Something sad.
When we had our first boat trip to Shackerstone many moons ago we went to have a look around the very pretty little village with its just as pretty church. In the churchyard near the front entrance to the church we spotted a gravestone which filled us both with sadness. The gravestone tells a very sad story of the demise of a boy who was born the same year as me, and his younger sister. When we were moored at Hinckley we travelled up and down The Ashby Canal on a regular basis and we often used to call at Shackerstone and pay our respects to these young children and very often I would pick wild flowers on the way to put on the grave. We took the train to Shackerstone and visited again today and we were both touched by the same sadness.
A tragic tale
Another weekend on Caxton
The hot summer continues.
We drove to Braunston on yet another sunny Thursday evening with the intention of eating out before boarding Caxton. Both the Admiral Nelson and the Boathouse were packed so we settled for cod and chips from the Braunston Fryer and they were delicious!
After sitting out in the cratch we had a relatively early night as I had to get up at 4.30 on friday to fly to Edinburgh.
I awoke before the alarm went off, showered and got dressed before driving to Rugby where I caught a train to Birmingham Airport. Sue meanwhile was carrying out work on Caxton – well she said she was!
Hard at work!!!
It was almost 6pm when I returned to Caxton where I quickly got changed, had dinner and then went for a walk with Sue up and around the village.
A plaque marks Braunston’s canal heritage.
The bottom lock absolutely full of water.
On our return we invited Mike and Kim, who moor their boat Claire Louise next to us, for a few drinks on the bow deck of Caxton. We had a good old chinwag for a few hours until we parted company around midnight.
Despite the late night, we were up and about reasonably early on Saturday morning. I paid a visit to Midland Chandlers where I bought a new water filler cap which I fitted upon my return.
Nice and shiny!
At midday we walked up to the village where we met Joe and Lesley from nb Yarwood at the Old Plough for lunch. A couple of pints of Doom Bar and a lime and soda for Sue washed down a variety of delicious meals. We chatted for more than a couple of hours in the sunshine before we went our separate ways.
After we had done a bit of shopping, Sue and I returned to Caxton where we sat in the cratch. Sue baked a couple of cakes for our visit to Bosworth marina on Sunday and then we waved goodbye to Mike & Kim as they took nb Claire Louise out of the marina and started their journey towards Oxford.
Mike operating the tiller.
Kim operating the bow thruster!
Our main reason for not taking Caxton out this weekend was we wanted to visit Bosworth marina to view the progress and to meet some of the other boat owners who will be mooring there. It didn’t take us too long to get ready and leave Caxton for a few days. We drove straight to the marina, arriving just after ten o’clock. Helen, the owner of the marina was chatting to a couple of people who were moving from Springwood Haven which lies between Nuneaton and Atherstone on the Coventry canal. We were soon joined by Martin and Caroline from Somerset who are having a new boat built by Bluewater Boatsand will be mooring just two berths away from us. Their build slot is booked and we are hoping to follow the construction of nb Sonia Louise, a semi-trad reverse layout boat of around 65′. Caroline found our blog after first following Joe & Lesley and then Paul & Elaine who were of course our predecessors as custodions of Caxton. We all had a wander around the marina, found our new berths and then made our way to the new facilities building where we bumped into Chris Hubbard who is the marina manager and a friend of ours from Hinckley. The building is impressive and there still seems a lot to do but the plumbing and electrics are all at the first fix stage so their target to finish in September is probably achievable. We expect to move Caxton sometime in late September or Early October and that is also when Martin and Caroline are going to be cruising around the Leicestershire ring with a short diversion along the Ashby to Market Bosworth. We hope to catch up with them, our new neighbours to be, when they visit.
We left the marina and drove to Market Bosworth station which is the midpoint of the Battlefield line preserved railway. This was the weekend of the annual “Rails & Ales” beer festival organised by the local CAMRA group. When we arrived in the old goods shed, we discovered that they had experienced a really busy day on Saturday and had almost run out of both beer and cider! They still had some though and so we had an experimental half pint of beer and a half cider, very nice too. There were a number of old motorcycles on display, mainly BSA and Triumph alongside traction engines, steam rollers and tractors.
