Cirrhosis of the River

Sparks and Co take to the water, 2015

Readers who have been with me for a while now, will know of our love of canals and all things narrow-boat; there have been many posts (e.g. http://deefer-dawg.blogspot.ie/2008/07/are-you-wondering.html) from our Kent days covering our family holidays with the Silverwoods in hired boats. We did them every year for a few years and loved every one of them. They are one of the (few) things we miss about our UK 'dinky*' lives. Well, for all of those years and many before and since, bro-in-law 'Sparks' has also been doing the boating thing but his was always Irish style.

Entering the Albert Lock on Jamestown Canal. 

No narrow canals here and few decent wider ones, so here they take to the huge and long River Shannon and, instead of our 7 foot wide, 56 foot long 'buses', they go out in enormous gin-palace look-alike River Cruisers. Sparks and a gang of his work mates (not always the same lads; they tend to rotate in and out of the idea) have been doing this now for 14 years or so, always in May. When they started these were, apparently, rather lairy 'booze cruises' and became known as the annual "Cirrhosis of the River" trip. Now, of course (cough) they are all much more sensible and mature, have kids, families, mortgages and a reduced ability to recover from 'benders', plus they are all mad keen foodies and cooks. They compete with each other to serve up the best food in the galley and chug down stream as a group of gourmets, snacking on home-made pork-crackling and the like.

Crazy fools let me steer!

One of these trips coincided with the end of the house-build here and I can remember us putting in some 15 hour days trying to get some jobs finished in time to let Sparks away to Carrick for the start of it, and he has asked us every year to come and meet them at the boat's latest moorings. So far we had not managed it even though, as they pass through Carrick, they are only half an hour's drive from here. This year we determined to correct that and finally got to see them, look round the boat and, absolute icing on this boaty cake, joined them for a bit of a cruise up the river.

Familiar role. Liz waits while the Lock fills.

Our job was to arrive at the Albert Lock on Jamestown Canal at 3 p.m. on the Saturday (16th May). We decided to come provisioned up, so we packed bags full of eggs (goose and chicken), chutney, tomato and chilli 'jam', honey and a specially baked honey and orange polenta cake, plus called by Tesco to get them a bottle of red and a bottle of white. They seemed quite pleased to see us (!) - no seriously, the lads welcomed us aboard enthusiastically and were immediately great 'craic' and excellent company. We left the car at the lock knowing that the 45 minute cruise up into Carrick could be 'undone' by a 15 minute, reasonably priced taxi ride. These hire boats, even opened up on the wide river where nobody cares about wake and wash, will still only do about 7 knots, so you don't get far from your car even if you go at it all afternoon.

An apéritif on the 'sun deck'? It might look warm but that's
a chilly wind across that open water.

So, full of nostalgia for the gazillions of do-it-yourself locks on the Pennines, we entered the Albert Lock and waited while the Lock Keeper secured everybody to his satisfaction, took their money and then did his thing with gates and sluices. We were off up the canal and then out into the hugely wide, open river, the lead boat of a little short-term convoy of 3 boats from the same hire company (Emerald Star). When signed up 'Skipper' Tony suggested I take a turn at the driving, I was in like Flynn.

I used to do 99% of the 'driving' on our narrow boat trips (I was always 'volunteered' but I wasn't complaining) so I spent 99% of the time we were in motion standing up at the back of the boat, a noisy diesel yammering away just below my feet. tiller in my hand, open to the elements; lovely in the sunshine but get that poncho/cape on a bit quick if it started raining. I did plenty of driving while soaked to the skin. These river cruisers are a completely different kettle of fish. You get to steer using a big, chrome steering wheel, in a comfortable seat and at the front fo the boat. You have a choice of driving seats - up aloft or down in a cozy, waterproof cockpit with a proper windscreen and even windscreen wipers. The lads had even developed a code for 'take over below' when it rained - drop the joystick into neutral and thump twice on the deck with your foot. Then you can nip down the companionway and out of the rain. Luxury!

Sparks at the 'indoor' controls.

