Why is Pete’s Blog late?

I have been writing this public blog ever since I retired, nearly six years ago. I used to write a blog for my team when I was working and it sort of carried on from there. Typically I write it on a Thursday, fettle it a little and then publish it early on Friday afternoon. So why am I sitting here on Saturday morning?

I could give you many excuses.

If you remember in last week’s blog I was pondering whether to take Narrowboat Thuis north or south for our last adventure of the year. We decided south, but unfortunately after a couple of day’s boating, Lulu the dog had a rather nasty stomach upset and we decided she needed to get to a vet.

We do know a number of vets along the canals, but as Mandy and I reflected, we both came to the conclusion that we were just not feeling it on this last trip of the year. The weather was not great, I was not getting enough power on my solar panels, and it just felt that we were pushing to do another trip just because we have had less time travelling this year, what with weddings, anniversaries and stuff.

So we drove back to our house in Lancashire and took Lulu to her “home” vet here. The good news is that she is recovering well. So now we have three weeks before our next big adventure – a month in the wilds of Scotland.

If you read my blogs regularly you will know that I hate being bored. So I came up with a monster list of jobs I could now get on with. And that is what I have been doing this week. I have booked a “once in a lifetime” visit to Canada for this time next year, including trains, planes, automobiles and a cruise ship. I have sorted a new bank account to cover our travel insurance and motor breakdown. It appears that buying my own travel insurance would have been twice as expensive because I am old. I have bought a new heat pump tumble drier that I am ridiculously excited about. And I spent a day back at the marina, winterising the boat. That means taking off clothes, towels, bedding, cushions, crockery, glasses, cutlery, food; emptying the water tank, fixing and painting the side door, varnishing the window sills and many other little jobs.

I woke up this morning feeling good and preparing to take Lulu on a lovely circular walk by the sea, when suddenly I realised that after about 300 editions of this blog, for the first time I had forgotten to write.

So what do you think? Do I have good excuses? Or after six years am I finally learning to be retired and relaxed?

Nah. It’s just not good enough. Sorry!

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Shall we go North or South?

We are back at the boat and getting ready for our last trip of the year. Most of the drought closures are now being lifted so there are more options. Ideally we would go up the Macclesfield and Peak Forest, but Bosley Locks show no sign of opening. So we have two routes we are considering.

We could go North, up the Trent & Mersey, across the Middlewich and then up the Shroppie to Chester. We love Chester and haven’t visited for a couple of years. We usually moor in Telford Basin, overlooked by the city walls, and near the racecourse. And on the way we often moor near Beeston Castle with some of the best views from any canal. But much of the route is the same as we did at the start of the year. And some of the locks to Chester are very heavy for Autumn work.

Alternatively we could head South to Worcester. We haven’t been that way on the Staffs & Worcester for a while so it would make a nice change. There is also a chance that we could do a loop, travelling back through Birmingham.

So North or South? We could just toss a coin I guess. Either way would be lovely to it’s a nice choice to have. I’ll let you know next week.

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I love walking

With the boat moored up for a fortnight, I have been able to get out in the car for some more spectacular walks this week. Notably Lud’s Church in the Peak District, and Nicky Nook in the Trough of Bowland.

When we are out on Narrowboat Thuis I do get plenty of exercise. I usually go for a walk with Lulu first thing, and then there are locks to do, places to see and my legs get a good stretch. I have an Apple Watch and I like to complete all three rings when I can.

But the trouble with canal exercise is that is is always pretty flat. Water flows downhill so the canals are designed to run along the hill contours, using bridges, cuttings and tunnels to flatten things out. So at the end of a season like this, I have had plenty of walking but very few hills.

So it stretched my muscles this week and I ached a little the days afterwards, but it was well worth it.