How we used to make roads.
Fordson Tractor
Trip in a brakevan anyone?
GWR 2-8-0 No. 3803
Click Pic for more info.
GWR 2-8-0 No. 3803 at Shackerstone.
Cab and Tender
After we had taken a look around, we wandered over to the other side of the tracks, bought a couple of tickets and waited for the train to arrive. We travelled 1st class to Shenton and then moved to a different coach for the return journey to Shackerstone at the other end of the line. We had a light lunch in the station tearoom at Shackerstone before walking around the village and back to the station to catch the next train back to Market Bosworth.
47 640 “University of Strathclyde
We ended our day with an ice cream before driving back home.
Here are a few links.
Stourport on Severn – What’s not to love?
We went to Stourport-on-Severn today for the first time ever but by car, not by boat. What a fabulous place! The town had the feel of a seaside resort about it without having a seafront. So for me at least, being in a compact area on a hot sunny summer’s day with a canal, some canal basins, a river, a funfair with traditional rides and a Wetherspoons, I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. I knew that I hadn’t because there was no sign of a sausage roll tree anywhere. No more text, just a few pictures.
Back to the marina
After another peaceful night’s sleep, we got up and got dressed around nine o’clock. Rather than go on to bridge 107 to turn, I thought that I would reverse the 400 yards or so back to the winding hole which nestles almost hidden in the middle of offside long term moorings. The towpath side behind us was completely empty and I almost considered pulling Caxton back by hand but decided against it, preferring to use engine and bow thruster. No sooner than I had untied, a GRP cruiser appeared under the bridge in front of us so I waited until it had passed by before engaging reverse gear. Unbelievably, they pulled in about twenty feet behind us and started to tie up! This meant that I had to get mid channel before I could pass them and in the meantime two narrowboats appeared from the front and one from behind. I patiently waited until everyone had gone past and started my move into the middle of the cut, as soon as I had, the couple on the tupperware boat cruiser, untied and set off again, unbelievable behaviour again!!!
After that, it was a relatively easy reverse back to the winding hole where we turned Caxton around and headed back to the junction. It was warm and humid as we chugged past the line of boats moored opposite the Boathouse although the pub moorings themselves were empty, maybe not too surprising as it was only 10.30am.
As usual we entered the marina from the private entrance and then reversed on to our berth. After securing Caxton to the pontoon and doing the necessary chores, we took a walk up to the Admiral Nelson and had lunch. By the time we returned, the washing machine had finished its cycle so Sue hung the washing out to dry in the cratch. We then gathered the very few things that we needed to take home, locked the doors and left the marina by car.
Susan’s Bread Recipe
Sue loves baking and in particular, she loves making bread. She has produced all sorts of flavoured loaves and used lots of different flour, however my favourite is a good crusty white loaf so I’ve persuaded her to share the recipe here.
Ingredients
500 grms good quality strong white flour
1 sachet Hovis fast action yeast
2 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon Coffee whitener(optional)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
300ml tepid water
Method
Mix all of the dry ingredients together before adding the water and the oil then mix it altogether using a knife.
Flour the worktop and put the dough on it then knead for ten minutes.
Place the dough into a bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil.
Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. This should take around an hour.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for a few seconds to knock the air back out.
Form the dough into a ball and place on a well floured baking tray.
Cover with a clean damp tea towel and leave to rise until the dough has doubled in size again.
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7 (200 C)
Using a sharp knife, make a couple of light cuts across the top of the loaf.
Bake in the oven for approximately 35 minutes until the crust is brown.
Remove the loaf from the oven, turn it over and tap it underneath and it should have a hollow sound. If it doesn’t have a hollow sound, return the loaf to the oven and bake for another five minutes.
Once the loaf is baked, Sue usually turns the loaf upside down and returns it to the oven for another five minutes to give the loaf a good crust on the bottom as well.
