Snarestone back to Shackerstone.

Hi Folks.

Snarestone to Shackerstone 2.95 miles travelled in 1 hour 15 minutes. 

What a fantastic morning weather wise, the sun was shining and there was a breeze blowing, which was pushing the clouds away. I did not have a great nights sleep it has to be said, I was so hot all night, so I lay awake for sometime listening to the Little and Tawny Owls calling close to the boat. There is something so magical and haunting about Owls calling. As I drifted in and out of sleep, whilst kicking off the duvet, I did contemplate getting up and making a brew, but that did not happen until gone 7am, when both Keith and I sat up in bed drinking tea and watching Challenge TV, this morning we watched "Are you smarter than a 10 year old" with Noel Edmonds and one of the questions was about the Battle of Bosworth, how spooky is that, yes of course we got it right. It was about who took over from Richard as King and of course the answer was Henry VII. 8.30am I was up and off the boat with Paddy for his walk, we walked past a few moored up boats with people on board and felt horrified that these boats had their back doors padlocked whilst they slept on board. Back and front doors are supposed to be fire exits, if they are padlocked your escape from a fire is not available, which is oh so dangerous. Keith did a write up for Boatman's Banter back in September 2010 which highlighted the huge problem that is developing on the canal. It is worth a read because if it saves lives then it has done its job. We lost someone we knew because of his back doors being locked from the outside.

9.30am the boat was ready for us to leave our overnight mooring.

It was only a short hop for us back to Shackerstone, but I enjoyed every moment in the Winter sunshine, it has to be said the temperature was not very wintery, but I dare say it is coming. This time last year we were frozen in at Market Harborough, having been with a film crew the day before for "The Golden Age Of Canals", so this weather is a real bonus, just wish we were having more rain.

There are lots of occasions when we see old farm buildings going to rack and ruin and all because they no longer serve a purpose in this modern day of farming, which is very sad. I would think that this old brick building would have housed livestock, but it is now being taken over by nature. For many farmers they cannot afford to keep these buildings going or they have no further use for them, especially with the new barns we see going up all over the countryside. A building lost in time, but if those walls could talk, they would have wonderful tales to tell.

We arrived back in Shackerstone and back on the mooring we left a few days ago.

The plan is to stay here for the weekend, so we can go and watch the trains on Sunday running one of the Christmas Specials, which begins on Sunday at 12 noon, but tickets must be booked before the event, they cannot be bought on the day. We are hoping they will have a train in steam, photographs will follow if that is the case, I may even get a photograph of Santa wooooo hooooo. It is now lunchtime and I must go and think of something to eat.

Chat later maybe xx

Ashby Canal Terminus to Snarestone Village.

Hi Folks.

Terminus to Snarestone Village 0.75 miles travelled in 15 minutes.

I had such a peaceful nights sleep, there was not a sound. So when I woke at 7am to find Keith climbing over me, so whilst he was in the galley he made us both a cup of tea. Whilst we drank our early morning brew we watch repeats of "Deal or no deal" on Challenge. The program has certainly moved on a lot since the early days.

8.30am I was up, dressed and off the boat with Paddy. It was a lovely start to the day, with a breeze blowing the clouds away. We enjoyed a nice stroll along the towpath, where Black Cattle grazed lazily in the field alongside the canal. Back at the boat, Keith had put my breakfast up, but before I ate Marmite and Paddy got fed, otherwise Marmite would never let me hear the end of it, she is extremely vocal for a tabby cat. With breakfast all done without a murmur from Marmite, I got on with sorting both the fires out. The back cabin fire has to have all the ash raked out, that I lay on top of the wood to keep it in over night, this does have draw backs because the back cabin does get pretty dusty, but it is worth it to keep the fire in, especially once the weather gets very nippy. The saloon stove is much easier as we burn Supertherm, which stays in all day and all night without any trouble and has very little ash. At the moment it is heating the radiator in the bathroom and supplying us with hot water, so it is always a win, win situation when we have this fire going.

