Tag: Dogs

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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RIP Ziggy

Our dog Ziggy passed away this week. I thought long and hard about whether to write about her in this blog. It is not really the cheery vibe I am used to. Some people will question why it is such a big deal. She was only a dog. Other people will object to having their own sad memories triggered. But I have decided that writing about something else would be disrespectful to Ziggy. She deserves a few words.

We chose Ziggy and her sister Lulu from a litter of Cairn Terriers born in Doncaster in August 2014. Actually, she chose us, walking over to ask to be picked up and cuddled. She was never the most elegant of dogs. She had a broken leg as a puppy because her bones grew too fast, and always walked with a strange gait, rather like muffin the mule. She had big brown eyes that frankly could get her anything she wanted. And what she usually wanted was sausages.

Lulu was our mad dog – chasing squirrels and snarling at the world. Ziggy on the other hand was quiet and loyal. There was nothing she enjoyed more than a “Ziggy cuddle”, where she lay on her back in my arms, with her head dangling to one side.

I would take the dogs on long walks. They particularly enjoyed the West Highland Way and the Southern Upland Way. Lulu would charge ahead till she got tired, and Ziggy would stay close to heel, hoping for treats. We went on long holidays to Scottish islands – Skye, Orkney, Islay and Uist. They loved beaches where they could run a round like mad things.

And both dogs have always liked being on Narrowboat Thuis, their home from home. Ziggy would sit on the back deck of the boat, watching the world go by, while Lulu scanned the towpath for something to bark at. In the evening Ziggy would try to push her luck, asking for an early tea because she was sooooo hungry.

Two years ago she was diagnosed with multiple cancers and given three months to live. The vets have been amazed how our miracle dog in fact survived nearly two years, and had such a happy time. The last few months were more difficult. She was dosed up with pain killers and couldn’t come on those long walks with her sister anymore. But until a couple of weeks ago she was still clearly a contented and happy dog. In the end I think she had finally had enough but obviously it has been very sad to let her go.

But I refuse to leave Ziggy with sad thoughts. My phone screen saver provides random photographs of the dogs and I was worried seeing Ziggy would upset me. But as I see her again, I am reminded of so very many happy memories. She was the best.

Rest in peace my wonderful, loyal, cuddly dog Ziggy.

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Should I be grumpy that Canal & River Trust have not fixed Bosley Locks?

In early May a boat crashed into the bottom gate of Bosley Locks. Bosley are a flight of 12 locks on the Macclesfield canal that raise a boat 118 feet over just half a mile, taking you from the bottom of the canal to the top. They have been closed since then and I am becoming irritated by Canal & River Trust (CRT) not fixing them.

Going down Bosley Locks two years ago

The problem with the locks being out of action are that boaters like us cannot get up to Macclesfield and the Peak Forest Canal without them. There is a theoretical alternative route through Manchester but the Bridgewater Canal is closed due to a breach a couple of years ago, and the Marple flight of locks at the other end of the Macclesfield has just closed due to a broken balance beam.

I have some sympathy with CRT. The damage to the gate was extensive and exacerbated an existing problem with the gates leaking. However, they took weeks before deciding to drain the lock for a proper examination, and then a while to install scaffolding and fix the issue.

As you probably know, we pootled along the Caldon Canal for a while and had a lovely time, but last week they said it would be open at 4pm on Tuesday so we set off. Then, at 1pm on Tuesday CRT sent a notice that they had found another issue and would not be opening. Next update is Friday but I am not holding our breath. We have winded (turned around) and come back to Kidsgrove.

I don’t have a problem with the gate failure. Stuff happens, especially with two hundred year old locks. But I think they should have found the second problem when they examined the lock weeks ago. And I think their communication should have been a lot better throughout.

But we do not live on a boat to get grumpy. We enjoyed our trip up to Congleton, and I had a lovely afternoon looking at the museum and town hall there. It must have been such a dirty smelly mill town a hundred years ago, but is now bright and feels optimistic. And we are currently moored in one of our favourite places, just north of the Harecastle tunnel, where iron ore in the soil makes the canal run red, and the birds seem to sing all day long.

There is another lovely route down the “heartbreak hill” flight of 31 locks towards Middlewich, so we will probably head that way when the rain stops. A good friend is visiting us next week from New Zealand via South America, so we do not want to get too far anyway.

And who knows, maybe on Friday they will tell us Bosley is open again. Life’s too short to be grumpy.

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Is the Caldon Canal the most beautiful?

In last week’s blog I pondered whether we should take Narrowboat Thuis along the Caldon to Froghall, along the Macclesfield and Peak Forest to Whaley Bridge or up the Trent & Mersey to Middlewich. Our answer was to try to do all three. This week we have been cruising the Caldon, and it is one of the quietist and most beautiful canals we have visited.

