Endeavour keeps up canal tradition.

 We enjoyed spotting the traditional misplacement of canal locks in the episode of Endeavour we watched last night.  Following the habitual use (set by several episodes of Lewis) of the Southern Grand Union to show a supposed spot in Oxford, we see Endeavour and Thursday at a murder scene here:

According to the script, it was by "Port Meadow bridge" although what a double gated Grand Union Lock was doing on the Thames, I'll leave you to imagine.

Anyhow, people familiar with the GU would have no problem in identifying Stockers Lock (Rickmansworth, home of Rainman) as the real spot.  Stockers is often used by film crews.  The adjacent farm must make money from it. Their main claim to fame is as the location for filming Black Beauty - although that's a long time ago now. Once when we were moored there some film guys came along the towpath offering people 50 quid to take their boats away for a week so they could shoot some horror film scenes.  Sadly we told them we were moving on before we learned about the money. Doh.  I suppose CRT gets some money from it.

Stockers is not that far from some film studios so I suppose that's the reason they use it, although in the same episode they shot scenes in Venice, the real one.  Why didn't they use Birmingham after all that has more . .  . .you know the rest.

Dog Sitting

 

Herbie now rests safely nestled among the other inhabitants of Wigrams Turn Marina.  The diamond pattern roof box gives her away.  Not exactly social distancing is it?  She's more used to a smart bankside pitch with car access for loading.  I hope she's not too upset.  Soon we have to decide whether to stay on at Wigrams or resume our pre lockdown plan to move to Kings Bromley.  I think she might like it there.  A crystal ball re Covid would be handy.

I must say I enjoyed our trip up the N Oxford even though the last day was blowing a hooley across the Braunston to Napton stretch.  That bit seems particularly prone to winds.  Ain't that right Rick? (His face will whiten as he reads this.)

I see they've had trouble at Buckby with a busted lock cill. I think the stoppage has been several days already.  That's bit like closing the M1 for a week.  It must give the poor hire boat operators a headache.  I suppose they have to rescue some hirers at the end of the week and then get the boat back themselves.  Then what about next week's hirers?  From what we've seen, the boats are all out, so they'll have none to spare.

Coming down to Braunston turn we passed an abandoned Indigo Dream looking like the Mary Celeste.  A pity, we'd have liked a chat with Sue and Richard.  I expect they're off somewhere rescuing more greyhounds.  S&R will be grateful when I report that Indigo Dream was nicely afloat and un vandalised anyhow. 

Now we're back home baby sitting two naughty youngsters for a week. Rosie and Ronnie.  Heaven help us.  Getting them to sit still for ten seconds to get this photo was a non trivial exercise in itself.  There is a large pile of blurred photos on the cutting room floor.

Not the luckiest of years, I admit.

I hesitate to admit this but I seem to have done it again.  Not content with falling off a wall and breaking ribs in April and drilling a hole through my finger in May, last night I tripped over a hole in the towpath and I think I may have broken another rib - a front one this time, which is considerably more bearable.  If you ever decide to break a rib or two, choose the front ones, the back ones are ten times worse.

It would be reasonable of you to question my balance or the brittleness of my bones, but I think I just got unlucky.  Anybody not seeing that hole in the grass and catching a foot in it would have gone a cropper, and as for breaking bones, any 200lb gent (yes, sadly that is my current weight) falling prostate on his chest with a bang would I fear suffer the same fate.

Anyhow I can still function pretty well this time although I won't be pushing, pulling or lifting much for a couple of weeks.  Kath and Peter did the lock wheeling up the Hillmorton flight. I did however steer us for three or four hours cruising today without any trouble.

Not to worry.  Undaunted, I baked us some scones after we moored up for the evening and we had a very naughty cream tea with proper clotted cream.  

Buttermilk scones made by my own fair hand.

Now you get where the 200lb came from :-(

Tomorrow we tootle on in the general direction of Napton ready for an assault on the Folly on Thursday lunchtime then back to Wigrams before taking Peter back to Cambridge in the car.

