Shopping and lunch.

Hi Friends and Followers.

Firstly ladies, Happy International Women’s Day.

It was our first night in Birmingham and it was lovely despite the rain later on.

Birmingham is something to behold at night.

I slept really well until I was disturbed by Keith opening the back cabin doors at 3.40 am, when enquiring as to why he had the doors open, he said “He wanted to see the lights”. All’s I wanted to do was go back to sleep, which thankfully I managed to do until around 7 am, when Marmite then decided she should cough up a fur ball. Now I should have said to myself, look out for the fur ball, but I did not so the first thing I stepped on when walking into the galley was her coughed up mess, which was cold and soggy beneath my foot. You would of thought I would have learnt by now, but clearly not.

The plan for the day was to walk into the city, do a bit of shopping and then have lunch out. Some years ago, I bought some musk perfume from The Body Shop and I used the last of it a few weeks ago and thought I would never be able to get anymore, but having spotted a Body Shop, I thought I would ask if they still did it. Not only do they still do Black Musk, they also do a White Musk as well, but it was the Black Musk I wanted. If it lasts as well as the previous bottle, my £13 will have been well spent. We bought cheese from the market and a few bits from Poundland and just wandered. Birmingham is great for wandering.

It is said that a city which has plenty of cranes above it is prosperous, so Birmingham must be doing something right, because we saw lots of large cranes towering over the city.

I love the old buildings in the city, of they could talk they would tell some story of the years past and I like to think that my ancestors walked the same street as I have done today, because a lot of my family were from Birmingham and some are actually buried in and around the city.

Just to prove I was at the Bullring today.

Selfridges beautiful building.

We had lunch at our favourite Chinese Buffet The Big Wok as always and after a fabulous lunch for £6.99 each, we walked around the city some more to walk our lunch off.

I suggested we walk back through the Mail Box, where the BBC can be found and so can these amazing statues.

I want to go back and take more photographs of these.

We walked on round to Cambrian Wharf, to the C&RT office to chat to them about moorings. As you can see the Wharf is busy as people make the most of the extended mooring times until the 31st March.

Back on the boat, Keith ran the generator for an hour and I took Paddy out for his afternoon whizz. He is not used to walking in the city as there is not much grass, but at least walking on the hard surfaces keeps his claws nice and short, it is like using an emery board on his claws walking on the pavements.

When we visited Birmingham last year at a similar time, I was quite sad at how Birmingham looked, but things look to have improved this year. There is a lot less litter on the streets, which is a good thing. Looking forward to more time looking around.

Birmingham here we come.

Hi Friends and Followers.

Tuesday morning began at 6.30 am with the sound of Canada Geese leaving the field opposite us, where they had roosted overnight. They were heading for the lake behind the Christmas trees, which alongside the towpath. No doubt they spend their daytime there. With us both being awake, I made us the usual morning brew and we discussed the tactics for the day, which included heading into Birmingham.

Having gotten up and walked Paddy, made breakfast and got the fires stoked up for the day, I did some hand washing, which I would spin whilst on the move. We left our over night mooring at 9.35 am, the first thing for me to do was to open the Shirley Lift Bridge.

There is something all empowering when you hold the traffic up. This lift bridge is not exactly quick in its operation, but on such a beautiful morning, I was non to bothered.

Not long after setting off, we had the knocking back and this time we thought it was coming from the propeller, so we pulled over and Keith checked the propeller and this was what we found. We thought maybe the beds were what was causing the kicking and low and behold the knocking did stop, so job done we thought.

The towpaths are much nicer as you head towards Birmingham.

We then entered Brandwood Tunnel (352 yards).

Out the other side.

Next came Kings Norton Stop Lock, which is a Guillotine lock. In the days of the private canal companies, the stop locks were common at junctions, because this meant the companies could protect their water supply from any newcomer who may wish to steal it. The King’s Norton one is unusual, because it has two wooden guillotine gates, mounted in steel frames and balanced by chains and counterweights. These days the gates are kept open. It is sad however to see then written all over. People have no respect for their heritage.

 

11.45 am we were heading for the junction and onto the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

Passed by the Cadbury Factory and of course the Bournville station.

Let the train take the strain to and from Birmingham, as the railway line runs alongside the canal.

As we approached Birmingham, we stopped past Granville Street Bridge to empty the cassette and top up with water, before moving through Gas Street and Broad Street Tunnel.

