into feb

Nearly the end of January and I've only just started thinking as if I'm in 2015. I'm a bit like the Kodak nighshift-a late developer.  Although I'd turned the lights off on the Mooring's Christmas tree on 12th Night I hadn't actually packed them away so that was one job for 26th Jan being 32nd Night.

 I've been busy you see. Well in my own little world it was busy-not like you movers and shakers out there keeping the country going but here in the wonderful wobbly world of Wall I don't seem to have blinked since my birthday (13th Jan if you missed it) and here we are in  February. 

Feel the energy

Since my birthday (13th January if you missed it again)  we've had a  dinner party at Pam's with friends Diane and Mark and Janice and John. The meal was excellent comprising homemade tomato soup with rosemary  foccacia followed by rack of lamb with all the trimmings including Pam's excellent ratatouille. To follow Pam's Pavlova (Pamlova?) , Chocolate Pots and a Comprehensive Cheese board -all my own work.  (I also do a Secondary Modern Cheese board for people old enough to remember)

Cheers everybody!

 The evening was very jolly with good conversation (except when I spoke of course) and Pam even managed to get the guests to stop talking  and try some "Standing Post" exercises which are the architectural foundation for all Qigong and Tai Chi positions . If you're interested the following link tells you more.

http://www.eastwestacupuncture.net/book_standingpost.htm

  They also tried several bottles of wine which  always puts one in a contemplative frame of mind. Splendid effort. Good company, good food and good wine. Bliss.

It's Grim Oop North

My sister lives in Lancashire where they've had proper snow (see pics) and whilst their activities have been curtailed by the white stuff for over a week and are getting a bit stir crazy they are able to benefit from one modern innovation that is Tesco Home Delivery (Other Home Delivery services are available). Thus the essential Teachers arrives along with luxuries like food. 

Reading other boaters' blogs I am surprised how many, especially the continuous cruisers, avail themselves of the delivery service. Order online, moor near a road bridge and wait with your wheelbarrow. Such a boon especially when it comes to the heavier bulkier stuff.
Talking of deliveries I received a cunningly worded note from the Post Office saying they had a delivery for me but that until I coughed up £1.53 they wouldn't let me have it. I wasn't expecting anything and thought "Sod it" . Curiosity eventually got the better of me and  I went online and paid up. For the whole weekend I waited eagerly to see what would arrive...a belated birthday present perhaps (my birthday being 13th January in case you missed it again), a letter from some long lost relative advising me that I was now the wealthy Duke of Somewhere, a belated notification from the Queen that I had in fact received an OBE in the New Years Honours but because she'd used an unfranked stamp from a Christmas card from, say, the Duke of Somewhere-else the P O had jumped on it with glee and hit me for £1.53.and  delayed the collection of my gong.

Now I've nothing against Ann Widdecombe, apart from her politics and obviously her voice, but as a Catholic I do get annoyed that, whenever there is a matter relating to the Catholic Church, the Press and TV, rather than going to the obvious people like the Vatican or the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster rush off to AW for her opinion. Obviously as a "celebrity" and a convert to Catholicism  she allegedly speaks with great authority on behalf of all....but I don't want her to. I can't stop them asking and I can't stop her telling them....but I don't want her to. They used to go to Norman St John- Stiffarse but he's brown bread now. If they could get a response from him in the heavenly House of Lords it would certainly be more authoritative than the Corncrake .

"What the blazes has this to do with your long awaited delivery? " I hear you cry as you anxiously seek the "delete" button. Well my sister knows that I have this hang-up about AW and had decided to send me a cutting from the Letters page of the Catholic Herald deploring the omission of Widdecombe from the New Years Honours List!  God forbid!
And I'd coughed up £1.53 of my pension to get it. Insult to sodding injury to quote the Bard. At least I have one thing in common with the Blessed Ann; neither of us got a gong plus I deserve one as much as she does in that I resisted the justifiable urge to go down the immorally privatised Sorting Office and shove the letter in somebody's immorally privatised letter box. Lancashire deserves all the snow it gets.

 Incidentally I was intrigued by the Met Office issuing a "Yellow Snow Warning" I'd always understood the advice "not to eat the yellow snow" as such a warning and what that's got to do with the Met Office I know not.

The view above Hawridge

Christmas trees ready for next December

A couple of walks over the weekend were just the ticket to remove the post-Post blues and happily the weather was grand though the terrain a little gloopy

Pam's found a new route which brings into play my Gherkin Training-Have you spotted me yet?

While we're out and about in the country I have a new chum. He's a squirrel. I've called him Kirby. As you drive from Cowroast to Northchurch just between the garage and the lay-by on the left you oft will espy him happily sat kerbside (hence Kirby) munching on whatever he has gathered and watching the traffic thunder by. He is there more often than not and seems to give you a nod and a wink as you drive by. Or so it seems to my addled mind. Next time your passing give him a toot. But don't lie on the grass next to him He might think you're nuts.
Of course he might be in training to be a Lollipop Man-squirrels have history when it comes to road safety

Remember Tufty?

 some younger readers might recall.

http://www.rospa.com/about/history/tufty.aspx

Kirby, no doubt, is getting ready for the mating season as are all the birds on the cut. The ducks are increasingly spending time ashore and that's not because they're averse to having their DAs frozen in the water. They are certainly enthusiastic breadwinners as the photos show.

