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.

Pumping out and filling up

Today was the day to head along to the local marina and use the facilities, to pump out the toilet and fill up the water tank.

This stretch of the canal is often known as the 'Nile' due to all the high hills from the quarrying.


Like the canals, there is real beauty in the man-made.


We passed this old telegraph pole, from the 50's, the wood weathered it's no longer in use.


The sun was beaming down along the canal and with a shimmer of fog the atmosphere was magical.

Unfortunately as we left the marina towards Nuneaton for the winding hole the litter of the town took over any visual beauty. We did a quick about turn and set off again back to homely Hartshill. Delia took the seat in the window, taking in as much scent and wildlife as she could.

Where are your sea-legs?

Our beautiful little Delia Derbyshire...


did last night start wailing and then in a moment of seasickness poured her dinner across the wooden floor. The boat's movements in the forces of the wind had been too much for her little belly. Leigh and I were feeling a bit light headed with all the bellowing breeze, severe whistling wind and wobbling around so I am not at all surprised.

Delia went out, onto dry land for an hour or so and when she came in, she settled by the fire feeling rather sorry for herself.

This was the first time really, that being onboard has seemed to shake her to the core. Of course she has fallen in 6 or so times, gone missing from the boat for 5 days but she has always found the boat a sanctuary, her home.

The winds have gone today and we all got a good nights sleep without banging about, so we are all hardening up to living out in the elements. Like pirates we can really say Argh!

Winter mooring

We made it! We are now moored at our winter mooring where we can stay put until April.


The ice had broken up by Sunday and we set off though the first lock to wind the boat and face the direction towards our winter mooring. Leigh did an amazing job of doing a 180degree about turn through icebergs. It felt like an age since moving but it all came flooding back to me how to get through the locks.


So we took our time and passed through four locks to the top of Atherstone Locks.


At this point I set off in the car as Leigh took her off along the canal towards Hartshill.


Now we are here we are free from the noisy a5 traffic, trains throughout the night and local business TNT clattering and thundering their lorries. We look out across fields to the horizon and have evenings where the sky so full of stars it takes my breath away. The towpath is a boggy mud track - thank goodness I have still got wellies borrowed from MB! Overall it's a delight.

We will have visitors by the end of next week, two young birds flying the nest. And we hope to give them a helping hand with their moves. So from the time being from The Kite Experiment, we are hibernating from the wind which is swaying us to sleep at night. But tomorrow we have to collect water again so will brace ourselves for that one!

Isn't it funny how things come to pass...

...and in this case, this morning, it was a narrow boat passing by our windows!

Yes that is right, breaking through the ice. The guy who was moored next to us had been waiting for the opportune moment to get moving and as the sun was shining with glee early on, today appears the perfect day. So we no longer have sheets of ice next to us but small icebergs floating up and down in the breeze. How delightful to have flowing water again.

It also amuses me that once again as I walk down the length of the boat, I can't quite get my balance as the boat gently rocks and I will fall about from side to side, unable yet to grasp the physics once again. Feel's like I've only just moved on!

So there we have it, broken ice, a pathway through. Maybe we will brave it too.

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...