Animal Husbandry
Yesterday evening as we sat in the cratch, Sue became aware of a cow lying under some trees at the bottom of the field on the opposite side of the canal to us. She was very concerned about the animal’s welfare whereas I was convinced that it had just found a shady area to lie down in.
We went to bed and slept until 4am when we were awoken by a thunderstorm. Eventually we got back to sleep and didn’t wake up until nine o’clock. It was still raining so we had coffee in bed while we caught up with the news and checked out the weather forecast. We eventually got up, showered and dressed and Sue discovered that the cow hadn’t moved since the night before. It was clear to see that the BBC/Met office were completely wrong again (heavy rain forecast, blue skies above) so we untied and set off until we reached bridge 79 where we were able to tie up and walk up Barby hill to the farm where we reported that we had seen a cow in some sort of distress. The farmer confessed that he had not checked his herd the night before but he knew which cow it was because he said that it had been sick for the last couple of days. As we walked away from the farmhouse, the farmer zoomed past us on a quad bike, driving in the direction of the stricken animal.
We returned to Caxton, untied and carried on with our journey. It was warm and humid as we travelled along the Barby straight before we turned around at the winding hole next to the B&B next to the Kilsby lane road bridge. Once turned, we opened the bar and then Sue made some bread, the granite worktops being ideal for kneading dough on.
When we reached Onley and the spot that we had left earlier in the day, we saw that the cow was no longer there, we’ll never know what it’s fate was but at least we know that one way or another, it’s suffering is over. Sue of course is still feeling that she should have done something last night that would have prevented the beast lying in the field overnight.
We carried on with our journey and then reached Braunston turn where we took the right hand fork on to the G.U. Oxford section. We pulled up just beyond the winding hole and moored for the night, there has been the odd shower since but nothing to merit the amber warning issued by the Met Office for this area.
Gone to jail!
Not quite, we’ve just moored near Onley, that’s all!
As has become our recent custom since we brought Caxton to Braunston, we travelled to the marina on thursday evening. Unlike our time with Phoenix III when we used to cart bags and bags of stuff between house and boat, we now manage with just a few bits from the fridge and maybe a small bag of other belongings, so well set up is Caxton. We were late to bed but were awoken just after three by the sound of torrential rain and loud thunder which was backlit by a terrific lightning show. I was in a deep sleep when my alarm went off at six and I wasn’t at all happy. It’s not that I mind going to work, it’s just that when I am at home I very rarely hear the alarm because I usually wake up before it goes off. I enjoy a better quality of sleep on the boat and in fairness, the same was true on Phoenix III, I’m not sure of the exact reason but it’s a fact. The only facts that I was sure about this morning was that I had to get up for work and that I didn’t want to! I did get up of course and like a good boy, I went off to work.
A mid morning downpour preceded the start of the warmest day of the year so far with the temperature on the outskirts of Coventry reaching 30.5 c.
I got out eventually and made my way back to Braunston where Sue was waiting. She had washed and dried the bedding, been up to the village shop and still had time to spend with her friend Jane before Jane had to collect her children from school.
I got changed into shorts and T-shirt, we made ready and escaped from the marina. Once out on the cut, we made our way on to the North Oxford and headed in the direction of Rugby. There were a couple of boats ahead of us, too close together really and they came to grief when they met another two boats heading south at bridge 83. The first of the northbounds got through but the second had to make an abrupt stop to let the southbound boats through the bridge. The first through could have passed quite easily but headed into the bank for some strange reason causing a log jam. While this was all going on, I brought Caxton to a halt on the offside and waited. With both southbound boats through the bridge and the northbound boat on the towpath side getting entangled with them, a clear path opened up for us so I eased Caxton into forward gear and just gently left them all to it. A short while later we found our mooring for the night close to the prison and YOI at Onley.
There is another storm forecast for tonight so we might be in for another spectacular show.
Yet another lazy weekend!
Regular readers will have realised that we are dividing our time almost equally between living in our house and on board Caxton. We stopped off at the marina on Thursday morning before continuing our journey by road to Pinewood studios to watch the recording of an episode of “Through the Keyhole” which will be broadcast next month. We arrived back at Braunston around 9.30pm, settled in and went to bed.
