Our first snow

The canal has been frozen for sometime now, but today we had our first snow and very nice it looks too but I am glad we do not have to travel in it as it doesn’t look too good. Not much to report today as we have just been lazing about and reading, although we did have a visit to Nantwich museum. Where we found out that wich is associated with salt manufacture and Nantwich was built around its production.

Photos, just where are they? I must get back on track.

Statistics so far:-

1106.38 Miles, 754 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

Blogged Out

I don’t think that it helps hobbling about on the boat but as we haven’t really done much over the Christmas holidays I find it becoming more and more difficult to find any blogging motivation. Thinking about it the forth coming holiday in New Zealand is dominating our horizons and any thoughts of further cruising until we get back in April is fast becoming a reality.

We will probably spend the next couple of weeks sorting the boat out at our winter moorings. The first job has to be the replacement of a gate valve for a proper stopcock, I just hate those little red topped gate valves especially when they are put to use as a substitute stopcock which they are definitely not.

So we will be off to Crewe in the morning to visit the nearest B&Q

Statistics so far:-

1102.07 Miles, 754 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

New Years Eve

Another quiet day today but we did manage to get into town for a bit of shopping and to exercise the old knee. We do like Nantwich town centre a very busy pedestrian centre with no cars and good local shops. St Mary’s church dominates the centre; the church was used to hold Royalist prisoners during the civil war between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists, yet another battle location, apparently this battle only lasted for two hours and the battle is commemorated each year towards the end of January with a re-enactment called the Holly holy day. Unfortunately (did I say unfortunately) we will miss this as we will be in New Zealand.

Well that’s it for another year it only remains for me to wish you all the best for the coming year.

St Mary’s

Statistics so far:-

1102.07 Miles, 754 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

Prawns on the Knee

The pain in my knee has got much worse, last night it became swollen and in the absence of ice cubes I had to resort to frozen prawns as this was all we had until the ice cubes froze. I can honestly say that prawns are better than ice cubes for knee joint pain relief.

This morning my knee was no better so Frances went off into town to get some Deep Freeze patches, poor thing she is not feeling too hot herself, I guess the downside of living on a narrowboat. If this does not do anything I will be off to outpatients in the morning. I think I can trace this outbreak of housemaid’s knee to my little excursion (did I say little) under the sink and kneeling on a hard floor for ages trying to sort out the problem. Next time I must use a cushion before the knee starts to hurt.

We had planned to move off further north for a few days before settling back here at our winter moorings but it looks like we will be staying put for now. The canal partially froze over during the night and I think that it is expected to get colder towards the end of the week.

Statistics so far:-

1102.07 Miles, 754 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

Nantwich

A very lazy Boxing day on Lazy Days, we have spent the day sitting around reading. Frances has a cold and I have a bad knee, I think I exposed my knee to a cold draught when home in Croxley and it did not help humping around the diesel and Gas cylinders the other day. So all in all a day for putting our feet up.

I took some photos of Nantwich when we arrived so here they are. I will try and get back on track with the blog ASAP but hey what do you expect with a bloated stomach and a bad knee.

Street leading into Nantwich from canal

Towards Nantwich Town centre

Church conversion?

Statistics so far:-

1102.07 Miles, 754 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

A walk around Brewood

Not a very pleasant day today so I was quite glad that I took some photos when we arrived in finer weather. Brewood is another pleasant village with a good stock of public houses for us to try out as well as a good bus service into Wolverhampton which we may try out in a day or two.

Brewood Church

Another Quaint House

Quiet Street 1

Quiet Street 2

Statistics so far:-

1020.86 Miles, 714 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 7 Tunnels.

Fenny Compton

I think that we are still suffering from the festival, can’t remember have I mentioned we were at a three day music festival in Cropredy.

We motored on down to the water point and on the way said our goodbyes to Del and Al on Derwent6. Although we did not get to see much of them we do feel that we had a shared Fairport experience with them.