Lud’s Church is a chasm in the hills. It is just a few hundred yards long but it is deep. Apparently it was used by Catholics to hold secret services when the Protestant Roundheads were in power in the seventeenth century. It is dramatic, if a little slippy. The walk to get there and back is beautiful, with a big climb, dappled woodland, and fine views over the hills. There is also a brewery at the end of the walk where I got a tasty pork pie and a lemonade (I was driving).

Nicky Nook is a hill in Lancashire. My brother in law and I did a linear walk, with Mandy dropping us off and picking us up. From damp moorland we walked down a wooded valley to a reservoir, thankfully much fuller than last time I saw it. Then up a steep, stepped incline to reach the top of the hill, involving quite a lot of puffing and panting from me, and use of both walking sticks from Steve. It was worth it, because from the top we could see for miles, across the hills to the east, and across the plane to the sea in the west. Then another steep descent to meet Mandy at the bottom, ready for a well earned lunch at one of my favourite country cafés in a villlage called Scorton. I had a burger and a milkshake, and wanted an icecream Sundae, but Steve is on Slimming World.

I do hope I can keep up walks like this through the winter. In the cold weather it can be tempting to stay indoors but I do love a good walk.

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What is the best time of year to be on a Narrowboat?

This week has certainly felt like Autumn. A lot of rain. Chilly mornings. Leaves falling from the trees. It is one of my favourite times of year on Narrowboat Thuis.

I know that other boaters take a different view. So let’s look at the pros and cons of going boating in each season.

Spring is a lovely time to be out in the countryside. The plants are beginning to grow. Birds are having their chicks. The days are getting longer. I love the sunrises and sunsets. But the remnants of winter remain. Towpaths are a mess. My fingers get frozen holding the tiller.

It is great to be outside on those long warm days of summer. Shorts and t shirts. Everyone seems cheerful. The canal is warm if I need to clear the weed hatch. But so many hire boaters are holding up the locks. And our tin can of a home gets so very hot when the sun has been on it all day.

Autumn has a great mix of cold mornings and warm days. We get the waterways back to ourselves. But it is getting darker and my solar no longer fills the batteries without help. And I don’t really like cruising in the rain.

For the hardy narrow boaters, winter is the best. There is a real sense of community on the canals. We are special because we are still out when everyone else is in a house. But it is just too muddy when you have a dog. You end up constantly cleaning. And there are so many winter stoppages for things to get fixed, that it is hard to travel.

I think the truth is that each season has its own attractions, and you can have wonderful boating days at any time of year. We are very lucky to have the opportunity.

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Is Ironbridge the best museum in the UK?

You may remember that I am a lifetime National Trust member. Whether we are tootling around the UK in Narrowboat Thuis, staying in a cottage on one of our long autumn holidays, or just being at home, there is nothing better for me than a day out to a stately home, or fascinating museum.

My NT card gives me free access to any of their properties which is great but the downside is that I resent paying to go to non-NT sites. One of those places I would have liked to visit but haven’t is Ironbridge, a small town near Telford, with about six museums celebrating their incredible industrial history. So you can imagine my delight last year when the Trust took over these museums. And on a very wet Saturday this week I went to see them.

I visited Jackfield Tile Museum, which was fascinating. I did not realise how complex tile making can be. I visited Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, with many displays showing how this area became the centre of iron making. My favourite museum however was Blists Hill Victorian town. It is a village of Victorian buildings staffed by volunteer actors. I got to chat to the blacksmith, chemist, post master, policeman, draper, publican, baker and others about what it was like in Victorian times. The baker sells their own bread, the pub sells local beer, and best of all there is a reproduction fish and chip shop, with everything fried in beef dripping. I felt I had to sample the goods for my history education. Yummy.

It was a great day out. We are back travelling on the boat now, and moored in a village called Alrewas. It grew up around the canal, so much of it is Victorian. It also has a chip shop but fish and chips twice in a week is possibly too much. Possibly.

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Back on the boat but is there any water?