We left the Trent & Mersey in Stoke at Etruria. This is where Josia Wedgewood had his china factory and it has much industrial history. When we passed through there was a canal festival going on, so the canal was lined with historical boats and maybe a thousand gongoozlers (people who like to watch boats).

The first few miles of the Caldon are notorious and you are advised not to moor if you don’t want to meet dodgy characters. So it was no surprise when the boat suddenly stalled with a duvet wrapped around the propellor. Fortunately I have recently purchased a bread knife to keep in the engine bay for things like this and after a few minutes I had cut myself free.

A few miles later, the character of the canal changed completely. Surrounded by trees and plants it meanders through Staffordshire. We cruised up the Leek Branch first and moored for a couple of days by a lake. It was very peaceful except when the cows decided to visit.

Then back to the mainline and through the Churnett valley to Froghall. At times the canal is only wide enough for one, but not many boats come down here so it was fine. There is a tunnel at the end of the navigation but it is too low for NB Thuis so we turned around.

The strangest thing for me about this lovely canal is that it was not always this way. It was built for heavy industry and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it would have been filthy with effluent from lime and flint kilns, coal mines and colour mills, feeding the factories of Stoke on Trent and further afield. We are currently moored next to a Flint Mill museum, which is absolutely fascinating. Who knew that fine china was made with more ground flint than clay. I did not even realise that bone china is actually made with 50% cattle bones.

So is the Caldon the most beautiful canal? I’ll let you know when we have been back on the Peak Forest!

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Is Blackpool just pubs and B&Bs?

We are back living in our Lancashire house this week. We are not so far from Blackpool. Blackpool has a terrible reputation, not all of it justified. It is true that there is a fair amount of crime there, but no more than most UK towns. It is true that it is a bit “chavvy” in the summer, with stag and hen dos wandering the streets in various states of inebriation. It is true that some of the shopping areas are looking a bit run down. But it also has some lovely areas.

I took Lulu for a walk this morning to Marton Mere, on the edge of Blackpool. It is a lovely tranquil nature reserve, based around a lake, with pretty paths snaking round the reed beds and bird hides. During our walk we heard reed warblers, Cetti warblers, wrens, robins, white throats and many more.

It is amazing to be so close to a town and still be in nature. Narrowboating can feel the same. Sometimes I know we are travelling through the middle of a big city, but perhaps we are in a cutting, surrounded by trees, and it could be in the middle of the countryside.

I think anywhere you are you can find peaceful spaces, as well as noise and excitement. I know which I prefer.

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The ducklings are back!

Just over a week ago, Mandy and I were commenting that we had not seen any baby birds this year. It is lovely to pootle along on Narrowboat Thuis, watching for the ducklings, goslings, cygnets, cooties and moorhen chicks. I am not sure why moorhen chicks don’t get a cute name like the others.

Well this week the ducklings have started arriving and I have seen new families every day.

This group of ten ducklings were so small we wondered if they had ever been in the water. Mummy duck jumped into the canal in front of us, and one by one the ducklings followed, kicking their legs to try to work out how to stop going in circles.

I learnt something new about ducklings this week. Apparently the mother only lays one egg a day, but does not sit on the nest to incubate them until she has a full set of eggs. That way they all hatch at about the same time. Very clever.

I took Lulu dog for a walk to a bird sanctuary yesterday. The geese were being quite aggressive. I reckon that may be because they also have eggs coming up to hatching. Now we have the ducklings I look forward to seeing the other birds. It is a great time of year for nature and a great time of year to be on a boat.

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Does March have the biggest temperature differences?

Living in a house, it is easy to ignore the weather. Central heating and good insulation literally insulate us from it. On a Narrowboat things are somewhat different. This week has given us a good example of that. We have had the most beautiful blue sky days. Great weather for Spring boating.

On Wednesday the temperature on the boat got up to 26°C, even with all the windows open. But overnight the clear skies dropped the temperature to 1°C. I think this must be the greatest daily difference I have seen. In Winter the temperatures stay cold. In Summer they are hot. And in the Autumn they tend to be mild.

It is a special time. I have loved starting the daily cruise with ice on the roof and wrapped in layers and a coat. I have loved shedding the layers as the day goes on. I have loved mooring up early afternoon and taking Lulu Dog for a walk to see fields full of lambs.

It’s a good time of year.

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Five types of narrowboaters who travel at this time of year.

We have set off on our first big Narrowboat trip of the year. For the next eight weeks we will be travelling the Trent & Mersey, Coventry and Oxford canals (plus a bit of Birmingham & Fazeley, Staffs & Worcester and Grand Union,). Our aim is to get to Oxford and back. We wanted to go there last year but had to bail out at Fenny Compton because the drought was causing more and more canals to be closed. Right now we have had a winter of rain and the canals and reservoirs are overflowing, so we should be fine.