Blackberries, oaks, and Einstein - just another day

Someone told me that summer marches north at the pace of a walking man.  Hmm, well I'm not sure how long it would take me to walk from  home in the, ahem, Royal County (Berkshire) to Rugby, but the blackberries up here are well behind. Down home I've gathered a couple of pounds of juicy ones from hedgerows near our house, but up here this is what we see.  

Nevertheless, the canal sides are very lush right now like this stretch at the seemingly inappropriately named All Oaks Wood (I went for a walk and only saw other species).

When I was walking back along looking for oaks there I took the picture below.  If that doesn't look like something from a hire boat brochure or a calendar I don't know what does.

I'm still pondering the remarkable difference between the North and South Oxford canals.

Compared to the rustic wandering South with its often delapidated locks and sometimes jungly towpath, the North end seems a good bit tidier.  It could be described as a series of tree lined avenues linked by short wiggly bits.

We didn't move much today, just up to Stretton Stop and back to near where we started.  En route, our Peter was explaining to me (like he does) how Einstein's special relativity theory helps explain why gold is that yellow colour.  I sort of understood it at the time, but a couple of hours later I cannot explain it to you, although if you Google it, you'll find that it's true!  Then I was going to polish the boat until I discovered the bottle of polish was empty.  So I had to sit and read instead. Quelle potage as Del Boy would say.

.

Croc spotted on North Oxford Canal

How's that for click bait?  Apologies, but I have to get someone to read this stuff somehow.

Want to see my pudding tonight?

Well I did drink the Pimms first, then ate the fruit with some yoghurt and granola,  Waste not want not.

  As you can see, it's a tough life here on the North Oxford as Kath is demonstrating here.

Today we had to do three whole locks.  They're coming thick and fast, there's another one in 22 miles or there would be if we were going that far..  My phone says we're at some place called Cathiron tonight  I can see Kath but sadly we don't have an iron.

I did my first live supermarket shop since lockdown today.  The big Tesco at Rugby.  I have to say it was pretty quiet and I don't think I caught the lergy so you can sit close to your screen reading this.

Another nice sky tonight, they seem to specialise in them up here.

Tomorrow we turn round at Stretton Stop then head back.  Then we reap the benefit of being old because we can't remember what it was like coming up, so it'll all be fresh.

North Oxford Canal

When the sun is in and the landscape is ordinary, there's always the sky to make a picture a bit more interesting. That's my excuse anyway.

 

Here we are half a mile south of Hillmorton at the end of day 1 of our 5 day  outing.  The canal is about as busy as it ever gets I should think.  Now I'm no speed merchant but when we get behind someone dribbling along at half a mile an hour I have a job controlling my patience.  I don't think I'm being unreasonable do you? Herbie doesn't like it either, her old BMC engine is a bit choppy at tickover speed. Luckily when that happened today, the guy in question got in a right tizwaz over some canoeists and pulled over in a panic, so I nipped gently past. wearing a benign smile. 

Lots of choice mooring spots were occupied by mid afternoon, but thankfully out here there are plenty to spare and amazingly I've got a strong 4G phone signal, so I'm able to delight you with my deathless prose whether you actually like it or not.

See these those black plastic hay rolls in the field beyond?  I used to tell our kids they had just been delivered for the farmer to roll out like turf for next years crop.  They'll get me back someday I dare say.  I think they still think that people in canoes are called canoodlers.

I can't remember when we last came up here.  Five years ago I think. The North Oxford has a totally different character from the South Oxford and it makes a refreshing  change. The bridges for a start are much wider and in general the canal is wider too and in some places it's alarmingly straight.  I've heard it said that the canal builders began to get short of money when they got towards the southern end so I expect that's it.  It's less cosy perhaps  than the south maybe but no less inviting. and of course it has two prisons to add a bit of spice although quite why you need two prisons next door to each other I have no idea.  

