Edinburgh and Newcastle

I am now back from my work trip to the borders. It was lovely to get away, to wallow in a bath everyday and to sleep in a bed large enough to lose each other in. In one hotel we calculated that the bed was actually so large that it wouldn't fit in our entire bedroom on the boat.

I enjoyed the work, particularly at Newcastle where I was based at The Sage, Gateshead. It was buzzing with music, on walking down the corridor one day I heard a male voice choir in one room, a jazz band in another and a string quartet passed me in deep conversation about their next concert. It was a fantastic feeling to be in the middle of all that. To top it all I had an email one morning asking if I could do my next tour in Portugal in May. Needless to say I replied almost instantly to say I would be happy to go.

Edinburgh was beautiful, I had never been before and because I only worked a half day on my last day, we spent the afternoon exploring. I forgot to take the camera though, so don't have any pictures.

As it was then the weekend and I had to be in Newcastle on Monday morning, we decided to make our way slowly down the east coast and stay in a hotel halfway. We ended up in North Berwick which is a lovely coastal town. Being obsessed with boats I had to take some pics:

We decided to take a boat trip out to Bass Rock to see the seabird colonies nesting there, but it was so misty that the trip was curtailed before we got there. We did manage to see some seals on one of the islands though:

The next morning was beautiful and we stopped further down the coast for a cliff walk:

We saw some hares boxing in a field, but they were quite distant, so the picture isn't very clear. I am now saving up for one of those huge lenses so I can get some close up shots of wildlife.

In the afternoon we arrived at Whitley Bay and decided to visit St Mary's Island which is a good spot for bird watching. However you have to be really careful and time your visit right, because it gets cut off by the tide.

When we arrived the causeway was clear

It being a Sunday afternoon there were plenty of people about. There are quite a few warning signs before you cross explaining that it gets cut off by the tide, but the sea looked a long way out when we crossed. Phil looked at the tide charts and predicted that the tide was due to cover the causeway within half an hour. I really didn't believe him, but sure enough as we came back, having had a brief walk around the island the sea was starting to lap at the path. The problem is that when you are on the far side of the island you have no idea what is happening on the shore side as you can't see.

We came back to land just at the right time, but there were still many people still on the island, so we joined a group of locals to watch how things would pan out. They clearly came up regularly at this time for a bit of sport. It was funny to watch people's expressions as they discovered the encroaching sea. Most poeple ended up taking shoes off and paddling across as it wasn't very deep at that point.

 A group of lads on bikes left it quite late and bravely rode through to applause from all of us on dry land

Unfortunately there was a couple who were still on the island once everybody else had got off. By the time they came around the corner and saw the sea, it was about knee deep. They still had the opportunity to get over and we all waved at them to go for it, but the lady flatly refused. We watched her partner gesticulating and trying to convince her to come over, but her body language said it all - 'No way!' Eventually it really did become too dangerous for them to cross and we left them forlornly looking across at us all with the prospect of a six hour sojourn on the island with no food, water or shelter. (The island is uninhabited)

We wondered who would get the blame for that miscalculation and when they might speak to each other again.

We finally arrived in Newcastle and although I was working very long days we managed to get out for some nice trips in the evening and of course we had to visit The Angel of the North which was spectacular

Despite having had a lovely time, it was still great to get back to the boat. My friend T wondered whether, having had the luxury of hotel baths and beds, the boat would pall suddenly by comparison. It is good to get away every so often, but it is so fantastic to come back home and get into our cosy little nest. Phil thinks that narrow boats have an almost womb like feel about them which gives an atmosphere of peace and security and I think he is right.

We were met with exciting news, but I will leave that for my next blog.......

Bye for now

Al :) 

A brief update

Tonight T, Jacks owner sent me a script which she had written as part of her course and it was so good I wanted to read the next chapter. She had only sent it as an example of her writing but it really gripped me and I suddenly thought that I might be friends with a future well known novelist / script writer. Needless to say Jack featured strongly in the plot and I think that she and I both need to be careful as he might just start wanting royalties before long!

Today has been the lull before the storm. I am working tomorrow, then next week I am off to Scotland and  Newcastle for a couple of weeks work away. It means I get to have baths as I will be in hotels, but I will miss the boat and of course Jack and my friends on the marina.

