The rise and fall of Ben the Snowman

Yesterday, on a flying visit, Ally expressed great surprise that we hadn't even walked on the pristine snow covering our garden, let alone built a snowman.

So she set to ...

... and made (with a little help from me) Ben the Snowman.

He grew a couple of buttons ... and helped celebrate Jan's birthday.

Then Ally took Ben's hat away, and Ben the Snowman started to feel sad.

And then the rains came, the sun shone, and the temperature rose. 24 hours after his own birthday Ben the Snowman is looking distinctly unwell.

Oh well, it's our (very) small part in minimising the risk of flooding!

Now Ben the Snowman is still there, looking emaciated, and nearly all the surrounding snow has gone.

Top Thirty, 2013 week 4

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1230 on Sunday 27th January 2013. 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 (=)

6 nb Epiphany (+1)

7 Waterway Routes (-1)

8 UKCanals Network (=)

9 Water Explorer (=)

10 Granny Buttons (=)

11 nb Waiouru (=)

12 Jannock Website (+2)

13 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (+2)

14 Towpath Treks (-1)

15 boatshare (-3)

16 Contented Souls (+1)

17 Canal Shop Company (+1)

18 nb Lucky Duck (+1)

19 Baddie the Pirate (+5)

20 Narrowboat Bones (+3)

21 Rock n Roll (+9)

22 Chertsey (-)

23 ExOwnerships (-)

24 One Thing After Another (-3)

25 Derwent6 (-5)

26 Boats and Canals Forum (+5)

27 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (-11)

28 Narrowboat Briar Rose (+4)

29 Boatshed Grand Union (=)

30 Halfie (-4)


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 180 entries, up from 178 last week.

A walk in the snow round a frozen UEA Broad, and a magical light

The local walking group revisited the University of East Anglia Broad today for the shortest walk the group has done: just 1.6 miles.

The broad was completely iced over, with last night's snow lying on top in places.

Just out of reach from a fishing jetty was a broken plastic sledge.

The usual suspects came on the walk, with the addition of Ally who had paid us a surprise visit in honour of Jan's birthday today.

I'm in the group photo too, as I set the camera on self-timer.

As we climbed back up to the car park the light through the trees was magical.

I like the back-lit people and their strong shadows - and the jogger who came past seems to be floating in the air!

Regents Canal sign wrought in iron

On my recent cycle ride along part of the Regent's Canal (Regent's or Regents? The apostrophe came automatically) I came across a wonderful wrought iron sign.

It shows some of the things associated with the canal, either from the past or in the present.

I particularly like ... well, I invite you to guess which are my favourite two designs in the sign.

Silver Queen in Docklands

A boat we saw in Royal Victoria Dock a couple of weeks ago was Silver Queen.

This vessel was one of the Little Ships which took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. There's some information on the National Register of Historic Vessels and on the boat's own website.

According to the NRHV the boat was built in 1926 as a harbour launch, and was requisitioned in 1940 by the Admiralty, being towed across the Channel to help in the evacuation. The 2' draught was well suited for ferrying troops from the beach to larger ships lying in deeper waters.

Silver Queen is operated commercially as a trip boat and for private charters from its base here in the dock. She looks stunning.

Solar panels and snow

I can't see these photovoltaic solar panels working too well under their blanket of snow.

It looks like it's all about to slide off in one go, though.

On a boat I imagine it's rather easier to clear snow from solar panels. They are supposed to be more efficient the colder they are - I don't know whether that's solely because of the reduced resistance of the cabling, or something to do with how the semiconductor material performs.

Speaking of resistance ... I can't resist one more icicle photo.

The icicle furthest from the camera appears to be three feet long. And look at that tree with its snow blossom!

Brilliant bargain boots!

Possibly the best ten quid I've spent in a charity shop was on a pair of Trojan safety boots. It was last "summer" in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. I spotted the boots and tried them on. They fitted well ... I thought about it ... and then I bought them. My old (Armond) walking boots cost £100 in 1989 and should have been very good indeed. From the beginning they were uncomfortable, but I convinced myself that they only needed breaking in. I've been breaking them in ever since. Now I don't have to.

The "new" boots are simply superb. Ultra comfortable; completely waterproof; warm; grippy (easily the grippiest footwear I've had); fantastic in snow; and smart enough for work in this snowy weather.

I started this post thinking I'd merely comment on how good snow is for cleaning the underneath of boots etc., but I seem to have got carried away somewhat!

I have worn these Trojans on muddy walks and dusty treks. I've boated, cycled and driven in them. They looked new when I bought them. After five minutes with some dubbin (and a week of snow) they still look new. (And, freshly dubbined, the snow doesn't stick.)

The bargain of 2012. (The new price is about £76 - I'd say they were worth it for that amount too.)

Why the racks on the paddle gear on the Curdworth flight are red-topped

Last year, in a post titled "An interesting thing about the Curdworth Locks", I asked about the red paint on some of the paddle gear on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.

In May 2012 I posted:

The tops of the paddle gear racks are painted red. Usual practice elsewhere on the system is to paint them white.


So why are the Birmingham and Fazeley's Curdworth (and Minworth) locks' racks red-tipped?

Dave of nb Sir Edmund Hillary has come up with the answer. He wrote:

From the lockie responsible, now retired, this:- Hi Dave, the obvious answer ---- all over the canal system when we started boating very few locks and lock gearing WEREN'T [sic] even painted!! with the advent of BW some were painted after a fashion but not lock gearing, all that was done was to 'slap' grease all over the gearing......Hartshill, when I started had a full time 'Painter' but with the gearing he only painted (after a fashion) the 'paddle starts' white, so I got permission and started doing the painting. The racks on the gearing were all different lengths and more for my own benefit, so that I could tell at a glance, if the paddles were fully down, I painted the relevant amount of rack that should protrude above the gearing red, the white tips you are on about were just for decoration..................I could go on and on, but I don't want to bore you.......incidentally, I never got re-imbursed by BWB for the cost of the red undercoat and topcoat!!!.....do you think it's too late to put the bill in to the new 'Trust'??.........Don.

Dave tells me that the lockkeeper was Don Clive, and he was responsible for the Curdworth Flight. The flower beds were his; and he was an award winner for a best-kept flight competition. He retired in (Dave thinks) 1995.

Thanks Dave (and Don).

Dave wondered if the flower beds were maintained. As of May last year, it doesn't look like it. This is Lock 2 of the Curdworth Flight.