plants living milestones along the Leicester Line of the Grand Union. You know the ones, the trees with black painted steel plaques next to them.

Thursday was boat spotting day. We passed Hot Toddy and Mozark as we crossed the line into Rose County. Both keen wood collectors like ourselves.

Looking around for somewhere to stop we bumped into Molly May 2 settling on the canal bank so we stopped briefly to catch up with news before continuing around the corner at Skew Bridge.

There are places you daren’t smash pins into the ground, either the towpath is too narrow or the reeds are too thick or, like today, where there are notices warning of badger setts in the bank. One’s pins might disappear down a hole, come out red and even worse empty the canal into the field.

Moorings are in short supply in these parts so we grabbed an empty steel rail near Bridge 17 where we’d hung around last year for the Crick Festival.
Frost and ice had given way to bitter cold winds that find every crack in the doors and whistle through the roof vents. We hardly sat down all evening as wood was pulled from the cratch and passed along a human conveyor through the boat to a roaring fire.

But Friday saw the wind abate and V took the opportunity to fetch meat from the butcher at Yelvertoft.
After a water stop at Crick we wandered down to the tunnel and feeling the urge to photograph everything in sight I snapped away at every dark spot and reflection inside the tunnel. Found a couple of holes in the tunnel wall that were too small to crawl through so put my caving gear back in the cupboard for another day.

Out into daylight again and amazed to see fields of new lambs. Just like every year I couldn’t resist bahhh-ing but only managed a couple of decent replies from the mums. I can’t do the high pitched bleat of the youngsters, got my baggy trousers on today.

No one about and we shot down Watford locks in a flash and on under the M1 to another favourite spot by the missing bridge 4. Not a bad half day’s journey and still time to hang bird feeders and clean the brasswork.

Saturday is please-myself-day. I can choose my jobs or even lounge around and slob out if I like. I want to get fed so I do jobs.

Made a call to a Mr Fix-it in Leicester and organised a car heater matrix for the bedroom. There’s a space under a cupboard where the air passes into the room from an outside vent. A compact heating coil and fan in that otherwise empty space should help warm my tootsies at bedtime. Only wish I’d done something about it last summer.

Pulled the fridge out and planned a couple of holes in the floor. Shan’t drill holes until I’ve found a 4” holesaw for the electric drill.
And apart from watching the Rugby, all three matches, and uploading new pictures to my merchant navy website, I did just about nothing for the rest of the day.

We’re well positioned to see weekend boats and weren’t disappointed. Boats went up to the Watford flight and came back hours later, their crews wrapped up in blankets but smiling and enjoying a day out from the marina.

Meanwhile, someone is working Braunston or Buckby locks because our water levels have continued to drop since we arrived and judging by the green slime on the piling, the water was already 6” down on normal.

Thinking back a couple of days, we skidded out of Watford bottom lock and dropped into a pit of leaf debris because the water was so low.

Someone’s pinching our water, or the back pumping at Braunston isn’t working. We’ll find out on Monday.

More treats next week, we hope to see Mike and Pat (Hyperion) and we’ll more likely as not tackle Napton locks as we stir the mud on the Oxford Canal. Can’t wait to see the sun climb above the horizon again as we head towards the Mediterranean.

Monday 11th to Saturday 16th February 2008

Tony’s Turn (Bridge 64, Grand Union, Leicester Line)

If you don’t count walkers this is a very quiet spot. No road sounds, no sirens, no tyre squeals, just the occasional moorhen shriek.

Unfortunately Mark, on nb.Kayos, can’t say the same at Castle Gardens in Leicester. The official image of safety while you shop and visit the numerous restaurants, put around by Leicester tourism office-wallahs, doesn’t hold water. Certainly not when the students are in residence or when children are off school or during the evenings at weekends.

Mark came back to his boat to find two lads running up and down the roof, rocking from side to side with the aim of rolling it over. Two more lads appeared later but the sight of his dog probably deterred them.

Security rails on the bridge and fences around the boat moorings are a joke and certainly no deterrent to children from the age of 8.

