Gath'ring winter fuel

It was windy last night, and Jubilee rocked a bit on our mooring just below Stoke Bruerne Bottom Lock. We made a leisurely start in the morning as we wanted to call in at Baxter's boatyard by Kingfisher Marina in Yardley Gobion for some diesel and one or two other things. We knew that Baxter's opens at 1100 on Mondays, but, as we discovered, not on new year's eve. Oh well, we'd seen a fuel boat at Cosgrove a couple of days ago, perhaps it will still be there tomorrow.

On the way up, Jan had spotted a fallen tree blocking the towpath just north of Thrupp Wharf. So, shortly after pulling away again from Baxter's, I stopped by the tree and proceeded to clear it away.

It doesn't look much in the photo, but, believe me, it took a lot of effort and time with the bow saw to deal with it.

It should last Ally and Ben the rest of the winter! Well, until February, anyway.

By the time I'd finished sawing and tidying it was getting dark. We'd planned to reach Cosgrove today, but when we saw the Navigation Inn at Thrupp Wharf we decided to stop there and check out the menu.

One of the disadvantages of winter cruising is the restricted daylight hours. Conversely, one of the benefits of winter cruising is that you stop early, and so you can get in at the beginning of meal times. The Navigation was serving food from 1800 to 2030, when a new year's eve disco/party was due to start. I had the braised ribeye pork - very good - and Jan had the salmon ("lemony"). We were back on board by 1930 (and will, no doubt, have a very boring early night! New Year's Eve somehow just doesn't do it for us. Let's hope BBC Radio 4's signal will be better here than where we were last night.)

Top Thirty, 2012 week 52

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1505 on Sunday 30th December 2012. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Waterway Routes (+2)

6 nb Epiphany (=)

7 UKCanals Network (+2)

8 Granny Buttons (=)

9 Retirement with No Problem (-4)

10 Water Explorer (=)

11 nb Waiouru (=)

12 Narrowboat Briar Rose (+15)

13 Jannock Website (-1)

14 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (-1)

15 Towpath Treks (+8)

16 boatshare (=)

17 Boats and Canals Forum (-3)

18 Contented Souls (-3)

19 Canal Shop Company (-2)

20 Narrowboat Bones (+5)

21 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (-3)

22 Baddie the Pirate (+2)

23 Boatshed Grand Union (+5)

24 boats and cruising (-5)

25 nb Lucky Duck (-4)

26 ExOwnerships (+3)

27 Seyella's Journey (+3)

28 Halfie (-6)

29 Derwent6 (-9)

30 Milburn Boats Ltd
(-)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 176 entries, up from 174 last week.

Flooded fields by the Grand Union in Northamptonshire

Briar Rose left its mooring before us this morning. I'd gone to have a look at the iron trunk aqueduct over the Great Ouse, and the rest of the crew took their time over getting up!

Ally and Ben left us just above Cosgrove Lock, having moved their car to the facilities block for an easy transfer of stuff. This is Cosgrove Church from the canal.

Then we cruised on, just the two of us now, through rural Northamptonshire in sunshine and a stiff breeze. Hardly any rain, though, which was a nice change! Many fields were flooded, and the canal's overspill weirs were busy.

After a pause for lunch we winded just below Stoke Bruerne Bottom Lock and tied up on the 48 hour moorings. We'd decided not to go up the locks even though we'd have had enough daylight. Instead we went for a walk along a footpath to the village of Ashton, a mile or so east of Stoke Bruerne across the fields. The pub marked in my 1980 OS map was, amazingly, open (The Old Crown), but we were much too early for food so we walked back along the road to Stoke Bruerne and down the locks in the gathering gloom to Jubilee for a cup of tea and a read of the paper. Jan's cooking up some grub - involving the last of the Christmas turkey - as I write this - it smells nice!

Meeting Adam and Adrian in MK

Woohoo! We're cruising again! Yes, we've uprooted Ally and Ben's home and steered it away from their marina. It's all right: they know! Ally is on board with us (that should be "we're on board with her") and Ben is at work.

We got away from Milton Keynes Marina in light drizzle at about 0930 and stopped at Campbell Park for a pre-arranged rendezvous with Adam and Adrian on Briar Rose. The drizzle had stopped, and we had a brief guided tour of each other's boats, before A+A set off for Cosgrove.

We on Jubilee hung around for a while, drinking coffee and waiting for Ally's friend Kim to join us.

Then we set off in ever increasing rain until we decided to stop for lunch at Giffard Park. There was a convenient One Stop for a newspaper. Resuming our northward journey the weather improved, and we stopped in the almost dark next to Briar Rose again.

Christmas mystery photo - the answer

As James says - and Alf and Sue agree with him - it's Buckby Top Lock on the Grand Union Canal.

