November boating; BCF AGM; conveniently running out of gas; and a non-starting Volvo

We've been to the boat again for another few days, using it as a base for visiting Ally and Ben and for driving up to the Boaters' Christian Fellowship AGM in Derbyshire. At Ally and Ben's we did some painting and saw progress on the utility room. Nice floor tiles, Ben, and it's good to see the downstairs loo installation almost complete!

On Saturday we drove up the M1 to J28 and arrived in good time to help with setting up for the highlight of the BCF year: the annual general meeting. After a bring-and-share lunch the business part of the meeting takes place. This doesn't take long and leaves plenty of time for entertainment and a period of worship before packing up before 7pm.

There is usually a sound operator supplied by the church whose facilities we were using, but a slight mix-up meant that he didn't appear for a while. I stepped into the breach and operated the mixer for the business meeting and the entertainment.

100 members attended, about 15% of the total membership, and it was good to meet old friends and make new ones. One couple we encountered for the first time was regular commenter Val Poore's brother and his wife.

On Sunday we took Jubilee out of the marina and went to The Galleon, stopping at the services block at Cosgrove on the way.

Then on Monday we cruised back the way we'd come, overshooting the marina to go to Baxter's to top up with diesel. As I was winding immediately after filling up Jan came to the back to report that the gas had just run out. How convenient! I pulled in again on the boatyard's mooring and got a new gas cylinder.

On our gentle cruise back to Thrupp Wharf Marina the light was good for a couple of photos.

We left on Tuesday morning having drained down the shower and leaving a heater on board which should kick in if it gets too cold. Oh, and I topped up the electricity point.

Unfortunately the car wouldn't start in the marina car park, so I had to enlist the help of a fellow moorer who came with a spare battery. The Volvo 240 has suffered from poor starting in cold damp conditions for a while. This time I managed to flatten the battery (on its last legs) trying to coax it into life. Today I bought a new distributor cap and rotor arm, and ordered a set of HT leads. These should help! I should have ordered a battery as well, but that will wait another day.

Sweeping the chimney

While we were having some building work done at home the other day, which involved removing the top section of the woodburner flue, I took the opportunity to sweep the chimney. I had tried to do this before, but I couldn't get the brush past the "butterfly valve" in the bottom of the flue. This time I was able to put the brush in from above, as is the usual procedure on a boat. It was a successful operation, with a pile of soot landing in the stove. That's a 6-inch ruler in the photo below.

Given the length of the flue, and the period of time since installation - this was its first sweep - there wasn't really very much that came out.

I get more than this every time I sweep the boat chimney, which must be a quarter the length. In the boat, though, half the sweepings seem to consist of rusty metal from the chimney. In the house the flue is twin-walled stainless steel. (Should I admit that the flue was installed 15 years ago? At least it's swept now.)

We'll be back on board very soon - I think I'll sweep the boat's chimney before lighting up ...

Something for Rembrance Sunday

As blood red as they come.

Photographed in September at The Taft, Trent and Mersey Canal.

Walking along the Buckingham Arm

Last month we explored part of the derelict Old Stratford and Buckingham Arm of the GU. This section is at Thornton, about two thirds of the way to Buckingham from Cosgrove Junction.

We parked up just south of the A422 and walked towards the canal bridge. The road was itself reminiscent of a canal entering a tunnel in the distance.

Our first sight of the canal was where it passes under a flimsy-looking brick (or is it stone?) bridge alongside the road.

From the bed of the canal looking back at the bridge, the road we walked along goes from left to right across the centre of the photo below. You can see that the canal is culverted under the more modern road crossing.

Looking westwards from the bridge the canal is clearly defined.

A little further to the west the canal narrows for what I guess is the site of a lift bridge. This is looking east.

Where the canal comes to the A422 again it turns to the left (south west) and crosses a tributary of the River Great Ouse, the river it parallels all the way from Cosgrove to Buckingham. Some tree clearing will be required here!

We crossed the stile and went through the trees to the road. The map marks the crossing over the tributary as Cattleford Bridge. Here the canal must have passed over a small aqueduct. Then we retraced our route back to the car.

We didn't cover much more than half a mile of canal, but it's given me a taste for walking more of it. I really ought to take a look at where restoration work has been going on; something for another time.

Cleaning up the Grand Union Canal; and a surprise visit

On a warm Friday last month Jan and I volunteered to help on a Clean-up Day on the GU between Fenny Stratford and Linslade. Never having taken part in anything like this before, I didn't know what to expect. We'd printed out the safety instructions and taken old clothing. I'd taken my steel-capped boots and was prepared to get dirty.

After a car shuffle, which involved another volunteer and I driving our cars to the Globe Inn at Linslade and being returned to Fenny Stratford in a CRT van, we were ready for the off.

Jan and I were asked to stand in the mud at the bottom of a "pan", a work boat which was breasted up to nb Brown Trout, Athina and Jonathan's boat. The first job was to get through Fenny Lock.

Once through the lock we were able to start the clean-up. Our task was to concentrate on the offside, clearing as much rubbish as we could find. Bridge holes were a good place to find countless cans, bottles and bags. Here Athina is about to net something, while Jan, in hard hat, is wielding a litter picker.

Other implements at our disposal included kebs and grappling irons. On this trawl behind the boat I've picked up a plastic bag. Not terribly exciting!

Did I mention the mud in the boat? It was sloppy and unavoidable.

More exciting things I grappled from the bottom of the cut included a supermarket trolley, the orange colour gives away the source of this one; a cylindrical net (for trapping crayfish?) ...

... and a huge umbrella. This was at the bottom of one of the Three Locks.

As well as these "big ticket" items we collected several bags of assorted detritus. Perhaps the strangest find was a tomato plant in its pot - complete with ripe tomatoes. The white goods in the picture above is a cooker retrieved from the towpath before we set off.

We enjoyed the day, and it was a pity we didn't have time to stay on for the meal in the pub afterwards. I had realised that I had forgotten to bring a spare pair of trousers with me, so we called in at Primark in Bletchley for something a bit more presentable.

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That was 17th October. This is 2nd November, and a rare thing happened today. Living in Norfolk, as we do, we seldom get visitors as we are not on the way to anywhere. But this afternoon Jan happened to look at Facebook and discovered that the Tidys were very near and wondering if they could call in.

It was lovely to see Andy and Helen, it was just a bit weird that it was not in a boaty context!

A walk round Kimberley in the November sunshine, and a mysterious machine

Jan and I went for a walk in the Norfolk countryside this afternoon, making the most of the warm sunny weather.

Projecting from the leaf litter was this impressive mushroom.

The clay pantiles of Kimberley Home Farm glowed in the autumn sunshine.

We came across a plethora of abandoned farm machinery on our walk. This piece looks less abandoned, more awaiting the next job. I couldn't work out what it's used for - it has a weight which runs on a slide; attached to the weight is a rope connected to a hydraulic lever.

Looking at it now I wonder if the slide is vertical in use, and the weight is made to fall on a fence post to drive it into the ground.

Tomorrow I intend to write up how we spent a day helping to clean up the Grand Union Canal. The canal might have ended up cleaner; I certainly didn't.