How did he feel? He felt threatened and wouldn’t like boaters to think this was anything like the risk- free moorings that councillors would have us believe.

A couple of reels of razor wire would deter unwanted visitors but even that won’t stop the stones coming over from the gardens or the towpath opposite.

It’s time Leicester Councillors paid attention once again to Castle Gardens’ nose-diving reputation.

But back to us. It’s moving time again, anchors up, we chugged on down to Foxton and ‘parked’ at Black Horse Bridge.

We knew Moore2Life was heading our way so I called them up and discovered they were just starting down the Foxton flight and would be with us in an hour. Their arrival was announced by a speeding Molly on the towpath followed by Ann and then Chas bringing up the rear on M2L.

Just had time to cut a couple of sticks for Molly before the games began. Anyone who knows Molly will understand what that means. She gets so excited and no matter how much she’s walked she belts up and down the towpath after sticks and tennis balls until you give up.

Another big moment has arrived - Maisy’s holiday came to an end. Kass, Jess and Claire (sp?) called in for homemade soup and to collect the cat. After they’d gone we rigged up a wind machine to rid ourselves of little white and brown hairs. If only it was that easy.
No more night-time walks along the boat roof, no more dashing for the trees, no more freezing to death while she gets her countryside fix. But it still seems empty without her and one can’t help calling “Maisy, maisy noo-noo” when down that end of the boat.

Having passed nb.Valerie on our down way from Tony’s Turn we thought we’d try to catch Les and scrounge a cup of tea. He was in and just about to get stuck into a sandwich and the internet so we distracted him for half an hour. Lovely fella, lovely tea, glad we stopped by.

Caught the bus to Harbro’ with Chas and Ann on Tuesday. A fabulous, sunny day and a successful shop on my part because I found a 12 volt to 19 volt DC converter for the laptop. Tried twice before but this one delivers 6 amps, just what’s needed. Can’t wait to wire it in and mess around with switches and relays so that the dedicated laptop battery gets charged when the engine is running. Yawning yet?

Shared a bottle and plates of tab-nabs with Chas and Ann later on Balmaha. I do love those shrimpy nibbles.

Wednesday brought a layer of ice to the canal. A boat passed by, breaking the ice, while we were still at breakfast so we all decided we would mosey on down to Great Bowden for a couple of days. The sun was so amazing that we sat out on the stern deck to take lunch and by the afternoon I was dangling worms in the water.
But not to be fooled, we kept the fire going and by dusk we were steaming through the logs we picked up earlier. Molly kindly donated her prize log, covered in tooth marks, thanks Ann.

The bird feeder did a roaring trade in sunflower seeds, the smaller discarded seeds making a mottled grey carpet on the ground which suited the blackbird, robin and chaffinch.

I’ve given up brushing paw marks off my trousers. Chucking sticks for Molly results in the occasional leap up the front with its consequent muddy skid marks around the knees. Oh the joys of winter boating and muddy towpaths.

Friday arrived as it usually does, don’t ask where Thursday went, and we moved off to the south. Chas and Ann went west to meet friends while we did the Union Wharf visit for water and waste.
Met “M” from a resident narrowboat and caught up on his news. He told me he’d had a kidney, spleen and bowel and something else removed but was OK again.
He was happy enough and just off to the pub, although he found his operation had limited his usual four pints to one at the most.

On the way down the sun was out, sort of, but cor it wasn’t half cold round the lug-holes. Fingers can retract into sleeves but lug-holes catch the arctic breeze and have nowhere to hide. Some might comment on my nose but for some reason that isn’t affected, probably because it’s so long that it’s already into tomorrow’s sunshine.

Talking of sunshine, here’s V’s experiment with the camera on the ‘sunset’ setting. A bit orangey but it captures something of the beauty of a winter sky.

Saturday I arose to be greeted by a clear sky, frozen canal and -3 deg C outside. Frozen drips on the inside of roof hatches meant spreading newspaper and waiting for the pitter-patter to stop before running up and down the boat.
Good job it was Saturday because I wasn’t going to get out of bed until the central heating had been on for at least an hour and that meant it was gone eight before I emerged to tackle the wood burner.
As it happens the day warmed fast and the ice disappeared as quickly as it came. Hire boats on the move reminded us it was still school half term somewhere in the country.