Bit of a long day today as I guess others had the same idea about leaving it a day before setting off and we had to queue at every lock. And then just to add insult to injury we decided not to stop at the top of the Claydon Locks. I take full responsibility for this naff decision, I remember saying, jokingly that we would end up in Fenny Compton and guess what, the clue is in the title. I cannot believe it (think Victor Meldrew, Frances often does) that we did not stop at the most perfect mooring you could imagine and plodded on to end up moored outside of the Fenny Compton marina, don’t ask.

Today we did 6.57 Miles 9 Locks and 1 Lift Bridge

Statistics so far:-

763.76 Miles, 547 Locks, 47 Swing Bridges, 46 Lift Bridges, 6 Tunnels.

Cropredy – Day Two

Boy are we whacked. We seemed ok when we came back to the boat last night but this morning we are aching all over. All this sitting around listening to music takes it out of you.

Firstly I must apologies to Megan and Joe Henwood, they were the second act and we did not see them. As you know (well maybe) I make our daily bread and I have recently been using re activated yeast which takes a little longer and yesterday I left it a bit late so although the bread was out of the oven it was not ready for sandwich making. So we had to return to the boat for lunch.

The first act of the day where incredibly bubbly and infectiously, it is no wonder this band has a big following.

ColvinQuarmby

After lunch we did get back in time for the third set – Scott Mathews.

Scott Mathews

Then Adrian Edmondson and The Bad Shepherds were up playing Punk songs on traditional folk instruments, novel maybe but I personally found the traditional breaks inside the tunes the best part.

The Bad Shepherds

The next band up was John Jorgensen and could he play a mean guitar.

John Jorgensen

If you like skiffle this was followed by The Dodge Brothers

The Dodge Brothers

We were then treated to probably the best set of the day with Richard Thompson, he plays solo acoustic guitar, you get the rhythm, bass and melody all in one absolutely brilliant. I selected this photo as they had blended the camera views on the large screen to reflect this.

Richard Thompson

He ended the set with his daughter Camilla joining him to sing some of her songs, by this time the photos were getting a bit shaky.

The final set was Seth Lakeman, I did not take any photos because as usual by this time I was loosing motivation.

Statistics so far:-

757.19 Miles, 538 Locks, 47 Swing Bridges, 45 Lift Bridges, 6 Tunnels.

Cropredy Festival – First Day

What a wonderful experience this is, being on the boat seems a bit like cheating when you see all the campers around with what must be very primitive but essential festival conditions. We enjoyed all of the bands, well I did, Frances is a bit more refined in her taste and did not think much of the heavier bands of the Buzzcocks and also the opening act Harlequinn.

The flag poles certainly add to the atmosphere and give a tribal feel to the proceedings.

Flags

We both really loved 4square and even bought their cd later in the evening.

4Square

Ken Nicol and Phil Cool made an excellent pair, at first I wondered what Phil Cool was doing there other than providing the song material but then he went into his comic routine and had us all in fits of laughter.

Ken Nicol and Phil Cool

Without doubt the most energetic act of the day was the Buzzcocks, I have never heard them live before and their energy level was electric, they really enjoyed themselves as did the audience, well some at any rate.

Buzzcocks

By the time Steve Winwood came on I was getting a bit cold and put the camera away, but did take this

Steve Winwood

They were a very good final act and brought the days entertainment to a very satisfactory conclusion. Roll on today.

An Excited Buzz

There is an excited buzz around as everyone catches the festival fever, we have been up to the festival entrance and had our wrist bands fitted to give us access to the festival.

The camp fields are filling up, there were a few tents in this field yesterday and now it is full.

Camping Field

There are camping fields all around.

Stage and more campers

The canal is choker full and opportunists are springing up to sell their wares to the thousands of festival goers that will be coming along the tow path.

Canal from Bridge 154

Last night we went up to the village to experience the fringe festival, the Red Lion had a country band playing and we listened to them for a while before heading up to the Brasenose where Kent Duchaine was playing blues guitar. A good move as it turned out as he was absolutely brilliant, well worth looking out for as he is playing in venues around the country until sometime in September.

Statistics so far:-

757.19 Miles, 538 Locks, 47 Swing Bridges, 45 Lift Bridges, 6 Tunnels.