So, we had a thoroughly enjoyable Saturday afternoon messing about on the river, picnicking on fine cheese and wine with the lads and just enjoying the company and relaxation of superb people. Thank you very much Sparks for letting us on board and we hope you enjoy the remainder of your break. We bade them farewell as they snatched a public mooring right in the middle of Carrick and they wandered off into town, amused by the 30-40 party-dressed young ladies tottering off a hire-able party-boat in their heels and short skirts, clutching part-drunk pints of lager, part of a Hen Night which looked like it was already well under way at about 5 pm. We headed for the nearby big hotel in pursuit of a taxi to take us back to the lock.

Chased up the Shannon by two similar hire-boats.

We are determined to do it all again next year if Sparks is 'playing' and the tradition of Cirrhosis of the River makes it to 2016. Even though we are not now in a position to do the old style family narrow boat weeks or fortnights (finance and livestock 'babysitting') we do dream that one day, in our dotage, Liz and I might nip over there and hire a little 2-berth from Shire Cruisers of Sowerby Bridge, who served us so well for many years just has Sparks has been looked after by Emerald Star of Carrick. If you've not tried these holidays but always hankered after a bit of river-based 'messing', then do yourself a favour and sort one out just so you know how much fun they can be.

Sparks and Liz (Tony behind) moor the boat up in Carrick at
the end of our little outing.

* DINKY - Dual Income No Kids (Yet)

17 Years

Mum, as anyone who knows her will know, is a great one for making lists - Lists are drawn up to plan everything from Christmas menus, itinerary for visits from young Silverwoods, house decoration, projects and gardening weekends to holidays and even, sometimes, work.

Now that next year's narrow boating mission is being organised, a List is being prepared. We are doing the "South Pennine Ring", which is Sowerby Bridge, up over the top at Todmorden and Littleborough, down through Rochdale to Manchester, then back up through Ashton and Mossley, through the Standedge tunnel and Huddersfield, back to Sowerby Bridge. 197 locks! It's quite a list by the time Mum has added all the major stop-offs and pinch-points (having to pre-book summits etc).

It's Mum and Dad's 17th Anniversary today and, unusually, they have both remembered it in good time, so Dad has got the requisite flowers organised and Mum has got in fizz and posh food for a romantic meal.... and a cake. It is also 3rd Birthday of Toddler-R Silverwood, so Mum and Dad phone up and sing Happy Birthday raucously down the phone to her. Being 3, she probably has no idea what's going on but allegedly enjoys the singing and then attempts in her unique monosyllabic way, to list all her presents "Bike..... Bear.... Bike........Shark......Bike!" etc. It's never a long conversation with R though, and she's soon racing back off to play.

Happy Birthday Little R Silverwood

We all hope you had a great day!

Deefs

Captain's Log... Day 1

Day 1 of our adventure, and this is just arriving. Mum and Dad are up early and doing last minute packing and loading the car. This always makes us a bit anxious, as we dogs both think we are about to be abandonned; we don't really trust things to be OK until we are ourselves loaded into the car along with our bowls, food, collars, leads and treats. Mum and Dad have a bit of a stressed drive up the A1 (should have taken the M1 but the M25 was a bit nightmarish so we escaped up the M11).

We arrive at the hire-base of Sowerby Bridge where we are known to be experienced and competent crew, so we get the slightly abridged version of the briefing and the walk through the boat explaining boilers, anchors, cookers etc. We find that the pound above Tuel Lane lock is very low and not passable till the Waterways boys can rig up a pump to fill it, so we opt to start with a run down stream to Salterhebble.

That's it for cruising the first day - we are determined to make this a relaxing holiday, so no hard-charging lock-upon-lock stuff. We cruise the 45 minute pound to Salterhebble and then drop down through the 2 locks into the basin and moor up for a chilled out evening of unpacking, eating, chatting, re-acquainting, drinking and exploring. Cruising proper starts tomorrow.

Incidentally, this blog has now passed the 10,000 views landmark.

Deefski

Avast There!

We are back, Dear Reader, and with you again. Did you miss us? We have been on hols in Yorkshire, hiring a narrow boat from Shire Cruisers in Sowerby Bridge (this time the good ship "Northumberland") for a week's worth of cruising the inland waterways of Yorkshire. As ever this is a family event, so we take the Silverwoods from Ireland along with us, so we are 4 adults (Mum, Dad and Mr+Mrs S), 4 childrens (Em-J (12), J-M (10), M (4) and toddler R (2)) plus we two dogs, all in a 56 foot boat.