Arriving at Wigrams Turn yesterday evening, we dashed over to the Folly (by car) for a swift pinta and a bite to eat.  I'm pleased to report that the big garden was busy as usual even if we were getting scattered showers.  Folly customers are a determined lot.  

Tomorrow we continue northwards to somewhere or other.  Maybe Newbold. Maybe All Oaks Corner.  Who knows?  We don't.

Fitting it in

Being a Dad /Grandpa has its rewards but it don't 'arf make complicated sometimes.

Peter (son) fancies coming for a boating trip with us, but what to do with Bella his cat?  Peter doesn't drive and would need us to get him to the boat and back.

Claire (daughter) is going on holiday with Grace (grand daughter) soon and needs us to look after Ronnie and Rosie (dogs) while they are away.

Jacob (grand son) and Rosie (not the dog, but his girlfriend) fancy a break before Rosie starts her new job in a couple of weeks time- how about visiting Cambridge and staying at Peter's?

Solution

We drive to Cambridge to help get his (untidy) flat ready for J&R (Peter's hoover is broken so we need to take ours).  J&R come up after a couple of days and cat sit while we take Peter boating.  The window to get this done is short because of getting back to Cambridge to release Rosie so she can get home to Sussex to get ready for her job and we have to get back home to look after Ronnie and the other Rosie.

Phew.  Well that's the plan anyhow.  I think we'll have four days boating.  I fancy tootling up to Stretton stop and back maybe.  Easy run, only the Hillmorton locks to do.

I can't let this post pass without expressing my genuine sadness over the death of Peter Green yesterday.  As you know I like a bit of guitar playing and Peter was my all time favourite.  I saw him live, once with John Mayall after he replaced Eric Clapton and played every bit as well.  I stood at the front of the stage and watched at close range while his hands worked their delicate wonder.  I'll never forget it.  Music just flowed out of them.  Then I saw the very first public performance of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac as it was called then and listened as he wrung the emotion out of the music.  Loads of guitarists are better technically (even I can play some of his stuff after a fashion) but few will ever match his musicality.  He was a bloody good singer too.  RIP Peter.

Boating the New Normal Way

Well I'm pretty sure that the Oxford canal on Monday and Tuesday was as busy as I have ever seen it!  For our first post lockdown jaunt we took Herbie from Wigrams Turn up to Fenny Compton and back.  Queues for the Napton locks, particularly at the top,  meant longish waits but people didn't seem to mind, everybody just seemed glad to be out and about in the sunshine.  

Like us, a lot of boat owners were on their first outing post lockdown.  As for hire boats, the largeish Napton Narrowboats fleet were all out except for one 70 footer and there were plenty out from Black Prince and Calcutt too.

Now, about social distancing and all that.  It seems that on the canal at least, the new normal is pretty much like the old one. We soon began to realise that keeping safe is not that hard on a canal.  Of course when you're on your boat you're automatically socially distanced for outsiders, but even at locks we soon realised that although people socialise when helping each other out, it's quite normal to keep a couple of meters apart, the usual conversations take place across the lock don't they? So people were as chatty as usual and no-one seemed over worried.  The main precaution we took was to sanitise our hands after handling each lock.  We've mixed up our own sanitiser from 90% pure isopropyl alchohol and a bit of hand lotion.  That'll kill anything.

Perhaps the biggest joy of the short trip was our first pub meal and a pint, courtesy of the fabulous Mark at the Folly at Napton.  He and his team have obviously worked very very hard to provide a safe and  welcoming environment.  The pub building itself is out of bounds but the big beautifully kept garden has been transformed.

As you can see, lots of distanced tables and a number of open sided marquees.  You fill in a contact form (a hand sanitiser sits alongside to pot of pens), then follow a one way system to order your food / drink, keeping well away from the staff, then the goodies are delivered to your table on a tray by a gloved waiter / waitress.  Food and drink containers and wooden cutlery are all single use disposables.  I must say we felt very safe.  Should the weather turn chilly, they've made a big fire pit in front of the main marquee. 

