archiveNovDec2007

November 26

All right. I've changed my mind again. I'm not, and never have been, consistent. Here is an update to the website that I thought would be rested until next Spring - and it is likely to be the first of a series of fortnightly updates.

There are several reasons for this volte face. One of them is the number of emails received from boaters and other friends who have kept in touch over the last six weeks. Some of them - Jeanne and Rob on Tywardreath, Sarah and Andy on Arcadia and Chris and Dave who are busily fitting out their new boat Aeshna - we hope to meet in Derbyshire or Cheshire before Christmas. But the main reason is that I wanted to update Sienna's page and show friends and family some lovely photographs of our new grand-daughter Camille, her proud parents (see right) and, of course, Sienna herself, who continues to grow and develop into a strong personality.

In fact, Liz has just been to Norwich for Camille's naming day and she has appended a short report of her visit. While she has been away I have been dog-sitting and house-sitting for our friend Brian Parker who has spent the last week with his dog Storm on a shooting holiday at Barton on Humber. He enjoyed himself immensely, even though he had no success with the hunting - balancing the steady supply of local rabbits he has brought home since our arrival here for me to skin and cook in large vegetable-filled casseroles.

Yes, we've been eating well and generally enjoying country life since leaving Snecklifter at Barton Turns marina. And no, we've not missed life on the Cut, so far.

This last is not all that surprising. We've had all the pleasures of living in a house on the edge of a beautiful village with hill walks within a few hundred yards of the front door. We're plugged into mains electricity, running computers and DVD recorders without looking over our shoulders to check the state of our batteries. And we have been renewing old friendships that have been briefly revisited for only a couple of weeks over the last four or five Christmases. How we will feel after five a half months, however, is a different thing. I have to admit that now and then I wake up dreaming of favourite canals and much-loved moorings. And occasionally my mind wanders in the daytime and I'm suddenly cruising along familiar stretches, with every bridge, every feature of the landscape, clearly visualised.

I have plenty of time for this. Within a few days of our return to Ashford in the Water, Liz had found an excellent part-time job through an agency, working four days a week as PA to a senior manager in a Chesterfield-based housing charity. She has enjoyed it immensely, the money supplementing our pensions, the activity stimulating her mind. She has rejoined Bakewell Choral Society to sing in their Christmas concert and has even attended the local Women's Institute. My priorities have been different. Her absence during much of each week has allowed me to get on with my interests. Her three free days at the weekend have given us time together to visit local towns like Sheffield and Buxton and to re-explore some of our favourite pubs and villages in the Peak District.

And thanks to regular inspections of Snecklifter by our good friend Tony Miller on Jenny Rose 2 we have not had to worry about the condition of our home for the last five and a half years.

Whether it will be our home again in April we still don't know, of course. From early February we'll start checking out the local housing market, especially the rental sector, to see what's possible, but we will make no hurried decisions. At the moment I'm still looking forward to a leisurely seven month cruise on the Shroppie and the Staffs and Worcs. It would have to be a dream property to make me give that up.

ps by Liz : An excellent journey of 150 miles to Norwich on Saturday. Then a weekend spent with not just Jonathan, Jenny, Sienna and Camille, but part of the "extended" family - Aga and her little boy Kaj (he is Sienna and Camille's cousin), and three of Jenny's Spanish cousins from Mallorca. Quite a houseful. Mealtimes saw ten of us sitting round their table! Sunday afternoon we had Camille's naming ceremony combined with Sienna's second birthday party held in their friend Roger's beautiful chapel building. Wall to wall children, parents and grandmothers. The two English godparents, Bill and Lucy, had travelled from London for the occasion. The picture on this page is Camille in her basket surrounded by rose petals - each petal a wish for her future.

I left them all at 10.20 this morning and after another uneventful journey arrived back at 2.20 having stopped for twenty minutes for lunch.

December 11

Another couple of weeks have passed and we are growing more used to living in a house again, even though it's not really our house. It took an hour-long power cut the other day to bring me back to earth and remind me that running a couple of computers and a couple of televisions should not be taken for granted. The weather has been wet and windy but mild and I've continued to walk the hills, a few times with friends like Joy Thrower and Alan Binns, the latter on a cold descent from Longstone Edge that daunted me in prospect but turned out to be very enjoyable, especially when I soaked in a long hot bath and thought back on it.

One of the highlights of the last week has been meeting John Clarke and his wife Pat who live in Hucknall, near Nottingham. John has been a regular email correspondent and has read the website from beginning to end - he seems to remember more of it than I do - but despite living not far away from our old home in Ashford we had never met until Monday outside the information centre in Bakewell. He recognised me from pix on the website, I recognised him from the two lovely Kerry Blue dogs he and Pat had with them. Mother and son, Roxy is on the left in this photograph while Josh (on the right) was one of seven pups. He is now five years old. The dogs enjoyed being stroked while the humans chatted for about 10 or 15 minutes and shared impressions of Longstone Edge which is the dogs' favorite place for a run. Then John offered me a lift home which I readily accepted. We hope to meet again at the monthly farmers' market in Bakewell when Liz will be able to join us.

