Painting, Painting and Brass Cleaning.

Yes it has been another day of sunshine and painting. Top coats were added to the cratch board and locker hatch. I also rubbed down the galley doors on the portside and re-varnished them, as they had been through the winter weather and needed redoing. I then got on with varnishing around the doors of the back cabin, which had also been out in the elements all weather and therefore needs as much protection as possible. All this varnishing meant both Marmite and Paddy had to stay indoors for most of the day whilst the varnish dried. Whilst I was varnishing and painting, Keith got on with adding a coat of red gloss to our mop handles and to the tops of the back cabin doors. After a busy morning we settled down under the trees to eat our lunch, whilst watching boats cruising in both directions, many of them heading back to their hire companies. One such boat heading back to Ellesmere stopped and bought some of our place mats and coasters, the people had really enjoyed their boating holiday, the last time they hired a boat was Eleven years ago and will do it again.

During the afternoon, we sat in the shade cleaning the horse brasses from the back cabin and whilst we did so, we noticed a boat heading towards us. I recognised the boat and the people on board, it was David and Viv on NB First Fruits, who have a mooring in Market Harborough and are good friends. They pulled in  behind us for a chat whilst they ate their lunch, they had been to Llangollen and had just come off of the Montgomery. It was wonderful to see them again and we will see them again in the Autumn, when we head to Market Harborough. With the heat rising, the rest of the afternoon was spent sat in the shade of a common ash tree, which has given us shelter from the sun. Another lovely day, which will end with a nice shower and bed, because I am bushed.

Painting, painting and more painting.

The sun was out and so were the boats again. Yesterday's post suggested I saw at least 30 boats, well I think I may have under estimated, because today 64 boats came past us through out the day and yesterday was even busier, so I think you should double yesterdays number and add a little more.

My day was going to be another one of as the title suggests painting and more painting.

Before any painting could take place, I rubbed down the cratch board with our electric sander, to make sure the filler was nice and smooth. The cratch board then got its first coat of dark blue gloss and even though I say it myself, it does not look to bad. The locker hatch got its first coat of white gloss, whilst I did all of that Keith got on with scrubbing the last of the hold strings.

I then rubbed down the end of the top plank, gunwale, kebb and spike, so that I could paint them with red enamel.

The fireman's hose, which holds down the sheeting on the cratch board, was scrubbed and once dry painted with white paint, it is something I am trying because I am finding it hard to get hold of white plimsole whitener, which I have used in the past. Lunch was eaten in the dappled sunshine as we sat under the trees and bushes out of the direct sunshine, which was very hot.

After lunch Keith then got on with painting the exhaust pipe for the engine, which we paint with matt emulsion, it will need another coat tomorrow. I got on with painting our sale boards ready to write up again.

With the afternoon moving towards dinner time, I blacked both the saloon fire and the back cabin stove. I then washed all the ribbon and lace plates behind the back cabin stove and polished the brass and the copper kettle. Tomorrow I will wash the curtains again and wash all the other plates.

Whilst Keith and I worked hard Marmite enjoyed laying in the sun shine. She enjoyed being let off the boat to roll in the dirt and eat grass, without being attacked by loose dogs, as it has been very quiet on the towpath.

Paddy looked on as we got on with finishing off for the day.

With jobs done for the day, it was time to put everything away and I then had to cook dinner and have a much needed coffee. I am now sitting with my feet up. The generator has been on to charge the batteries and I put a wash on, so that need hanging up in the engine room and should dry over night. Tomorrow will be another busy painting day, so I am off to relax now before I feel the need to go to my bed.

Chimney's, boat poles and mending holes.

What a fantastic day weather wise. No sooner I opened my eyes, I could see the sunshine pouring through the pigeon box port holes. The heat was already up when I took Paddy for his walk, which was most enjoyable, I even got my sunglasses out, which is a first this year.

After breakfast Keith and I worked out what boat jobs we were going to tackle. My first job of the day was to rub down the cratch board with our new electric sander. With the sander connected up and the generator on to charge the batteries, I got on with the job in hand and soon discovered that when the flaking paint came off it revealed rotten wood.

The sight of an ever growing hole was not what I wanted, but the rotten wood had to go, so I kept working away at it with a chisel until I got to some decent wood. Keith then cut me a piece of wood to plug the hole, which will do until we can buy some wood to make a new piece. Before filling the hole with the new piece of wood and filler I left it to dry in the sunshine and got on with rubbing down the front locker hatch, which then got a coat of undercoat. Whilst I did those jobs Keith rubbed down our mop handles ready for undercoating and our Summer and Winter chimney's which needed a new coat of black paint.

