ArchiveHolloways2008

March 5 2008

This latest update, like the last one, is long overdue but I have been thinking how I can continue this website with news of our life on Matlock Moor, of our family in Norwich and our friends still out there on the Cut - without boring all those who followed the original Snecklifter : A Journey because their main fascination was with canals and those who live afloat. The obvious solution, admittedly a compromise, is to bifurcate (a lovely word recently discovered that sounds better than "split in two!") This diary will be updated fairly regularly while the boating section will be maintained as an archive for those who come new to boating or those who want to remind themselves of what a wonderful five and a half years we had. If we do holiday on the Cut (and we've already received several very generous offers from good friends to borrow their boats), I will recount our further journeys in the appropriate place. Though, we're not sure yet if we'd have the nerve to take them up on it.

Our new home in Quarry Lane (telephone 01629 582591*) is splendid - it had to be to finally make us turn our backs on a lifestyle we enjoyed and to look forward to a comparatively static but no less eventful future. There are 15 other houses in the lane but it is quiet and comparatively isolated despite the bus stop a couple of hundred yards away that keeps me (a non-driver) in touch with shops and civilisation. And most importantly our landlords, Kate and Steve Elliott, could not have been more welcoming and helpful.

The photograph on the new opening page gives some idea of the view from my den in the attic. The one on the Holloway section front page is the field at the back of the house while those at the top of this page show the lane itself looking left and right from our back gate. Finally on the right is a view of the back of the house, on the left a view of the front.

Liz is still working, at the moment on temporary assignment at Calow Hospital in Chesterfield until she begins a full-time PA job later this month, while I have spent long hours making space in the house for us to sit down - and occasionally move about. Until last week our bed was surrounded by unpacked boxes. Another small bedroom in the attic (where single guests will eventually stay) is still clogged with lps, mostly classical and film soundtracks. But my large jazz collection has now be separated from the 11,000 plus that had to be carried up two flights of stairs, the records put in alphabetical order and stored in my den. They were joined a couple of days ago by classical A's and B's, the latter a large section including Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner, not forgetting Bartok, Bax, Bridge and Britten! But if compensation were needed for not waking up each morning in a different mooring, having my large speakers and hifi equipment to hand just about does it.

This weekend we should have been driving to Norwich to see Jonathan, Jenny and our two grand-daughters Sienna and Camille but last week Liz had a very bad cough that disturbed her sleep for several nights, and this week I've come down with it, though so far the coughing has not kept me awake. But then I slept through the recent earthquake, surprised to hear about it on the news next morning.

We hope to travel next weekend when I'll at last see Camille for the first time - until now I've had to make do with marvellous pix like this one sent by Jenny the other day.

In the meantime, if the cough gets no worse, we'll go back to Snecklifter tomorrow to sort out some more of our personal things while I run the engine to charge batteries and air the interior. We've been delighted on returning three or four times since leaving her at Barton Turns marina in October to detect no smell or other sign of damp, though obviously it was chilly until the central heating kicked in.

Finally, I'd like to thank Andrew Denny for the very nice things he said about us on his Granny Buttons website - I've only just found the entry so my apologies for not mentioning it before. I'm sorry, too, that we never met up but there's always a chance that we'll see him around somewhere. The Cut is not a million miles from Matlock Moor.

* I've included our phone number for good reason. Some of our boating friends have promised to visit us here when they are in the area and we hope that others reading this will do the same. We'd love to see you and show you that we did not entirely take leave of our senses when we swopped our carefree itinerant life for bricks (or rather Derbyshire stone) and mortar.

April 15

It seems a long time since I updated this website. Hell, it is a long time since I updated this website. I offer no excuses even though I have been busy settling in to this new, old life. Except this one : I just haven't felt like it. And it's not that I haven't had plenty to write about because the last month has included a splendid weekend spent with Jonathan, Jenny and our two granddaughters in Norwich. Perhaps I suspect that anecdotes about family life ashore cannot compete with an odyssey aboard a 60ft narrowboat. Bit I will persevere with this, if only to keep a pictorial record as Sienna and Camille grow up.

Sienna is still as marvellously involving as ever, of course. Camille is very different : very quiet, very content and absolutely adorable - she smiled every time I went near her which makes her very special indeed. And if you think this is all grandfatherly exaggeration have a look at the pictures I've posted on Sienna's page - rather more than usual because it's been such a gap since the last. The one on the right is a taster of what to expect and is chosen because it's the only one in which Camille looks as though she is on the edge of tears. This contradiction is easily explained. She loved looking at me but was not so certain after a couple of minutes of "dandling" on my knee.

In the weeks since our return to Matlock we have continued whipping the house into shape, or rather its contents. My record and CD collection is now well ordered and I have spent many hours transferring cassettes to CD via a splendid Numark deck that copies both cassettes or LPs. A free program called Audacity then helps me cut the recording into individual tracks or manageable chunks and another freeby called Burrrrn transfers the resulting tracks to CD.

With Liz settling in at her new job in Chesterfield and inclement weather most of the time, visits to Snecklifter have been suspended but they will be renewed from this Saturday when we hope to put in a couple of hours sorting and cleaning (some change!) We've heard little from prospective buyers and though it's some consolation to be told that there's little movement generally in the boat sales market we have dropped our asking price by nearly ten per cent.

Meanwhile we continue to hear from old friends, including Dave and Chris Owen-Roberts, who have just about finished the fit-out of their new narrowboat Aeshna, and Chrissie and Richard who are understandably excited that the building of their new boat Digitalis is well under way at Amber Boats of Evesham Worcestershire - they hope to be afloat by mid-May. The reason for naming their boat can be seen on their website at http://digitalis.org.uk.

