Narrowboat Firecrest

While Eric’s been working hard on Firecrest, I’ve enjoying Lakeland’s fast running water.

I’m sure we’ve got this the wrong way around but mum loves to pamper me.No trip home is without the obligatory visit to Sizergh Barn where the cafe has been built over the milking parlour and the raw milk tastes even better than it did when we were children.

And despite the dreary grey weather we did find some colour, albeit in the garden centre.

Time to say goodbye to my snowman  and move on. The canal still has one or two floating icebergs which wanted to come with us. It seemed to stick to the bow for quite a way.

The melting snow and ice has raised the level of the canal but we’re unlikely to suffer with flooding because of the regular overflows. This one wouldn’t have looked out of place as a theme park ride although I’m glad Eric wouldn’t let me try it out, I’m not sure anything going down that raging torrent would survive.

It was lovely to be cruising again, even nicer not being wrapped up in our thermals and a joy to see the sun shining on the boat in the early evening.

Continue reading On the move

We woke to blue sky and sunshine but the ducks were still ice skating. It was strange because the ice had a layer of water floating on it. But they weren’t walking on water for long when the first of the boats came along creating an open channel. 

We were passed by 4 boats making a run for it, including one hire boat-bet they weren’t expecting a week like this.

The only snow left on the tow path was pretending to be a snowman so I donned the boots and went for a walk. I found 6 gloves 2 hats and pair of earmuffs.

Now that the ice is breaking up, the boat’s rocking about all over the place cause our ropes have blackened off. So We’ve re-tied and will stay here another night.

And left slush and mud and misery. My poor snowman has lost their smile and so have I. 

The grass is muddy and slippy but the actual footpath is like a mini canal. Having been compressed and indented by thousands of footsteps there’s nowhere for the melted snow to drain away to. So of course people are walking on the grass making the mud worse.

I don’t care how much warmer it is,  I don’t intend walking anywhere until all this horrible stuff has all gone.  Can you tell how much I dislike mud.

And as for cruising, the ducks are still waddling through the slush over the ice, so although there’s growing ice free water, we’ll let someone else go first. We’ve still got enough in our tanks to last another week without worry.

I will never apologise for letting my inner child come out to play, and after Thursday’s dire biting cold wind and blizzards. Then Fridays trudging march to the shops, to stock up on essentials, I woke up this morning determined to go out to play.

There’s at least 6 inches of snow now, which I know isn’t competing with some other parts of Britain, but as the forecast is getting warmer by the hour and rain predicted tonight, I knew it was now or never to build a friend.

It’s been quite amusing watching the walkers reaction.  I deliberately didn’t build my friend on the footpath, but on the wide grassy verge between the boat and path.  However because the path is obscured by the snow most people are taking the direct route and having to walk around Mrs Snowman. Many have stopped to say hello and take her photo.

Robins were made for winter and this little beauty really made us smile.
 So did this fella, though not for the same reason. Some might say living on a narrow boat was incomprehensible, obviously not us. But I’ll never fathom why anyone would want to kayak through frozen water just for fun. It took him about an hour to break through about half a mile of ice between the two bridges then he went back and forth several times.

Now the other way to make us smile on days like this is hearty homemade soup.

The temperature dropped and the canal froze over. Not a single boat cruised past us today, but we had two willing ice breakers. I watched in amazement as this pair of swans pushed their way through creating a channel.

Thankfully I think Milton Keynes is on the outer reaches of this particular cold front. The snow fall has been relatively light with sufficient sunny spells to make it picture post card perfect.