V walked down town while I rearranged my job list by inserting “play with HF transceiver” in number one position which involved taking metal covers off, and tracing a power fault. Got caught with my wires out when V returned and so I reluctantly reverted to the “important” jobs list.
I hadn’t been completely bad because I’d remembered to switch on the washing machine. The memory goes when I get absorbed in hobbies.

By mid afternoon I’d done a stint in the hairdresser’s chair, pulled off gunwale covers and plumbed in a 12volt laptop computer supply box.
I was a bit surprised to find water lurking behind the sidewall panels, not enough to cause a problem but enough to show there’s un-foamed steelwork lurking somewhere in there. I’ve seen this in a couple of other places on the boat but it only happens in winter when the temperature outside is at freezing point and latent humidity turns to condensation.

We’re really looking forward to our summer jaunt. A previous trip down south on the Oxford Canal brings back memories of hot days, barbeques and sticky warm nights, lovely.
Within days rather than weeks we’ll be off south again, heading towards the Basingstoke Canal. An Easter bash somewhere near Woking means we’ll be cruising anti-clockwise, taking in the Oxford Canal, River Thames and the Grand Union. I’m having thoughts of calling in at Tower Bridge and maybe popping down to the barrier but she says not. We’ll see.

Sunday 3rd to Sunday 10th February 2008

Walked to Church at Whetstone this Sunday morning, half an hour is a long walk for me and I was ready for a sit down when I got there. Friendly, welcoming faces, a bit like coming home. By the end of the service my feet had recovered and our walk back was rewarded with a free lunch and a very pleasant afternoon with neighbours. Thanks Paul and Dawn, smashing grub.

Life’s not without its excitement, especially now I’ve got a new wife. She’s a short haired version of the old one. Same cheeky monkey but looks completely different and I kid myself there’s two of them. Oh, I can hear Jean P now “And what would you do with two of them? You can’t manage one properly!” Whatever.

Monday’s weather was predicted nice enough for a dry dash from Blaby to Kilby. As it happened we almost made it before the wet descended, my fault for a late start.
Had to take a picture of the tent next to our last lock of the day. No sign of life then but later I met Brendan, its occupant, and discovered a friendly fella, having to live on his own again.

He survives with his little stove and two sleeping bags, taking walks around the village at night if he can’t sleep. Thought it might have been somebody else, Anthony Finch on the run, but it wasn’t. Rest easy.

Wednesday was eldest daughter’s birthday, a special day, her first 30th birthday. Me, I’ve almost had two 30ths.

One’s mind goes back to Southmead hospital, Bristol on a cold dark evening and at a most inconvenient time, my favourite program on tele.
Anyway that’s all in the past and today we’re happy to see her again, a lot larger (I don’t mean fat) and just as vocal and towing her friend Jess, cards, presents and the little furry monster – Maisy.
After tea, cake and presents the girls disappeared to get pampered (faces, feet, nails, massage and all that stuff) in a place they don’t take cats.

Introducing ourselves once again to Maisy I explained that I was the captain, V was the boss and that cats were only passengers. I didn’t expect it to bother her, she’ll probably just run the place as she usually does.

Time for bed? Nerrrr, I’m awake now and I want attention. If the cat’s awake then everyone’s awake.

The boss was out at the time K, J and M arrived, went to a clinic to get her duff knee examined. Came back with the same verdict I’d given her several months ago – torn cartilage. Might just heal up in 6 months, might not and might need a keyhole putting in it, or something like that.

Thursday was a spare day and while Maisy slept we sneaked out to see new friends Graham and Sue. The food was very good but I was there to see the radio shack with rows of radio bits, components and things to make a little boy’s eyes pop out. Even had an opportunity to employ my ham radio licence and nattered to another ex-sparkie on 3.5Mhz. Came away with a project and if I can fix this rig then I’ll be up and running on sideband or cw and be transported back 30 years in time.