Before leaving we emptied the other toilet cassette and got rid of all the rubbish we had collected from the towpath along the way. 9.55am the engine was fired up and we were on our way to Snarestone village. We made our way back through Snarestone Tunnel and moored up in front of Maffi who was out on the towpath with Molly. Once moored up we had a natter to Maffi and I gave Molly one of Paddy's tennis balls, which she was very excited about. After a chat it was time for a coffee for us and Maffi was off up the towpath with Molly.

After coffee we heard Maffi leaving, so we waved him off and wished him a "Happy Christmas", because we may not see him again before the big and expensive day LOL. We then closed the boat up and head off up into Snarestone, which lies over the tunnel. The village appears in the Domesday book as Snarchetone, and was just a piece of ploughed land. The piece of land was held in 1086 by Robert the Dispensator or Robert the Bursar. Robert was steward to William the Conqueror, so its history goes back along way. Apparently during the 13thC the land was passed to the Charnell family who then looked after it for around five centuries. It is then thought that in 1811 the lord of the manor was a Charles Powell Leslie and it then passed on in 1846 to Lady Anna Maria Leslie. The village was very much a farming community, whose crops were mostly wheat and barley. During the 19th C bricks were made and I would imagine some of those bricks were used to build some of the beautiful houses in the village. A coal mine was sunk in 1875 but despite hoping to find some of the black stuff they only found water.

The Globe Inn has been in the village since around 1870, from the sign outside it only opens during the evening, this maybe just a winter thing though. Many, many years ago there used to be four pubs in the village.

This appeared to be the only thatched cottages in the village and they date back to around the 1700's. The village has some stunning Georgian houses, which date back to the 18th C, when the village prospered. There are no shops in the village, but it does have a school which was donated to the village by Mr Thomas Charnells in 1717, originally the school was three cottages. The school has made many changes since then and it is so nice to see a proper village school. It bought back happy memories of my first village school in Hurstbourne Priors. In all Snarestone is a sleepy little village with lots of history.

Back on the boat it was time for a tomato soup lunch, with crusty rolls. I am going to spend the rest of the day resting my Sciatica I think.

Chat soon xx

Shackerstone to Snarestone.

Hi Folks.

Shackerstone to Snarestone 3.9 miles in 1 hour 30 minutes.

Before I begin today's posting, yesterday was a quiet day for me after I had been litter picking, I spent the rest of the day doing things on the boat and watching a film or two. During the evening I cooked meatballs for dinner with mash potato and veg, before settling down for an evening of TV. Whilst watching the "One Show", I heard a real racket going on outside and then I realised it was Foxes squabbling on the towpath right by the boat. I crept to the engine room door and did my best to open it quietly, but obviously not quiet enough because they ran off through the hedge and back into the field dang. I have no idea what they were fighting over, but their sounds was unmistakable.

Wednesday morning so arrived after a great nights sleep. I was up early raking out the ash in the back cabin stove to get it going again, because after a heavy overnight frost and the temperature getting down to -0.7c, it was nippy.

Looking out of the back cabin door, it was clear we were in for a lovely day.

We were ready to leave our mooring at 9.40am after a nice bowl of porridge and a cuppa. Today's destination was Snarestone and the Ashby Canal terminus. It was a breeze free morning, with lovely views of the farmland and trees.

If you want peace and quiet then the Ashby Canal is the canal to be on.

Someone is into tree art by the looks of it. We soon arrived at Snarestone Tunnel and who should be moored up but Maffi on The Milly M, he gave us a wave as we passed by.

Snarestone Tunnel is 250 yards long and single passage.

I always admire how the inside of tunnels are constructed, because they look amazing. Snarestone itself sits at right angles to the canal and we will visit the village on the way back.

After the tunnel we passed under two stone-arched bridges and then the terminus was insight.

The Ashby Canal is undergoing changes in a big way, they have extended the canal since we were last on the Ashby Canal 3 years ago and very nice it looks.

