Wednesday 15th April 2020



We sat on the picnic benches talking with Lol and Jackie in the morning when Jackie, bless her, appeared with a nurse doll that she had been knitting over the last few nights, to give to Brenda.

They then left us at 12 noon. As they were passing us on their way to Barbridge, I sounded our hunting horn, to which Lol replied with an even bigger horn. The buggar.

Syke’s Hollow became very empty and almost lonely without them, even Harvey was sad and subdued.

The rest of the day was spent with myself fitting the centre line fairleads, including turning the boat twice, and Brenda continuing with making the saloon chair covers.

We had a few local family groups out walking the towpaths and it seemed, they had to apologise for passing us, such has the Corona Virus affected us. We feel so lucky to be leading the lives we are during this Corona Virus lock-down. At least we are able to sit outside and enjoy fresh air and sunshine in peace. Other than them, we had seen neither passing boats or very few walkers or cyclists.




Syke’s Hollow




View from the Front Cratch



We loved sitting out on the picnic benches, watching the Blue Tits fighting with each other and the numerous other birds feeding off our feeders. It was a much warmer evening with there being no wind and we sat out until after 5pm, after which we again retired to the front cratch.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Thursday 6 th September 2018 We started off just before 10am in not too bad weather. The whole of the surface of the canal was covered in a kind of white dust. It turned out it was some kind of seed probably from trees, but it was a weird sight. We quickly came across the first lock of the day beside the Gallows Inn pub. We were going to stop here last night but we were both glad we hadn’t. The pub didn’t look very welcoming and the area didn’t seem the best. We had been warned that the locks on the Erewash Canal were heavy. And they are. Brenda was really struggling with many of them which is very unusual. Not just the weight of the gates but also the difficulty in operating the paddle gear. It is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in a double lock when it is the only boat in there, but there were a few locks were we had to do just that and even I struggled mightily with the locks. Yesterday we saw just four boats on the move all day, and they were all go...
Read more
Image
Thursday 8 th August 2019 We had spoken with our neighbours yesterday, Ken and Mary, both in their mid-70’s who have lived on their boat, continuously cruising for 11 years. We had agreed to move up the river, doing the locks, together. After a couple of trips to Tesco’s, again taking the trolley right to the boat and buying a new cordless vacuum cleaner, we set off. It felt fantastic to be out on the Thames. At Caversham Lock, there seemed to be plenty of colour and lots of people watching the boats. We were held for a while at the lock with a queue of cabin cruisers ahead of us. It is necessary to hold an Environmental Agency licence for navigating on the Thames. We had been told at Blake’s Lock that we would be able to obtain one at Caversham, but the lock was being manned by a volunteer who did not have authority to issue licences. Beyond the lock was no doubt Reading’s better face and it looked lovely from the river. Reading Bridge was a particularly attractive brid...
Read more
Image
Friday 22 nd February 2019 The fog first thing this morning was so thick you could see no more than 50 yards. A harbinger of a nice day it turned out. We were on the move by 8am for the mile run-in to Atherstone and we moored just before the top lock near a road bridge that is very convenient for the town. We are opposite the derelict factory of Wilson and Stafford. This was a felt hat making enterprise that made hats that were exported all over the world until closure about 35 years ago. Apparently, slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations all wore hats made in Atherstone. The factory is a blight on the town. It has been sold several times for housing development and would make desirable apartments. The frontage of the building is listed but the problem lies inside. There are many chemicals absorbed into the fabric of the building including mercury, a heavy metal used in the making of hats and asbestos. It would cost a fortune to demolish or develop, including clos...
Read more