Friday dawned and I got up and went to work, well one of us has to! Sue, meanwhile pottered around and did some shopping in the village. On her way back she spotted nb Yarwood being tied up just outside the marina by Joe and Lesley who of course were the original designers and owners of Caxton. We had briefly made their acquaintance on the weekend of the Braunston Historic Boat Rally so Sue said hello and was invited in and enjoyed a glass of wine with her hosts. I of course was oblivious to all of this as I toiled away at work trying to keep the country going. Eventually I finished what I had to do and returned to Braunston where Sue was waiting, sunning herself in the cratch with a glass of wine. Our plan had been to take Caxton out but we popped back to Yarwood and spent a few hours with Joe and Lesley instead. The conversation flowed well and we covered many subjects from Scottish independence to life afloat. We got a great insight into the economics of being a liveaboard from our new friends, reinforcing our belief that our plans for the future are the right ones. Joe gave me the stem to stern tour of Yarwood and I have to say that it really is a superb vessel, completely different to Caxton in most ways but with some of the same characteristics evident. Eventually we had to say goodbye but not before we made some tentative arrangements to meet up next week and go out for a meal with the pair. The time had flown by so when we returned to Caxton it was after seven o’clock and a bit too late to venture out. We had dinner in the cratch, lit by the late evening sunshine.
When we awoke on Saturday it was already very warm inside Caxton, a bit too warm and a quick glance outside revealed why. The sun was beating down from a clear blue sky so we got up and got dressed and by nine o’clock we were pulling out of the marina and on to the Grand Union. We had a brief conversation as we left with Paul, the marina manager, mainly about the lemon drizzle cake that Sue had made for the office staff last week.
This was the sort of day that we all love boating and as a result there were a lot of us about. We made our way on to the Oxford and headed towards Rugby and eventually reached the locks at Hillmorton. The descent was easy with enough boats moving in each direction between the locks to reduce the work for everyone. Once clear of the bottom lock, we passed the long term moorings and the water points before finding our mooring at the end of the armco piling. We toyed with the idea of walking into Hillmorton but it was so hot that we decided to sit in the cratch where there was a bit of shade instead. The afternoon slipped by and slowly gave way to an early evening which in turn made the transition to a sunset which at last brought a coolness to the air. So that was it, we had managed to while away yet another day doing bugger all!
Before bedtime, I switched on my iPad and tapped on the Newsify app. This is a news aggregator which picks up a series of RSS feeds of the users choice. I have a number of boating blogs that I follow and I find that this is the easiest way to keep up with my “correspondents” as I like to think of them. I read that Steve and Chris on board nb AmyJo had begun their big cruise which would move their boat from Crick to Tattenhall. They had reached Braunston where, like us 24 hours earlier, they had found Yarwood and spent some time with Joe and Lesley.
After a good night’s sleep we awoke to see that the weather had changed again and we faced a dull and damp morning. It was dry so we got ready and set off again hoping to turn just beyond Clifton wharf which is marked in the Nicholsons guide as a full length turning point. It isn’t as we found out when we tried to wind Caxton there half an hour after we had untied, perhaps there were no boats moored in the old arm when the guide was written. We motored on until we reached Rugby wharf, yet another disused loop from the original canal but one in which we were able to turn Caxton around. I thought that it might be worth trying to buy some diesel so once turned, we headed into the arm itself. This was our first time down there and we were surprised at how far it was before we reached the end. Sue got off and went to find some signs of life, she returned with the news that there is no-one around to sell diesel on Sundays. Unfortunately the heavens had opened and with me in the process of turning Caxton in the winding hole, we both ended up getting wet. As soon as Sue was back on board, the rain stopped of course but with it being warm, we both dried out soon enough. We re-emerged onto the cut and turned again in the winding hole, our third turnaround in fifteen minutes! We began our journey back to Braunston by picking our way through the bridges and moorings between Brownsover and Clifton. The sky remained cloudy until we reached the bottom lock at Hillmorton and as soon as we pulled up on the lock landing, there was a sharp shower so we donned our raincoats and started our ascent. Since Sue had her operation, she isn’t allowed to work the locks so I took my windlass and got to work. Sue recognised the lock keeper who we had met at Foxton last year and who was moored in Market Harborough basin, he has now been promoted and is based at Braunston where he is in charge of 126 volunteer lock keepers as well as the locks between Hillmorton and Buckby.