In preparation, I have filled the boat with water, washed all my clothes to get the damp smell off them (although Phil still says I am imagining it) and managed to dry them from a special clothes rack which hangs off the boat.

When we get back I have decided to give the boat a good spring clean which will take us up to Easter, when we plan to cruise up to the basin by the estuary. The wild life up there is fantastic and it is really peaceful. The people are different too, they are very interesting to talk to as, owning yachts they sail the oceans not the canals!

I will probably not be posting much over the next two weeks, being away, but life up at the estuary is fascinating and I will be posting once we get up there, so stick with me!

Al :)

Allotments, chickens and goats

The weather was very variable today and I knew I had to spend some time on paper work as I have some work coming up for which I need to do some preparation.

I started work early and it was raining quite hard, but by about 10am the sun was out and I couldn't stay on the boat any longer. I decided that everything needed a good airing, so I opened all the doors and the covers and soon there was a lovely breeze flowing through. I feel safe doing this at this time of year because as yet I haven't seen a spider, but I will be much more cautious about leaving doors open once they start to become active. T texted me tonight to say that on changing her gas bottle and going into the gas storage unit at the front of her boat tonight she had discovered three big hairy spiders, so I am starting to get a bit twitchy now!

I sawed lots of wood today and we have used much of it on the fire tonight which is lovely as it is a gentle heat and so satisfying to know it is all free! Not only have I got quite a bit of work done, but I also took Jack for a long walk and got lots of boaty chores done, so it's been a productive day.

The really good news is that T has been told that she is nearly next on the list for an allotment and we may actually be in proud possession of one by the summer. I can't wait to grow our own veg. It seems that all our aspirations are starting to become a reality. Once the allotment gets going we will consider chickens and then maybe we can start to think about some goats........

Watch this space .....

Al :)

From cider to wine

Today we had a lovely lunch out with our two boys to celebrate son number one's birthday on Wednesday. We then went to the local pub for a game of pool.

After the pub we all piled back to the boat to watch the football and I tried out our newly bottled cider on the boys. As we were unsure of the strength we decided to measure one of the bottles with a hydrometer. It turns out it is about 9% proof!! We agreed it isn't really cider, but more like a dry apple wine and accompanied by a freshly baked mince pie which Jack's owner brought us, it went down very well.

Today was the day for Jack's bath and he appeared soon after at our boat. He was wet, bedraggled and very sulky. He made a beeline for his chair and settled down with a grump and a glare:

 

He was soon up though nuzzling my hand and shuffling backwards and forwards which I interpreted correctly as ..... 'you have the power to make me feel better, don't miss the opportunity', so a tin of tuna was duly opened and dished up for his nibs.

I think his body language after that said it all :

The weather is getting better and it will soon be time to take the canopy off and do some cruising. It is very hard going under bridges with a big canopy up although many experienced boaters do it. I find bridges difficult enough to negotiate without having to worry about what is above my head and around me that may snag on a bridge.

I want to go north but Phil is keen to get up to the sea basin by the bay. We will see who wins!

Al

The Osprey brewery continues production ......

The day started badly with the rain hammering on the roof as our wake up call.

The bad weather enabled me to do some much needed paper work without feeling frustrated at not being outside. Also T and I decided that it would be a good day to rack off the cider which has been fermenting in demijohns for many weeks. As soon as we started preparations for this, the sky began to clear and we regretted abandoning our planned foraging expedition for wood on the estuary, in favour of cider making.

So we decided to leave the bottles sterilising for a couple of hours while we went to collect wood. No sooner had we started driving towards the estuary than it began to rain again. We filled the car up with lots of beautifully seasoned, but rather damp wood and headed for home, having survived a couple of prolonged downpours. What we have collected fills our third wood store but once chopped there will be plenty of room for more.

We then spent the afternoon syphoning off the cider into bottles and managed to get about 25 litres overall. We put the dregs in another demijohn and hope that it will clear and we might get a bit more in a few weeks time. We took a glassful to Phil and A, where they were busy fitting a new wood floor in A's boat. They quipped that they would only be able to test it properly if we gave them a pint of it. Hmmmm, I think that means they liked it and I must say it does taste pretty good. Here is the product before bottling:

And here are some of the results of our efforts................