It's hard to imagine now, but this was back in April when drought restrictions were in place.

We were the last boat up the flight that day: the lockie chained the top gates closed as soon as we'd gone through.

Now we have more rain than we know what to do with. The latest stoppage alert from CRT advises that the Leicester line is closed after a collapse of the Debdale embankment. CRT says that the cause was a waterlogged bank.

GU Leicester line, Debdale Embankment slip

Thursday 27 December 2012 until further notice
Navigation is closed due to an earth slip on an embankment due to prolonged heavy rain saturating the soil.

Canal closed until further notice pending assessment of embankment and works to stabalise [sic] the earth structure

Christmas mystery photo - more still

Sue of nb Indigo Dream has been the first to say that the photo is of a lock. Now here's a bit more of the photo - can you tell me which lock?

The fish scales appearance on the first couple of cropped versions is just the reflection of the white railing.

Christmas mystery photo: more

First, a very Happy Christmas to all readers, and my apologies for a brief intermission in this service. Christmas is a very busy time.

Back to the photo - here's a bit more for you.

There should be enough for you to detect the type of location, if not the precise spot.

Top Thirty, 2012 Week 51

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1505 on Sunday 23rd December 2012. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Retirement with No Problem (+1)

6 nb Epiphany (+1)

7 Waterway Routes (-2)

8 Granny Buttons (+1)

9 UKCanals Network (-1)

10 Water Explorer (=)

11 nb Waiouru (=)

12 Jannock Website (+2)

13 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (=)

14 Boats and Canals Forum (+3)

15 Contented Souls (+6)

16 boatshare (+3)

17 Canal Shop Company (-3)

18 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (-3)

19 boats and cruising (+5)

20 Derwent6 (-2)

21 nb Lucky Duck (-1)

22 Halfie (+6)

23 Towpath Treks (-)

24 Baddie the Pirate (-2)

25 Narrowboat Bones (+1)

26 Herbie (-1)

27 Narrowboat Briar Rose (+2)

28 Boatshed Grand Union (-)

29 ExOwnerships (-2)

30 Seyella's Journey (-7)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 174 entries, down from 178 last week.

Christmas mystery photo

Er, not much to do with Christmas, but here's another small part of a photo I took earlier this year.

Can you see what it is? I will ask for the location later - there's not much here that's location-specific!*

*well, there is, but you'd know that only when seeing the wider picture

Anchor Cottage - a treasure trove of canalia

On the Buckby Flight on the GU is Anchor Cottage.

From Buckby cans to brass lamps this tiny, overflowing shop seems to have everything you could want to personalise your boat. I drooled there in April!

The icing on the cake

Jan iced our Christmas cake yesterday. The fruit cake itself was made by her colleague Caroline (who made Ally and Ben's wedding cake three years ago).

After the icing come the decorations.

Between the fruit cake - laced with whisky, we're told - and the icing is one of my favourite things. Marzipan. Yum.

Braunston's "other" tunnel

Yesterday's photo of the "unusual" tunnel mouth was no fake, even though it was at Braunston. Here's Fergus standing on top, to give the scale.

We came across this small culvert while walking the horse path over the top of Braunston Tunnel in April.

It must be near the east portal of the (full size) tunnel we know and love, as I took this photo of Fergus by it, again for scale, just two minutes later.

What's wrong with this tunnel?

While we're on a tunnel theme...

... what's unusual about this one?

What are these dangling inside Blisworth Tunnel?

Looking back through some photos I noticed that the southern entrance of Blisworth Tunnel seems to have several pencil-thin stalactites hanging from the roof.

I've not seen this effect before. I'm sure Shadow - crewed here by Fergus, Penny and David - didn't ping them off as it entered!

Are they jets of water? In which case, why don't they go all the way down? They certainly appear to be white things, dangling!

Any ideas, anyone? (Photo taken on 10th April 2012, shutter speed 1/110)

Braunston from above the tunnel

On a wet day in April I walked the horse path over Braunston Tunnel. Here's a view of the village from near the top of the hill.

You should be able to make out the spire of the church piercing the horizon.

One of the tunnel's air shafts is just to the right of the camera.

