Narrowboat Adagio

At last – my old friend runs out of excuses and treks north to join us on de boat for a few days. Tuesday – the Wheatsheaf for lunch and a few pints of Big Bang Theoryfrom the Nene Brewery.  Wednesday – into Rugby for a visit to the musuem & art gallery, the Rugby Tap and then lunch at the Merchants Inn:

CAMRA pub of the year (Rugby)

DarkStar Hophead – nice

A good choice of beers – Nethergates Suffolk, Bishop’s Farewell, Umbel Stout . . 

Awoke to the marina freezing over and the sound of the ice crunching around the outside of the boat. 

Hopefully this could be the last case of sub-zero temperatures??

Very odd seeing the geese land on ice – don’t often see ice inside the boat. An icy cratch is not nice.

Or the bathroom porthole – it was covered with Viv’s homemade plugs, which kept the room warm but allowed the window to freeze. The heating came on at 0700 – which was nice – melting and re-freezing the exhuast:

There is one animal who likes the outdoors, whatever the temperature:

We’re looking forward to the first visitor of the year, my good friend from Ubley and committee member of the Chew Valley Beer Festival (a clue there of what we’ll be up to the next few days!) – Mr David Thomas.  Just hope he’s packed his long johns!

Well, our target for this year is to get up to the North West and Liverpool Docks. Managed to book a week in Salthouse Dock (above), 13-21st May. Now we have to plan when to leave here and where to stop en route. A rough guide is on CanalPlan  http://canalplan.org.uk/journey/5847_cp

We aim to make it a 5 to 6 week trip stopping at Chester … and anywhere Viv fancies!

Must do more research on this City!

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/liverpool-canal-link

What to do on a dull Sunday? The Canal & Rivers Trust have set up these open days where members of the public can wander along to a lock that has been drained and is undergoing some restoration. Having spent weeks negotiating these beasts, I thought it might be “nice” to go and see the bottom of one, as you do. Freeman’s Meadow Lock is a huge animal. It’s adjacent to a massive weir and Leicester Football stadium. We passed thru it, twice on our Summer trip, see blog passim and (http://narrowboat-adagio.tumblr.com/post/126497057016/day-three-bumblebee-to-leicester)

Anyway, CRT had advertised this open day (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/events/2016-01-30-leicester-line-open-weekend) and so we went – only 30 mins away . . 

What are they all looking at?

Note the wooden beams holding back the water …

and the rare sight of the absolute bottom of the lock!

Quite an engineering feat with a floating crane … they replaced the top gates.

shiny new oak gates

another rare sight – the culvert (what lets in the water when you open the paddles)

The wooden beams at the top of the picture are also holding back tons of fresh river water … the guy in the fluorescent suit was the engineer in charge and assured us that the new beams would be a dream to handle!

What else do you meet at the bottom of a lock??

Lots of helpful chat . .  esp from Darren Green . .

It was all very interesting but hopefully the last time I find myself at the bottom of a lock!  We walked on to the next lock at St Mary’s Mill

We were guided to a new farm shop (Smith’s at Chapel Brampton  http://www.smithsfarmshop.co.uk/ ) by our neighbours (John & Christine) and it was quite good – even arranged for a supply of Toby’s dog food (Forth glade, Chicken & Tripe).  They said they could beat the online price and since I wanted to support a local firm, I agreed. So we were back to pick up 54 days worth of food!! We also noticed the old railway passed nearby.  It used to connect Northampton with Market Harborough – one of the more controversial of Mr Beeching’s cuts.  There is a steam railway here (http://www.nlr.org.uk/) and they run trains in the season. So we walked a mile or two . . seemed so sad that all this very useful transport system was just ripped up, so short-sighted … as Flanders & Swan sang . .  “Slow Train … no more” see below

It’s now a popular cycle & walking track of some 14 miles.

Well, it’s been sub-zero here and we’ve had frosts but this was the first snow which fell late last night, as forecast.  Not a lot but enough for Toby to roll around in and lose the ball.

This end of the marina is still frozen

chance for some arty pix

No, Viv hasn’t been speared – just her walking stick with a knob on the end.

Our end of the marina – mainly ice free – the ducks, geese and swans can swim freely here.

trying to copy the same photo taken last year – not quite enough icicles?

I bought 160 kg of coal yesterday – thinking we may get frozen in!  I also bought a bag of reconstituted logs – HotMax, only £5.50 for 20kg – give it a go! They do seem to be good and can get the morning dormant fire back to life in 30 mins … any fool can be cold!

Finding new walks for the dog is always a challenge. The very wet weather has turned our “dog field” into a quagmire and bits of the towpath walks are no better. So where to go?  We like the country park at Daventry and have been investigating the Brampton Valley Way – a 14 mile ex-railway track between Northampton & Market Harborough.  We decided to visit the section at Great Oxendon – as it had a tunnel!!

Nice little website dedicated to the tunnel – including a gallery of photos – the last shows a train in 1981!

http://www.greatoxendontunnel.co.uk/welcome.html

What they didn’t tell us is that is controlled by aliens … 

Don’t go in Steve … . oh, no, a beam of light appears … .

Oh no … first to get beamed up is Toby …

And then Steve!!

Then they were back – but were they the same????

Who could really tell … .

As retirees or just some guys having a belated Gap Year, we try and get at least one day out a week.  This week we planned to find the George & Dragon in Stoke Golding, which is owned by the Church End Brewery, see

http://www.churchendbrewery.co.uk/

A local brewer whose beers we have supped at the Wheatsheaf in Crick and found much to our liking. It’s near Nuneaton and so that was our first stop – quite a surprise and although not as twee and villagey as Market Harborough, it did have more to it than Daventry or Northampton.  The pub was really a good find; the rural location plus 6 or more real ales and homemade food was just what we wanted:

So what beers do they do … Vicar’s Ruin, What the fox hat, Arthur’s Wit, Goats Milk … . their website lists em all!

I had a pint of Stout Coffin and then a half of Nut brown, whilst Viv had Vicar’s Ruin:

They only do food at lunchtime (there are 3 pubs in this we village but they seem to have come to some understanding … one pub has an Indian restaurant . . so evening food sorted) but it is all home made – even the hand cut chips. We opted for pies – steak & ale and chicken & mushroom – both proper pies with a complete casing of shortcrust pastry!

It was grand day out, the Ashby canal runs nearby and we walked the dog along there for an hour  … . the weather worsens from now on with rain for Thursday and then a diving down of the temperatures below zero.

Well, new to us. A neighbour mentioned this pub and on our day out this week we tracked it down – hidden away in Prince William Walk, the Early Doors pub is a small and plain place serving 5 or 6 beers straight from the barrel.  The owners were off on a holiday – first one in years – next week, so all the beers were discounted to £2.50. Great little place . . 

Hidden away off the main street.

Toby then got his reward for being dragged around the streets – a walk around the reservoir . . 

There were a few gold finches on the bird feeders but then this chap came along . .

Viv took some great shots of Cracks Hill from the marina on our return … looks like cold weather coming . .