Source to sea relay. The Morris leg.

This year we took part in the Totally Thames Source to Sea Relay. I bedecked our boat in bunting (not nearly enough as we needed as I'm numerically dyslexic and didn't order a sufficient amount) and we took the cat on an adventure to Oxford.

We moored below Sandford Lock overnight and waited for our turn in the event the following day, day 5 of the relay. Our mission was to safely carry the water, bottled at the source of the Thames in Gloucester, from Sandford Lock to Abingdon Lock as it journeyed down the course of the Thames. Rob, and friend Mark, were set to do this in their capacity as morris men. Rob in the colours of Mr Hemming's morris dancers and Mark in the colours of Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, thus representing both of Abingdon's morris sides.

Relay handover to Rob.

The bottle of Thames water in the care of mini Rob knitted by Heather.

Before our journey downstream commenced, Rob and Mark put on a little morris performance on the boat roof in honour of the tiny bottle of water.

 I found Lolly hiding under the bed. I assume she thought the boat was under attack by swift-footed hanky wavers. Dancing done, we set off for Abingdon Lock

Where the assistant lock keepers reminisced about their days in the local morris sides, and we handed our precious cargo (the water, not Lolly) over into the safe keeping of the lock keeper for it to continue its journey downstream the following day.

We were all given a rosette to commemorate our part in the relay. Even Lolly has one.

The Green Man.

The adventures of its new crew can be read here.

Ghost canal: the Wilts & Berks Canal.

In October 2011 I wrote a potted history  about the Wilts and Berks Canal and started to document our walks along the route of the old system. My blogging unfortunately fell by the wayside and I only ever posted the Abingdon section of our walks. We did, however, explore farther afield than the boundaries of our little  town. My photo collection of those days is very muddled and my brain a little foggy too, but I always planned to return to the project.

One of the sites we visited, just off the Hanney Road at Steventon, was Ardington top and bottom locks. Two locks that are remarkable in their state of preservation considering the century that has passed since they last saw boat traffic. They are separated by the Great Western Railway main line that eventually aided their demise.

Today, after a day of rain and grey skies, we thought it would be lovely to revisit the locks and see what still remained.

We sat on the bridge over the cut at the bottom lock and ate our lunch - starving after fighting our way through the undergrowth and the paths-less-travelled to get there. The years of neglect are beginning to take their toll on this part of the canal. One of the lock gates is still in the channel but it is rotten and decaying, and the walls beside it are crumbling in.

The top lock is faring better. One gate still hangs, as it did on our last visit, but it looks precarious and ready to topple. When we first arrived here in 2011 it was autumn and the vegetation had died back. Today we frequently lost the path and our bearings through the undergrowth. This place is beautifully wild in the hazy summer season. Deer tracks are visible in the mud, and the canal is bordered by fields of bronzed wheat and barley. Here we were in the space between the forgotten and the mundane. Here lingered the ghosts of old boats, of journeys across the west country, of commerce. Here a robin proudly guarded his territory, and nature swallowed the brickwork of man's endeavours and his visions of success. It is beautiful. It is quiet, but it is not lost. If the canal is restored the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust will reopen this passage and traffic will once again flow through this abandoned landscape.

“Get close to grass and you’ll see a star.”

It's been a hot, hot summer so far. There has seemingly been little break in the heat. We sat on the roof a week or so ago and watched a thunderstorm roll in on the midnight haze.

 

And the dark night became light as day as the storm reached us and we headed for cover.

 



But still the heat did not break. During the day our boat sits in the sun, with no shade to cool its baking steel and it became too much for me.

Rob came home from work and said, as he does from time to time, "will you let me turf the roof yet?". The answer to which has always been no because I think it's a crazy idea. Not this time though because I was willing to do anything to break the constant muggy cloying feeling that this summer has brought.

So we set off in search of some artificial turf.

 

We bought a piece large enough to cover a third of our roof and Rob fixed it into place around a mushroom vent.

 

 

Before enjoying the splendour of his work.

Maybe it seems strange, to have a lawn on a boat roof. I know we are not alone in this venture as there are other grass-topped boats too, but it has made the summer bearable as the temperature in the room below is now 5 degrees C cooler than the rest of the boat.

But that is not the only thing. It turns out that Dejan Stojanovic is right. When you get close to grass you do indeed see a star. And not just one. That night we lay on our new lawn and looked up at many of them, beautifully spread out in an ocean of darkness. We watched satellites pass and meteors fall, and I finally accepted that grass on the roof was a brilliant idea after all.
 