Top Thirty, 2012 week 50

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1930 on Sunday 16th December 2012. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Waterway Routes (+1)

6 Retirement with No Problem (-1)

7 nb Epiphany (+1)

8 UKCanals Network (+1)

9 Granny Buttons (-2)

10 Water Explorer (=)

11 nb Waiouru (+1)

12 Canal Shop Company (-1)

13 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (+2)

14 Jannock Website (-1)

15 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (+12)

16 Nb. Yarwood (-)

17 Boats and Canals Forum (+2)

18 Derwent6 (+4)

19 boatshare (-3)

20 nb Lucky Duck (+8)

21 Contented Souls (-)

22 Baddie the Pirate (+1)

23 Seyella's Journey (-9)

24 boats and cruising (-3)

25 Herbie (=)

26 Narrowboat Bones (-8)

27 ExOwnerships (-10)

28 Halfie (-4)

29 Narrowboat Briar Rose (=)

30 NB The Manly Ferry (-)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 178 entries, up from 177 last week.

Humbleyard Hoofers' (pre-) Christmas Walk

Today Jan and I led the last walk in the 2012 season of the Humbleyard Hoofers walking group. As in the last couple of years we ended up at Jan's school teaches for a slap-up lunch (my third and Jan's fourth Christmas meal of the season!).

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We enjoyed excellent conditions for our five mile stroll near Wymondham - sunshine, no rain, and a not-too-strong breeze.

The going underfoot wasn't as muddy as I'd expected, given all the recent rain, but there was the occasional puddle.

At our coffee stop at half distance I set the camera to take a self-timed shot of the 12 of us.

I have written before about the use farmers make these days of kites suspended from tall poles to act as bird scarers.

Here, though, instead of a replica bird of prey, a more kite-like kite was deployed.

It seemed to be working - I saw no birds!

Jubilee preparing for Christmas

All yesterday's frost is gone, washed away by quite a lot of rain. Still, my fingers didn't feel as though they were dropping off.

Ally and Ben have furnished Jubilee with a Christmas tree. Ours is still cocooned in its plastic web.

I suppose I ought to be thinking about frost precautions for when Ally and Ben come to visit over Christmas - perhaps I'll get them to set the boat's heating to come on for a while each day.

Frozen fingers

By the time I got to work yesterday my fingertips were numb with cold. I'd been wearing two pairs of gloves on the seven mile cycle ride, but still the icy air seeped in. As soon as I entered the car park under The Forum - where the temperature was several degrees above that outside - my fingers began to thaw out. It was very painful for a couple of minutes.

The trees and fields were covered in hoar frost, lit up but unmelted by the sunshine, as they were this morning.

above: my road to work

Frozen canal

As Ally said, when she sent me this fine photo she took of the Grand Union Canal in MK, not much boat traffic today!

Condensation in narrowboats

When we were last on Jubilee, a couple of weeks ago, we had pointed out to us a condensation problem. At least, I assume it's condensation. The outside temperature was low; the stove was on; and there were four of us breathing and cooking inside. The windows were running with condensation, which wasn't a problem as I'd recently cleared the "limber holes" to allow the water to drain to the outside.

(I discovered the name of these holes only when reading the December issue of Canal Boat magazine.)

The problem? Water was dripping from under the gunwale onto the pillows of the convertible dinette bed.

Looking under the gunwale I can see the 1/2" copper gas pipe, and not much in the way of spray foam insulation. I don't know if it was cut away in order to route the gas pipe through, or if this area never got the spray foam treatment. I'm fairly sure, though, that this is the reason for the damp pillows (and the damp seat cushion when in its normal use as the dinette).

I think the solution will be to spray more foam up there. Is there any regulation about not spray foaming a gas pipe? Does anyone know?

Incidentally, an article about condensation in the December Canal Boat mag is followed immediately by Tony Brookes's advice column. The two articles seem to differ in their recommendations regarding ventilation. The first (author anonymous) article warns against "excessive" ventilation, as "cold and persistently damp winter conditions can bring in more moisture than it vents out" (p86). Tony Brookes, on the other hand, advises keeping "as many window hoppers open as you can to help ventilation throughout the boat. This will go a long way to reduce condensation problems."

So what is one to do?

A little bit of Norway in Norfolk - buying a Christmas tree

We bought our Christmas tree this afternoon. A bit early, I know, but the calendar is full between now and next year. For the last several years we've gone to Norfolk Christmas Trees - "The quality fresh tree". The trees are grown on site, and we've always been pleased with them.

We've never had a problem with needle shedding - perhaps because our house is cooler than many!

This one's a Norway Spruce, and smells delicious.

All trussed up and ready to go

We'll keep the tree outside until about Christmas Eve eve eve.

Top Thirty, 2012 week 49

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1220 on Sunday 9th December 2012. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (+1)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (-1)

5 Retirement with No Problem (+2)

6 Waterway Routes (-1)

7 Granny Buttons (+3)

8 nb Epiphany (=)

9 UKCanals Network (-3)

10 Water Explorer (-1)

11 Canal Shop Company (+1)

12 nb Waiouru (-1)

13 Jannock Website (=)

14 Seyella's Journey (+2)

15 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (-1)

16 boatshare (+2)

17 ExOwnerships (+3)

18 Narrowboat Bones (-1)

19 Boats and Canals Forum (+3)

20 Towpath Treks (-5)

21 boats and cruising (-)

22 Derwent6 (+1)

23 Baddie the Pirate (+1)

24 Halfie (+1)

25 Herbie (+3)

26 Rock n Roll (-)

27 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (+2)

28 nb Lucky Duck (-7)

29 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-3)

30 Boatshed Grand Union (-3)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 177 entries, up from 176 last week.

Solar pillar at Hillmorton Locks

Now, I may be behind the times here, but I think I haven't blogged about these solar pllars before.

