Lake District – Narrowboat Firecrest

Whatever happened to Autumn

I’m sitting here frozen in, telling myself to get on with sharing another blog post before I forget where we have been. Family and friends have played a significant part in our gentle autumnal cruising, as we took advantage of several close train stations for visiting. We left Apsley mill with the leaves still green back in October.

During the next 10 weeks we have travelled all of 20 miles north through 40 locks, through rain, shine, wind, snow and ice. We spent an enjoyable two weeks in Berkhamsted

A lovely little town that has embraced the canal running through it, where commercial sheep dip was first created.

And has some real history to explore with its 11th Century castle ruins

Berkhampsted castle, and improvised cricket pitch

And its quirky but genuine Canadian Kwakiutl totem pole, given to the people of Berkhamsted as a thankyou for the kindness shown by John Alsford, a local business man who owned the timber yard where it stands (now a residential area)

And for the days when it rains so hard you’re glad you already live on a boat there’s the wonderful art deco Rex cinema, which has the comfiest seats I’ve ever enjoyed in a cinema as well as the best toilet graffiti

I went to see “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris,” a real feel good movie, And I took a trip to London to meet up with Amanda at the British Museum to look at the Egyptian artefacts

Me and Amanda outside the British Museum

We could easily have stayed put in “Berko”, we met friends, made new friends and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

But it was time to move on and we found ourselves a wood to walk through. Even though it was now mid November there was still a lot of green to be seen in Ashridge Woods (easily reached from Dudswell mooring)

And it wasn’t just the leaves that were the wrong colour, when we got to CowRoast lock the water wasn’t just crystal clear, it had a blueish tinge to it, almost like an aquarium so clear that we could actually see the lock paddle mechanisms below the water level.

We had reached the top of the Tring Summit and we would now be descending along our route. But we planted our pins at Tring Resevoirs and settled down for another 14 day stay. (Our header photo) Lots of lovely walks around the area, and a reasonable bus service into Tring.

Knowing that Eric was in a nice place, (good internet, and plenty of solar) I jumped ship and caught the train up to the Lakes to have a week with mum, I also went to see my dentist, but didn’t confess to eating jam and scones or drinking creamy hot chocolate.

Threlkeld village hall cafe, The place to go just outside Keswick

And I think whilst I was in the Lakes, winter arrived

The view from my bedroom window back home

Sheep dog trials and family time

I’m taking time out from the Leeds and Liverpool, hopping on the train and going “home,” back up to the Lake District for a bit of family time. But it’s also time for the sheep dog trials, and there are few places better than the Lakeland fells to see the shepherds and their dogs show off their skills.

Mum lives just over that hill in the background. But the shepherds have travelled quite a bit further, it’s a tough competition and it’s designed to show off their skills as both handlers and professional dog trainers. Sadly no one told the sheep what the rules were. So its quite an amusing spectator sport.

take it from me, there’s a lot of editing goes on before one man and his dog hits the tv screen.

But they all made it down the hill and through the final gate.

Is the grass any greener on the other side

Even though the naughty ones did look very sheepish.

The dogs were amazing. They are all eager to please and I think if Eric and I were ever to own a dog it’s highly likely we’d choose a border collie.

Alongside the trials, there was a trail race for the hounds as well. A scented runner was sent out to lay a 10 mile trail, then the dogs were let loose. It took them about 30 minutes to complete the course.

It was as brilliant day out. And of course we had to finish the afternoon with an icecream

The other reason I came home for these few days was to see my cousins. They were on holiday from overseas and we haven’t seen each other from several years.

But we laughed and joked and shared memories as if it had only been 5 minutes. I hope it’s not so long before we get together again. And hopefully I’ll see more family when we get Firecrest to Liverpool

Celebrations

We’ve had a lot to celebrate recently. My brother, went to live overseas several years ago and this is his first return visit to England. We Skype, text and send gifts etc, but you can’t beat a real big bear hug from your Bro. He timed his visit to coincide with the “royal” birthday, 3 of us add another year in the same week so we abandon our dates and eat cake for a whole week.

There were too many of us to all stay at Mum’s, so we booked a cottage in the same village and had a fabulous week in the Lake District. We realised it’s been about 10 years since Eric and I had a holiday together. Whilst Firecrest was being planned we hired narrowboats in differing configurations, which we justified as research. We took ourselves off to one of our favourite places, Ulswater and went on a proper hike along the east side But to prevent withdrawal symptoms we caught the steamer back to Glen Riding. you can see the steamer on its route, and that’s Helvelyn on the left.