We have been back on Narrowboat Thuis for over a week now and as always it has been very relaxing. There is something about this boat that makes us say “aaaaah” when we get back here. This time, after six weeks of weddings, anniversaries, doctors, dentists, visitors, visits and people, people, people, it has been especially special to be back in our tin can. Mandy has been watching Midsomer Murders and doing her craft. I have been finding jobs to do and walking the dog. The big question we knew we would face was whether there would be enough water in the canals to travel.

It has been a summer of drought, and we have seen more and more canals and rivers closing to boat traffic. From where we are in Stone the Northern routes are largely blocked. The Caldon is closed. Heartbreak hill on the Trent & Mersey is closed. Bosley locks on the Macclesfield are closed (yet again). We can go South, but the Atherstone lock flight on the Coventry is closed, and the Trent looks challenging beyond Alrewas.

We decided to go out for a recce trip just down to one of our favourite moorings near Weston. It was lovely, very peaceful with few boats on the canal. On the return journey we needed to wind (turn around) just below Weston lock and that is where the reality of low water became obvious. The levels were really low and boat after boat was getting stuck leaving the lock. We made it out and Mandy did a great job of winding without getting caught in the mud. But it was tricky.

The irony now is that we have come back to the marina because there is too much rain. As I write this, the skies are completely dark, the rain is rattling across the roof, and there are huge crashes of thunder and lightning. It is certainly more exciting being in a boat in a storm than in a house, but it is not great for travelling.

Will it fill up the canals? Probably not. We need weeks of weather like this to recover properly. But maybe it will top us up enough to allow us to go on a slightly longer trip next week. I hope so.

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How do you keep friends through your whole life?

If you read this blog regularly you will know that my wife Mandy is a remarkable woman. She certainly knows how to look after me, with all my foibles. One thing I have always been impressed by is that she has stayed close to nine friends from school. At least once a year they go away together on a girls’ weekend and still get on after fifty years.

For the past few years one friend has been missing from the events. Mel and Iain went to live in Australia, which is a long way to come for a weekend. But this week they were visiting the UK, so all the girls and their partners caught up.

I can be a bit antisocial at parties, preferring to hide in a corner, or find an excuse for not coming, but it was genuinely lovely to get back together, The last time “us men” were together must have been over twenty years ago, when most of us had young children and we all went off to centerparcs.

How do the friends stay so close after all this time? I am terrible at staying in touch. There were several of my friends at our Ruby Wedding celebration that I had not seen or spoken to for many many years. I expect the answer is making the effort. Mandy says it is not hard to send a note on a birthday, or pick up the phone. I’d love to make a commitment to change and do better, but realistically I probably won’t.

So I will just admire Mandy and her friends instead. Remarkable.

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What makes a great party?

When I was six, I knew what a great party required – icecream and balloons. When I was sixteen I knew what a great party required – girls and beer. When I was twenty six most parties included dancing although with my uncoordinated body I tendered to avoid.. I am sixty two now, my world has moved on, but on Saturday night we had one of the best parties of my life – for Mandy and my Ruby Wedding Anniversary.

What made this one such a great party? Well we did have balloons and icecream – with my home made brownies. And we did have beer. There was dancing, albeit a Ceilidh, which suited me, rather than a sweaty boogie. But what made it so special was the people. We had nearly a hundred friends and family from the past forty years, many of whom we had not seen for a very long time.

Everyone joined in and everyone enjoyed themselves. Our sons and their families organised the decoration and sorted the food (pie and peas because we are in Lancashire). The boys even made a beautiful speech. I got to spend at least a little time with pretty much everyone, and overall it was simply a magical occasion.

Thank you to everyone that came and helped us celebrate our very special day. It was quite a party.

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Are twelve trains too many for a day trip?

Warning: train geek blog this week. Strap in.

You may know that I like trains. I am not a train spotter because I don’t collect numbers and don’t recognise locomotives. Instead I am very happy sitting on a train by a window just watching the world go by. For my 60th birthday I spent a month interrailing all around Europe on trains and I absolutely loved it. But until this week I had never been on 12 trains in a day.