Having winded, taken on water and emptied a toilet cassette, we moored up past the winding hole. I then saw a familiar dog running up the towpath, it was Molly with Maffi following on behind with his rubbish bag and litter picker in hand. We stood nattering to him for a while before saying cheerio. It was then time for lunch.

After a bit to eat, we set off to walk some of the route for the rest of the Canal which is being restored.

You can read all about the walk and the restoration on Hadar's Blog, where Keith has written a posting. I see no point in repeating what he has said LOL. I will say though they have a huge task in front of them, but will look forward to watching their progress. Talking to representatives of the Ashby Canal Association at the terminus, they have enough funding for next year to pay for the restoration work to be carried right through to the brook, which is great news. Whilst we were out on our walk however we gained a couple of doggy friends.

They came from the Waterworks House and seemed to be able to run where they like, which included along the towpath, neither of them had collars, and despite the fact I tried to get them to go home, they insisted on following us and then jumping all over me with their muddy paws. Very cute dogs, but do think their owner should have more control over their dogs.

Back at the boat, I stoked up the back cabin stove, ready to cook tonight's dinner, which is going to be a Chinese ready meal we had delivered yesterday from Tesco. I really am enjoying the Ashby Canal and all it has to offer. It is definitely not all about fields and bridges, there is so much more to this stunning little canal.

Chat soon xx

More Rubbish.

Took Paddy for his walk this morning between bridges 52 and 53 at Shackerstone and low and behold more litter. So having returned to the boat, I had my breakfast, fed Paddy and Marmite and stoked up the fire, I then went out armed with my grabber and a coal sack to collect the rubbish left by boaters and walkers.

In about 200 metres, I managed to fill my sack and found the base of a parasol, which was right on the edge of the canal, so it was either left there, or someone fished it out of the canal and still left it there WHY?

Another week closer.

Hi Folks.

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Sunday. Mine was filled with boat chores, drinking coffee and of course watching a movie or two. The morning began with the usual things, walking dog etc, Keith did us poached eggs on toast before I got into a cleaning mode, which included hovering inside the boat to get rid of dog hairs coal dust and anything else unsightly, once that was achieved I washed the floors in the saloon and galley, no mop required, I just got down on my hands and knees and did the job. Both the fires got stoked up ready for the day ahead, whilst I did this Keith was cleaning out the fridge, I think there had been something growing in the bottom draw ewwwww. I had just begun washing some of the plates in the back cabin, when there was a knock on the cabin. I poked my head out of the engine room door and found Sally and Philip standing there. Philip is one of our Facebook friends, who we had yet to meet, that of course changed with them coming to visit. They are looking to buy a boat, so they can like us continuously cruise the UK waterways, but are struggling to sell their double mobile home at the moment. The problem at the moment is as we know everything is struggling, and that includes the housing and boat market. It is a buyers market, but unless they can sell their home, they cannot buy a boat. I invited them in for a cuppa and we whiled away a couple of hours chatting about all things boats. We hope to see them out on the water next year.

After lunch with all jobs done it was time to put my feet up and watch a Film4 movie, this was done whilst I cooked dinner and kept the fires burning. The one thing I find is I never sit still for long; there is always something that needs doing, whether it is cooking, cleaning or just making coffee. So that was Sunday, which finished up with me watching “X-Factor”, well I did not expect Craig to go, I thought perhaps Janet, but they are all so good now it is never going to be easy. I then watched “I’m A Celebrity” where of course the public voted for Sinitta to do the live bush tucker trial. Do these celebes never learn, if you show you are scared you will get voted for all the trials, that is how sadistic the general public are who have nothing better to waste their money on. They say there is a recession, well clearly not when it comes to voting for things on the TV.

My posting another week closer, refers to Christmas. The TV ads are flooded with things that many cannot afford and with food that will give you a heart burn or worse a heart attack. Do I sound like Christmas grump? Well perhaps I am, but for me the Christmas spirit has gone, it is all to commercial these days. Bring back the simple Christmas I say.