After he had completed the rubbing down we got on with painting them.

We hung them in the trees to dry, whilst we sat down and had our lunch and a much needed break.

Having sat under the trees for a while it was then time to take the hold strings off and give them a darn good scrub, because they had gone green over the Winter. We took off the two Winter cratch ropes at the front and replaced them the white Summer ones.

I then filled one bucket with hot soapy water and another with canal water. I scrubbed each string in the hot soapy water and then dunked them into the bucket with canal water to get rid of the soap suds. Keith then laid them out on the top plank to dry. With all the strings washed we then had to restring the hold.

By the time we had completed re-stringing the hold it was 4pm, I was beginning to feel the heat and tired after a busy old day, but it has been very rewarding to see what we had got done.

With the cratch board dried out, I put in the new piece of wood to fill the hole and then finished it off with some flexible filler, which will dry over night. It may not look pretty but it will do the job until we can get some tongue and grove to make a new board. The boat poles, Kebb and boat hook handles got rubbed down and were given a rub down with Teak Oil, giving them a protecting coating. I was then done for the day, we just had to put things away for the evening.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to rub it all down and get some paint on it. All in all it has been a fantastic day, what with the weather and the work we have got done. It has also been a day of lots of boats on the move, I think I can safely say we had at least thirty boats come past us throughout the day.

With the days hard work over with, I have dinner to cook and tonight we are having Ravioli with Garlic Bread. Marmite and Paddy have been fed, after their very busy day of laying in the sun. I know I am going to sleep well tonight.

Weston Branch to back on Llangollen Val Hill No.3 bridge.

Travelled 1.7 miles, worked 4 locks in a time of 1 hour 50 minutes.

The morning got off to a fantastic start, when I opened the back cabin doors to find blue sky and sunshine.

The wind was so light that the reflections were amazing.

I took Paddy for his walk and as we stepped on to the foot bridge over the Weston Branch, I looked down into the water and saw thousands of tadpoles.

I could not believe my eyes, at the amount of tadpoles there were in the water, soaking up the sun on a concrete slab in the water. I have never seen so many in one place.

We had no hurry to be on the move, because we were heading up through the Frankton Locks and the lock keeper did not get there until 12 noon, so we had a leisurely morning. It did however seem that others were in more of a hurry to get to the locks before anyone else, because we stood and watched at least 5 other boats head to the bottom lock early, it transpired later that one of them had not booked in. K and I spent some of our time chatting to Helen and Leon on NB Dreamcatcher who were moored in front of us. They are a lovely couple and we had so much in common, it was a real pleasure to be in their company. We must have spent a good couple of hours nattering away to them about all things boating and not boating. Whilst we were chatting to them NB Amy pulled in opposite us to take on water. It turned out that Graham and Jan keep their boat at Debdale Marina on the Leicester Line and had seen us many a time go past.

What a small old world?

The boats moored at the bottom lock began to move, but with so many going up and some coming down, I felt we had time to kill, so made us a sandwich and a coffee for lunch.

1pm we set off from our mooring.

We reversed back across the junction and turned back on to the main Montgomery Canal, heading towards the bottom lock. on getting to the lock mooring, Keith could not get the boat in, so I walked down the gunwale and stepped off the bow, to walk up to the top lock to let the lock keeper know we were there, as we had booked in to go up.

We entered the bottom lock at 1.30pm after a hire boat had gone through, the pounds were very low, so I gave the hirers instructions on not to fill their lock until the boat in front was in the lock above, otherwise they could be left on the bottom. Keith crept along the middle of the pounds to reach the locks and I emptied the locks chambers to send him some water.

Whilst I was at the staircase lock, the lock keeper enquired as to whether I knew the name of a boat that had gone through, because they had not booked in and he wanted to write their name down, I had remember the boat because they were moored at Queen's head at the same time as us.

We exited the top lock and turned right back on to the Llangollen canal at 2.25pm, so not to bad considering the queue of boats going up and very little going down. We moored up at the 1st 48 hour mooring we came to, just before Val Hill No.3 bridge. We will be staying here for a few days to get some painting done on the boat, especially as the weather is supposed to be good for the next few days.

