Alive & Kicking!

Wednesday 28th October



This is a short post with no photos,but just to let you all know we are still alive!! We came to the marina on Sunday 25th as Kev had a few jobs to do on the boat. Kev has been working on a land rig about 4 miles from our house and works 2 weeks on & 2 weeks off so we haven't been anywhere on the boat. We have been busy at home decorating and we had a new roof on the house,the reason for the roof was that our next door neighbour had his done and it looked like a new property when they had finished it. Anyway we spoke to Kelvin who's company had done it and he quoted what we thought was a good price (£4,100) so he did it and it took 4days and we are really pleased with it. We are still hoping to sell our house but are waiting for the market to pick up a bit more,houses where we are don't seem to sell as fast as in other places perhaps it is that we are east of Hull and is too far out for people who knows eh! Anyway Kev has been laid off from the land job so he is trying to get back offshore where he can go back to 4weeks on & 4weeks off but as you all know jobs are scarce at the moment so time will tell. We are going to move to another marina probably on the Oxford canal somewhere as this will be the only way we can see different places on the boat. We have been really happy here at Great Haywood and would gladly return in the future. Well Ta Ta for now

A break from decorating!

Friday 25th September

While Kev has been at work for 2 weeks I have been decorating our living room, we thought as we haven't been able to sell our house it would be a good idea to change the living room and give it a new look so we took the carpet up and are putting oak effect laminate flooring down.We will probably be in our house for a few years now as things didn't go to plan! But no use moaning about it so lets get on with things and enjoy the boat as best we can.

We have decided to bring Kev's mum Joan and her partner Ron to the boat today for a trip to Stone. They haven't been on the boat and so this is the first time they have seen it in the flesh so to speak. Ron's daughter and her husband have a narrowboat (sorry can't remember the name of it) and they had it built not long before ours. They have it moored in Beverley near Hull and live on it. Anyway we picked Joan & Ron up at 7.30am and headed for our marina at Great Haywood and had a good journey arriving about 11.15am. After unpacking the car and getting things on the boat I took Buster for a walk while Kev topped the water up etc. We managed to set off from the marina about 12.20pm and decided we would moor at Salt and go to the Hollybush Inn for tea, we had a lovely meal. This is a lovely pub and is supposed to be the oldest pub in the area and well worth the short walk along the single track road which only took about 10minutes.

Saturday 26th September

After all having a good nights sleep we had breakfast and set off for Stone where we arrived just after lunch. The weather has been good and it has been busy with boats both private and holiday boats. We took Joan & Ron for a walk into Stone and had a wander round the shops before having a pint in the Wetherspoon pub where we left Joan & Ron so they could go for a wander on their own. We went back to the boat where I made a lasagne for tea. We went to the Swan pub about 8pm and it was packed, there were a lot of people who we think were off to a wedding reception so we struggled to get a seat. There was a band preparing for the night they were on at 10pm and were quite good although we didn't stay too long as I don't think it was Ron's sort of music!

Sunday 27th September

Well Kev and I were up early as usual as Kev takes Buster for his walk and it was only about 6.45am and we could hear music playing quite loud as we opened the doors into the cratch. Kev seemed to think it was the wedding party still going on ( some party).Mind you it didn't disturb our guests as they were sound asleep well Ron was as Joan was up just after 7am!! The music faded away by 8am so it was back to a peaceful Sunday morning. We were moored up just before the winding hole so after Ron had got up we set off to turn round and head back to the marina. Although we were going to moor at Weston and go to the Woolpack for tea and stay the night at Weston. It was a lovely morning and the weather has been very good for late September,we had thought we may need to light a fire this weekend and even prepared the stove but haven't had to light it! It has been another busy day with plenty of boats on the move, we stopped and moored up for breakfast along the way and had a cooked breakfast sat outside in the warm weather( Can't believe it sat outside for breakfast at this time. Great!!)

We passed the new marina at Aston it was supposed to be almost ready for opening but it didn't look like it was anywhere near completion to us! We arrived at Weston after lunch and Joan & Ron wanted to go for a walk to see where the pub was so I went with them with Buster. I left them and headed back to the boat and sat and did my crossword while Kev pottered about outside. While he was outside Elsie ( Nb bendigidig) came past walking her dog, Kev had a good natter with her,we will hopefully meet up with her again at some point. Kev reads Bendigidig's blog so it was nice for him to meet a blogger he reads.

We had a nice afternoon not really doing much and then went off to the Woolpack pub for some food I must admit we have been here several times and although it has changed owners a couple of times (I think) we have never had a bad meal yet.

Monday 28th September

Only a short journey back to the marina today and Joan and Ron have enjoyed their short trip on the boat. We wanted to get back to the marina for lunchtime so we could sort the boat before leaving ie: empty toilet etc. Although we would be back for the following Friday as Ben (our builder) is having an open day and asked if we would let him use 4Evermoore for people to view and he also had Trudy Ann (a dutch barge)that was near completion to show too. Anyway it was back home for us and we would be finishing the living room hopefully!!

