Rain, Rain Go Away.....

....... and DON'T come back another day!!

I'm sure that old nursery rhyme was composed when rain was probably a fairly regular occurance, but only in small doses. We have now had rain every single day since I arrived back in the UK. Most days it has rained continously without a break and it has on occasion been of a velocity that I am more used to seeing in places like India and Malaysia during the monsoon season.

Apart from the people who have been affected by the floods, the impact on us is minimal except that we find it hard to find opportunities for getting out and chopping wood for the fire. However, it is just so depressing to go through the day surrounded by dark, grey, wet weather.

I did manage to get out for a short walk last week and all the fields were flooded:

At least the canal is full

We have booked a holiday in sunnier climes next week, so hopefully will be able to get some sun and much needed vitamin D!

The inclement weather has also prevented me from getting out to stake out the Otter and Kingfisher properly, but the wildlife camera is now operational again and we have heard the Otter swimming under the boats on several occasions in the early hours of the morning. I'm just hoping that it will pop up in front of the camera one night! As for the Kingfisher, it is often seen fishing off the front of our boats. I caught some pictures of the heron one day sitting on our front button, so I'm thinking it may be worth setting up the camera at the front of the boat to try and capture the Kingfisher.

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We had an interesting experience of synchronocity yesterday. When the caretaker is not here, we look after requests for fuel from passing boaters. A continuous cruiser dropped by to buy some coal. We know most of the people who live on their boats on the canal, but we hadn't seen him before. It turns out that he is a student in his final year at the University. While I was on the other side of the world, I used my days off to explore and on one occasion I had taken the ferry over to one of the many small Pacific Islands and cycled around it. It turns out that his parents live on that island and I had probably cycled past their house!

On that note I will leave you. More when I return from my holiday....

Al :)

Storms and floods

I arrived back from the antipodes just before Christmas to unprecedented bad weather. Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank had already wreaked terrible damage on homes near to us. One village was completely cut off for several days, after the river which flowed through it burst its banks and flooded all access roads. Our village was without power for two days and the city centre was inaccessible. There was some shortage food because the Supermarkets near us were either closed, due to being flooded, or because they had run out of food and supplies couldn't get through.

We felt so sorry for those people who have temporarily lost their homes. We realise how lucky we are, since living on a boat is probably the best place to be at the moment. As the canal has risen all we have had to do is to slacken the mooring ropes, to prevent the boat from tilting. We were also not really affected by the loss of electricity, as we lived off our batteries for a few days and recharged them by running the engine.

However, not all boat owners were unscathed by the situation. We are reasonably safe in the Marina because we are moored to solid jetties, but those on the towpath were not so fortunate, as the force of the water pulled out their mooring pins and when the water went down, this was the scene in a number of places along the canal network:

I feel so sorry for this boat owner whose boat was completely submerged

I was also shocked to see pictures of our city centre. Here is a street that I often drive down, completely submerged.

I was saddened to go into town last weekend in the aftermath of the floods to see so many shops near to the river, shut due to flood damage.

I just hope that 2016 is a better year weather wise and that these devastating scenes do not reappear next Christmas.

On to more positive matters now. The Otter is a regular visiter around the boats, usually early evening and in the early hours of the morning. I have had to take the wild life camera down, due to rising water levels threatening to swamp it and high winds which could have damaged it. However, I have a new tactic. I was talking to a fisherman who was fishing on the canal side when I went for a walk the other day and he told me where the Otter's Holt is. I am planning to take a chair down and sit opposite it for as many hours as are neccessary, in the hope of getting a picture. I plan to do that over the next few days, so watch this space.

We have some Goosander who are feeding on the canal and I did manage to get some pictures of them, but because they are wild ducks, they never let me near enough to get a decent picture before taking flight. I have also seen a Kingfisher fishing regularly up by our locks, but again I can never get close enough. I plan to go and sit quietly up there one day to see if I can catch a picture. I have decided that that really is the only way to do it.

While I was overseas I managed to get a few serendipitous pictures of some lovely birds which I thought I would share. Here they are:

White Throated Kingfisher

Bell Bird

Red Billed Gull

Kereru

Tui

Variable Oyster Catcher

I now have a break from work, until I get my schedule for the coming year (if I get any work!). I am self employed so rely on being invited to undertake work by the company I am contracted to, but there are no guarantees.

Until I get any work I will at least have the time to post more frequently.

It just leaves me to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Al :)

Autumn Fruits

I am finally back posting again, after a long work stint overseas and a busy summer.

I had meant to post as soon as I arrived back in the UK in July, but have spent the summer mulling over whether to continue with this Blog.

I have found myself repeating myself and started to wonder how useful the Blog is to prospective boaters. I had thought that I had run out of relevant information to offer, but actually I dont think that is the case. In addition I have had some postive comments from readers, who like my photos of our area and the canal.