It's all excellent fun and we all survived, all be it there were rumours that I might have gone for total immersion baptism at one stage, but there are no photos to prove it. More on this over the next few days is "Captain's Log" format as last year, but for now a taster. 2 pictures - first of Dad manouvring in the Brighouse Basin lashed stern-to-stern and bow-to-bow to an old dead house-boat named Peppa who had "died" one lock down and needed an assist up to the top level. The second is myself (l) and the H(r) on the quayside in Hudderseild's Aspley Basin.

More tomorrow

Deefski

Millicent Maud

Well lookee here!

What do we find when we are walking around our own local boat yard, but this young lady more used to the canals and waterways of Sowerby Bridge, where we do our own narrow-boating. Yes, I appreciate that there are nearer canals, but heh!

Just now I cannot for the moment imagine what brings her to our town.... some kind of refit or repair for which we are uniquely skilled? Or possibly the owner is a resident of these parts and he/she chose to bring the boat "home" for repair, rather than keep making the journey to the lady's normal moorings. Anyway, Millicent Maud, it's nice to see you and you give us that little excited tingle of holidays to come this Summer.

Meanwhile in bitter winds, we are getting some nice walks in, and meeting some of our good friends - Luca the Lurcher with his games of "tennis" behind the Bowls Pavilion (and Luca's Mum is getting me quite good at catching the bounces too!), Ben, Skiboo, Patch, Smudge and Barney, Bailey the Setter. We are back into those medium length days where everyone walks their dogs in daylight, so gets squeezed into the gap between about half three and half five. Soon the clocks will change and the squeeze will be less, and the walkers more spread out.

For us, meanwhile, another short week work for Dad, and a nice long weekend, using up his 2009 holidays, so some good explorations. Meanwhile Diamond is back in hospital for the moment - her own choice, it suits her for now. Look after yourself, Di.

Deefski

Autumn in the Garden

While we've all been rushing about dealing with Daimond's "release" and Meggie's vet visits, Autumn has quietly come to the garden. We have some lovely clumps of white cyclamen, planted more in hope than in certainty, from small dig-ups taken from the pud-lady last year. Mum and Dad had thought they'd faded and died with the up-rooting, but here they are flourishing in the wild-stawberry-y bit at the base of the birch.

We also have many roses doing a late flush after the drought and a serious amount of dead heading, and a good crop of apples (goldens and coxes) and half a dozen good sized quinces turning yellow. Also coming out is a nice clump of Sedum spectabile, actually the two surviving separate halves of one plant which Haggis liked to sit in the middle of, in his youth,

Dad has been away in Stoke for a night picking up some kind of works award (zzzzzz) but is now back, and tonight it's Mum's turn - off on a "leaving do" for a colleague. What rock and roll lifestyles we lead, to be sure.

Dad nips Meggie back to the vet's for a check up and Meg takes the opportunity to bleed onto the vet's table from her pad-scar - not before or since, just for the couple of minutes she's on the vet's table. Other than that we are declared good to go.

Have a great weekend y'all. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of some video footage taken on the narrow boating holiday, and now saved by Mr Silverwood, to CDs. Happy memories.

Deefski

BOOM! Rattle rattle

I am writing this in the midst of a mahousive thunder storm, which is banging and rattling around, quite alarming. Aside from the wisdom of using a computer in such electrical mayhem, it is also difficult to type because at every bang, the H has to rush downstairs shouting his indignation, and naturally, I have to charge down too to support him. This makes for some distracted typing, but bear with me.... I'll do my best.

It is time to describe the run back over the Summit into God's Own County. This is, as we have said, all carefully controlled and restricted by "Dave" from British Waterways (Westie owner who has a pic of the three of us posing on the aft deck). The runs over and back are carefully controlled and timed to ensure that the boats all meet at the most troublesome pound (below which are two very subsiding locks with very leaky doors. This makes sure that the water "brought down" by the descending boats is used to fill the pounds needed by the ascending boat.

It kinda works - west bound you arrive at lock 33 at 09:00 which gives you time to climb and bimble across the summit, descending to 41/42/43 to meet the Eastbound boat(s) which has been allowed into the sequence at 44 at 11:00. Even so you park in one lock to allow 2 boats down, and move only when the 2nd of the pair is in the pound. You chug forward very tentatively, inching towards the cill (sill?) with your vulnerable prop and rudder, ready to call for more water if you ground.