Looking for a home though actually they look like they're looking up their own fundament.

The swans are also looking for somewhere to nest and we hope it's not near us on the moorings as they are pretty antisocial as neighbours.

Last Wednesday Pam and I drove to Windsor. Not to collect my much deserved OBE but to see "12 Angry Men" with a strong cast including Tom Conti at the lovely Theatre Royal. It really was very good as was the whole evening. If you get a chance go and see it,  Thanks Pam for my birthday outing. 
(my birthday being 13th January as you're obviously not paying attention)
Windsor is such a fine place -especially on a January evening with fewer tourists and with lots of decent pubs and restaurants. Oh and there's a big castle there and a river. All very nice. We had arrived earlier than anticipated and found that the play started half hour later than we'd allowed so we repaired to a pub overlooking the castle (underlooking actually) and then had an Italian meal all within spitting distance of the theatre. Although I suspect spitting in Windsor is an infrequent habit and instantly penalised.The Council tax must be peanuts as they obviously are able to pay for everything from the overpriced cost of parking plus spitting fines. The tenner to park however became less painful when leaving the theatre and walking out into a cold wind that cut you in half but mercifully with only a 50 yard walk to the car.

Back on the canal it's Operation Heat 24/7 as the current idiom has it. A very cold week with the diesel central heating going and the coal/log fire whacking out the therms. Having assembled logs + chopped up pallets, kindling and smokeless nuts my practice is to burn logs and other bits of wood during the day and cover it with nuts when I go out or go to bed. This isn't strictly true because quite often on retiring it's so warm I let the fire die down so I can sleep. Anyway it's good practice to leave your nuts where they are when you go to bed. Ask Kirby.

Bye bye George and Carol on Still Rockin

Hardly seen a soul on the moorings all week and there's not been much movement on the cut where the high winds will have kept most boaters moored up. Because of a duff knee I hadn't been able to get down and say hello to Still Rockin who were moored below the lock. They've headed north now (I think) so maybe next time.   (their blog     http://wbstillrockin.blogspot.co.uk/     )                                                      

Avid readers will both recall that I took action a while back to fix my satellite dish to the roof by screwing it to a big chunk of wood and clamping it down. This overcame the problem of sitting inside listening to the dish being blown off the roof into the canal with consequent loss of picture. The recent high winds presented another technical difficulty in that as the boat rocked from side to side  the dish went "off signal". Sometimes this could be overcome by shifting my ample carcass to the other side of the boat but this was far from satisfactory. Especially in the middle of dinner and Miss Marple resulting in an interruption of pasta and plot. The problem is now solved by fixing the dish (satellite not pasta) to a scaffold pole on the bank. Now all I need is a decent programme to watch and to this end have bought a recording thingy on Ebay for 20 quid. Indeed since succumbing to a dodgy knee a couple of days back and thus having activities restricted to sitting, swearing and stoking the fire I have been busy on ebay and in the last 48 hours have bought the tv recorder, a coffee percolator, a map of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and a camera. Expensive things, knees. I've taken a bit of a punt on the camera and wouldn't normally buy such a thing on ebay but I thought why not?      I didn't get myself a present on my birthday so go for it.      (in case you were wondering the birthday was on 13th January)

Snow and Ice

"Ice-breaking boat on the canal - reminiscences of the son of a canal lock-keeper whose house formerly faced the towpath a few yards west of Lower Kings Road bridge...
"Reginald Short's earliest recollection was of the canal being frozen for six weeks in February and March, 1916. Skaters were out in force and the manager of the flour mill (now offices) on the other side of the bridge took some terrible tumbles. The ice breaker was brought to clear the passage for boats whose crews were in financial difficulties. The breaker was of strong steel construction with a flush wooden deck and a hand-rail fixed lengthwise at a height of about 4ft. Rocking the boat, the crew consisted of eight men, four on each side of the rail, and a steersman. The boat was pulled by up to eight horses hired from local contractors." (Beorcham, Berkhamsted Review, Apr 1985)."

My birthday's  definitely all over for this year (we've even finished the delicious cake baked by Jaq off nb Valerie and presented at my birthday party) so what's on the horizon?

A trip to Kent in February to get my fix of cockles on Whitstable beach.

Preceded unfortunately by a funeral next Friday of Graham, a fellow boater who succumbed in the New Year and a visit to the Physio following my back problem last year. That's if my knee is better. Bloody hell.

A 4 day boating holiday is planned in March on the Leeds and Liverpool canal (which is one of the very few canals I have never cruised). This will be in the company of as fine a bunch of lascars as ever drew breath.

So for now that's it. Snow is forecast and I hope the new camera arrives beforehand so as I can take lots of snowy canal scenes to bore you with. Sorry-with which to bore you. I am sat in front of a roaring fire...to quote the late great Victor Borge "which annoyed my father as we did not have a fireplace"...an ample Cottage Pie is in the oven, there's half a bottle of Fitou left and Foyle's War on tv so why am I wasting my time writing this junk. Goodnight all.

STOP PRESS

Marvellous News!

Joseph's mum, Helen, has given birth to a sister for Joe and Theo.

Born on 30th January in Stoke Mandeville and weighing 7lbs. And what a star! Annabelle Katherine-a real beauty and I got to hold her!

Congratulations to Helen and Paul and Joseph and Theo.

Beauty and the beast

A wonderful end to January and a blessing for all. Rejoice!