Saturday Bake Day.

Hello Friends old and new.

With the temperature getting down to -6c overnight, once more the canal has a film of ice on it. Just as well we had no plans to move today.
I had allsorts of ideas on what to do today, and as always first on my list of things to do was walk Paddy up the towpath. Just as I stepped off of the boat, I could hear a boat crashing through the ice. NB Red Red Wine made short work of the ice as it headed for Crick Tunnel. If you have never heard ice on the hull of a boat, it is an eerie sort of noise as it cracks against the steel. From inside the boat it sounds a lot louder.
After toast for breakfast, I walked up to the Post Office to post a Birthday card and to get some frozen peas. It was one thing I did not order when I placed my Tesco food order and I always like to keep peas in the freezer for emergencies.
Back on board, I decided that Saturday was going to be my baking day instead of Sunday. So I began with making my Lemon Drizzle Cake.

Lemon Drizzle Cake.

4oz Butter.

4oz Caster Sugar.

6oz Self Rasing Flour

2 Lemons.

Vanilla Essence.

3 Eggs.

Icing Sugar.

Cream the Butter and Sugar together and add a little Vanilla Essence. Add the grated Lemon rind. Add the 3 eggs and beat into the mixture. Fold in the Flour and pur the mixture into a baking tin. Whilst the cake is baking, put the juice from the Lemons into a saucepan and add Icing Sugar to taste. Once the Icing Sugar has desolved remove from the heat. No sooner the cake is cooked, leave it in the tin and prick the top all over. Pour the Lemon juice over the top and allow the cake to soak up the juice before removing the cake from the tin. You can also do the same with Oranges.

Second on my baking list was a Rubarb Crumble for Pudding.

At the moment it is waiting to go in the back stove oven. I already have some Pork Chops cooking in a red Wine gravy in there, so the Crumble will have to wait for a bit. Whilst I was doing all of this, I also swept the floor and did all the washing up. Oh and I delivered coal to a customer who was collecting by car. Unfortunately my crumpets went cold and hard whilst gone, so I had to re-toast them on my return. Maybe tomorrow it will be a quiet day as I will have no baking to do ;0).

Chat soon xx

Bank Holiday Weekend.

Hello Friends.

Another Bank Holiday Weekend is on our doorstep or in our case knocking on our back cabin door and we always like to find somewhere to moor, where we can just sit and watch the world go by. Boating over a Bank Holiday Weekend is usually a bit of a nightmare, with boats everywhere.

We had another night of heavy rain, so it felt a little damp again as we sat in bed drinking our first cuppa of the day. Most morning's Marmite gets out of her bed and comes into our's, but this morning she had snubbed us, so Paddy thought he would take advantage of this opportunity. He started by putting his head on the bed and then crept his front end on to my lap. All's he ever wants is a cuddle. I drew the line at allowing him to get up on the bed completely, because I know he will not lie still. This was the moment when I decided to get up. It was refreshing to see that the overnight heavy rain was now just drips and drops, when I took Paddy out for his morning stroll along the canal. There are some lovely walks at Cosgrove, but they would have to wait for another day, because we decided that we would set off for somewhere out in the countryside. We managed to share Cosgrove Lock with NB Free Spirit, who was going off to be painted. Our first port of call was to be the sanitary station to empty the toilet cassette. We pulled into the station which was surrounded by metal fencing and there were men working at the block. Thankfully we were able to empty the cassette straight into a pipe and for anyone wanting water, they had put a tap on hand, so you can still use the station. We said cheerio to Free Spirit and headed off.

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We headed off under Soloman's Bridge, which I think is such a pretty bridge. It is one of the most unusual on the canal network. The gothic style bridge over the Grand Union Canal was built in 1800 at the insistence of a local landowner.

We found a nice mooring out in the countryside between bridge 62 & 63, between Cosgrove and Yardley Gobion, having cruised just 2.7 miles, worked 1 lock in 1 hr 15 mins. I have a view from my galley window across the field which is lovely. Marmite and Paddy will be able to play out on the towpath as well, if there are not to many walkers and cyclists. Having moored up, I made us coffee and then set about tidying the inside of the boat, because there was dog hair balls blowing around in the saloon. Once that was all done I had a mind to get out my baking dishes to make a Lemon Drizzle Cake.

I love making cakes and this is one of my favourites. I have also made Lemon Chicken for tonight's dinner, which we will have with rice.

With the Bank Holiday Weekend almost here, there are a lot of boats moving to and fro, so we may just decide to stay here for the long weekend. We almost decided to have lunch then move to Stoke Bruerne, but the worry is that when we get there, we will not be able to moor up, because it gets very busy. We are fortunate that this mooring seems to be deep, which is great for us. This is the first time we have ever stopped here, so we will make sure we make a note of this mooring for future reference.

With boats coming and going past us, I am beginning to notice that some of the boaters have no concept about the idea of slowing down past moored boats. So this could be a rock and roll weekend, if this carries on. I do get quite cross when boaters do not slow down to tick over when passing moored boats, because what they do not realise is I could be carrying a pan of something hot and this could go over me should I lose my balance due to them going to fast. I wonder how long it will be before a major accident like this will happen.

Talking about accidents. I was chatting to someone this morning and they told me that one of the Wyvern Shipping Company hire boats partially sank in Lock 10 on the Buckby Flight on the 24th August. Thankfully everyone on board was unhurt and the boat was refloated and towed back to the hire company. it just shows that great must be taken and you have to concentrate on what your doing at all times.

Latest news from Narrowboat World. Thieves broke into 12 boat at the Ash Tree Moorings at Rugeley on the Trent and Mersey Canal. It is worth remembering if you are on a mooring and leave your boat for long periods of time. Take anything of value off of the boat, because sadly there are people out there who have no respect for others people's property.

12% of men do not know what???

Good afternoon.

It is snowing here again, which does not surprise me because the sky has looked very threatening, not only that my hair has been very static. Don't laugh. I always know when snow is coming because snow is on the way. The photo above was from a few days ago. I love the blue look to it.

So 12% of men do not know what???
This may surprise you, 12% of men do not know the colour of their partners eyes. I can honestly say my husband knows mine and I know his.
How can you not know what colour your partners eyes are?
Don't people look each other in the eyes anymore?

Today has been taken up with entertaining, the Dentist and fine dining. After the usual morning stuff. Another boating friend came to visit us with his dog. We all settled down with a coffee to catch up on all the latest news and gossip. When boaters get together for a natter, chat can be about anything. We do not just talk about all things boating. Come 10.30am I had to get ready to go to the dentist, so our friend left as he had shopping to do. Hubby and I walked down to the dentist, where I had my check up. We then went to the Angel Hotel for a scrummy lunch. You can have a two course meal for £7.95, which is excellent, because the food is amazing. Hubby had roasted Pork Loin, with roasties, veg and apple sauce, then Sticky Toffee Pud with Custard. I had Chicken Fillet with a Peppercorn Sauce on a bed of Mash with veg, then a Lemon and Blueberry Square ( like cheese cake) with Clotted Cream Ice Cream. To say it was scrummy is an under statement. Definitely a place to eat. We will go there again without a doubt. We were then supposed to go back to the dentist, as one of hubby's fillings has fallen out. He was told his appointment was for 2.20pm, but when we got there, they did not have him down grrrrrrrrr, so we have to go back on Thursday. With nothing else to do in the town, we walked back to the boat, just as the snow began to fall once more. So many people are moaning and groaning about this weather now, but I love it and will always love it. It is so wonderful to have a proper winter for a change.