Heading back to Great Haywood

Wednesday 2nd September

Not a bad start to the day but the forecast was for showers and maybe windy too, so at 7.45am we left our moorings near Whightwick. We never passsed any boats until we got to Autherley junction and then there were only a couple of boats heading onto the Shroppie. We passed plenty of fishermen as there seemed to be a few matches going on today. We stopped briefly after bridge 76 to have a sandwich and take Buster for a walk about midday and then carried on to Penkridge where we moored up after Filance lock through bridge 85 at 3.15pm. We hadn't had much rain on the way only a few showers here and there but the wind had picked up a bit with quite strong gusts at times. We will stay here until Friday as I want to do a bit of cleaning and Kev wants to do some odd jobs. We will be heading back to Great Haywood to the marina and are hoping to go for a bite to eat and a pint (of course) with Ben & Kelly (our builders) as we haven't seen them for a while. We will head off for home on Sunday as Kev will be back to work on Wednesday. So this will probably be the last entry on the blog for a while.

Rock houses at Kinver

Monday 31st August

Well not a bad morning so we decided that we wanted to go visit the Kinver rock houses as we had never managed to get to them as each time we had been to Kinver we never seemed to get round to it. As we set off mid morning the sun came out and it was quite warm and it was a good walk a lot of which was uphill and took us roughly just over half an hour. It was worth the walk but we were a bit dissapointed that the houses were closed and are only open on weekends from 2pm to 4pm. But never mind they were still amazing and the views over the countryside are lovely. These houses are now owned by the national trust who have renovated them and used to be home to several families. The first recording of people dwelling here goes back to 1777 and they are in sandstone rock. We walked back to the boat for lunch and then we left the moorings near the Kinver lock and went to the winding hole just before the Whittington Horse Bridge 28 where we turned the boat and moored up near the bridge. We wanted to go to the pub The Whittington Inn which dates back to 1310, Kev had read about it in the Nicholsons guide and it sounded good. So off we went over the bridge and we walked down a quiet lane and onto a busy road and just a few hundred yards we were at the pub. What a super pub, this is said to have been the home of Dick whittington's grandfather and later the home of Lady Jane Grey whose ghost is supposed to sometimes be encountered! We never saw her though even after 3 pints but never mind eh. The pub was very busy with people eating and the food looked really good, and if we are in this area again we will definately be coming here for a meal.

Tuesday 1st September

We were up early as usual and after breakfast and walking Buster we left the mooring at bridge 28 just before 8am. We wanted to crack on today while the weather was fine as the rest of the week the weather forecast wasn't good and we want to be back at our marina for the weekend. We stopped at 12pm for fish & chips at Swindon before bridge 40, well worth it we can recommend the chippy here. The weather was quite good until we reached the bratch where it started to rain heavy at times. We had been following a boat for a while but passed it after Bumblehole lock where we saw the man on the boat with his boat hook , he was trying to free his propeller which had a fold up camping chair wrapped round it so I am glad we were behind him as it could have been Kev with the boathook! Well I hope he managed to get it sorted. We carried on and finally moored at 5pm between bridge 53 &54 near Whightwick.

A quiet August bank holiday

Friday 28th August

Woke up this morning to what seemed quite a nice start to the day, we left our mooring at 8.50 am. As we got through Penkridge lock it started to cloud over and wasn't long before it started to rain so it was on with the waterproofs. We stopped after Boggs lock near Gailey for a cooked breakfast,while it was raining quite heavy. We moored up close to the Fox & Hounds pub at 2pm as it was quite windy and still showery. There were a lot of boats moored here and quite a few hire boats on the move too. We went to the pub for some tea about 5.30pm I had a beef,mushroom & Guinness pie while Kev had a burger, both meals were quite good, we stayed for a while and had a couple of beers before leaving to get settled down on the boat for the night.

Sat 29th August

An autumn feeling to this morning quite cool but blue skies so that was a good start. We left our mooring at 8.20am and had the canal almost to ourselves as there wasn't much movement of boats. It was only when we got to the lock at Compton did we start to see other boats on the move. We stopped at Limekiln Chandlers to fill up with fuel after which we moved across to the visitor moorings so I could pop to the shops there to pick up some odds and sods, we had a sandwich and then left there around noon. We had a good journey and we were stopped at the Bratch for about an hour while we waited for some boats coming up. Kev took advantage of the time to wash the other side of the boat while I set about making a chicken curry for tea! When we got down through the Bratch we moored just after Bumblehole lock near to the Wagon & Horses pub at 4pm. We were going to stay here for the night but then we decided that the pub may get a bit rowdy as it was Saturday night so at 6.20pm we left the mooring and carried on through Botterham staircase locks and finally we moored after Marsh lock about 7.30pm. We went for a couple of pints in a pub The Old Bush Inn which was a short walk into Swindon village. There was a fish & chip shop near to the pub which looked ok but we never tried it as we had already eaten, but we now know it is there so maybe we will try it another time!