We are now moored up in Birmingham opposite the Barclay Card Arena, but could just as easily be by the seaside, because the seagulls are making their presence known. The YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships are taking place at the Barclay Card Arena at the moment.

Shirley bound.

Hi Friends and Followers.

It was a cracking start to Monday morning, with a frost and mist on the water.

With not a breathe of wind the reflections were stunning.

We left our mooring at 8.50 am with no need to hurry. Once the sun came out it began to warm the air, but still chilly on the move.

My first job of the morning was to raise the lift bridge, but I struggled to raise lift bridge No.28, but having let it back down again it came up the 2nd time, I knew I should of had porridge for breakfast. We pulled into Swallow Cruisers and took on 205 litres (⅓ of a tankful) of diesel, and picked up 3 cans of engine oil. The yard was busy putting four boats back into the water and taking two boats out.

Having said "Thank you" to the guys at Swallow Cruisers and paying our bill, we carried on but both Keith and I could hear a strange noise coming from the engine room, which we had 1st noticed Saturday coming up the Lapworth locks. With It appearing to be getting worse, we pulled in at the second lift bridge to take a look, fortunately it was only the timing indicator rubbing against the flywheel, Keith must have leant on it whilst changing the oil and filter on the generator, this was a huge relief.

The rest of the mornings cruise was brightened by the sight of at least three Kingfishers a pair of Buzzards and life in general. It was not brightened however by the state of the towpaths, in many places they are dire. In the canal was a lot of branches and twigs from the recent storm Doris. It was easy to see why C&RT were so busy after the storm.

We are now moored by the winding hole north of Bridge No.10, near Shirley, at what is a fairly non-muddy towpath, which will be nice change.

Curries and a rainy day.

Hi Friends and Followers.

I would love to say the weather has been glorious today, but I cannot, so I will go back to yesterday (Saturday). Having enjoyed a lovely cuppa with our friend Jacky, I went off food shopping with her in the afternoon and we bought a takeaway curry box and wine, so we could have a evening get together. We had a fabulous time, with loads of laughter, chatter, food and wine, which is always a good combination. We sat and watched the movie ‘Suffragette’, which I had seen previews of, but not had the chance to see it. Wow what a powerful movie about women’s rights and what they went through to get us the vote. I wonder what they would think today if they could see how far women have come, or have we? Have we actually come that far since Emmeline Pankhurst and her foot soldiers took to the streets to argue for the women’s vote and equality. It was quite hard hitting, but well worth the watch. Having got back home late, we went straight off to bed. Keith slept like a log, but I tossed and turned most of the night, and I have no idea why.

Got up this morning to rain hitting the cabin roof, which meant the towpath would be a muddy pool again, which Paddy totally hated. When we got back to the boat, he stood in the galley and looked at us as if to say “What shall I do now, I am not getting into my bed”. Keith wiped him down, but Paddy was still miserable, he hates being wet. We had good old porridge for breakfast, which I love because it sticks to the ribs and fills you up. I remember as child I hated the stuff, but that was probably because it had lumps in it and I am not a lumps kind of lady. During the morning the rain finally subsided and the sun popped out. Keith started the generator up and I crossed my fingers that the generator would behave, sadly crossing my fingers did not work, because half an hour later it stopped. Keith did get it going again and it did run alright for the rest of the hour, but it is clear we still have some sort of an issue with it. I think we may need to seek further help with this problem, because we have done everything we know. The boat jobs were all done and lunch was homemade Lasagna and fruit and yogurt for pudding. I then went and saw Jacky, to let her know we would be moving off on Monday. We got chatting over a cuppa. As I knocked on her door, she had actually just text me to invite us down for a cuppa, which is spooky. Keith joined us later on. We never fail to find things to chat about and Pop’s the Spaniel is always available for entertainment.

We said our “Goodbye’s” to Jacky as we will probably not see her now until late July and headed home, where I got on with more of my crochet. These are the ones I have done so far this year.

Lilac and White Baby Blanket.

Pale Green and White Baby Blanket.

Blue and White Baby Blanket.

Lemon and White Baby Blanket.

Pale Green and White Baby Blanket.

As you can see I have been busy, but I needed to get some made because my stock has gone down, without me realising. I am also knitting my dishcloths as well, so never a dull moment and I am not bored when it is raining.