Totally unrelated, there’s a website somewhere for unusual sign posts. I’d add this one if I could. It’s almost impossible to get between the signs to read the one at the back. As it happens there’s nothing posted on either but that’s not the point.

Friday was press gang day. Taking advantage of Mike and Jo’s good nature while they’re away from Sarah-Kate, we bagged them for a cruise to Debdale. Twelve locks and several miles lie between Kilby and Debdale and extra help will ensure hoppy’s rapid recovery in the knee department. Two extra pair of hands were well welcome (kid’s speak innit).

We knew BW were out on the cut somewhere because we’d watched them load workboat Avon with sand and cement and then set off south from Kilby. Sure enough we caught them up doing valuable work on mooring bollards. Treated to assisted passage through a lock we stayed on the boat and nattered to Mike the newly appointed moorings warden for Kilby Bridge, as the lock filled with water.

[warden]

A welcome appointment, Mike will bring a measure of fair play to the 48 hour moorings, we hope.

An Indian takeaway for four followed our arrival at Debdale (must take advantage of cars when you can) and I went to bed stuffed. But that wasn’t before “walking the cat” on the boat roof. Hoping to wear her out a little I froze to bits while she studied the hedgerows and off-side fields for things that squeaked at a lot higher frequency than my ears can pick up.

Saturday we moved a mile downstream and pitched at Tony’s Turn, closer to Foxton and a newspaper shop.
What a lovely day, sun from morning to night and perfect for changing engine oil, so I did.

Had to do another cat walk after dark, she wanted to explore the hedges and climb the trees but she had to do with whatever I could offer with a long arm and a stretched cat harness. It did the trick anyway, only one meow during the night and once she’d had her chin tickled (bit like V) she went back to sleep in her basket. Takes me back to rocking babies in cribs and my eyelids held apart by matchsticks.

Sunday was mostly a relaxing day while the towpath went crazy with walkers. Spotted a familiar boat - nb.Lily Pad - out for a cruise.

Couldn’t let Ian and Carol pass without refreshment and a sharing of news and we finally let them go after promises of meet-ups somewhere on the system later in the year. The river festival on the first week in June along the Mile Straight in Leicester if my memory serves me right. All boats welcome, very welcome and it’ll be a good laugh if the last couple of years is anything to go by.
And a reminder Ian, get that blog going again!!

Monday 28th Jan to Saturday 2nd Feb 2008

Felt Market Harbro’ calling again so we caught the bus from Foxton village and hurtled down country lanes to town for a spot of shopping. Bought a couple of those little USB flash ram devices from Argos. £12 for 2GB isn’t bad I thought. If only solar panels had come down in price like computer memory.
Spoke too soon, a memory upgrade for our little Tosh’ has gone up to £79 for 1GB. It isn’t fair (as our kids used to say) more modern computers can use DDR2 ram which is half the price.

But hot choccy and enormous toasted tea-cakes with lashings of real butter at “Joules” made up for any disappointment.

Hardly needed lunch after that.

Tuesday saw us move to Kilby Bridge. Couldn’t get on the 48 hour moorings, too many continuous moorers there. Dare I name and shame?
Instead of APCO moaning about continuous cruisers and raising the old licence fee issues again, perhaps they should be doing something constructive to rid the place of continuous moorers. Then, I’m sure their customers would find vacancies at pubs and water points along the popular hire boat routes.

Don’t know what the local walkers thought was going on in Saddington Tunnel but we were stopping and starting at both ends while we looked at the bat boxes. I’m sure I saw a bat clinging to the outside of a box last time through but today they’re all snug and warm inside.

On the way we passed our local BW heroes doing a spot of maintenance on bollards in the vicinity of what was the “Navigation” at bridge 75 (Kibworth Bridge). Not a lot of people know that the farm next to the bridge had a pub where farmers sold their home made ales.
Anyway, good work BW, keep it up. And yes, we did see you inside “Avon”, and no, you didn’t offer us a cup of tea.