A lot of thought and planning (and expense) has obviously gone into setting it all up, and it seems to be paying off.  On Sunday evening I counted over 70 punters and on Tuesday at 6pm there were 50 or more.  People who know the Folly will know that the food and drink is always good and Mark the landlord is  a real gem.  If you're out that way, they deserve your custom.

As for the rest of our cruise, I have first to sing the praises of Grace, our 12 year old  granddaughter who did hours of steering and the majority of the locks (she steered the boat beautifully into the rest).  Then a bit of a grumble about the volunteer lockie at the bottom Napton lock who insisted on opening the paddle a only tiny crack until the lock was half full.  No wonder there were queues.  Our general practice is to open the paddle half way until the boat rests against the top gate then  opening fully.  That's quite safe enough and twice as quick as his method. I bet he's not a boater. 

The summit pound, sad to say, needs topping up - we grounded  on a few of the bends, a deeper boat might struggle.  The main thing that cheered me was mile after mile of raspberries-and-cream coloured mixture of rosebay willowherb and meadow sweet on the offside bank.  Really lovely.  Wildlife of course has probably benefited from the lack of human activity in the great outdoors.  While tied up at Napton we watched at close hand a pair of green woodpeckers digging for worms and grubs.  People might think these birds feed on insects in tree bark, but the green woodpeckers are regular ground feeders.  The ones you hear hammering in the trees are the spotted varieties.

Lastly, the towpath gossip is alive and well.  We hear that the third pool at Cropredy Marina is going ahead and the diggers are already at it.  That's another 100 boats' worth I believe. which I think will make it 350 in all.  I also hear that they are instituting a stricter no liveaboards policy there. Maybe that was a condition of getting planning consent.

Next outing?  No idea.

Herbie still afloat

Herbie seems to have survived lockdown and much to our relief is still afloat.  Yesterday we drove out to Wigram's Turn to open her up for the first time since March.  Apart from a few cobwebs she seems none the worse for her isolation and we even went for a very short trip - about twenty five yards to move off the pontoon, do a 180 and come back to our berth so we faced the other way.  Very nice it was too and now our shore line will reach the socket on the power bollard.

We're still not that familiar with WT marina having only dashed in there for safety as lockdown was announced.  It's not as picturesque as our previous marinas at Crick and Cropredy, but the people seem very friendly.  There seem to be quite a few liveaboards around.  Covid measures can be seen here and there in the form of hand sanitiser stations and notices about social distancing.

The reason for the visit was to open up the boat ready for grandson Jacob and his girl friend Rosie to have a few days aboard.  They arrived before we left for home and we gave them a lift to the Folly at Napton where the garden is looking lovely and food and drinks are being served only out there.  It all looks well spaced out and very safe.

24 hours later J&R don't seem to have sunk the boat or set her on fire yet, so all is well so far.  Jacob sent a picture of the meal they cooked this evening.

Fajitas by the look of it.  Jacob, having been a student for some years is a reasonable cook.

Next week we're taking Herbie over ourselves for a short cruise (two days) with Grace, Jacob's sister.  We gave Grace (now 12)  a choice of two routes

a) to Braunston and Hillmorton and back - a pleasant trip with no locks or,

b)  up the nine Napton locks and back down again. - hard graft.

Interestingly she chose the latter, but long time readers will know Grace is no stranger to locks and was competently locking us up and down the Watford staircase when she was only 5!  

Start 'em young, that's what I say. I warned her that she'd need to do a lot of the locking and she's up for it.  Good girl!  Of course she's now twice the height she was then.

Anyhow it'll give Herbie a good shakedown after nearly four months  in isolation and it'll give us a chance to try out the Folly for ourselves - our first meal out since March.

At last, some boating to blog about.  Stay tuned.

 

Wot next?