Jeanne and Rob Boulton on Tywardreath keep in touch regularly, of course, as do Mike and Jo Edwards on Sarah Kate, and recently we've heard again from Ann Marie McGuigan who works with husband Brian on nb Alton - winter suppliers of our coal and diesel on the Macclesfield canal. Other voices from the past, heard from less often but always with great pleasure, have been Rose and Baz Philpott who have now been on Tickly Two for three years, and Dalia and Zvika Hoch from Tel Aviv in Israel, who we met during our first visit to Upton on Severn.

May 26

It's Bank Holiday Monday and a perfect time to bring this diary of our new life up to date - Liz and I work hard to avoid going anywhere or doing anything very much on days like these. Instead, we pull up the drawbridge, watch tv, play games on the computer, walk and feed the dogs, walk and feed ourselves.

However, most of this update will have little to do with our new life. Last week I spent aboard Snecklifter with our good friend Mike Hecken (ex-owner of nb Ronarosa) taking her from her winter mooring at Barton Turns to Whilton Marina where she will stay until she is sold, hopefully sooner rather than later (price £49,950).

Even though it was probably my last voyage on her, I enjoyed myself immensely, despite travelling faster over the 65 miles and 37 locks than Liz and I ever did. (We'd have probably taken a month or two over the same trip.) Most of the locking was done by Mike Hecken - well, when I say most I mean all but a few paddles that I dropped before leaving locks. Towards the end of the trip he was joking that he had known what to expect and had thought of it as a working holiday - he was just wondering when the holiday bit would start. At least, I think he was joking - the serious look on his face when he was at the tiller makes me wonder!

In fact, we did fit in a little relaxation, starting each morning at 6.30 and mooring after six or seven hours cruising. We caught a bus from Hopwas into Lichfield to visit the Cathedral and have lunch, and by the time we reached Hawkesbury Junction we were well enough ahead of schedule to justify a five miles each way detour to Coventry where we spent an afternoon shopping before overnighting in the quiet, well-lit basin where local authority staff had greeted us on arrival with an information pack and a lovely smile. We also arrived in Braunston in good time for a traditional lunchtime pint at the Plough and then an evening meal at the Millhouse.

The one drawback about the timing of transits through Hawkesbury was that we couldn't stop and chat with Vicki and Ian Harley on PEM No 6. We talked briefly with Vicki on the way through the first time but Ian was away shopping in Coventry and next morning we arrived at the lock before 8.30 and decided it was too early to go calling. But they are a couple we will certainly see again - we met on the Macclesfield in our first months and have seen each other many times since then.

Being back aboard Snecklifter was enjoyable but it in no way shook my belief that Liz and I have made the right decision at the right time. I really don't think I will deeply miss boating or the Cut. But the trip reinforced my conviction that it's the people we met and continued to meet that I will miss. Old friends greeting us on this final voyage included Joseph and Janet Cresswell on another Heron boat Barleyfirth, who passed us on the Barby Cut as they headed north. This was a fitting meeting : they were the couple we spoke to seven years ago when we were thinking of placing our order for Snecklifter. New friends included the Bishops who called out to me as they passed us at Brinklow saying they had been in touch with us from Ireland before they got their boat and "owed a lot" to the information they had gleaned from this website. It helped make the hard work of writing the website all the more worthwhile, if only in retrospect. **

We were also lucky with our "neighbours" on the Atherstone flight. A young couple whose names I didn't get were on their way to Crick with their boat, Green Matters, which had been specially fitted out to run on biofuel. They were a lock ahead so they talked with Mike rather than me. The couple behind, on Verulam, the Roman name for their home town St Albans, were John and Shirley Taylor with their dog Ben, and I did get to know John a little better. He was very helpful, coming up at each lock and closing gates behind me so that Mike could move on to the next, always cheerful and grateful on the few occasions when we could see far enough ahead to know it was okay to lift the paddles behind us and set the lock ready for Verulam.

My gratitude, of course, was mostly reserved for Mike Hecken. I could not have done the trip without him and I cannot think of anyone I would have preferred. Not once did he suggest I do a few locks. On the contrary, he was happy to do them all and then come back aboard and take the tiller when I needed a break. Over the last two days he did more than his fair share of steering while I cleaned the boat and spruced up scratched paintwork and varnish. We argued a lot over politics, of course, though he insisted we were debating, but happily those arguments/debates filled the long gaps when there was nothing worth watching on tv and we invariably settled things amicably. I changed his opinions not one jot and he had no effect on mine whatsoever. I look forward to dazzling him with new ideas when Liz and I travel south to have a long-planned holiday at his home in Romsey.

My return to Quarry Lane on Saturday was a happy one. Liz had picked us up at Whilton and driven us back to Barton where Mike had left his car and on the journey back to Matlock we were able to catch up on her eventful week at work. The dogs had been in kennels from Monday morning to Saturday afternoon and it was good for both of us to have them rushing around the kitchen in their excitement, though Molly had clearly barked herself hoarse while she was away. Liz says she missed me after a couple of days - I suspect she missed Bess and Molly just as much.

Throughout the trip, Mike was busy with his camera and when I had a chance I took a few pix with mine. I've included only one in this diary section but more can be seen at Snecklifter : End of an era photographs

** Many people have asked if I intend to turn the website into a book about our six years afloat. The answer is a very firm no. But over the next few months I am going to import all the diary section into an Adobe pdf, inserting photographs into appropriate sections of the text. I'll be glad to send a CD rom copy of the finished pdf to anyone who wants one (free of charge, of course, though I might ask for a mimimal post and packaging charge which I'll tell you about when I've finally weighed a sample package). This editing will take some time, however, so don't hold your breath.