The story so far.

There's still much work to be done. Cover strips are needed, pipes need boxing in, tiles need wooden beading around their edges, the windows need refitting (there will be a whole post dedicated to that job in the future), shelves need building - It's a home and therefore there will always be something to be done - but I thought it about time to record how far we've come since I last posted photos.

This then, is a tour of our home.

Our boat is of reverse layout so this is the view when looking in from the back deck:

And the galley is the first "room" you enter.

We opted for a big double oven in this boat. I've recently been learning how to bake bread. It's not going terribly well so far. The oven, therefore, is mainly Rob's domain.

The worktops are pretty cluttered at the moment. I'm hoping for some shelves soon and a nice rustic looking spice rack to hang onto the wall to free up some worktop space. We still need to add the cupboard door to the washing machine but need a replacement from B&Q first as they supplied us with the wrong one.
We also need to reconfigure the steps. Our friend made them and he's done a wonderful job but I'm worried they're a little too steep for people. I also really ought to find somewhere else to store all those shopping bags that have collected behind them.

 

Above is a jug painted by Les who wintered his boat with us. There's a little Lolly on the bottom edge. We love it very much. We love Les too - Wave to him if you see him and Tramp on their travels on the cut.

We've kept the galley and saloon open plan:

There is a door to the walk-though bathroom but we leave it open so Lolly can get to and from the bedroom. We hung the curtain to obscure the view of the bathroom from the galley and saloon so the door can still be shut when the bathroom is in use but the cat can come and go as she pleases when it's not.

The door on the left in the top photo leads to the "shed" which will one day be a music room/study. It currently looks like this:

 

The shelves need finishing and we need a little futon so the room can be used as a guest room but it's looking a lot better than it did even a month ago. You can see the floor for a start... We need better accordion storage too (boxes on the left)

This is how our bathroom is looking:

Now you can see the view the curtain hides! Our marina manager had the mahogany worktop made for us from wood removed from his house during renovations. It's one of my favourite pieces.

We've a little corner dedicated to the green man with some of our plaques and pictures from the old boat. I also love my shower curtain. It was a gift from Sam and is another of my favourite things. Sam bought it for me after my reaction upon seeing the one she owns!

The bathroom leads to the main cabin. We've yet to find curtains to hang over the wardrobes  and we need a new mattress as the current one is from the old boat and too small for the bed frame. It's nice to be able to have full size furniture though.

The beautiful cross stitch above the bed that you cannot see very well in the top photo was made by mum C. And that blue thing on the floor by the drawers in the bottom photo is a cat toy.
There's still a lot of work to be done in this room. We need to address the step in here too. It's currently the old sofa box from The Green Man and it doesn't quite fit the space. It's also too big a step for mum L to use without having to be manhandled by one of us onto the front deck.

And this is the front deck that we manhandle her onto:

There's not nearly enough plants out here yet. I'm still getting used to the space and how difficult it is to grow plants in it. Plants flourished on the back deck of the old boat but I think the vast amount of steel radiates more heat and some plants struggle with it. I can also be guilty of over watering. The lovely bay and lemon balm were gifts from friends and the bergamot, strawberries, beans, courgette and butternut squash are from mum and dad L.

And finally, a tour of our boat would not be complete without a certain someone showing her face:

Oh...

Fighting the good fight.

The season has turned since last I wrote. We have seen a winter of storms and floods that tried to cut us off from the mainland for three months, and a spring of beautiful red sunsets, calm and peaceful. The boat is still being built, bit by bit, but progress is slower now we are in. Our attention has been grabbed by other things. There is always something just a little bit more important than fixing a bath panel or varnishing a cover strip to keep us occupied.

Last month we said a fond farewell to The Green Man who has now moved onto waters new under the care of a lovely lady and her two cats and dog. It was an emotional experience watching that boat leave. Part of our souls will always be caught within its steel frame, but there is happiness in knowing the new owner will care and love her as much, or even more, than we did or were able to.

And my days lately seemed to have been spent causing upset amongst my neighbours by preventing them from illegally moving a coot's nest with eggs in it from the back of their boat so they could go out boating. I understand their upset; they came to visit their boat and take it out on an adventure only to have the mad woman from the fat boat ruin their day. It saddens me though, this lack of respect shown to the waterways and its wildlife  - the very environment we, as boaters, wish to see when out on the river - what would be left of it if we all treated it so carelessly?

 

I will not back down on an issue such as this. It is something I care passionately about and am pleased to record that four hatchling coots were the result of our endeavours to protect this nest.