It is a lovely time of year. The navigations (canals and rivers) are quiet. Moorings are easy to find. Fellow boaters are as excited to be out and about.

So who are these fellow boaters who brave the canals in early March? I have identified five types:

  1. The genuine continuous cruisers. These people live all year round on their boats. During the winter, when there are many maintenance closures, they tend to stay in an area they like, just travelling a mile or so every two weeks, to comply with the regulations.
  2. The lazy continuous cruisers. Like us, these boaters live in a house or in a marina over winter. It avoids the worst of the mud, and makes us very excited for our long cruises March to October.
  3. The brave hire boaters. Most of the hire boats are sitting safely in their bases at this time of year. Business begins to pick up at Easter and peaks in the summer. But there are always a few brave souls willing to take a boat out early at a lower cost. We find that often these are very experienced boaters. Perhaps they once owned a boat, or have just hired for years.
  4. The unlucky share boaters. Many narrow boats are owned by a syndicate of people, who each own a thirteenth share, and in return get four weeks a year on the boat, usually one week in each season. The winter week is usually spent in a marina but for Spring, Summer and Autumn they want to take advantage of their investment. Spring weeks are the most varied, from March to May, and the unlucky ones get a week at the beginning of Spring.
  5. The working boaters. There are always trees to be cleared, fish to be surveyed, locks to be mended. Canal & River Trust are out and about helping to keep us moving. We even called them out this week to pull a dead sheep from a lock. Not a pleasant job.

And what connects all these boaters is our love of being out on the cut. We pass each other with a cheery wave and a word of advice – “The Fazeley has reopened early!”, or “You don’t expect to meet under a bridge at this time of year” or “Watch out for the dead sheep In Weston lock”.

We are so happy to be narrowboating again.

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Why am I only walking one dog?

We have two eleven year old cairn terriers, Ziggy and Lulu. Ever since they were puppies we have loved going for walks together. We have done some pretty strenuous walks including parts of the West Highland and Southern Upland Ways. They always had so much more energy than me, running up ahead and then coming back as we walked. Unfortunately Ziggy now has multiple cancers and it has reached the stage where I can only take Lulu for walks.

Ziggy doesn’t like it. She has a strong fear of missing out, and looks at me with her big brown eyes when I leave her at the door. Lulu doesn’t like it. She shouts at me that I have forgotten her sister, and she misses her playmate on the beach. And I don’t like it. I miss my companion, with her gangling gait and “at heel” loyalty.

But even taking her down the road to the village green is becoming too much. She just needs to be at home, in the warm, mostly sleeping. It is a sad situation.

But I should celebrate that she is still with us. She was given three months to live a year and a half ago, and she still welcomes me with a wagging tail when I get her up in the morning. And when she has gone it will be even tougher for Lulu. She isn’t the sharpest of dogs and will not understand.

But for now I will make the most of my walks with Lulu, and my time with Ziggy, cuddling her and giving her sausages.

Sorry for a downbeat blog this week. I’ll get back to my usual “everything is awesome” next week.

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Why am I so excited about new canal books?

This week I received.a package in the post. It contained not a Christmas present, but four books with maps and routes of the canal network in the UK.

Narrowboaters have many options for navigating these days. We use a website called CanalPlan AC and an app called OpenCanalMap. But most boaters also like to read the guides. Some use the ones from Pearsons, but we prefer the originals – the Nicholsons. They have good maps of the routes, helpful lists of pubs and places to visit, and honest descriptions of the towns and villages on the route.

I also have a personal connection to the Nicholsons because one of my friends is the main author, Jonathan Mosse. I met him about ten years ago at a barbecue for narrowboaters in Scotland. He lent us a long chain for an anchor when we travelled the tidal river Clyde. And since we have been in England we have used our Nicholsons to navigate the huge network of rivers ad canals across the country.

Once a year I let Jonathan know all the changes and edits we have found in the books. Perhaps a pub has closed. Perhaps a bridge is incorrectly numbered. Perhaps we have discovered a wonderful new cafê. In return he sometimes sends me new editions, and that was what I received this week. In fact, guides 2 and 3 have not even been published yet. They come out in February but Jonathan has got me early copies.

We have been living in bricks and mortar houses since October, albeit with six weeks in the Outer Hebrides. I am itching to be back on Narrowboat Thuis. We won’t get properly going till March but perhaps we can get a week or two on the boat while it is moored in the Marina. Maybe New Year in our Narrowboat, with me, Mandy, the dogs and reading my new books. Sounds good to me.

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