Can’t praise our local team too much, they are what BW is all about - keeping the waterways open and in first class condition.

On the other hand we received a letter from BW HQ telling us we haven’t got a licence. We know that, they know that, but I just had to call and ask why they were wasting paper. “Wait a minute” she said. “Oh yes, it appears your application is being dealt with today, sorry for the letter, we have had issues with the new Leeds office”.

Next day - hooray, we’ve had news that our licence is in the post. But now, all of a sudden, I don’t feel any sense of urgency in getting hold of it or putting the little paper squares in our portholes.

Some more good news. The lads at Blog.Co.Uk have been tinkering with the cocoa tins on string and we have managed a whole day on their website without down time. Well done. And we won’t mention T-Mobile who wouldn’t acknowledge there was a problem in the first place.

A special thank you from us to all those who left comments here and messages elsewhere to help us sort the problems with our USB modem.

Wasn’t it windy on Wednesday night and wasn’t the water high. If this keeps up we won’t have to lift paddles to fill locks going south, there’s enough coming over the top gates.

Nothing to do with canals, apart from their origins in Canal Street Wigston, Premier Drums have downsized (again) to a Kibworth location, south of Leicester. Once 350 strong they are now down to 40 employees. This is the price of competing with China, in fact their drums are not made here anymore, they all come from the Far East.
Apparently their new offices are close to the railway bridge that starred in the film Great Train Robbery. Not many people know that.

I remember looking through the windows of Mickleburghs, Bristol when I was a teenager and lusting after a set of drums. Premier and Beverley were two makes, there was a choice of pearl or sparkle finish. Got as far as buying a bass pedal before motorbikes diverted all my spare cash. I know it’s very sad but I sat in on band practises tapping on up-turned saucepans with knives while the guitars had all the fun and got all the glory. Sam, John, Gramps, I wonder where they all are now?

Back to boats – Pete tells a riveting story of his first journey (dash home) in his new sail-away nb.Pickles2. Poor fella, fancy falling in the canal this weather. I know that feeling, I fell part way in on a cold January day and was crushed by the boat which took away the shock of the cold water. He also stopped at Pinders like we did on our first night out of Hanbury Wharf. We found them most accommodating and wondered why we hadn’t considered them when we were looking for a boat builder. Probably the usual story, no build slots.

If you missed Waterworld this week you can see it on www.itvlocal.com/central/documentaries. Scroll down to find the programme and click all over the place until you see the “view now” button. We were heartened to see nb.Valhalla on the programme – well done Alan and Jo for an excellent presentation and a unique boat design.

Like most of you we had a snow flurry. One minute it was wall to wall sunshine and the next it went black and the snow came in sideways. The towpath at Blaby Bridge was white this morning to complement the sheet of ice covering the canal.

Surprised, pleasantly surprised, to see boats on the move through Leicester. Could it be half-term the week after next? We’ve always said this was a beautiful stretch of canal, hardly anyone about (on or off boats) and providing one picks the right time of day and right day of the week it presents both nature and industrial history at its best. Limekiln to Belgrave is still desperately in need of a clean up but providing you don’t fall in there’s nothing to worry about.

Despite the snow and freezing wind we were greeted by flowers at Blaby Bridge. Can’t remember its name but it’s one of those quick spreading evergreen plants with pale blue flowers that must have leaked through from behind the towpath hedge.

Talking of flowers, our own little flower has had the lawnmower treatment. V had her hair altered from long flowing tresses that spread out over the pillow to a bob. Maybe not a true bob but it is short. But she still looks prettier than any flower I’ve ever seen.
(Do I get a cooked meal tonight.....?)

Now here’s another interesting canal thing. While I’ve been researching stone mason’s marks on locks and bridges west of here, I’ve now been introduced to brick marks on GU bridges.
I can hear yawns but there’s more.
Unsure who made the marks but there are bridges on the summit section of the Leicester Line south of Foxton that have been scribed with numbers relating to the plots that the canal passed through during construction, around the time of 1809. I may write some more on the subject, later, if you’re unlucky.