Fortunately there were more boats coming down the flight than going up so our progress was fairly good. When I walked up to the top lock there was a restored working boat already in the chamber with the crew just about to open the bottom paddles. It took some time to drain the lock, the boat left and Sue began her approach. In the meantime a boat had arrived on the top lock landing and I recognised its distinctive colours, it was nb AmyJo and striding towards me was Chris with windlass in hand. Of course we’ve never met before and I had the advantage of seeing their boat before she saw ours but I went to her and said hello. Steve brought AmyJo into one lock as Sue brought Caxton into the other and we all had a bit of a disjointed conversation as we worked the two locks together. The photos of AmyJo look great but in real life, even under a dull sky, it looks amazing – a fantastic paint job. Sadly we didn’t get to spend any more time with Steve and Chris but we will continue to follow their exploits through their blog posts.
After Hillmorton we plodded along without incident, the sky gradually clearing as we made our way back to Braunston. Six hours after we had untied, we were tying up on our pontoon in the marina, a weekend that had seen us make new friends who share the same interests as us and who write about their adventures on blogs like this. We bumped into our favourite lock keeper and we explored an extra bit of the Oxford canal in the form of the Rugby Wharf arm.
Through The Keyhole
George booked a day off work today because we were going to Pinewood studios to be in the audience of a tv show recording. We decided to travel via Braunston so that we could drop off some stuff at the boat and then return to her this evening.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to fill in some online forms to be part of the audience of a couple of tv shows and to my surprise I received free tickets for the recording of Keith Lemon’s “Through The Keyhole”. I also won tickets to go to the recording of “Let’s Do Lunch” with Gino D’acampo.
We were only three rows from the front today so the celebs were very close to us. We saw Keith Lemon, Fearne Cotton, Craig Charles, David Dickinson, Clare Sweeney and one of the members of the boy band JLS. The show was hilarious.
Next Wednesday we will be going to London to see Gino and that show is live on ITV at lunchtime, so that should be fun.
Tomorrow George will be going to work for a few hours and I will be chilling out in the conservatory..aka cratch. The weather is looking ok for the next couple of days so we will be taking Caxton out when George gets home.
Busy Weekend.
We came over to the boat on Thursday afternoon this week and George went off to work Friday morning while I pottered about. I got up and had my shower before I headed off up to the village to visit my friend Jane for a ” Ladies wot lunch ” ( and ladies wot drink wine of course ). For those who know Braunston, Jane lives in the house with the ” Hovis ” sign, which used to be a bakery funnily enough. We had a good old natter and then Jane waved me off and I went back to the boat. I had made our dinner in the morning and it was cooking in the slow cooker while we were away. George and I decided not to venture out of the marina this weekend, so we sat out in the conservatory aka: the cratch, until 9..30 enjoying each other’s company and chatting about our day.
On Saturday we went and did some shopping in the morning and then George did a couple of jobs on the boat. He fixed a dripping tap and changed the water filter cartridge and he also fixed my new sign on the bedroom wall.
I bought the sign because when we first went to see Caxton I fell instantly in love with her and as soon as Paul and Elaine said ” Hello”, I wanted to say, “I want your boat “.
When George had finished in the kitchen I did some baking. I make bread by hand when we are on the boat and today I also made a lemon drizzle cake..Mmmmm.. Yummy.
If you ever fancy making a loaf by hand I have a secret ingredient for you.. coffee whitener. I always add a tablespoon to any loaf that I make and it is always delicious..or it could be that I am just a bloody brilliant cook.
It is now 7.25 in the evening and we are sitting in our lovely cratch enjoying a drink together in the sunshine.