A slow video amble along a short stretch of canal #narrowboat #offgrid #england

Ian Hutson

The Cardinal and I are heading east, and this is fortunate, since heading west on this stretch at this time of day requires sunglasses of a strength not yet produced on planet Earth…

… a couple of boats have passed me in the opposite direction, their midshipmen squinting into the setting sun to little avail.

Lomo Photo Effect Tool: https://www.tuxpi.com/photo-effects/lomo

The scene did mellow a little eventually and soften into a more gentle sunset…

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We are heading, methinks, into terra nova for us, onto stretches of the network that won’t be closed for winter stoppages and repairs. A few weeks’ mooch in this direction and then the stoppages alternate, and the Cardinal and I must of necessity mooch back on ourselves into the sunset and beyond again.

Today’s move was a short one, about one mile plus one lock and a visit to the nice services at Venetian Hire, for water, coal, gazunder-emptying and a fumble through their comestibles (to add to the winter-season stockpile in the Cardinal’s cupboards).

The video here has been sped speedling spedded up, some sections at eight times human, others at a wholly alien sixty-four times Norman. With conversation thrown into the bargain the whole operation took damned near a couple of hours, but you can travel along with us in about four minutes, if you think it fit.

I’ve moored here the better to let our solar panels feed – no overhanging trees – and because, whereas the previous mooring was between high banks, this is open, wide open, with horizons. Yippee, claustrophobia was beginning to gain on me. Claus is very like that, you know, he’ll take advantage wherever he can with a phobia. A few days here and doubtless my contrary psyche will begin to suffer from angoraphobia, which I think is either the fear of open spaces or of rabbits or fluffy pullovers or something.

I seem to remember that Angora was the Aunt in BeWitched, too.

Angora doesn’t half get around. It’s the open spaces, do you see? They lend themselves to getting around.

The moon has shown himself this evening – an almost full-faced, bright moon with quite distinct eyes, nose and mouth. A full-ish moon in a clear sky – means a cold night. The stove is lit (extra coal was obtained at the services) and the Cardinal is indeed making those creaking sounds that he makes when the outside is cooling down rapidly while the cabins are toasty toasty.

Dinner, you’ll not be surprised to learn, is to be a vegetable “Rogan Josh” with (evil) white rice and a large glass of cool water (straight from the hosepipe of the services).

After that, mayhap another chapter or two of Hornblower, and then to my cabin where my duvet awaits.

Tis to be hoped that you all had as splendid a day as did the Cardinal and I. One can but hope. I do hope. Hope is important, isn’t it? Hope springs eternal. I had hope springs in a car that I owned many years ago, and the ride was quite amazing, although the car proved anything but eternal and had to be replaced on the usual schedule (when the doors fell off).

What was the name of the aunt in BeWitched?

No idea.

Oh well.

Chin-chin, bottoms up and don’t spare the port decanters. The starboard decanters look quite tempting too.

Ian H.

19 Comments

    1. I am glad that you enjoyed it – yesterday was a perfect boating day, bright and almost no wind. As I improve my video skills (and mayhap purchase a better video camera) I’ll post more of the scenic routes and general pottering about. 😉

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    1. You should try it at real-life speeds – you’d fall asleep! The slowest in the video was 8x overspeed, and the fastest bits 64x… The canals move at my kinds of pace. 😉

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  3. Yep, definitely Aunt Clara! I felt the claustrophobia in the lock, such a narrow space and the speeding boats sent me a bit dizzy – well dizzier than I usually am. Couldn’t believe just how many boats there were in the one place, is that a Marina? How does an itinerant chap receive mail? Say someone wanted to send him a book, is there a P.O Box or are you getting stuff dropped in my parachute?

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    1. That is a marina – they are a tad sardine-tin-like, aren’t they? Not really my cup of tea, I have to say. Post is a difficult one, since yonder “The Establishment” considers anyone who lives on a boat with no bricks & mortar address to be itinerant and homeless! It’s a pain in the fundament with post, the bank, doctors, dentists – none of whom recognise me! Even to register to vote I (would have to) give an “address where I spend most of my time”!!! In spite of the interwebnets and teknologie abounding we really do still live in the Victorian era… For the occasional item of post I have a long-suffering pair of siblings, but aside from supermarkets there’s no organisation in the country prepared to deliver to a boat. Tis damnably annoying and primitive. 😉

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      1. Here in the US there are companies for people who live in and travel with their RV’s. The people give the company as their address. Their mail goes to the company address. Then when the RV gets somewhere they want to stay for a few days they notify the company of the address for them where they are currently parked. The company then sends all the gathered mail to them. IF the people won’t be stopping long enough for their mail to arrive they can also get overnight service from some of the these companies. Maybe you could talk one of your relatives to starting a company like that from your fellow canal dwellers? Hugs

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  4. Those speeded up bits are exciting! Who would have though narrowboats could go so fast.
    I didn’t know there was an aunt in Bewitched, but the evil mother was Endora (not to be confused with Andorra, a small country somewhere in Europe, maybe). I actually remembered all that unaided, but checked the spellings on the venerable Google.

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    1. That’s the one – thank you. Endora. I now remember that the aunt was Clara, too! There’s a boat just gone rushing past the Cardinal here at his new moorings, it must have been doing a mile and a half an hour if it was doing anything – outrageous! Actually, I think I’m a little bit slower than most on the canals, twice now I’ve pulled over to let faster boats pass… still, if you’re in a rush on the canals, you’re in the wrong place! 🙂

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  5. Agatha was one of the aunts, wasn’t she? Or maybe she was the mother… I forget.
    I suppose this is what Google was invented for. Be right back…. No Agatha. Damn Google for exposing my lapsing memory.

    I love your videos by the way. 🙂 They always relax me.

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    1. I should post a real-time slow-speed one someday soon – now that IS relaxing! The canals work just the same way that quiet roads and empty supermarket car-parks do – the moment I begin to move, or the moment that I moor up, it becomes rush-hour and everyone else wants to go everywhere too. 😉

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  6. I do believe Clara was one of the aunts. Funny thing the lady who played Esmeralda ( Alice Margaret Ghostley ) was a friend of my husbands. I never got to meet her but I heard lots of good and funny stories.

    Loved your journey. It is so different living on water vrs living in a RV. You seem to be having a great time. Be well and keep the wind where it will do you the best good. Hugs

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      1. Aha – now the memory comes back. Wasn’t there an aunt Clara who bumbled a bit, and the mother was called Endora or something? I still can’t remember where Clarence, the cross-eyed lion comes into it though… 😉

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    1. Video eh? If only such video had been available when my dear Mother led the charge of the Light Brigade. Sabre aloft, the horse’s hooves kicking up the turf – happy days. 😉

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