So now people can go boating and stay overnight.  Is that technically the end of lockdown then?  We should examine the definition in context:

Lock up - 

a) a secure shed or garage in a public area

b) ascend a lock in a boat

c) secure or incarcerate a person or an object

Lockout -  

a) the exclusion of employees by their employer from their place of work until terms are agreed to.

b) the exclusion of a partner from his/ her home after committing a misdemeanour

Lock in    -

The practice of some publicans allowing customers to consume alcohol after legal closing time

Lockdown -

A pain in the arse

I think that about sums it up.

What we have got now I think, is some relief of symptoms of lockdown rather than the return to a pain free existence, and like a lot of other people I wouldn't be surprised to see it come back again.

All is not wasted however, and I have been learning some very useful things during this period of spending more time at home.

Firstly, right at the start of lockdown I learned that it is not a good idea to fall off a garden wall and break a couple of ribs. That lost me six weeks of exercise and now I am several pounds heavier and my blood pressure has gone up.

Then I learned  it is an equally bad idea to break a drill bit whilst drilling  a bit of metal held by the forefinger of one hand.  I know piercings are quite fashionable  but not right through a finger.  The wound is nearly healed now but the hole in the fingernail  still has a way to go before it grows out. 

I have also learned how to spend £296.24 in half a second by carelessly pushing our rotary lawn mower over a large pebble which I had inadvertently raked into the grass..  The resulting slingshot did this to our patio door.

On reflection I think perhaps I ought to go boating again before I kill myself at home.

On the up side, I've always been a reasonable cook (I can do a Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal in not much over an hour) , but I never baked before and now I have become moderately proficient  in making bread, Irish soda farls, and scones.  Farls in particular would suit life on a boat well as they are so simple and quick to do and don't need an oven warming up.

Then during all the sitting about in the garden, I've learned a bit about bumblebees.   All very scientific you know. Did you know that the ones with red tails are called red tailed bumblebees, and the ones with white tails are called white tailed bumblebees?  Fair enough, you might have guessed it, but I bet you don't know what this is (answer below):

CRT says  hire boat companies have experienced a sudden flood of bookings - 315% of the same time as last year. Well, I'm sure we're all pleased for them, but I won't be joining the happy throng on the cut until the dust settles a bit more. Let them have the teething problems I say.  We're off up to Cambridge to visit Bella, our son Peter's cat, (and Peter too I suppose).

That insect is not a bee of course, it's a white banded drone fly - Volucella pellucens.  It visited one of our fuchsias while we were bee spotting.  In size nearly twice as big as a bluebottle.

What price freedom? plus the birds and the bees and spooky songs

So CRT confirms that from July 4 we can stay overnight on our boats.  Hooray .  Will we be dashing out to Herbie and setting off into the wide blue yonder?  Not yet we won't.  We'd rather watch and listen to what goes on and how daft / sensible people appear to be. Looking at some pictures today of the crowds on beaches, I'm not all that optimistic.  Having said that, most boaters are more sensible than that, and many of being older, have the need to be more careful.  I'd be interested to know what your plans are if you're a boater.

In other news:

The birds and the bees

Strangely, the number of birds visiting our feeders this week  has diminished drastically.  Well the robin and the pigeons are always around but the tits of various types have largely gone AWOL.  The only reason I can think of is that they have better things to eat since there seems to have been an explosion in insect life.  Our garden is quite literally buzzing with them. A lot of it is due to our huge lime tree which is smothered in its flowers right now.  It looks and smells lovely  but there is a downside - not long now before we're covered in sticky goo. Already we are having yellow snowstorms of bits of the flowers.  The garden needs a good hoovering.

With fewer birds to watch, we've been watching bees instead and until now we never realised how many different sorts we get.  We've had Early Bumblebees, Carder Bees, Leaf Cutter Bees, Red Tailed Bumblebees and of course Honey Bees.  Who'da thought it?  Don't think we're experts - we just looked 'em up when we saw 'em.

