Jo_

There's a Firewood Poem, isn't there. From The Times in the 1930s - Lady Celia something or other.

Well, I like it!! I ignore all the incorrect ways of saying things and the clatters and bangs and the wrong information about this and that. What I'm seeing is a pretty mismatched group of people who are discovering what a joy it is to be on the water, on a boat and be part of the landscape, the community, the history. Good old John Prescott is genuinely impressed with all the engineering side and I love that. Michael Buerk is astonished at how much he's come to enjoy it all. And I don't believe either of those two are putting it on. So it makes me remember my earliest days on the water. I was hooked after a week and I probably did most of the things they've been doing. But I don't care; I still feel exactly the same about going out on the boat as I did a couple of decades ago, so if they are picking up on just a tiny bit of what we all feel then I'm really pleased for them. Jo

Tweet from @CRTBoating yesterday afternoon 🤣: "It's a particularly bad bit of journalism and they have got some things hopelessly wrong. No we don’t provide fuel for free although we know of colleagues who bought coal for a vulnerable boaters when they had their benefits stopped."

We can't go out as often or for as long as we'd like because himself still works fulltime. But when we do head off for two or three weeks, I find it all enchanting! People are fascinating, we can usually stop round about where we'd planned to and often meet up with terrific neighbours, voluntary lock keepers are lovely, the boats we meet at locks (95% of the time) work as a team to help boats through, pedestrians hail us with admiring comments, fishermen grunt a hello, he's not had to go down the weed hatch (except for a regular check every couple of days), some boats do pass a bit speedily but since we tend to use a spring line and we've got a glass or two in our hands it hardly bothers us and, touch wood and whistle, we've never once been subjected to any nastiness day or night. It's not rose coloured spectacles. It really is like that up around us. And, of course, we tend to know a huge number of the boats we see which makes for a fun "spot your pals" game!

This in spades! We bought our first boat 10 years ago and bought second-hand because although we'd been on lots of different boats (holidays), all that gave us was a list of things we really liked and wanted. Designing your own boat is much much more than that. So draw up your 'must have's', your 'would be nice' list and then haunt the internet, hunt the towpath and go to brokers and see what's out there. We found our boat within a couple of months and it's practially perfect in every way. But if I did want to start again with a new build, I'd now now what changes I'd make in the best of all possible worlds to give us a boat that would fit like a second skin!!

I bought this for my Kindle. Great read - particularly all the canal travelling detail. Perfect 'curl up and enjoy' book for the kind of weather we've been having lately. Actually, perfect book for any old time! I'll be queuing up for #2 in November.

https://victory-narrowboats.business.site/ That's still there and it's the same lot, judging by (sparse) content

Never bothered with the warning lights - haven't a clue whether it works or not. Nor looked into the cassettes. I just know when it's time to change them and, if, I'm not completely sure then it's a quick unclip and tug and feel the weight! But that really only works with just a couple of us on board with regular routines. So I probably change/empty more often than I need to but I'd rather that than an overfull cassette.

Is it cassette or pumpout?

I use bottles of frozen water in the cooler. The gel freezer packs are really rather useless but if you freeze the 1.5l pastic bottles filled (and refilled when necessary) with tap water, they will last a couple of days. So I have a large insulated cooler box and just pack all the drinks stuff, particularly, in there which frees up fridge space for general items. I changed the fridge for a larder fridge and bought a small table top square freezer with front opening door and that gets packed up and it's where the water bottles go to refreeze of course!

I'll DM you my mobile Chris, so you can keep in touch. As far as I know there is no Heron Owners' Group. Jo

Nice one, Chris. If your long way round brings you up the Soar and along the T&M to Mercia Marina, come and see us! Our boats could do a recognition donut in the middle of the Marina waters!

Notice Alert Trent & Mersey Canal Starts At: Lock 14, Common Lock Ends At: Lock 14, Common Lock Up Stream Winding Hole: Junction Coventry Canal Down Stream Winding Hole: Below Bagnall Lock Tuesday 9 April 2019 16:00 until further notice Type: Navigation Closure Reason: Repair Update on 10/04/2019: We have tried to reinstall the gate manually but unfortunately this has not been possible. A gantry will be on site tomorrow morning for us to refit the gate. We will update again tomorrow. We apologise for the delay in resolving. Original message: The top end gate has come out of it's cup, it will need a gantry to reposition. We will provide an update by lunch time tomorrow.

My apologies. I meant Shaun Williamson. Shows how passionately I follow this stuff! Shaun is/was Barry from Eastenders and seems to appear in lots of TV things.

I assume that's what Shaun Edwards was on about this morning. He's on a narrowboat 'around the Potteries' and sworn to secrecy but is with an 'eminent politician, journalist and two show business legends'. He was chatting with our morning presenter on local radio. So if you're out and about on the T&M, keep your eyes open because I guess they're filming it at the moment.