Once through that bit the rest of the climb is fairly easy, and we dogs help out, as you can see from the pics, by leppin' off the boat at every lock, running around, crossing the bridges and peering down at Dad in the lock chamber from 3 or 4 feet above his head. This also gives the lock wranglers useful exercise rounding us all up before they can leave the lock and carry on. Keeps 'em fit (especially when Meg gets a bit tired of this and Mr S has to carry her back to the boat below the lock.)

It's a full day - it's 9 locks up to the summit, and 9 down again to Walsden, and Grandma Pollard's chippy. As I said, we couldn't start till 11:00 which meant that although we had a nice lie-in and a leisurely breakfast, there was a serious risk we might not make Grandma's by 15:00, and a mutinous rumour had gone round the ship that that was when she closed. Crew members were getting an evil gleam in their eyes, and the Skipper (Dad.... ahhh my Hero) was starting to get a bit edgy.

It seemed that all was lost, and the best he could hope for was a good keel-hauling. 15:00 came and went with us still 3 or 4 locks from Walsden. We moored up at 16:00 in despair, and Mrs S was despatched to try to blag a late extension to the opening times (We've travelled Miles! 4 hungry children (and a crop in the fields?) etc etc. We were starving, so imagine our (and Dad's relief) when Mrs S returned saying "No Problem! The 15:00 only applies to Monday and Tuesday! This is Wednesday - it's open till 20:00! Result! )

Food was taken and good humour restored. We bimble on down some more, to moor up for the night just above lock 21, in the pound that runs under the Gauxholme viaduct. Tomorrow would be another day - Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and the start of heavy rain, but for now we are warm, dry, well fed and enjoying an evening of silly quiz games with the girls, playing holiday-related "Hangman" (Halifax, Staircase Flight, Laugh, etc).

We are exhausted bodies as we take to our bunks, and the humans at least, are with wine taken.

A brilliant day

Deefski

"Maggits"

These anglers use a variety of interesting "foods" as bait, but one that definitely doesn't appeal to we dogs, and is the Silverwoods' bait of choice, is multi coloured maggots. These come in a tupperware box with a close fitting lid, and are dyed somehow (eating dyed food?) into four different colours - red, green, yellow and "normal". There is much discussion while fishing as to which colour is most likely to score a fish.

The tupperware box "must" be stored in the fridge according to the Silverwoods, to keep the maggots fresh. So far so good.

On one of the days the boat was left to the dogs, and Mum and Dad, while all the Silverwoods went off strolling or shopping. We dogs were out on the deck admiring the view, and enjoying the peace and quiet (a rare commodity with the 4 children around in a confined space) with Dad when we suddenly became aware of Mum, down in the galley starting to have absolute conniptions. "Ahh! Ahh! Nooooo! and assorted more fruity epithets". Dad raced down to see what was up.

Mum had gone to start cooking, so was trawling the fridge for likely ingredients, and had spotted a maggot crawling determinedly across a packet of goods. This rapidly escalated into lots of maggots as she quickly whipped each pack or salad ingredient out, her voice rising and anguish ringing around. It was obvious that the maggot box had not been closed properly and the little blighters were everywhere!

The fridge was rapidly emptied and the beasts either hunted down and corralled from closed food, or the open food thrown into a big bag with no holes in it, held by Dad. Then the fridge started to be picked apart, as they turned out to be behind shelves, under the wire racks, in among the rubber seals, and Mum was yelling and fretting throughout. She even found some frozen to the back plate of the fridge and had to scrape them off with a knife. Some had got behind and under the fridge too.

Right! That's It! Said she - No more maggits in the fridge! New house rule! The maggots (now sealed down) were confined to under the seat on the front deck. The food was mostly thrown away in the carefully sealed bag. One tub of minced beef which was recently open but had at least one maggot in (on the blood-pad) was quickly fried off for us dogs (so this was a good thing as far as we were concerned). Dad restrained Mum from hoying (good Northern word meaning to "throw". Diamond uses it in context of "Hoying it over the wall") the whole lot into the canal.

