A walking weekend

I woke on Saturday morning keen to get out for some fresh air and a good stretch. Being in a small home means that often stretching isn't all that free and easy.

So I needed these...


and these...


The weather was fine, the canal was still, like a mirror...


and I was timing the distance to the local village, Atherstone...


35minutes later and I was walking into the high street. I had taken my swimming gear and did a morning of lengths until my eye's stung from the chlorine. With the wind drying my hair, I took the towpath back home, passing backyards and cottages on my way...


The landscape was breath taking...


on both sides!


On my route home, the cows who had earlier been moo-ing at each other to shuffle along on the bridge had taken to sitting down, one even on it's side. Oh dear! I thought, best get home before the rains come. And they sure did but fortunately I had made it back inside the boat, phew!

Today, I have started a new woodwork project making a lovely garden bee/insect home for someone's birthday coming up. So I got some ideas from the local hardwear store and picked up some bamboo for the tubes. I've done a fair bit of sawing up of wood to get the roof sorted and battled with securing the 45degree angle. After cutting my hands a few times, it seemed like time to leave it for the day and settle by the fire with a mug of tea.

Into February

With the limitations of the internet stick, I have only just been able to get back online with many thanks to lovely Leigh.

It has been three weeks since I last graced The Kite Experiment with my presence and so here is a little update.

I had some friends round for tea and biscuits...


I have (finally) found local employment and am saving up for the big paint job this year. Leigh has been working on his tape release due sometime this year and is finding his way through making music without speakers, he is amazingly doing a fine job with his headphones.

We have been trying to conserve our reserves of wood and coal as the prices just keep going up. Leigh enquired about a 20kg bag of coal at a petrol station and it was nearly £15 for one bag! Our local supplier has put his prices up from £6 in September to £9 a bag now in January.


So today I have been chopping up a pallet I sourced for free and we have spent the evening by it's burning glow, Leigh even made a stew on the burner with the heat. Marvelous.

An old dog walker passed me by outside as I was taking the pallet to pieces, he told me a tale of how wood keeps you warm three ways; 1) in carrying the wood home, 2) in chopping it up and 3) in burning it up. He sure is right.

We have had another couple of days of fierce winds blowing us around and about, here, there, everywhere and we have all felt the dizzy angst of the wind. Delia has been running up and down the towpath with the wind up her tail. I have been loosing my womanly marbles to a period of character-shifting and Leigh, bless him, has been putting up with us both and hurting the whole time.

Come on fine weather, cheery disposition, namely Spring!!!


We have also been working out transporting goods along the towpath. The wheelbarrow has a puncture which I thought I had well repaired today but Leigh just pointed out that it is flat, again. Our fold-up trolley which is supposed to have a life-time guarantee has broken on the base (I suspect from carting the gas canister from the local marina to the boat when we were iced in). And Leigh purchased a new fold up trolley from Homebase, we used it once to wheel a bag of logs, tried to fold it down and it snapped. To top that, the fold-up box on wheels appears to be broken along the side from carrying or should I say dragging the water bottles along the towpath.

Will someone please invent a fold up trolley that is canal-boater proof?!

I am working on a poem at the moment, inspired by the wind and living afloat. It comes after discovering and reading Beaufort Wind Speed in the back of my rather large dictionary. Here is a sample of the Beaufort Wind Speed...

<1 knots. Calm - smoke rises vertically; sea like a mirror.
1-3 knots. Light air - smoke drifts; ripples on sea.
22-27 knots. Strong breeze - large branches move; telegraph wires whistle; foaming crests and some spray at sea.

and then an extract of my piece (work in progress)...

<1 knots. Calm - Like dry ground. Very little draw up chimney. Canal still.
11-16 knots. Moderate breeze - Faint whistling wind. Slight groan of taught ropes. Tiny wavelets on canal.
22-27 knots. Strong breeze - Rolling water at the bank. A lot of throttle needed when moving. A librarians Shushsh! Unbalancing sway of boat.
34-40 knots. Gale - Hanging lanterns violently sway. Outside bungies metronomically bounce. Ducks blown along canal. Bad day to move.