I realise that it can be disruptive with me going away to work for at least 4 months of the year, but I still seem to get a regular flow of readers, so I'm going to press on for now.

A brief update on the Marina front finds us in a much better postion with our Council Tax, which has now been amalgamated into our Marina fees. We have had a refund of our monthly payments from the Council and have been de-listed as individual residences. As far as we know, we should now be paying a composite fee with the other residents, but as yet the terms and conditions of this have not been worked out. Negotiations are going on between the valuation office nationally and our marina provider who have a number of sites across the UK. So far, it appears that in return for a composite rate, we will be required to move berths several times a year, to demonstrate that we are not a static residency. I will keep this updated, as it potentially affects 'liveaboards' across the entire country in the future.

On a lighter note, we have had a wonderful summer. Our marina is now full and everybody, residents and leisure boaters alike, is absolutely lovely. We have a great cross section of like minded and decent people and so it is a very happy place to live! Everyone looks out for each other, while at the same time respecting privacy. It is a perfect combination!

We have spent some time cruising up and down the canal and have had one or two nights of peaceful bliss, spent out moored up on the towpath in the middle of nowhere.


Here are some pictures of our favourite mooring spot:

The plank was needed as it was shallow here

Autum colours reflect on the canal

Sunset over the fields

Sunset reflecting on the water

 And some pictures of the canal while we were on the move:

I have also had some lovely walks along the canal recently, I love the open countryside where we live:

The spire of an old country church which is attached to one of the many old stately homes around here.

View along the canal from under one of the many bridges

Resident cat on a moored boat

Apart from that, our allotment has been very productive this year so I have spent some time pickling cabbage and beetroot. The autumn fruits have been late, but I have made Sloe Gin, Plum Brandy and Blackcurrant Rum. The blackberries are not ready yet, but I hope to pick some before I go away and make Blackberry Whisky.

I was walking down the jetty the other day when I noticed these:

I realised that we have a very healthy hop bush growing here. Quite how they got here I don't know, but I harvested enough to make quite a few pints of beer!

Unfortunately, I won't have time to wait for the fermentation process, so I made a couple of hop pillows instead. These are reputed to assist with insomnia, but as I don't have any trouble sleeping, I can't vouch for it!

The marina is looking lovely with the autumn colours and here are some pictures of the scenes I will miss while I am away:

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I travel overseas next week and Phil and I had our usual trip up to the Lake District before I go. Haweswater is our favourite lake and the weather was kind to us, despite a forecast of rain:

Our favourite Tarn halfway up the fell side

The beck tumbles down the hillside. The Reservoir at the bottom is very low in water though.

I shall be back just before Christmas and will then decide whether to continue to post on a regular basis again, or to finish blogging.

Al :)

Au Revoir until July

I will be travelling overseas on Tuesday for a two month work stint, so this is my last blog for a while.

Phil and I are trying to fit in some time together before I head off  and yesterday we spent the afternoon at our local nature reserve. It is a beautiful place with plenty of wild life. Here are some pictures we took:

Goose hiding in the undergrowth

Proud parents

Cock Pheasant which plagued us for food

Deer in the woods

Gosling Chick exploring

Marsh Harrier looking for food

I have spent the last two weeks catching up with friends and family who I won't see for a while. We are going to spend tomorrow with our two sons and then it is time to focus on work.

There is no further news on the residential status and how it affects payments of council tax. We have complained to our landlords who have robustly defended their position on the lack of progress on this issue, but that doesn't help us who have now paid nearly £3000 in arrears and little reassurance about how much we will have to pay in the future, with 'negotiations' still progressing. It is very frustrating!

I have spent the last two weekends working in the Midlands where the canal network is extensive and we visited a number of marinas which charge much less than we are paying and the facilities are excellent. One of those also has residential status and they seem to have sorted out the council tax issue very successfully. The problem that we have here is that moorings are at a premium on our small section of canal and so the landlords can call the shots. We don't really want to move to the Midlands as we have all we want here, especially fantastic walking country with the hills of the Trough of Bowland and the Lake District so near. However, there is always a tipping point and that may be reached quite soon..... We will see. I will update when I am back in July and I really hope that by then some sort of decision will have been reached. Mind you I was saying that last November and here we are in May!!

I love going overseas and it is great to have such lovely warm weather, but I miss the Englsh country side so much.

Here are some of the things I will miss the most:

The bridge at our marina

Walks in the woods

All the young Chicks, Goslings and Cygnets

Cruising on our boat

sunsets

Views over the bay

I will be back posting in July, when we hope to travel around a bit on the boat so there will be some good pictures hopefully!

Al :)

Easter Traffic

Another work frenzy is over and we are enjoying relaxing on the boat at our mooring, over Easter.