The Silverwoods (well some of them) protested on their return "But we neeeeeeed maggits for fishing...." but one look at Mum's face and they could see that the jokey "New House Rule" sign on the fridge, was about as far as this joke would run, and the maggits stayed on the front deck there-after. there was not, anyway, much appetite for fishing after Mrs S had been so badly mozzie'd and I don't think they got another airing, before they were indeed hoyed into the canal on the last morning as we were packing up.

Deefski.

Grandma Pollard's Chippy

As rude as we were inclined to be about Heckle and Jeckle, the combined crews of our two boats made for some great "lock wrangling" team work. Leaving Todmorden's "blue wall" at about 9 we attacked lock after lock, the 4 wranglers swarming all over gates and paddles, running ahead to set the next lock before we'd left the previous one. We climbed rapidly through Gauxholme, under the impressive castellated railway viaduct and on up to Walsden where.......

...we decided to try out a chippy noted in the excellent "Canal Companion" books (JM Pearson and Son Ltd), Grandma Pollard's Chippy. Without doubt the BEST fish and chips any of us had ever tasted, and we dogs can vouch for that and the fried potato-slice "dabs" that came with them, because of the amount inadvertantly dropped or deliberately fed to us by the children when Mum and Dad weren't looking.

In fact, so much "stray" food did we get on that holiday that we seemed to be "off our food" to Mum and Dad, until the reason became clear!

All parties determined to stop back at GP's on the way back down, but we knew we'd have to watch our timings - GP shuts at 3pm some days and isn't open at all at weekends. We strongly reccommend Grandma Pollard's if you're in the Gauxholme or Todmorden area!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=grandma+pollards+walsden&fb=1&split=1&gl=uk&view=text&latlng=11259490757895769097

That done, the tillermen were back at their helms, and the boats charging on once more towards the summit. We actually got to the first rstricted lock (No 33) by 1pm, and phoned the Waterways people to see if we could blag an early crossing. No, they said - they were sticking to their single booking per day (1 pair of boats either way), and to be fair, when we did go over, we could see why, but more of that later.

Deefski

Heckle and Jeckle

I've mentionned that this summit canal and locks are closely controlled by the British waterways guys due to the shortage of water at the summit. Etiquette and the Rules of the Road (plus common sense) dictate that to conserve water you move two boats with each lock-full if at all possible and this tends to mean that you pair up with another boat and go up or down together.

As two boats were booked out of Sowerby Bridge on the same day, and both due to cross the summit on the same day, this made it inevitable that we were "stuck with" the other boat for at least 3 and a half days. Needless to say you want these to be "nice" people or it can ruin a holiday. We were lucky then to be paired up with a couple from Leeds with whom we could get on (ish).

Ish? She was an absolute diamond, ex vet, now accountant, rescue dog owner and a demon around the lock-wrangling. He was just a tad less "easy" - a bit of an un-reconstructed old boy with a high, nasal Leeds voice that had you reminded of George Formby and who our lot were soon making sly comments about Ukulele players.

Totally useless domestically, apparently (we blame the parents) and given to expressions like "t'Dragon" (every time he was talking about "t'wife", and while totally glued to the back deck and his tiller, very generous with his advice on what she should do differently, an all round "expert" on everything. We were all waiting for a proper "domestic" to break out, but it never did.

These two were secretly named "Heckle and Jeckle" and the name stuck.

Deefer

The Summit

Longterm followers of this blog will know that this narrow-boating thing is now in its third year, and that in 2007, our mission to climb up the Rochdale canal over the summit and down to Littleborough (in Lancashire) was thwarted by a water shortage and some canal "pounds" with too little water in them, forcing us to turn back.

We climbed up through Todmorden but the shallow run-aground pound that thwarted us, between locks 25 and 26 (Smithyholme and Pinnel) meant that we got only 100 yards past lock 25 and had to reverse out (then reverse all the way back to Todmorden (not easy in a 56 foot boat - a matter of much roping and poling).

In 2008 we chose a different kind of route - a hard charging one-direction mission through Leeds to Burnley, but this year we opted to try again at the Summit. The guys from British Waterways have now got it a lot more organised so that numpty tourists can't leave paddles open and fail to close locks correctly, so water is conserved much better up there. You have to book passage over, and the numbers and slots are severely restricted.