In future I think we'll take more notice of hedgerow bees when we're on the towpath and impress other boaters with our new found erudition.

Kath's got some respectable pictures just with her ageing iphone.  We think this cute one is a Common Carder Bee, but if anyone knows different we'd be happy to be told. Nice furry little thing ain't it?

The last couple of days sunshine has brought out the butterflies too, but strangely not on our buddleia.  Obviously the insects haven't read that is is supposed to be the Butterfly Bush.  For some reason they seem to be attracted instead to our conservatory (that sounds posher than it is.  For conservatory read ramshackle old lean to). Kath has spent many a happy hour thrashing around in there with a fishing net trying to rescue them for release outside.  It's only a matter of time before something gets broken. Getting photos of butterflies is hard because they won't stay still for long enough but I shall persevere.

Spooky songs 

Finally, in my search for songs for my mythical money spinner Canal Lockdown -the musical, I was thumbing though some old songbooks noticing how many 60's hits could be brought up to date by just changing the odd word.  Anyone remember Thunderclap Newman?  How about this - I've only substituted the underlined words:

Call out the contact tracers

'Cos there's something in the air

We're gonna get it sooner or later

'Cos the Covid 19's here and you know that it's right

We have got to stay in together

We have got to stay in together now

Lock up the streets and houses 

'Cos there's something in the air

We're gonna get it sooner or later

'Cos the Covid 19's here and you know that it's right

etc.

Spooky.

or how about minor changes to a Boxtops hit to describe the start of lockdown?

Give me no ticket for an aeroplane

Ain't advised to take a fast train

Social days are gone, I'm a stayin' home

'Cos Boris just wrote me a letter.

The search continues.

Well it keeps me off the street.

Bye for now.

Lockdown by the Canal - the musical

"Maybe I should be using my lockdown time more productively"  I thought to myself.  Instead of sanding down the garden table and slapping on a coat of Sadolin, I could have been becoming famous and getting rich like Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Sadly my songwriting credentials haven't exactly cut the mustard in the past.  My first attempt was a little ditty going something like:

It's raining wet water from out of the sky 
If I don't get wet then I shall be dry 

 Unaccountably, that was not a commercial, or any other kind, of success

Then as a young Engineer  (note the capital E) in the late 1960s  in Bedford I wrote my biggest hit so far, The Ballad of Charles Wells and Greene King  (being the two rival brewers having a stranglehold on Bedford pubs in those days) which I dare not print for fear of litigation but suffice to say  the phrase "tastes as though it was filtered through his socks" might have been included.

After the last year of taking my guitar theory and technique more seriously than in the previous fifty years and steeping myself in scales, modes and arpeggios, I've now returned to basics digging out some actual songs.  Things I used to play have faded somewhat in memory and I can't always recall the lyrics, so I though I might as well make them up in the hope that no-one else can remember the originals anyway.

One of the first songs everybody learned to play way back then was House of the Rising Sun ( which actually requires knowledge of 5 chords - I had previously thought there were only three). So I thought I'd adapt it as the first song of a Canal Musical.  How's this for starters (It is admittedly helpful to have a knowledge of the canal through Berkhamsted)?

There is a pub in Berkhamsted

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many an old fart

And God I know I'm one

My mother steered the butty

All she cooked was beans

My father was a number one

Down in Milton Keynes

Now the only things a boater needs

Are a windlass and some rope

A bottle of beer, a lump of cheese

A bucket, a mop, and some soap

Another thing a boater needs

Is a hammer and a stake

A bag of coal, an engine 'ole

And now and then some cake

Dad put one foot on the gunnel

The other foot and the bank

He gave a shout, the boat moved out

And he fell in the water and sank

Oh mothers tell your children

When you need a loaf of bread

Don't stop your boat at the Rising Sun

Press on to Waitrose instead

Feedback is welcome-please choose one of the following

a) Needs improving

b) Needs scrapping

c) Needs certifying