Moving on.

Hi Friends and Followers.

Yes I know I am sorry I did not post on Friday, but that was because we had a dreadful signal and the weather was rubbish as it rained all day. So we had that Friday feeling, which most definitely came having run the generator Thursday evening only to find it cut out after 45 minutes. Now we thought we had sorted the problems out on the mooring, but clearly this was a new problem, because she started first time, which was a plus, but after 45 minutes nothing. Me being me I said “No problem we can sort this out on the move”. So Friday morning, we stripped the shelving out and gave the generator a new oil filter and oil change as she was due one anyway, we like to do this every 200 hours. We also cleaned out the air filter box, because that was a bit dirty. Having done all of that without to much of an issue, we started the generator up and woo hoo she ran quite happily for an hour, so fingers crossed we have sorted the problem out. For the rest of the day I did very little, I got on and did crocheting and more crocheting really, with walking the dog in between times and getting back to the boat up to my ankles in mud. Ok yes I am exaggerating a little, bit I was plastered lets say that.

But with a brand new day comes sunshine and blue skies, which is what we woke up to this morning (Saturday). Normally we do not move at weekends but with it being so lovely we made the decision to head up the Lapworth flight.

We cruised past Tom O’ the Woods, where there was a tree down across three quarters of the canal and towpath, but we managed to creep through. I have reported it to C&RT.

Onward to Kingswood Junction.

Keith did the first few locks. At the bottom lock the paddle gear was loose on the offside, which I have also reported to C&RT.

I then got to take over for a few locks, to get my hand back in. I have not steered through locks since last year, so it was good to get my hand on the tiller again and although I say it myself, I did not do bad. I do have issues with length (No jokes please), but I got my eye in and was quite at home.

Keith was going ahead and setting two locks ahead of me and I was closing up behind myself, it all worked brilliantly.

Keith then took over for the last few locks, he always makes it look so effortless. We got to the second lock from the top and was met by our good friend Jacky, who lives in one of the lock cottages. Jacky gave us a hand with the gates and then went off to put the kettle on whilst we moored up above the top lock.

We are now moored above Lapworth top lock, having done 5 miles 19 locks in 3hrs 40mins on a beautiful day and we only met one boat coming the other way, it was so very quiet out there.

Shrewley

Hi Friends and Followers.

I do not take life to seriously, because as I see it there is enough misery in the world, without me adding to it, so if you want to read a serious blog mine is not the place to be. Yesterday I wrote about us doing the Hatton Flight and made a glib comment that Keith had done it in an hour and half and that was a whole different story (joking). He did it in fact in two and a half hours, but someone who did not leave their name decided that they thought that this was a serious blog NO. Because the Anon follower did not take the sentence in the way it was meant I have amended yesterday’s blog. My comment was tongue in cheek. There were reasons why I said one and half hours and I do not need to explain those. I have to say and it does say on the comment box, if you wish to leave me a comment please do and please leave me your name. I DO NOT publish Anon comments. I am happy to accept negative comments, because from them we learn something new, but equally nice comments are welcome also. I will not publish derogatory message, because there is absolutely no need for them. Thank you.

Anyway enough of that.

We had a nice night on our mooring. We could hear the dull roar from the M40 and the rattling of the trains on the railway, but it did not stop me sleeping. I woke at 6.45 am to the sound of  Kingfisher peeping. Glorious bird and sound. There was no point me rushing out of bed to see if I could of seen it, because it would have flown away. Instead I leisurely got up and made us a brew. No TV, so we sat and nattered over our mug of tea before getting up to walk the hound. The towpath was muddy, because of the rain overnight, so Pad stepped around the puddles, leaving me to walk through them. Back on board it was good old porridge for breakfast. I love porridge with sugar on top, Keith prefers Syrup, but for me that is to sweet. The fires were made up and jobs were sorted. The one job we wanted to get done, was to replace the flow cartridge in our Mira shower, because it was leaking, which kept setting off the water pump. Keith took the shower apart and I cleaned up the cartridge, we then discovered the new one was different. Now baring in mind we had this one fitted in 2007, it had done really well. Keith fitted the new one, although it was different and it fitted, so we now think that Mira changed the design of the cartridge, because possibly they had problems with the old one leaking. Whatever the reason the new one is fine and no more leaking shower. For once this job took all of five minutes.