Their man (In our case a westie owner called Dave) then collects you at the bottom of the restriction (lock 34) at the allotted time and pretty much shepherds you through, helping you with locks and letting extra water into the pounds to make sure you get through. You must also go in pairs of boats to maximise efficiency (of which more later). You then part company with him on the way back down, as you drop out of the poorly locks (subsidence, bellying sides and leaky doors) back into better maintained bits of canal.

So - we made it, and had plenty adventures on the way, which I will regale you with as we go through the next few days.

Look after yourself

Deefer

The Good Ship "Sussex"

Another week with no postings, but this time for a very very good reason, namely we were away on this year's Narrow Boating Holiday. Regular readers will know that we use Sowerby Bridge (near Halifax) based firm Shire Cruisers, whose boats are all named after counties, and this year we were on the good ship "Sussex".

We are only just back, and we are still unpacking and recovering, the humans de-grunging in the shower and Mum feeding us all, so much much more of all our adventures later, and over the next few days, but for now let a couple of pics suffice, to give you some idea. The 3-dog pic is left to right, megs, my good self and the H, and the single dog posing above the "Sussex" name plate is, of course, H-man.

We had a whale of a time, making up for the shallow-water, no-access disappointments of 2007 by successfully negotiating the summit over to Littleborough, and managed to give Mum all she could need in terms of relaxing, shopping and bimbling after the 2008 hard-charging go-go-go deadlines mission through Leeds to Burnley.

Much more over the next few days.

Lurve

Aft-Deck Hand and Lock-wrangling assistant, Deefer

Washed in the Calder, Dried in the Aire

Monday - and another hard-charging day. There is a chunk in Leeds where due to the risk of vandalism (mainly the local Herberts leaving lock-paddles open, to drain the lock pounds and ground the boats - har har... very funny I'm sure!) the British Waterways officials lock everything up at 15:30pm overnight, so if you're not into this stretch by 1pm, you have to wait till next morning. The advice is to take Monday gently, moor up at Office Lock in Leeds, and do the restricted bit in the morning.

Mrs Silverwood, however, calculates that if we toe it, we might just sneak through, so we're under instructions to go-go-go, grabbing food and coffee on the hoof, as we steam on through the Aire and Calder Navigation, turning North at Wakefield and up towards Castleford and Leeds.

The Calder and the Aire are good wide genuine rivers (my 1st picture) and we can get a bit of speed on (I'm talking about "just faster than walking pace" here, so don't get a picture of speedboats with creaming wakes in your head!) and the Rivers are alive with swans, ducks, grebes, kingfishers, even cormorants and terns (!) plus we've seen 2 mink.

We must turn left at the traffic lights (I kid you not) just West of Castleford; it's here we join the Aire (upstream) so from now, till the summit, all the locks are "uphill", and many are big and mechanised (so the Lock-Wrangling team are reduced to pushing buttons).

We power on through Woodlesford and Stourton, having come out of the river at Lemonroyd Lock, and chug gently into Leeds - boating through the town centre is really bizarre, and we smile and wave (or woof) at the suited office workers chatting in plazas or eating sandwiches on benches overlooking our canal.

However, we don't make the cut-off for the restricted bit, so we end up moored in Office Lock pound, stopping the night in a safe, but not very promising looking Waterways compound with a strip of grass for dog exercise, bordered by a derilect warehouse, a huge railway bridge and a tower crane building a new sky scraper (and the canal of course). Of course we have keys to get out through the "handcuff" locks, but no-one can get in.

More tomorrow

Deefski

Captain's Log...

Day 1 of the holiday, and we make our way to Sowerby Bridge to meet up with the lovely people at Shire Cruisers, and to get our briefing and take over the boat, the good ship "Gloucester".

We are experienced boaters by now, but there are still things they need to tell us about the Aire and Calder Navigation - flood locks, getting on and off the river, wrangling locks with your "Calder Spike" etc. We take careful note and then get let loose to do battle with the Salterhebble flight, supervised, before we are signed off.

It's a fairly busy mission we have assigned ourselves and the Canal Guide (book) is be-stickered with dire warnings about "Must get to here by Tuesday" etc. Not too much time for leisurely lunches and stopping at pretty Yorkshire villages to shop and potter. (This turned out to be a mistake - next year we'll give ourselves an easier time, and more time in the pubs and towns). Tonight though, a reasonably easy target. We must get towards "Ramsden's Swing Bridge" just outside Wakefield in a small village called Kirkthorpe.

