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.

Still in the same spot from year to year

It has rained, fogged over, warmed up and still we are frozen in. Isn't it typical. When I bothered to get a winter license to cover us so that we could stay in the area I didn't expect that number one, we wouldn't actually be in our designated spot, two, that we would be frozen in thus not leaving the area and three, that it would cost so much. With the knowledge of being frozen in, unable to move, it makes me wonder if winter moorings are a fair deal.

The cost is per foot, we have 65 of them, so from December 1st to March 31st is £480-ish, equivalent to £120 per month. And what do we get for the damage? A site along the canal, just the same as when we pull up to moor (i.e no extras) with all the terms and conditions that BW wish to tumble down on us with. For wanting to do the right thing it appears to cost a pretty penny.

Interestingly, if one continuously cruises and happens to be frozen in the same spot there is no extra fee necessary. None-the-less we are in the area and I should hear regarding work next week so things should even themselves out.

As we see in the new year we are looking forward to a time of big plans. Number one - becoming our own boss. Number two - blacking the boat (any help during a week of painting the hull this spring would be much appreciated and you would of course be paid in beer). Number three - really enjoying summer after such a harsh winter. Number four - a trip to India. Number five - new creative projects both musically and poetic.

Number five has already begun, as Leigh works on a new electronic music project starting with a tape release this year and I have created Wort-Yard Publishing.


What is this? Well, a new blog space dedicated to prose both online and the release of short runs of hand-made publications. It will also figure moves in thinking and happenings regarding poetry and independent publishing. I am rather excited indeed.

Click here to go to Wort-Yard Publishing...