Happy New Year Dear Reader, welcome to 2014; our third year
as live-aboard boaters. We hope you had a good Christmas – we did.
For the week before Christmas we were moored in the first
few yards of the Bugsworth Arm on the off-side overlooking Tesco. This proved
to be a perfect mooring for Paddy, our temporary pet. He did fit in the boat
quite easily once we’d put a table, a trolley and a few bags of other stuff in
the boot of the car.
It was also very quiet with no boats going past due to the
basin at Bugsworth being de-watered until March.
The towpath was still open so
we were able to go and see the basin even though we couldn’t take Legend there.
We took Paddy for several walks in that direction, including two up the TramwayTrail; a lovely footpath alongside the river, following the line of the
horse-drawn limestone carrying tramway running down to the wharves at Bugsworth
from the quarries at Doveholes and Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Being in places like
this, once the harsh, noisy, dirty hub of the industrial revolution; now tree
lined avenues and pools of calm water, always leaves us feeling privileged. The
people who built and worked in these places - the men, women and children in
the black and white photos on the pub walls - they never got to see the beauty
of it all. We are so lucky to have been born in a time when living on a
canal-boat is seen as a dream.
On the day of the Solstice we had a walk into New Mills
where, on the side of a hill, there are three standing stones. Quite small
standing stones in comparison to other better know edifices, but significant
none-the-less. At mid-day the shadow from one big one falls on a mark on the
other big one. (On midsummer’s day it falls on a mark on the little one)
We sat
on a bench, had a celebratory drink and toasted the winter sun. When we got
back to the boat a chap came up from Tesco and asked us if we wanted a broken
fence panel as firewood. Silly question. It turned out to be a roll-cage
stuffed full of smashed up 8’ high fencing - they must have backed a truck into
it or something – and it took Dave two days to get it all chopped up and
usable.
It’s all thin bits of cedar, so it burns fast and hot and you have to
keep feeding it, but it was free, and we think it was very nice of them to
offer it to us.
The day before Christmas Eve was like changeover day in a
B&B. In the morning Shandy came and picked Paddy up, then Kim and Luke came
over for a visit and a bit of boat-time in the afternoon. We had a pan of
mulled wine on the go, along with chocolate cake and mince pies, so that was
nice. After that we moved the boat round the corner and down to the Whaley
Bridge visitor moorings. This time we went on the opposite side, in the bit
where the Judith Mary moors, which made it much easier for Mum and Dad to get
on board when they came to stay.
Christmas Eve was Mum’s birthday. We started off in Marple
listening to the Brass Band playing Christmas carols, (and Happy Birthday) then
we went to New Mills and showed them the Millennium Walkway. That was followed
by a pint in the Navigation at Bugsworth, and in the evening we revisited the
Indian in Whaley Bridge. Happy Birthday Mum.
On Christmas Day, after the stockings and breakfast doings,
we continued with what is becoming a tradition and did a spot of Christmas Day
boating. It was only one lift bridge and about 3 miles to Disley but it was a
lovely day and it felt good to be moving. As soon as we'd moored up Ann-Marie produced an amazing seven course Christmas dinner from our little galley.
The original idea was to go on to
Marple on Boxing Day, but the view over the valley at Disley, combined with a
rather grim weather forecast changed our minds and we stayed put for the rest
of the week. Sue, Ann-Marie’s cousin and her husband Steve came over for a
visit. We met up in a garden centre near Marple and then they came back to the
boat for lunch.
The last time they were on the boat we were up on the Lancaster
canal and they lived in Millom on the south Cumbria coast. They now live in
Hesketh Bank, near Tarleton, so we’re going to have to pay them a visit before
we go too far south.
After 5 very enjoyable days Mum and Dad returned to their
home in Fleet and we went over to Anne’s for a “Festive Frazer Frolic”. All her
kids plus partners and friends were there and we had a fab evening playing
silly games and eating far too much. In the morning, along with Anne’s entire
clan, we went for a walk along a very windy Curber edge.
It was good to see
them all together and happy.
We finally moved up to Marple on New Year’s Eve. We did a
wash-out then moored up opposite the Ring o’ Bells. It was a bit shady, but
easy to find in the dark. This was important as we were going to Buxton for New
Year and while we were out, Chloe and Shandy were coming to stay for a couple
of nights on their way home from Ireland. On New Year’s Day we had the luxury
of coming home to a warm boat and in the afternoon we all went for a walk with
Paddy to Brabyns Park by the side of Marple locks. The grass was very wet and
he got incredibly muddy which, although we didn’t know it at the time, was just
a taste of things to come.
The next day we boated to Higher Poynton to a lovely mooring
on the side of a flash. A flash is a wide part of the canal where the ground
has subsided due, in most cases, to mining. It was a bit open when the wind got
up, which it did most of the time we were there, but it was nice to hear the
water lapping at the side of the boat; it reminded us of Glasson Dock, one of
our favourite moorings. Chloe and Shandy went back to Daventry in the afternoon
leaving us in charge of Paddy for 10 days while they went skiing.
We were in the perfect place for puppy sitting; there was a
big playing field right next to the mooring where he could run about like a
loon and a hundred yards away there was the Middlewood Way, a disused railway
line running parallel to the canal for 5 miles in each direction, so we could
make endless circular walks. Also there were numerous footpaths between us and
Lyme Park. The only little snagette was the mud which Paddy seemed to attract
like a squeegee mop. We had a permanently filthy towel hanging in the bathroom.
This was the week when the south of the country was being flooded and torn
apart by the wind, so a bit of mud in our boat wasn’t so much of a hardship
really, it just felt like it.
On the first Tuesday of 2014 we had our 4 yearly Boat Safety
Survey. A very nice man called Martyn turned up and, while being molested by an
excited puppy, went through our home with a fine tooth comb. A BSS has been likened to an MOT for a car,
but it’s not a very good simile. It doesn’t matter if your engine doesn’t work
or if your boat is actually sea worthy or even afloat; the main concerns are
that it’s not going to blow up, catch fire or asphyxiate you. If it comes under
the heading of Fuel, Ventilation or Batteries it’s going to get checked and
tested, as are all your fire extinguishers, your fire blanket and your escape
routes. This might sound a bit over the top until you realise that all
flammable gasses are heavier than air and that a boat is nothing more than a
bucket with some pretty pictures on the side.
Happily we passed, and as long as we don’t do anything silly
in the next 4 years there’s no reason to worry about the next one. One thing
that Martyn did bring up that we weren’t aware of, was that on the previous BSS
Legend was registered as a 2 berth boat. Which is fine, as most of the time
there’s just us and we only have one fixed bed. However we do have a bed-settee
and we quite often have people to stay. Even though there is nothing physical
we have to change to make it a 4 berth, if our boat has only been declared
“safe” as a 2 berth we shouldn’t really have any more than that sleeping on it.
So if you’ve been to stay, thank you for not prosecuting us, and if you come to
stay in the future you can rest securely in the knowledge that there are now
officially 4 berths.
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