Hillmorton.

It was just the most beautiful sunny day for a cruise, not too cold, wet or windy either. Just look at that wide blue sky with it’s white cotton-wool clouds! There weren’t many boats moored in and around Grantham's Bridge as I walked by with my windlass, but plenty  were moored above Moors Bridge 72, with only one gap left that luckily we managed to squeeze into.

        

         

These are the artworks carved into the oak balance beams on the topside of the middle lock. There were several boats on the move today but unfortunately none of the locks were in our favour. We were in no mad rush anyway and were happy to ‘lollop’ about in the sunshine for a change.

Rugby.

Now that we are back on the move again we shall have  something to blog about for our followers we hope. The housing estate along by Masters Bridge 58, which leads up to Brownsover, has almost been completed. Thank goodness for that, because it means boats will no longer be covered in cement or brick dust when mooring there. The only downside to mooring there now is the continual noise of the traffic passing so nearby. We took our trolleys and stocked up with victuals at the nearby Tesco supermarket and I also caught the No 12 bus to Sainsbury’s for some of our favourite foods. Bottle still has some effects of the ‘man flu’ to contend with, aw!

Just before we left our mooring by the park six chaps came along to trim the bushes back from the towpath. two had hedge-trimmers, one had a long reach brush-cutter, one with a garden fork, one pushing a shredder and of course following on behind was the man with the blower! They did seem to be making a neat job of it all anyway.

Easy-going.

  After continuously cruising the waterways for just over three years aboard Oakfield we now realise why we like this way of life so much. The canal system is just like one big floating village where you can meet up with other boaters to befriend which is great. At least most people speak to you and we will help each other out if anyone happens to have a problem or get into difficulties. Also it is nice to socialise occasionally in the nearest pub over a nice meal with a few drinks, putting the world to rights.

We can moor right in the middle of big cities as we did here in Birmingham for fourteen days, which was brilliant. A couple of live-aboard folk got married while we were there which meant that there was a great gathering of boaters. Many of them we already knew from meeting up on the cut, or at the various ‘Banters’ that we had already been to, which was fun.

                            

Or we can choose a peaceful countryside mooring with footpaths leading off to new places to explore. The only drawback is chugging slowly past the garden gnomes on the towpath on tick-over. This is a bit of a nuisance when there is a fishing match on and there may be loads of fishermen as far as the eye can see. So we usually try and stay put on Sundays when there are fishing matches going on during the summer.

So, we can be as this boat-name suggests ‘the cat who walks by himself’ on the remote country moorings for up to 14 days or in the popular shopping/bus route hotspots for 2 days, or 24 hours depending on what mooring restrictions are in place. Anyway if a place is too noisy, or we don’t like the neighbours we can take out the pins and move along somewhere else. We don’t generally stay in one place for too long before we get the urge to be cruising again.

                           

Anyway whether we are negotiating sharp narrow bends, or avoiding other boats, steering the boat through narrow bridges, locks, and dark tunnels we need to concentrate. This and cruising along in the open air tends to clear our minds and free us from all the worries of life, most of the time, which is a good thing.

Freedom!

As we had several family commitments over the Winter months we booked into Clifton Cruisers where we knew Oakfield would be safe when we left it moored up. We were made to feel very welcome there. Apart from having the luxury of being hooked up to the electricity, the water tap was also within easy reach. There was a newly created cafe in the old workshop called Bridge 66 serving breakfast rolls, coffee, tea and super homemade cakes. We sampled quite a variety of cakes while we were in residence. I also had my hair done a couple of times in the handy hairdressing salon which stood alongside the wharf.There were of course all the usual boaters facilities available too. 

                            

We have just about had every kind of weather thrown at us this winter, mainly the wet kind!. Luckily the buses ran every hour into Rugby from Clifton so we could at least escape into town for a break occasionally. However we did manage to walk the two miles in about half an hour several times to keep fit. Tesco's was also the same distance away along the towpath, so when it wasn’t raining too much I had a brisk walk along there. The birds came to visit everyday as they were glad of the few seeds and crusts we put out every day to keep them going.

So, would we stay on a linear mooring  again? I don’t think that we would as we had other boats breasted up to us which cut out our daylight and view over the canal! However we had a lovely view over the fields to the other side of the boat and the cafe was a great place to socialise. We also picked up the Towpath Talk and the Tillergraph there to keep up to date with the latest news of the waterways.

It was just fantastic to be on the move again and have the sense of freedom to roam about wherever we please was exhilarating. To be continuously cruising again is an absolutely fabulous feeling!

Cornwall.

We hired a car and headed off down south for a family get together in this beautiful cottage overlooking the sea front. It was so exciting as we had never stayed in a  thatched cottage before. This was the view of the little fishing boats down on the beach from our bedroom. We slept with the window open so that we could hear the sound of the waves gently breaking on the shore which lulled us to sleep, perfick! Early one morning some of them went out fishing and returned later on with a good haul of fish.

This was the old capstan winding house which is now a gallery displaying lovely local artworks and sculptures. The wooden capstan wheel is still in its central position where the men would have turned it round to haul the fishing boats up the beach attached to cables or ropes. Today the hauling is all done by a tractor instead.

                           

The Lifeboat Station was open every day with displays of the crew members past and present and lists of all the rescues they had been called out to. I particularly liked this photo of the ‘Head of Security’, a little dog called Tyson. There was a donation box where you could drop coins in to roll around in ever decreasing circles until they plopped into the box beneath. Of course our grandson liked doing this every day so we were regularly relieved of any loose change we had when passing!  As  a certain someone had his fiftieth birthday recently, the ‘Birthday Boy’ took us all along to the restaurant and treated the eight of us to Sunday lunch. The food was marvellous as it was all locally sourced and beautifully cooked. I opted to have fish which was so tasty and just melted in the mouth, yum. The others chose various roasts and Langoustine which they all thoroughly enjoyed. The beer brewed in St Austell was the ‘Proper Job’ and very tasty it was too!IThe afternoons were spent digging in the sand making dams, rivers and sandcastles,then searching out shells and pebbles to throw, splosh into the sea.. We had a job to keep pace with our Grandson as he tends to do everything at top speed. He has such boundless energy, and although we took it in turns to play card games, football and tennis, read stories etc he just kept on going. In between times we took it in turns to have a rest, phew! Plenty of cuddles were had with our new baby Grandson too and  I enjoyed giving him his baths in the evening. We also had another enjoyable meal together along in the newly refurbished pub, called ‘The Old Success Inn’. Three of the family left to return home by train. We trundled back a few days later along the A303 which is a delightful route to travel with wonderful views over the rolling countryside. We stopped off overnight at Bottles parents house in Surrey and treated them to a meal out the next day to celebrate their anniversary. When we left on our journey north, surprise, surprise, when we hit the M25 the traffic was reduced to crawling along in places, because of an accident elseware. Eventually we arrived back onboard Oakfield, lit the Squirrel, put our feet up relaxed and unwound with a hot drink, before crashing into bed!

We had a  truly wonderful time thanks to our daughter who kindly invited us all to join in their special holiday. It was just like living in a dream-world as the cottage was equipped with every convenience that you could think of. A conservatory was attached all along the back of it that could be used for relaxing, dining, drying the washing, or playing ball games, especially if the weather was too windy, cold or wet.. The cottage was cosy, but spacious enough for the nine of us in the four bedrooms. We especially enjoyed ourselves sitting around the wood-burning stove in the lounge in the evenings together.   All in  all we covered over 700 miles in our round trip and had a truly amazing time!