Christmas Wreath

This afternoon, I have been out to High Tor, Matlock and wandering between the bare trees I gathered together a range of branches, holly, evergreen leaves and pine cones. My plan is to make a Christmas Wreath to hang on the front door. I used a wire wreath frame which I purchased for 90p from a Victorian Christmas Market in Hall Leys Park, Matlock last weekend. 

From my experience as a TA for students studying floristry, I have learnt a few skills in this area which I applied today. Firstly, I arranged the materials I was using and began covering the frame with a base of bare branches threading in and out of the frame....

I prepared the evergreen branches using a set of garden pruners. Leaving a stalk bare allows for easy threading.

I began to cover the whole of the branches, turning the wreath as I did to ensure even coverage.

Once covered, I gave the wreath a hard shake to ensure that there were no loose areas.

I layered loosely ontop of the frame the materials I had left to form a plan of my design. I had a piece of bright green moss I wanted to use and pinned this in place by unfolding paperclips to form basic floristry pins. You can use the real thing, it is easier to twist the ends together, but the paperclips worked fine. 

I pinned the moss in the centre and at either ends...

As I pushed the pin through, I twisted the ends together and folded flat, so as not to scratch the door it hangs on.

Here it is so far...

And the final thing with the holly, berries and pine cones...

I love the look on the front door! Mmmm, Christmassss!

Beeston Marina

Our lovely mooring at Beeston feels like a retreat, far from the City of Nottingham, moored up on the wooden pontoon the boat gently swaying with the flow of the current on the river Trent and outside of the cabin windows, the delightful beginning of Attenborough Nature Reserve.

I've got a the week off work and have been soaking up the environment around us from my new favourite seating spot outside...

The weather has been very mixed with heavy rain showers and glaring sunshine, a strange summer so far. It has been fascinating and frightening to watch the speed of the river flow increase as whole trees were swept over the frothing weir. The boat is well secured to the pontoon and is positioned with the bow pointing against the flow so the water breaks around the boat. As I watch the surface of the river around us, from what seems like nowhere, there suddenly appears whirls and ripples, as the constant movement of the water dances and chases it's tail.

The pontoon is one long strip which ends with a sudden stop. Stood on the edge looking into the pull of the hypnotizing river is quite unnerving. There are a mix of Narrow Boats and Cruisers on this stretch and we are by far the largest. Leigh was congratulated by another long-standing boater for his Captain skills at manouvering all 65 foot of steel into the marina pontoon.

We have been met with kindness and friendly faces here, from fellow boaters and the marina employees, which is making our idea of moving off the boat a little sad to come to terms with. However, we have good things lined up for our next chapter of the adventure, so more will follow about that soon.

Whilst overlooking the beautiful greenery of the Nature Reserve, I decided to go for a walk and explore the muddy paths in the woods and the lakes surrounding them. It was such a joy, I was met with colours, bird song, swaying trees, water dopplets falling from leaves, bridges, benches, shadows and mirroring, shimmering lakes stretching wide...

We have had good luck this week too, after preparing the boat for the Boat Safety Certificate on Tuesday, we have passed with flying colours and received a new Certificate to cover us for the next 4 years.

And so, Leigh and I look forward to a pending visit by a good friend from the North-East and our moves out to Derbyshire.

Weir

One evening, Leigh and I took a walk to the weir via Beeston Lock which is completely shut whilst the River is in flood. With such a backlog of debris BW have their work cut out at clearing it up.

As you can see the indicator board (bottom left of the photo below) is showing red so boats currently cannot get on to or off the River.

The weir was quite breathtaking and the charging water appeared more like the sea than river....

The sound of crushing water was immense...