Queen's Head to the Weston Branch on the Montgomery Canal.

Travelled 3.3 miles, worked 1 lock in a time of 1 hour 10 minutes.

I had no need to hurry around this morning, because we were not going far, so I had a lie in with a cup of tea, watched a bit of the news, following the Olympic flame as it makes its way around the country over the next 70 days. I was up at 9am to walk Paddy, whilst Keith got on with making us both some breakfast. I only had toast, as I was still full from two cooked meals yesterday, Keith had poached eggs on toast, I am sure he has hollow legs.

We left the mooring at 10.25am having relit the back cabin stove.

On our way to the Graham Palmer lock a boat was coming towards us and I immediately recognised the lady steering. Her name is Brenda and the boat is named Solitude.

I do not know Brenda personally, but Brenda appeared on "Deal or no Deal" a few weeks ago, wearing her lucky hat. It was on that program I learnt that Noel had been on a few narrow boat holidays and knew a lot about the history, he in fact seemed to know a lot more than Brenda did. Maybe I will get to have a chat to Brenda sometime and find out how she enjoyed being on the show.

 

At the Graham Palmer lock a British Waterways man was clearing the weed from the lock gates, I had a quick chat with him as I worked the lock.

After an hour and ten minutes we made reached the Weston Branch, where we moored up on the offside. After some lunch we had a quick walk to the end of the branch, where it is supposed to be a nature reserve, but it in fact goes no further, so that was the shortest walk we have ever had. Both Keith and I decided that we should take the opportunity of a quiet mooring to saw up our wood with our new electric chainsaw.

I climbed in the hold and threw some of the mountain of wood out on to the mooring, whilst Keith started up the generator and prepared the chainsaw, he then began sawing the wood.

It was then my turn to have a go, after all no point buying an electric chainsaw so I can use it and then I do not at least have a go. Keith explained the workings and off I went sawing through the wood as if it were a knife through butter. We have a petrol chainsaw, but I find it to difficult to get it started. I am chuffed to bits with the new one and will be happily sawing wood when we find some more. on this occasion we managed to fill nine empty coal sacks with wood, so that is a great start to our wood collection for this coming winter. The bags of wood were stacked in the hold and the chainsaw stowed away.

The time is now 4.15pm and we are sat down eating Bombay Mix and watching the TV. Tomorrow we will be leaving the Montgomery Canal, which will be such a shame, because we have thoroughly enjoyed our time on it, but hey ho we will be back again, that I am sure of.

A grand day out.

Last night Graham, Emma and the boys Owain and Henry came to see us. It was wonderful to see them again after a six year gap. In that time Owen had grown up considerably, as he had been around 18 months old when we last saw him and Henry was only just thought off, because Emma had only just found out she was expecting him. Both boys are absolutely delightful and a credit to Emma and Graham. We spent a lovely time chatting to them over tea and coffee. With the boys both feeing tired, it was time for them all to go home, we had made plans to see them again Saturday for the day

Saturday morning began wet, we had been deluged by heavy rain over night and when Paddy and I stepped off of the boat for his morning walk there was that horrible drizzly rain falling, which for some odd reason gets you wetter than normal rain. Whilst we were out treading the towpath, K was making us mushrooms on toast for breakfast. The generator went on to charge the batteries, so I put a load of washing on, which would spend the day drying in the engine room. When Paddy and I got back to the boat, I sorted out the back cabin fire, I was going to let it go out, because we would not be on the boat all day, but because of the damp weather I changed my mind, I did not fancy coming back to a cold damp boat later in the day. With the fire waking up and breakfast eaten, it was time to get a few things done before we would be picked up at 11am by Graham and Emma. Outside the local canoe club were on the water, with lots of youngsters being instructed in how to paddle a canoe. It really is a joy to see so many young people taking to the water.

Just before 11am Keith and I locked the boat up and headed up on to the bridge to wait for our lift. Graham arrived just after 11am and drove us to his home in Ruyton XI Towns. Both he and Emma have a beautiful cottage, which has a very old part and a more up to date bit, but it is incredibly homely. When we arrived Emma and youngest son Henry were there to greet us. Owain was away on a sleep over so we would not get to see him.

We were introduced to their family of stick insects, chickens, duck and hamsters.

We were taken to the Old Three Pigeons at Nesscliffe for lunch and very nice it was too. The pub dates back to the 1400's. Keith remembered it from when he used to drive past many moons ago.