Now that the weather is getting better, the leisure boaters on the marina are starting to come back and this Easter weekend many have come down who we haven't seen for a while. It has been really great to catch up with them and once again, a whole morning can easily disappear as we make our way along the jetty chatting to people boat by boat!

There is an exceptionally great crowd of people on our Marina at the moment and although we moan about the cost of our moorings and threaten to go elsewhere, I think it is the fantastic community here who hold everyone together and who make that decision to leave so much more difficult. It was not always so and whenever a berth comes free, we all worry about who is going to come in, but so far everyone has been likeminded, with a proper sense of social responsibility and community. Long may that continue!

Out on the cut, things are not so rosy. The season of hire boaters has begun and we collectively groan as they often speed past at such a rate of knots, that we bounce around on our moorings. There are an increasing number of hirers on our small section of canal, as boating holidays become more popular. Not all of the hire companies appear to brief the holiday makers properly, by explaining the etiquette on the canal, so the boats invariably go far too fast causing a disruptive wash. On a number of occasions when we are out cruising we have been hit by hired boats too, when they have been going too fast around corners and are not able to react quickly enough to another boat coming towards them. They also choose our empty berths to turn around in and sometimes even come in and moor up thinking they can stay overnight. They always seem surprised when told that these are private moorings and would they kindly vacate them!

Well, that's my moan out of the way! I know that many people who hire boats are experienced boaters, but we really do have a disproportionate number of hire boats for our 40 mile length of canal and it can become quite congested at times.

Other news is sparse. I keep repositioning the Otter Cam, but so far still haven't managed to get any pictures of it. The kingfishers have now mostly left the canal to return to their breeding grounds. We plan to go to a local spot where they are known to breed and we are going to spend a day there and stake them out. I'm detemined to get a picture of them!

I am now preparing for my next work tour overseas which covers the whole of May and June, so we are trying to make the most of  a free April to catch up with friends and get the boat ready for the summer.

We hope to get out for a cruise before I go away, but must take down our winter canopy before we can do this. I spent a very happy afternoon last week, chopping up all of our remaining wood which I had foraged from the tow path and putting it away to season for next year. We now have two full wood stores and although we are still lighting our wood burner just at night now, I can't see us doing that for much longer as the weather gets warmer.

I will post an update shortly on how the residential status is coming along. The main unresolved issue is the council tax and this has been going on for nearly a year now, with the residential boaters having to pay full council tax as well as an element of it in our mooring fees. We are becoming extremely frustrated and angry as the three parties involved (The Valuation Office, The local council and The company who own the marina), all pass the buck to each other, blaming the others for holding the process up. We are the poor guys in the middle and are just about to blow a fuse about it all....... watch this space!

I will leave you with a picture that I meant to post some weeks ago but was too busy. We had the interesting phenomenum of a partial eclipse of the sun which was captured by Bob, a friend of mine:

We also had hoped to see the Northern lights a few weeks ago, as they had been seen as far south as the Lake District which is only 50 miles north as the crow flies, but we had too much light pollution, including a local football match on the village pitch which had floodlights on!

All for now

Al :)

Spring is in the air

We arrived back from a weeks work in the East of the UK to a very cold boat. It was relatively warm over on the east side of the country, but we had to drive through snow and blizzards over the Pennines on our way home. At least it wasn't snowing on the Marina this time.

We threw all we had at it when we opened up the boat, as it was very cold and damp. We lit the wood burner, put the central heating on, switched on the small panel heater and had the humidifier blasting for about an hour. It didn't take long to get warm and cosy again. We enjoy going away, but are always happy to come back to our lovely home on the boat.

I took the card out of our wildlife camera in the hope of seeing something, but all it had captured was a blackbird and some ducks. A fellow boater said that he had seen the kingfisher a few days ago, sitting on the chair above where the camera is positioned, which is typical! We seem doomed to never get pictures of the Otter or kingfisher, but I will keep trying.

There are signs of Spring on the way with the song Thrush becoming more persistent and frequent in his singing, in his efforts to attract a mate. The Mallards are starting to smarten their plumage up and our resident swan has found herself a mate. I'm hoping to enjoy some Spring walks when this latest work stint is over. I have April free before I go overseas again in May and it would be lovely if the Bluebells are out by then.

Whenever we go away in the UK, I seek out the local canal, as you are never far from an inland waterway. Last week I had a walk along the Grantham canal, which is sadly only partially navigable. Next week I am in South Wales again, so hope to discover more of the Neath canal. Here are some pictures of the Grantham canal:

April sees further developments on our residential status, with hopefully the issue of council tax finally being resolved. We have been offered some incentives in our new contract too, such as one free laundry token per week and it all helps, so if we can resolve the council tax, I will start to feel a lot happier about staying put..... watch this space.

Al