After lunch, we thought we would walk up into Shrewley Village, so we locked the boat up and set off with Paddy leading the way. Paddy had gotten it into his head that he was coming for a walk and who were we to say “No”.

Always a sad sight. To see historic boats left to a watery grave.

Paddy was happily trotting along the towpath up the slope to the tunnel, which would have been used by the horses, as the crew of the boats would of legged through the canal tunnel. I find it fascinating to walk where others have walked throughout history.

When you come out the other end you are onto the main road through Shrewley village, where there is a Spar village store, village hall and what used to be the Independent Chapel until the 1990’s.

It is now a dwelling by the looks of it, but still very pretty. I can imagine it was a tight squeeze when full for the service. The village is made up of old and new houses and a busy road. There is also a pub, but the pavement ran out, so we did not walk that far.

Looking at the tunnel from the village end.

I love the colours and the rock formation and it got me thinking about the man hours to dig this lot out to put the tunnel in. We do not know how lucky we are.

Back on board and Paddy is exhausted, so is sleeping happily by the stove. Marmite is still in her basket and I am off to make a coffee.

See you tomorrow.

IWA Calendar

Hi Friends and Followers.

Just had to post again this evening.
I have just found out that one of the photographs (photo above) I submitted to the IWA calendar competition has been put in for June next year. I am extremely chuffed.
You can now vote for the over all winner. Does a merry dance.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPd68aw62qhLJfLqMyuSzVligzs4fzbWdq_5ENTaaVz1HiuA/viewform?c=0&w=1&fbzx=3762817672488490000

It’s cruising time.

Hi Friends and Followers.

We have left our home mooring and are now in cruising mode.

We left the Saltisford Arm at 8.45 am to meet up with Caroline and Ray on Narrowboat Tranquil Daze, who we had planned to share the Hatton Flight with.

9am we were in the first lock and try as I may I could not close the offside bottom gate by about a foot.

Keith and Ray tried flushing the obstruction out. When that failed we got the grappling hook out and although I was hooking onto something, I could not move it.

Keith tried with the pole, he reckoned he could feel a lot of stones in the way, but like me he could not move them either. Just as we were about to give up hope, one of the C&RT volunteers came along, he was off to make bird boxes, but before leaving us he very kindly rang the land crew to ask them to come out and give us a hand, which they duly did. A very nice gentleman and lady came to our assistance. The gentleman had a long handled Kebb and after a lot of heaving and pushing, he managed to move brick rubble and large stones. Finally after over an hour we got the gates closed and the pound filled.

We were on our way. Keith had breasted the boats up, so Ray went ahead and set the locks and Caroline and I worked at shutting the gates and dropping the paddles (Not literally, we wound them down). It all worked like a dream and before we knew it we were up outside the cafe.

At the last lock we said our “Goodbye’s”, because we were going on, Caroline and Ray were stopping for water.

We really were a great team, they had never done the flight so fast. Keith has done it in two and a half hours but that is a whole different story.

The weather forecasters were predicting strong winds, so we decided we would not moor under any large trees, so carried on through Shrewley Tunnel. Thankfully nothing wanted to use the tunnel in the other direction, because our tunnel light had decided to fail, this was our fault because we had not checked it before leaving the mooring. Luckily the tunnel is only a short one and we were soon out into daylight and on our way. We stopped near to bridge 60 before mooring up for the day. I had made Leek and Potato Soup on Tuesday, so I heated that through and we had it with bread and butter, it was whilst going to stir the soup I noticed the solar panel board was flashing an error at me, which did not look to promising. After lunch, Keith checked the wiring and did a reset, hey presto it worked phew. Next on the hit list for repair was the headlamp. It turned out to be a dodgy bulb and as we carry spares it was no big deal, but we are now thinking we should at sometime replace the lamp, because it is very old and tatty. It has done us well since 2007, when we recycled it from another boat. The owner was going to throw the lamp away and we said we would love it for Hadar and it has been good to us for all these years, but we may think about replacing it. So all dramas were over come and now I can put my feet up for the rest of the day. Ha ha well you know me I will find something to do, I have more crochet to get on with, so I think my feet will be going up and I will get some more of my latest blanket done. My Sciatica will be glad of a rest as it has kicked off a bit, but thankfully my ribs and sternum seem to be alright for the moment, having given them a workout on the Hatton Flight.