Just a taster

This is just a taster for the rest of July! Elizabeth is presently in Windermere and Pete, Bella and Josie are in Marsworth where they were back in early June. As we mentioned before, July would consist largely of moving between rail stations so that Elizabeth could go here, there and everywhere. And so she has. However, all has not been separated. Here is what the three of us travelled through to Aylesbury on a short weekend jaunt off the Grand Union Canal. We'll back fill a bit in a day or so, but this is just to let you know we are still very much alive, happy, and moving Bella to new and old haunts.

Josie's life aboard

For those of you who know our German Shepherd, Josie, you will be delighted to know that she seems to enjoy this life. Her territory is Bella; she has no link to ground. So each mooring, she just wanders around, confident next to Bella, but not sure of her 'ground.' This means she barks at people less, people are nicer as a result and she seems to be less afraid as a result. We realise that if we are somewhere more than a week, the ground becomes her turf and she protects more again. So we keep moving :-)

We bought a strimmer

We're still in Hemel Hempsted - north, by Boxmoor. And we bought what we had laughed about then got serious about. We got a 250watt tiny strimmer. You see, not all tow paths are what they could be. Grass, nettles, bindweed, etc, etc. We have often giggled that every narrowboat owner should have a strimmer. By the combined efforts after every mooring, the tow path would be relatively nice and British Waterways wouldn't have to work so hard. Elizabeth has usually been managing with large scissors, but we decided today to go for large shears. Much more effective. But the strimmer cost £10 less and will use the energy we create from our engine into our batteries for just a few minutes. So there we are. We will now be strimming as we go. What a hoot. Oh - for those who are wondering, its name is Alan (Alan Shearer - SAD!!), and when not working, he lives in the engine compartment. It's OK - as en engine, he feels quite at home.

The joy of Canal Time

We woke up this morning Apsley and now we are blogging from Hemel Hempsted. We travelled 7 clicks (2 miles and 5 locks), with Elizabeth lock winding and riding Blossom and Pete driving Bella. It took us just under two hours, if we don't count the time it took to take on water, put off waste and go shopping at Sainsbury's. When we got to Hemel and did a bit of unpacking and putting food away, Elizabeth took the train from Hemel to Apsley to collect Reg (the car). 3 minute train journey. 15 minute drive. 5 minutes walk each side from boat to station, station to car. All in all, 28 minutes to walk, train, walk and drive from Apsley to Hemel. Ah, canal time is wonderful!

If we had just walked and trained and driven, we would not have had the hoot of a time helping Clara (Marsworth) and her crew through the Fishery lock. We would never have met the guy, having just acquired his new boat, who teaches art and drama to adults with special needs. Elizabeth would not have had the joy of three little boys having so much fun at the Sainsbury's lock and helping open and close the gates. And we wouldn't have noticed the horses on the common, the cows not sure of whether it would rain or not, the duck with her brood of 10, or realised we were back with the moorhen family we last saw a month ago. Ah, canal time. Wonderful.

Canal ages and aging

Today as E was lockwinding, she noticed again the dates on the locks. Each lock is a combination of the lock itself, the gates, the paddles in the gates and lock ground and various extra bits of masonary/pavement. Each section of each lock has the date of construction on it, and in many cases the date of its renewal. So it is not unusual to see, say 1790 carved into a stone which is a lock edge, then 1850 on a lock gate section, then 2001 on a renewed gate. It is fascinating to see the range of actual times reflecting when the locks were created and renewed. It can be over 100 years between different engineering works, all displayed in a few carved dates we see as we wait for water to fill or leave a lock. And all but for a slightly disused time in the 1930s and 1940s, the locks have been in constant use since their creation. And they are still used for transporting goods, though, nothing like a few hundred years ago. Some boats carry aggregate from quarries to building works (we saw some in Uxbridge), some carry coal (we buy some of ours from one in Rugby) and apparently Tescos is using canal boats again in the West Midlands. But one boat we saw sells fold up bikes and another sells Ecover products to make sure the canals get cleaner. All change!

Summer fire

It has been a cold wet week. No news to those readers in England! We had dinner in the local on the Thursday evening after a long training day for Elizabeth, then on the Friday we were so wet and sort of miserable, we decided to light the fire. Wonderful! It looks so odd with fresh summer flowers and the sun through the window past 8pm, but hey. We got warm (almost too much!!). We were still in Apsley.

Still in Apsley, enjoying the evening

Last evening looked like this - in between the rain. It was beautiful. A real arty shot can be seen on Elizabeth's flickr page. Pete's has a few as well! It is SO wet. And when we arrived, the pound (the section between locks), was about a foot under the gunwhale - a long step down to the tow path. Now, somehow, though it has rained cats, dogs, moorhens and cormorants, we are level with the tow path. Go figure?