This one is at Hillmorton Locks, and they're a common sight near locks. I think they must be to provide power for the system which measures lock usage, but putting "solar" into an internet search engine returns millions of results, so I haven't been able to find out.

****************

I was getting along well with Neil's photo quiz - until I came to the one with the different signs giving distances and locks to various locations. I thought it was going to be Worcester - right number of locks and miles to Birmingham from there, but the other locations didn't work. I'm waiting for Neil's next post!

More mystery - all is revealed

Adam got the answer: it's Kent Road Bridge 69 on the Oxford Canal.

An example of the individual style of many of our canal treasures.

And so is the bridge.

Now, who was it who was going to put up their own "mystery photo"? Herbie, wasn't it? Must have a look...

More mystery - still more

There have been some interesting suggestions as to the wording in the mystery photo. Perhaps this will help a little.

Again, this might or might not include some of the previously published bits of photo.

More mystery - yet more

Here's a little more of the same thing. It doesn't include the same blocks as yesterday's portion.

I don't want to make it too easy!

More mystery - more

Ooh! This has got you going! I've revealed a little more below. And - I should have said yesterday - it IS canal-related.

Ladies and gentlemen, your guesses please. (Via the comments box.)

More mystery!

Sue, your comment has encouraged me to do another "Mystery Photo" post. So soon, you ask? Yes, why not?

So here it is. Not much to go on, perhaps, but is it enough for Kevin, who "won" the last one?

Mystery photo - all is revealed

Well, I can't keep you hanging on any longer.

As Kevin correctly guessed right at the beginning, it is dew on a spider's web.

The web is on the ground, over a small hollow. There must be millions of such webs all over the place which we can't normally see. This was on the foggy South Downs a few weeks ago.

Top Thirty, 2012 week 48

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1220 on Sunday 2nd December 2012. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

4 CanalPlanAC (=)

5 Waterway Routes (+1)

6 UKCanals Network (-1)

7 Retirement with No Problem (=)

8 nb Epiphany (=)

9 Water Explorer (+1)

10 Granny Buttons (-1)

11 nb Waiouru (=)

12 Canal Shop Company (+1)

13 Jannock Website (-1)

14 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (=)

15 Towpath Treks (+2)

16 Seyella's Journey (+3)

17 Narrowboat Bones (+9)

18 boatshare (-3)

19 Nb. Yarwood (+5)

20 ExOwnerships (-2)

21 nb Lucky Duck (-5)

22 Boats and Canals Forum (-1)

23 Derwent6 (-1)

24 Baddie the Pirate (+1)

25 Halfie (+5)

26 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-3)

27 Boatshed Grand Union (+2)

28 Herbie (-)

29 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (-9)

30 Milburn Boats Ltd (-)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 176 entries, up from 167 last week.

Mystery photo - more revealed

Here's a little more of yesterday's photograph.

Any more guesses?

Mystery photo

Another in an irregular series of photographic posers for you.

What is it?

What a photographer does when he runs out of hands

We drove to Braintree today for the wedding of our nephew Stephen to Amy.

This was the first non-church wedding we'd been to, but I'm pleased to say it was done with due gravitas.

An ornamental bridge over an ornamental lake made an obvious location for some photos, especially as the sun was setting.

What do you call that bunch of flowers the bride has to carry?

Whatever it is, I think Amy did it better!

I feel a caption competition coming on. Any suggestions?

Newhaven boat with balcony

A boat we came across on our recent walking holiday in Sussex reminded me about balconies.

I've always liked balconies. There's something about sitting high up and looking out over a drop. At university it was possible to get onto the roof of Davy Hall and sunbathe or drink beer (or both). Now the Halls have been demolished, and summers don't seem quite so sunny now that there are no more exams to revise for.

A boat with a balcony would be fun, but tricky to get under bridges and through tunnels. Perhaps the railings could collapse?

I don't know if the boat in the photo is being worked on or lived on. Or both. Or neither.

£10 well spent

One small job I did while on board Jubilee the other day was to screw the clock to the wall.

I'd visited a vast second hand emporium in Norwich on several occasions looking for a suitable brass timepiece, and was very pleased to find this for a tenner. It keeps good time, too.