Monday and a misty old morning, but not as foggy as yesterday morning. A quiet old morning, I did the usual morning jobs, plus making Lemon Chicken for dinner, which we will have with rice. Keith got on with sorting out a sticky oil pressure valve. After some soup for lunch, I went out with my camera to photograph the bird life using our feeders.

A Coal Tit was making sort work of the fat ball.

Another then joined it on the peanuts.

The Blue Tits were around in abundance as always. They are always the first to come to the feeders.

Having noticed the coast was clear the Great Tit then came in for something to eat. The only one missing was the Long Tailed Tit, which was probably around earlier, because I had seen them feeding yesterday.

Another visitor was the Greenfinch, who was more interested in the peanuts than the seeds, which they normally go for. Whilst I was watching the birds coming to the feeders, overhead hundreds of Redwings flew over, their chatter was incredibly loud filling the air. I wonder where they were off too?

We have moved from our weekend mooring and moved on to the 48 hour moorings on the other side of Bridge 52, Turn Bridge because we are having a Tesco food delivery tomorrow afternoon, and it is an idea place to take the order on.

Not a busy day by any means, but a nice one all the same. Chat soon xx

Shackerstone Village.

Hi Folks.

Having made tonight's dinner, which is at this moment cooking in the back cabin stove, Keith and I thought we should stretch our legs, so we donned our walking boots, gathered our cameras and set off for a stroll around the tiny village of Shackerstone and the Railway Station. We began walking along the towpath and I spotted a Water Vole swimming along the offside bank, not a great photo, but it was taken in a hurry. I am going to try and take another over the weekend.

First of all we walked up to Shackerstone Station.

It is a pretty little station with lots of character.

There are no trains running until they begin the Christmas runs. There were staff there putting up the Christmas decorations and tree. The line heads towards Shenton, where the line terminates.

We were invited in to have a look around the museum, which maybe small but is full with lots of railway memorabilia. We last looked around in 2005. I love all the old signs on the wall.

Having seen all there was to see at the station, we walked back into the village, to see if there had been any changes from our last visit.

It is nice to see the Rising Sun, is still open for business. It looks like it has had a lick of paint since we last visited. I remember we had a fantastic meal there.

This is St. Peter’s Church, which we saw as we approached Shackerstone yesterday. A gentleman was cutting the grass, in November!

Whatever next?

To think this time last year we were only one week away from the canals freezing over, when we were doing the coal run on the Leicester Line, in fact on the very day it began to freeze we were being filmed for the "Golden Ages Of Canals" program.

St. Peter's Church is a pretty but plain church outside. We had a wander around the gravestones, where there were lots of family plots. The saddest of the grave stones was this one.

So tragic to think of these two children losing their lives in this way and to think that it still happens today.

We arrived back on the boat and I made us some lunch. Film4 is now on and we are watching "Around the world in 80 days", outside it is rather dull and becoming chilly, so both fires are going. Dinner is cooking, Mog and Dog are both asleep, so all is well in my world, all's I now need to do is get rid of my sciatica arghhhh. Have a wonderful Saturday, chat soon x

Becoming a Womble.

Hi Folks.

I think I am becoming a womble, this litter picking lark is addictive. I was out at 8.40am with my grabber and an old coal bag, thought of recycling one of them to save my black bags. Little did I know I would need two more empty coal bags before I was finished.

Yesterday when we tried to moor up and ended up over a foot away from the bank, there was a rotten rag rug right on the bank, where you could not miss it, so I am surprised no one had removed it before. Even those mowing the grass must have mowed over it a few times this Spring and Summer, so that was the first thing I picked up this morning. I also collected an old paint tin. As I walked back towards the boat my attention was drawn to two dustbin liners in the hedge.

 

Now I could see them, so why have they never been removed?

