In Birmingham for winter

We arrived in Birmingham on Monday this week and found a well equipped mooring point at Cuckoo Wharf in Aston. The city centre is 10minutes away by bus with the bus stop a 30second walk from the boat. We have a local waterpoint, rubbish bins and fine neighbours.

In the galley we have a Morse gas hot water boiler which, after it leaked water all about the place when we first bought the boat, we avoided using.

However, I fixed the plumping leak and last weekend we gave it a shot at turning it on after too long without hot running water... and joy! It all works fine. Leigh and I immediately had our fill of a hot shower but the next day I did refill the tank as it used about half of our water storage capacity.

From Amington in Tamworth, we carried on along the Coventry Canal towards Fazeley Junction. After a couple of locks and two miles of cruising, I did the 90degree turn at the junction - with a fair bit of instruction from Leigh - we were then heading down the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal towards Brum.

It was a delightful day and we both thoroughly enjoyed the trip. There was a lovely stretch passing a nature reserve called Kingsbury water park. We came across this rather unusual footbridge at Drayton Bassett...

You have to enter the turret, where the steps spiral upwards, to crossover.

Then commenced the first of Curdworth locks....

These are all single locks so don't take long to fill up,

but some of the gates are a little heavy to move.

We smoothly moved up and through the locks with the sun in our eyes.

There are ten locks in all and within a couple of hours we were through and passing under the M6 bridge.

As we were heading into the setting sun visibility was a little tricky at times.

Curdworth tunnel was lovely with a cobbled towpath running through it's length.

We reached a lovely mooring point at Wiggins Hill opposite a vast farming field and stopped just before dark.

The next day we struggled to get off the bank as our stern was a little stuck, but with some pushing and pulling, wobbling the boat from side to side, we soon came free. We were now heading into the industrial part of Brum, passing huge warehouses, junk yards, wire fences etc. It was at Minworth, the first lock we came across had some anti-vandal locks restricting us from winding the paddles to let water into the lock and pass through.

There had been no mention of them as we were aware and after a call to British Waterways we were told that most of the West Midlands has this system to protect from crime. Well, we needed a special key to release them and so a guy from BW came to our aid selling us one for £5.

Three locks later and we were passing 'under' a building which was like being in a multistory carpark with a farm outhouse on top. Next up was Salford Junction, next to Spagehtti Junction! Well, I never knew it wasn't only a stream of roads at Spag. Junction! It gets better!

We took the turn at Salford Junction and five minutes later we were pulling into Cuckoo Wharf.

Bonfire before Brum

On this cold bonfire nights evening, we ruminate on our three years of ownership of the Dove of Belgrade. It was in November 2008 we took her on and it has been a steep learning curve, one that we have got into the ebb and flo of. We have travelled the Leicester ring twice at least, done the trent to Nottingham, the GUC to London and now into Birmingham after that we are thinking of the Shropie to see in spring.

We are seasoned boaters, weathered, more experienced and prepared and in good spirits to head into winter. The routine of making the fire, doing the engine checks, dressing in thermals, moving the boat in rain, working locks and living in a compact space is second nature now. Winter and it's challenges is just part of life, a life of ropes and knots, strong arms and legs, muddy fingernails and smokey hair, self-sufficiency and resourcefulness, jumping fish and the best views in Britain.

On the winter note, I'm rather looking forward to the delightful xmas market in Birmingham with it's 'seasons greetings' smiles, fingerless gloves exchanging goods for notes, decorated wooden huts and streams of twinkling lights. In all the winters cold it brings warmth to my heart.

We are currently moored in Tamworth having spent the past couple of days in quaint Atherstone. We visited family and our good friends Rupert the photographer and Dylan the doggy-model. So we decided at Braunston to head via Rugby and up and round to Brum along the Coventry canal instead of the route through Warwick along the GUC. We plan to reach Brum centre by Monday night so I can get to Nottingham for Tuesday. I read somewhere that Birmingham has more canals than Venice so we should be good for cruising about then!

Delia has spent this evening crying at the door to go out but we'd rather she didn't enter the firing line of fireworks and we have tried to keep her busy with strokes by the wood burner.

On the creative front, I've been sending out my poetry to The Eric Gregory Award in the hope of getting some support and funding to dedicate time to make work. Also I have a 'week of tweets' piece of prose in Mslexia magazine in December - its a take on a week in the life of...

Leigh has been busy making his music in the evenings and has started a collaboration with his good friend Orla Wren. Already it sounds fantastic! Can't wait to hear the end results of Flotel vs Orla Wren.