After a lovely lunch, Emma and Graham suggested we have a walk around some of Nesscliffe Country Park. We walked up to the caves of Kynaston. They were named after Humphrey Kynaston who was an English highwayman. In 1491 he was found guilty for the murder of John Hughes, he was declared an outlaw by Henry the VII and so he moved out of Myddle castle to a cave in Nesscliffe Rock. With him he took his horse Beelzebub, who lived in one of the two rooms in the cave.

There are some wonderful climbing routes on the stretch described in West Midlands Rock by Doug Kerr.

Both Graham and Keith were eyeing up the routes. It was most impressive, but neither Keith or I have done any rock climbing since living on the boat, so we would be very rusty.

It was onward and upward as we climbed up the hill.

To think that years ago this was a quarry being worked by men with hand tools and today it is a place of recreation and homes to the wildlife.

Henry was very at home on this large log.

Chiseled out of the rock all those years ago were the marks of some of the workers.

 

We take it for granted the tools we use today, but when these men worked it would have been hammers and chisels. Having seen the red sandstone quarry and its climbing routes, Keith, Graham and I continued walking to the top of The Cliffe, whilst Emma and Henry went home by car.

We reached the top and the view was stunning despite the low cloud. The Cliffe is an area of common land. Commons are areas of unenclosed medieval pasture, which was fortunate to survive the enclosure movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

On top of The Cliffe is a trig point. It is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying. Graham lead us back down from The Cliffe and back to the house.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening meal with Graham, Emma and Henry and the evening seemed to pass so quickly, because in no time at all it was 10pm and so I suggested that we should make tracks home. Emma very kindly drove us back to the boat. After such a wonderful day with friends, both Keith and I were ready for our bed.

Canal Central back to Queen's Head.

Travelled 2.3 miles, worked 3 locks in a time of 2 hours 5 minutes.

Yesterday afternoon, having thought that I would be doing very little, I suggested to K that we should go out and have a walk as it was so nice, so at 2pm we closed the boat up and headed off along the towpath towards Maesbury Marsh, we got up on to the road and walked through the village to the Navigation Inn and back down on to the towpath. We did not walk far, but it was nice to stretch the legs and on the way back we had a coffee at Canal Central. Back on the boat it was a matter of cooking dinner, feeding mog and dog, during the evening we sat and watched "Planet Earth Live", wow what a powerful program last night, with the Elephants almost loosing their babies in a swollen river, thankfully further down the river they managed to climb out and were reunited with their mothers, but it could have been such a huge disaster. We then watched "Lost Families" before heading off to bed.

We left our mooring at 8.45am and were waved off by the owners of Canal Central. Following behind us was a hire boat.

First stop was the sanitary station at Maesbury Marsh, as we needed to top up with water and more importantly empty the toilet cassette. The station is very clean and well looked after, the only down side is there is no bins to put rubbish in, so we will do that further up. The hire boat came past us whilst I was filling the water tank and moored up opposite the Navigation Pub, the people then went in search of the farm shop. We said goodbye to Maesbury Marsh, leaving the hire boat behind.

It was hello to the bottom of the three Aston Locks. The Swallows were still darting in and out from underneath the lock keepers hut, but the Swans and their Cygnets were no where to be seen, so they had either moved or were well hidden in the reeds on the lake.

The water level on the pound above the lock was well down, so I suggested to K that I walk on to the next lock, just in case he should get well and truly stuck and I would need to let some water down for him to move. The hire boat had caught us up and my worry was they would fill the lock, draining yet more water from the pound. As he made slow progress to lock 2, he did stick in a couple of places, but managed to get the boat moving again without me having to let water down. The same thing happened above lock two as the pound was down and I had the same worry with the hire boat behind us. Lock 1 was full, so I emptied the lock into the pound making K's life a little easier. As the boat was coming up in the lock, a boat came along ready to go down, so I enquired if there were any moorings at Queen's Head and was told we could get in on the bollards in front of the canoe centre.

When we arrived back at Queen's Head, we found ourselves mooring in the same place as we had done on the way down. We are staying here for the weekend as we are meeting up with friends. It is almost lunchtime so I need to shut the computer down and get something made for lunch. I will wish you all a very happy weekend.

Boating Business - New horse drawn boat on Montgomery Canal

Boating Business - New horse drawn boat on Montgomery Canal