As I pulled the bags out of the hedgerow, they began to fall apart revealing their contents. Sad to say they were full of beer cans, bottles, crisp packets and plastic glasses, so I reckon these were left after the Shackerstone Festival by a boater or boaters. I had filled two bags so I had to collect another bag to do the opposite direction. Unfortunately some of the rubbish I could not reach without doing myself an injury, so I had to pass it by, which actually really annoyed me.

I was thinking about who actually got me started on this mission and I have to give credit to Bill on NB Wilver and Maffi on NB Milly M. Bill volunteered through British Waterways and has been on a mission ever since to rid the countryside of litter, as has Maffi and I am now one of the ever growing team of people litter picking. It really makes a difference and not just to how the towpath looks, it also makes a difference to the wildlife. A couple of years ago, I saw a Mallard caught up in the plastic loops off of beer cans. I tried very hard to catch the Mallard, who had her foot caught up making it hard for her to swim. I managed to un-loop the plastic from around her foot, but before I could get the whole thing off, she took flight. I do not know if she survived, but that is just one example of the problems litter and rubbish can cause.

So who watched "Children In Need" last night, hands up????

Matt Baker is amazing. Peddling a Rickshaw from Edinburgh to London 484 miles was one hell of a way to raise money for the cause, so congratulations to Matt, who has raised well over 1 Million pounds that is incredible. Everyone who helped to raise the total so far which is £26,332,334. I watched some of the evenings events, along with "I'm A Celebrity". Sinitta was up for the bush tucker trial and to be honest even though she only got 4 stars, she did very well. It amazes me that someone can be that scared of everything. So well done to Sinitta for not bottling out. Anthony Cotton is doing the next trial, so lets see how many times he screams. He seems to be getting upset over everything and with everyone at the moment. Looking forward to tonight's program.

Chat soon xx

Shenton to Shackerstone.

 

Hi Folks.

Shenton to Shackerstone 5.4 miles in 2 hours 15 minutes.

I do so love it when I manage to sleep in, and this morning was one such day. I opened my eyes to see 7 o'clock and Keith climbing over the top of me, he was heading to the bathroom and to put the kettle on.

With the morning jobs done, Paddy walked and fed along with Marmite, we were ready for the off at 9.25am, with a view to taking a leisurely cruise to Shackerstone.

We said goodbye to our overnight mooring and headed off into a cloudy but mild morning.

It is a very picturesque stretch, with nice views across farmland. My only wish for today was that a steam train would come thundering along the Shackerstone to Shenton railway track, but as they are not running now until Christmas time, this was never going to happen, but hey a girl can dream. It would have made my morning complete.

Time for a snooze. Its a hard live being a sheep.

It was not long before we could see Shackerstone church.

On arriving at Shackerstone's moorings, we tried to moor up along the stretch just before the bend and the aqueduct, but no matter how Keith tried, he could not get us near the bank, so we were going to be at least a foot from the bank still a foot out from the bank. Which would have been ok for the weekend. We moored up, closed the boat up against a chilling breeze and I began to cook something for dinner. Once the meat was in the back cabin stove, I lit the saloon stove to warm the bathroom up for our showers later. I then decided to walk  around to the visitor moorings, where the historic working boats moor for the Shackerstone Festival every year, to see if there was any room there for Tuesday, as we are having a Tesco food delivery, to find that 75% of the moorings had been given over to winter moorings. So much for British Waterways only allocating 50% of the moorings over to winter moorers. I got chatting to a gentleman on NB Benrin, before I new it Keith had walked round to see what was going on, he must have thought I had been kidnapped LOL. We found a vacant mooring right before the 48 hour moorings, which was not being used for the winter moorings, so we moved Hadar off the shallow mooring and on to the deeper water mooring, this will do us nicely for a few days.

Lunch has been consumed and the boat is nice and cosy. Film4 is on the TV and all is very good in my world today, well when I say good I am suffering with my darn sciatica again, so must try and get that under control over the weekend. Not sure what we have planned, but I am sure I will write about it.

Chat soon xx