All the sloe and damson gin has now been consumed so the cider is our current tipple. T and I have discussed the next project which will be elder flower champagne. There are loads of elder bushes in the vicinity, but we balked at making elderberry wine as we have heard that it doesn't taste very nice. The flowers are a completely different kettle of fish apparently, making a very drinkable fizzy wine, so we will see how we go.

This is our first year of production and we feel it has been quite successful, but we know that there is room for improvement and that next year we will make more and better quality produce- can't wait!

Al :0

Jazz and Mountains

A few months ago I discovered that an old college friend was doing a jazz gig at Keswick on Tuesday. I hadn't seen him since leaving college 33 years ago, so arranged to go and hear him play and meet up with him.

We spent a lovely evening listening to him and his band play and had a drink with him in the bar during his break and discussed a possible reunion with the 'class of '78!'

On Wednesday we decided that as the weather was quite nice we would try and get to the summit of Blencathra which we failed to reach a few weeks ago because of the snow and ice. We had a lovely walk :




and then decided to make a couple of days of it as I am not working until next Monday.We booked in at our favourite hotel at Haweswater and we both had a much needed soak in the bath! I love this hotel because it was built in the 1930s when the reservoir was built and it hasn't really changed, it is beautifully Art Deco.

On the way home I really indulged myself, buying hand made soaps at the local post office, then stopping off at the chocolate factory at Orton for some lovely chocolates and finally buying food for our tea at sizergh barn farm shop -  all quality produce.

Having been away for two days we were greeted by a very cross Jack the Whippet when we arrived home. His owner said he had been down to our boat regularly and had returned to sulk and grump for hours only to try again later. She kept trying to tell him that we had gone away but he wouldn't  believe her!

I felt duty bound to take him immediately for a walk, despite tired legs. I got half way down the tow path to find that a boat must have been through the locks and had been careless enough not to close one of the locks properly and this had resulted in the canal draining between two locks. I rang British Waterways to let them know.

This time last year I hadn't got a clue about locks and didn't even understand how they worked. We have been through these locks several times now and are very proficient at working them, so I am starting to feel like an old hand.

There is a real feeling of spring in the air with many lambs in the fields. I stood and watched them leaping and jumping around. It was just lovely.

  I tried to take some photos of swans with my new camera ....

.... but they started to get a bit noughty about it:

.....  so I left them to it

Today has been nice, but I was under strict instructions from Phil to do paper work, so I spent the morning indoors. Then I took Jack for a walk to get some milk and eggs from the farm and chopped some wood. By the time Phil got back I was hurting all over - my knee had given way, my hip was playing up and every movement was painful - old age doesn't come alone!!

We decided that a chill in front of the telly was required tonight so we watched a programme about the symphony on BBC4 with examples from Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. Phil made the mistake of asking what a symphony was and I started a lecture on the subject. I think the development of the form is very interesting but I was cut short very quickly by Phil saying "Basically it's an orchestra giving it plenty isn't it? That's all I need to know " Hmmmm I suppose that's what you get when you are married to a non-musician!

When I was away I noticed that my clothes were smelling a bit damp and sooty! Phil says I am imagining it, but I think the winter has really taken its toll and we need to think much more next year about damp prevention in the wardrobes. We are going to spend some time up at our storage unit next week sorting out clothes etc. and maybe I won't need to have so many clothes on the boat. I also think I need to spend more money on crystals which soak up the damp. As for the soot - the eco fan sends the heat to the furthest corner of the boat and I need to do a big 'deep' clean quite soon. Last year I cleaned the boat from top to bottom in the spring and was amazed at how dirty the bedroom ceiling was compared to the living room. The fan not only takes the heat to the end of the boat, but also the dust and soot.

It is still a learning curve but we are getting there ... and long may it continue!

This weekend T and I hope to bottle the cider and collect wood from the estuary. Son number one is 25 this week so I think we are going to have a family celebration on Sunday. We will see what we can fit in - watch this space!


Al :)