On Tuesday I set off at 6am with my brother in law Stephen and my elder son, Robbie. Stephen and I had discovered some bargain train tickets called “Ffestiniog Round Robins” which allowed a circular trip all around North Wales, including the famous Ffestiniog narrow gauge steam railway.

First we had to get to the area, so we took a local train from Kirkham & Wesham to Preston, and then the big Avanti West Coast Inter City down to Warrington. Here we caught our first Welsh trains to Chester and then along the coast to Llandudno Junction. Llandudno itself is a pretty seaside town but the junction is a more grim, rundown area that used to house a big railway works and a Hotpoint washing machine factory. Here we found the best value cooked breakfast I have had in a very long time. For £7.99 we got goood quality sausages, bacon, egg, beans, buttered toast and a cup of coffee. Yum.

Feeling sated we hopped onto the next train, back inland through beautiful Welsh hills to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Blaenau was once home to many slate mines, and you can see the big tips of slate as you pass. These days it is much more of a tourist destination and as we arrived at the steam train we were not surprised to see many tourist coaches offloading trippers for the journey to Porthmadog. I love the smell and nostalgia of steam locomotives and knew I would enjoy this stretch, but had not expected the spectacular views. The train clings to the side of a mountain and you can see for miles across the valley floor as it winds around the contours.

Porthmadog was heaving with holidaymakers, filling the streets, the tat shops and amusement arcades. I had hoped to get fish and chips from a shop that is famous for multiple kinds of curry sauce. I am not normally allowed to eat curry at home because Mandy hates the smell, but I thought I could get away with a little chip sauce at lunchtime. But Steve and Robbie preferred the idea of a picnic, so we picked up french bread, ham, brie and salami for lunch on the next train.

The line from Porthmadog to Machynlleth is a beautiful stretch of coastline. It is peppered with static caravan parks, and the train was packed with their occupants, enjoying a traditional British holiday. The air conditioning was not working so it was a bit of a sauna, but I still loved looking out to sea. From Machynlleth the trains to Shrewsbury and then Chester were not much better, so by the time we got to Chester we really fancied a cold beer. Robbie googled a proper craft beer pub sitting amongst the victorian station architecture, but our train was late, so we grabbed some IPA cans from the pub and caught our trains to Warrington and then back to Preston.

By the time we had enjoyed the final train back to Kirkham, it was getting late, and we were peckish again, so picked up the biggest kebabs I have ever seen, from Jononi Balti. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day. But maybe twelve trains was just too many.

What do you think?

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How do I get back my walking fitness?

For the past year, while Ziggy Dog has been unwell, the lengths of my walks have reduced. Now that I just have Lulu I thought I would get back to it. So on Thursday I took her out to do a chunk of he Ribble Way in Preston.

It was a lovely day. The weather was mild. The countryside was beautiful. I got to pretended I was a train on the old tram route into the city. But after 3 miles Lulu had had enough, and got back in the car with Mandy. And after 6 miles I too was knackered.

This is a far cry from the days when I did many long distance walks including the Pennine Way and Wainwright’s Coast to Coast. In those days, 6 miles would be the first fast stretch before breakfast.

So what is the problem? I suppose that at 12 (Lulu) and 62 (me) we are not quite the young pups we once were. I think I need to learn not to push Lulu too hard. We went on a longish walk together when we were in Scotland and it took her three days to recover.

But that is no excuse for me. I may be older and more rotund, but I can definitely regain some of my walking legs. So rather like runners do with Couch to 5k (I hate running) I think I need to build up to longer walks step by step. They will mostly be flat walks when we are out on the boat because canals tend to avoid hills, but when the boating season ends I can try a bit more up and down. Time to see if my new blood pressure tablets are working.

All fine words, but as my Dad used to say “Good intentions butter no parsnips”. Let’s see if there is any action.

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