Sunday 30th August

When we got up this morning at 7am there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was a lovely morning but as we were getting ready to leave our mooring the clouds were thickening but at least it wasn't raining. After stopping at BW services at Greensforge lock to get water etc we carried on down through the lock and moored for breakfast opposite a lovely garden which we think must belong to a garden centre as we could see greenhouses behind the house. After having our cooked breakfast we headed off onto the Stourbridge Canal and after working up through the 4 locks which was made easier for us by 4 guys on a boat ahead of us who open the paddles. It looked very nice as we progressed on this canal and there were some lovely gardens alongside the locks. We turned at Wordsley Junction heading towards Stourbridge as we had decided to visit here as we had not been before. We were dissapointed as we got there as there wasn't any other boats on any of the visitor moorings and it lookad a bit run down. As we headed down through Neville Garrat footbridge to the winding hole at the end of the canal there were boats on either side who were permanent moorers,and as we passed one of the boats there were some people having a drink on their boat. They were very friendly and said that we could possibly moor on one of the moorings if we spoke to a guy on another boat who was the harbour master there. As Kev winded at the end we looked at the place and thought we wouldn't bother as the place looked a bit run down although perhaps we may be wrong and some one will tell us that once you walk up into the town it is ok. Anyway we had made our minds up to head off to Kinver and so we went back down onto the Staffordshire canal where the the weather had now become overcast and then started with light rain. As we were on the outskirts of Kinver we passed an old wooden boat which we had seen last year moored up at the other side of Kinver and the couple who lived on it also had 2 small children. I can't believe that anyone would choose to or even have to live like this. As we were approaching the lock at Kinver there were no people about which is very strange as this is after all August bank holiday!! We moored up after the lock at 5.45pm and later on about 8.30pm we had a walk to the pub The Vine and it was quite empty with only about a dozen people in and that was including us! The lad behind the bar told us it had been like this all weekend, after a couple of drinks we left and went back to the boat.

Watch out wasps about!

Thursday 27th August

We arrived at Great Haywood Marina at 11.45am and after unpacking the car I took Buster for a walk to stretch his legs. Meanwhile Kev put the gas on and filled the water tank up and we were ready to leave the marina,and we set off at 12.50pm. We had decided to head onto the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal,it was a nice day with a bit of a breeze but still quite warm so I changed into a pair of shorts. (big mistake!) As we were passing some boats at Tixall Wide I felt something on my thigh,as I touched my leg I felt a sting then a couple more,I had to hand the tiller to Kev as it was very painful and a wasp must have been inside my shorts. Well I've never in my life been stung but I can tell you it brought me to tears and I could see how people who have many stings can die. Luckily I had some antihistamine cream but it took a while for the stinging to ease. There are a lot of wasps about so beware,I know wasps don't really bother you but obviously I must have annoyed it.

Well after all that business with the wasp we carried on and as we were in the lock at Midland Chandlers, Kev noticed a sign that BW had put there. It said that the Shroppie was closed from bridge 44 to bridge 48 and may open at the end of September. This is due to a severe leak at the bottom of Shebdon embankment,so we were a bit dissapointed as we were going to go onto the Shroppie. We didn't see many boats today and we wondered if it was because of the closure on the Shroppie. We moored up just after Longford lock at Penkridge at 5.45pm. After we had eaten Kev went out to wash the boat and while he was outside 3 young lads stopped to ask Kev if there was anywhere they could put their tents up for the night. Apparently they are walking from John O Groats to Lands End in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Kev said there was a bit of space along side of Longford lock and as long as they didn't leave a mess it should be ok. They pitched their tents up and Kev took them a can of beer each, which they were very glad of!! Good luck to you all.

Back to the Marina again

24th August
Well hello everyone,sorry we have not blogged for a few weeks, but we have been back to our home in Roos. Kev was offered a job 5miles from where we live on a land rig 2weeks on and 2weeks off. He was going to have a year off work but due to the interest rates etc he decided that it was the right thing to do to take the job.So we will spend the 2weeks he is off to be on the boat.Also I wanted to be home as my friend Kath was told her mum was given 3 weeks to live as she had cancer of the bile gland and I wanted to be here to support her. Well she died on 11th August, Kaths mum was German and was called Henny and had come over here in 1947 to marry Ron who she met in Germany when he was in the intelligence corp.Kath and I found lots of papers that Ron had kept relating to bringing Henny over to England,one of which was a form telling Henny that she was not allowed to take any currency from Germany to England and that she would be given £1 for her journey!

We will be back at Great Haywood on Thursday afternoon. Kev finishes work on Wednesday but I have arranged to meet my brother at Humberside airport to give him a car as he arrives back to the UK from Australia where he has been working.He lives in Brazil with his partner and their daughter,but he is back here to see our mum and then goes over to Ireland to go to the fishing competitions that are held every year. We will then head off to the boat from there and hopefully leave the marina in the afternoon and probably get to Tixall Wide where we will moor for the night.