More Prawns?

St James, Acton Trussell

Good Morning from the Sunny Shroppie, 

It's Linda here again - I hope you have been enjoying Carl's jokes while I have been gathering my thoughts for another Jotting.  We’ve been retracing our steps this week, back through Rugeley and Great Haywood and mooring once again on Tixall Wide. The Lady Aberlour has been reclining luxuriously in our new marina for a week while we made a trip home. We had a riotous time planned.  Jab on Sunday, dentist on Tuesday and voting on Thursday. All went well, no adverse reactions to our top up jab and it was heaven to arrive back at the marina (Kings Bromley, if you’re curious) to find our boat afloat (we were often grounded at our previous abode) and a handy car parking space nearby. Tricky’s not too keen on the wooden jetty that we're tied to, she tip toed daintily along it, jumped aboard and took a flying leap into the sanctuary of her bed. Carl and I trudged backwards and forwards with assorted bags, boxes and rucksacks-it's always exciting setting off on a cruise once the car is unpacked.  Finally, we are ready and as we reversed out of our berth, it was a relief to find that the Lady Aberlour behaved perfectly in the deep water and swished her rudder as we moved off through the narrow entrance and out onto the canal. We’re off on our travels again!! There was a small exchange of pleasantries between the Captain and his first mate (me) as we set off - only a few cross words, much to the amusement of our neighbour, on a boat called Marmite.

Our new neighbour

I am usually fairy well organised when it comes to getting the contents of the land based fridge/freezer/veg basket to the less spacious fridge/ice box/larder in our floaty home. For some reason, I failed to deal with the large bag of ‘Christmas’ prawns in the home freezer before we set off last Sunday morning, so they were packed into the electric cool box along with several assorted containers of a tomato based 'something' and a block of frozen pastry. I stowed it in the car knowing full well that our tiny boat fridge couldn’t begin to contain it all. Consequently, for our evening meal that night, Carl and I waded man and womanfully through a whole bag of Best Prawns, without benefit of the usual salad accompaniment. They formed a pale pink lake on my plate, with a side order of radishes and tomatoes and a couple of toasted bagels for Carl while I tried to disguise mine in amongst a generous slathering of cream cheese on wafer thin slices of brown bread. I’m still trying to work out what to do with the pastry!

Unusual wildlife

There was only one boat in front of us at Tixall Lock when we set out early last week - that’s a good start to the day! We met the African Queen coming down the lock and the whole roof was shimmering in the sunlight - it was covered in ornaments made out of old tin cans. I called to Carl to take a photo so I could show you but but he was too busy casting off and getting the boat into the lock, so you’ll have to imagine how they might look.  We were taking on water at Spode when we met up with the Betsy Trotwood and her crew who went by the names of Dozy and Dim (that's the name of their You Tube channel) we shall follow their adventures and you can too if you like - here's the link Dozy and Dim  I managed to get a photo of their boat today but Dozy and Dim were nowhere to be seen.  You do meet some very interesting people living on boats.

Betsy Trotwood - the abode of Dozy and Dim

We turned onto the Shroppie at Autherley Junction and were immediately jammed in the stop lock.  We tugged and heaved on the gate and Carl tried to coax the boat gently through the narrow gap but there was a most dreadful grinding noise as our rubbing strakes came into contact with the gate.  After several attempts and leaving a whole lot of our black paint behind, we managed to squeeze through and chugged off towards Brewood.  I did ring Canal and River Trust to report it but I'm not expecting any immediate action.  

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Stubborn gate at Autherley Junction - heave ho!

As we came up to the single lock at Wheaten Aston, the lady on the hire boat in front waved at me happily as they chugged off leaving the gates open and the paddles up. I harrumphed quietly and reminded myself of this years boating resolution - to be kind to everyone we meet, no matter what the provocation. It won't be too hard (says she hopefully) as we are so happy to be back on board. It's so good to pick up the old routines of casting off every day in search of a new mooring spot and enjoying the quiet life surrounded by ducks and sheep. We drink scalding hot coffee on the back deck, as we chug along in the early morning chill, waiting for the hawthorn to burst from the hedgerows into its full, frothy glory. We count the ducklings as they paddle along frantically and cheep like wind up bath toys. The moorhens take fright and walk on water to escape into the reeds, the haughty swan glides by us but spoils the effect by suddenly upending and waggling its tail feathers at us. The geese are guarding their young, who sleep in piles at the waters edge and their mothers squawk a soft lullaby to let them know all is well as we pass by. The silly sheep, who gaze gormlessly at us from their green pastures, are often rescued from the water by passing boaters.  What causes them to suddenly hurl themselves into the water is a mystery - Kamikaze sheep! Carl had to go and roll a ‘cast’ sheep back to its feet in the field by Rodbaston Lock, the poor thing couldn’t get up immediately, so I guess it had been looking up at the sky for quite some time. That was our good deed done for the day so we continued on to moor above Boggs Lock, to find that in our absence, a wind turbine has been erected in the field behind the hedge. I fear that the modern world is encroaching ever closer into our ‘Magic Kingdom’, more and more new estates are being built by the canals and the fields are disappearing, to be replaced by houses and road ways. All the more reason to enjoy the waterways while we can. Now that I’ve got a few locks under my belt and I’ve started walking the towpaths with Tricky again, we both seem to have found a new lease of life. The Lady Aberlour is comfy and cosy when the rain is pelting down outside and, in spite of the showers, we have had many hours of blue skies and sunshine.  The gardeners amongst you will have welcomed the rain this week, Carl captured some stunning photos of a storm passing over us at Acton Trussell    

Storm clouds over Acton Trussell

This week we shall be hanging about near Norbury Junction for a while as we are having a new cratch cover made and we missed our appointment to get measured up by a whole year. I phoned the chap at Bethsaida Covers to apologise and he wasn’t in the least bit put out, but he is very busy, so we have to put up with our poor shrunken apology for a cover until he can fit us in. We made some extra long toggles in an effort to keep the rain out of the cratch - believe me, there's nothing worse than damp in your cratch!  

I'll be back again next week with more witterings from our watery world.  

Love as always from

The Floating Chandlers

PS  I'd forgotten how much I like Brewood - it was a delight to rediscover the landmarks, Speedwell Castle is right in the centre and is much photographed.  I couldn't resist taking this shot.

PPS We heard a toot toot from a passing boat and popped up to find Lisa and David on What a Lark pootling past.  Nice to see you again and maybe one day we'll be able to meet up for a proper boating chat.

Acton Trussell

Handsacre Sunset

 

Armitage tunnel

Tamburo - what a beautiful boat

Is it dinner time yet?

Deptmore Lock

Boating in the rain.