Changes

Big changes are afoot. Over the past few months our cruising of the waterways has been very limited, partly due to the immense rain and rivers in flood, partly due to work commitments as well as a lack of physical fitness and issues with the engine. As a result, we have been 'bobbing' around Nottingham trying not to get in the way of grumbling boaters and jobworths at BW. We have been scrimping to get by to pay the license each month and cover maintenance costs. I have made the final payment today for the license, horrah! and it isn't due again now until 1st January 2013. We have however replaced this payment with mooring fees, and we are now on a pontoon mooring at Beeston Marina.

The pontoon is based on the River Trent and we are moored on the inner side, much to my delight, as we face the wooded walk into Attenborough and are a safe distance from the rushing weir.

We moved here this evening as the water level for the river was just on the proceed with caution warning. We left the steady canal through Beeston Lock where there is no need to use a windlass to open the paddles as this lock has them welded in place. As we headed out on the river the boat felt slow and sluggish facing the flow of the river. We decided to give it a go to head along the pontoon via the facilites mooring point. Now, in a 40foot boat this would be a sinch. 65foot of steel however and a moored boat in the pathway to access the pontoon, plus the rough current and the odds were against us. Overall this didn't make it an easy situation and we were dragged away from our course bashing into the moored boat and then careering into the footbridge and were wedged between the bridge and boat for a short while. We removed the chimney and bike from the roof to enable us to get under the footbridge and with a bit of barge pole action we were back on course heading under the bridge as opposed to into it and gently passed the moored narrowboats and cruisers along the pontoon. Phew! Rivers sure are tricky. Now we plan to stay put until further notice.

Delia seems to be coping well for her first evening on the pontoon and has been checking out the other boats around us.

Our lovely home is warm from the glowing burner to keep away the damp rainy day and the indoor window-box garden is doing splendidly...

The bush tomatoes have an abundance of flowers and the basil is broadening out like a tree.

My parsley is looking happy too!

There is movement in the water and changes in the air as we stir up the cooking-pot of possible pathways and watch the settling of choices we make.

I pose the question into the ether: Will Delia Derbyshire be living in Derbyshire soon?

Wildlife - Terrapin

I couldn't believe what I saw as I stood brushing my teeth and looking out the window to the canal bank opposite...

Example image by photographer Jeff Wharton from Braunstone Town, taken near the Abbey ruins in the park.

It was a terrapin the size of a dinner plate located on the Nottingham canal near to Boots industrial estate!

I did a spot of reading up on the Waterscape website...

"Originally native to the UK some 8,000 years ago, the terrapin has made a fateful return to our waterways in the aftermath of 1980s 'turtle mania'.

Tiny baby terrapins, roughly the size of a 50 pence coin, were once thought ideal pets for youngsters in thrall of the Ninja Turtle cartoon heroes. Consequently, aquarium tanks became a common feature of many British homes.
Today, these pets have grown to the size of a dinner plate and developed enough strength to break free of their tanks. Their subsequent, and irresponsible, release into the wild has prompted fears for the health of local wildlife, as well as the terrapins themselves who are ill-equipped to survive in the damp British climate.

Terrapins, along with tortoises and turtles, are known as Chelonians - reptiles with shells. They are almost totally aquatic but also need dry land to bask on during sunny days. Still waters and rivers in the Midlands and Southern England support the largest terrapin populations. These are largely made up of American red-eared terrapins, although snapper turtles and European pond terrapins have also been spotted along our waterways. It is unlikely that these animals are breeding, as terrapin eggs need to be incubated at 25 degrees Celsius for around 60 days in order to hatch"

Facts

Appearance: Similar in colour and appearance to a tortoise. Red-eared turtles can easily be identified by the red stripes on both sides of their head

Size: Adults can reach 40cm

Weight: Up to 2kg

Lifespan: 30 years

Diet: Terrapins are omnivorous and will eat a variety of fish, worms, small animals, snails and vegetation

Family: Testudinidae

Poetry: sand verse

Composed in the sand at Yarmouth, Isle of White.

Crushing sand and chime of bells.
Whispering wind to shh the sea-salt sails.
Lapping waves and seaweed hairs
washes away the footsteps of the day.