Earlier in the fortnight we drove over to Adlington and had lunch at the Miners Arms with Chris and Dave Owen-Roberts before enjoying a short walk along the towpath, past one of our favourite moorings at the Stumps, and then back along the trail. I'd have enjoyed it all the more had I not been suffering with an upset stomach, visiting the pub's "facilities" at least half a dozen times. Perhaps it was my own fault : the previous evening we had taken two friends out for a meal to thank them for looking after our post through the year and I had sampled a new draught bitter which was delicious to the taste but may have upset my constitution. Dave says I should stick to Sneck Lifter in future but it's not that easy to find. Dave is well on with fitting out their new boat Aeshna and had brought us a pile of canal magazines to keep us in touch with life on the Cut.

A few days later I had a visit from Jeanne and Rob Boulton of Tywardreath who were celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary with a short holiday in the area. They brought a splendid bunch of flowers for Liz who was working that day - they still look splendid on our window sill - had a cup of tea with me and then walked around Brian's large garden and woodland field before going on to Chatsworth.

The next few weeks will probably be even busier than the last. Liz has carol concerts with Bakewell Choral Society which she rejoined as soon as we came back to Ashford as well as some folkie evenings. And if the weather continues as crisp and clear as it is today we will visit the boat at Barton Turns on Friday to collect a few more items we wish we had brought with us. I've more walks to do and plenty of computer updating to keep me busy while Liz earns a few honest pennies.

Email update: We continue to hear from regular correspondents and are delighted that people still want to read about our experiences when they have little to do with life afloat. One of the more interesting missives is this one from our old boating friend Mike Hecken (ex-Ronarosa) who recently returned from another of his enviable forays abroad:

"I am always amazed how often you bump into - though

not literally - your 'friends who are well met on the cut'. How about this then? On holiday in November in New Zealand, I was on a quay in Queenstown, donning waterproofs and lifejacket for a trip on a jetboat, when I sensed something, and turned to my left to see a chap, hands on hips staring at me.

It only took a few seconds for me to exclaim 'Laurie,

how marvelous, what are you doing here'. Laurie was

the warden, living on board, at the Newbury marina

where I first moored my boat, and he was a great help

to a novice owner. We both eventually moved on to

pastures new. He was also on holiday and we only had a

few minutes chat before I had to climb aboard.

The photos attached are one he took of me at the

start of a fantastic boat trip - I am of course the

only grey top - and one I took of him taking photos of

me. I always say behave yourself where ever you are. You never know who is watching.

The boat trip was an adrenalin-packed hour, 50mph in six inches of water, 360 degree spins, and getting airborne off three to four foot waves. A bit different from 4 mph. Mind you, I can remember a lot of adrenalin flowed on the approach to a lock at Abingdon this

summer."

Could I ever forget it?

December 24

One more day and it will be Christmas - lunch with our friend Brian on Christmas Day, evening meal on Boxing Day with our friends Clive and Joy Thrower, John Thorpe and Linda Pelc and her son Hugh and daughter Maggie at Linda's house in Ashford in the Water. Our son Jonathan, his partner Jenny and our granddaughters Sienna and Camille are on Mallorca with Jenny's family so it will be a comparatively quiet holiday - a few beers, an occasional gin and tonic and food food food.

The last two weeks have been busy and eventful, the highlights including a visit from Sarah Levick and Andy Jury from Arcadia *, who met us at the Cock and Pullet pub in Sheldon and then came back to Brian's to meet our winter host and enjoy a coffee. They brought a beautiful tin of shortbread for Liz and six bottles of Suffolk beers for me, only one of which has been drunk so far. I wanted to keep them for the festive season but one of the Adnams leaped out at me one lunchtime and confirmed my belief that this brewery is one of the best. Thank you Sarah and Andy. The rest will join the first very soon.

Unfortunately they were able to bring only one of their five greyhounds and that one - Arthur - only because he had been injured and was safely tucked into the back of their large car while he recovered after veterinary treatment. *Arcadia, by the way, has now been renamed Greyhound. It was going to be the Greyhound Carrying Company but there's been a slip-up in communications.

On Saturday morning, Liz and I met up in Bakewell with John Clarke from Hucknall, but unhappily his wife Pat was not well enough to make the car trip. We send her our best wishes and hope we can meet some time before we return to the boat in March/April. The one consolation was that Liz was able to see Roxy and Josh, their two Kerry Blues, pictured above.

Talking of pictures I have none of Snecklifter to include in this final update of 2007 but this one of Aeshna arrived a few days ago. It's David and Chris Owen-Roberts' new boat which they are fitting out on the Shroppie and looks very well indeed. Messages and good wishes continue to arrive from many of our other boating friends, of course. It was good to hear from Roger Morgan of Ballard again - we missed meeting up with him on the Grand Union earlier this year - and especially from Pat Bycroft who had to give up her lovely new boat through ill health. But so many others have been in touch and their messages have reminded us forcefully what a friendly and loyal world we have lived in for the last five and a half years - and how much we would miss if we settled down ashore.

To them and to all our boating contacts we send our own good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Next update in about a fortnight.

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