My pics today are of me strolling round the lock chamber rim "supervising" the humans as they mess with the sluices and paddles, and a scenic one of the boat in the dawn light, moored at the target spot - it's been a beautiful sunny day and we are all risking sunburn, followed by a lovely relaxing exhausted, fresh-air'd out night's sleep.

Splendid

Deefski

Are you wondering....?

Were you wondering where we'd all got to, not posting a blog since Friday last? Ah well, we can now reveal that we have once again escaped to Yorkshire to go narrow boating. Once again we hired from Shire Cruisers, whom we can heartily recommend (no vested interest - just a brilliant service and lovely boats)

http://www.waterscape.com/services-directory/1895/shire-cruisers

Again, too, our start point was Sowerby Bridge, but this time our mission was to head down the Aire and Calder navigation canal system towards Wakefield, then north to Leeds and onto the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, climbing over the Pennines to Burnley. Don't be put off by the city names - all canals were built to link cities - the buzz comes from the country bits and small towns in between - and the lock-wrangling.... like the 3-rise and 5-rise staircase locks at Bingley, and the loooooong tunnels (You're in Foulridge for a full 20 minutes of chugging).

We were there for the full week, from Saturday to Saturday, and spent the time with the Silverwoods, including new Baby-R. So look out for the next few posts as I relate tales of sea-faring derring-do and adventure, and post a few heroic pics of we three dogs.

Cap'n Deefski

The Good Ship "Northumberland"

It's been a long time since I was last on - a longer gap than we've ever made before. Now we can reveal why. The whole family (well, humans and dogs) have been away for 7 nights cruising the canals of Yorkshire in a narrow boat named "Northumberland", which we hired, at Sowerby Bridge, from Shire Cruisers (http://www.shirecruisers.co.uk/)

It's been a fantastic holiday with many and various adventures, but I won't try to cram them all in one blog. I will spread them out over the next couple of days, till I've exhausted the stories, and shown you a few pictures. Sadly, as I write this, it's all over and we're all back home, filled up on "Butchers Tripe" (sic - it's a brand name, Mum... it doesn't need an apostrophe!) and roast lamb bones. We are all exhausted, and crashed out at all points of the house. The floor under my feet is not gently rocking and the house is not vibrating gently to the chug of a diesel engine as it glides along at 2 mph.

My pics are of, variously, the boats (including "our" one, Northumberland) in Sowerby Bridge canal basin being readied for our adventures, a shot along the length of the roof looking up towards the canal 'summit' above Todmorden, and we three crew members manning the aft deck (and our water bowl), myself on the left, Meggie centre and Haggis right.

Lots more in the next few days, but I can safely say it was brilliant, we were very very lucky with the weather, and I'd thoroughly reccommend it as a holiday to anyone who's thinking about it.

Deefer, Ace Lock Wrangler (but more of that tomorrow)

Call of the Wild

Behind us, the big building site is progressing well, but the bit immediately behind us is destined to be car parking, and is scraped clear and currently used by the builders' cars. Bordering on this is a foxes' earth, and the foxes come out and yowl and yap when it gets dark, sending us carreering down the garden at speed. They are long-limbed skinny ones, so we think they are this year's cubs, now grown up to full size

We race down to the beech hedge and shout and yap at them till we are told off and dragged back indoors bythe spoilsport humans. Yesterday though, Haggis decided to try a new tactic and told the foxes what Westies could do - Owww-oooooooooooo....OWWWWWWWWWWOOOO. He was magnificent. It was like "Call of the Wild" out there! Go "H" !!

Meanwhile, Dad's been up mowing around the allotment in a rare dry opportunity and come back all green-footed.

Mum has made up the bed with some oh-so-posh, brand new Fenn-Wright-Manson Egyptian cotton sheets , duvet cover etc and sends Dad an email at work that says the "mutts" are barred, and that if any of "them" get into the bed before she does, she's off out looking for a cookbook with dog recipes. Seems a bit harsh

Dad decides to thoroughly wash the ol' green feet before he gets in!

Scaring ourselves to death with the inland waterways pre-holiday guidance DVD. Those boats look very very very long!

Deefs