Our trip down to Burton upon Trent on Tuesday was fine apart from being in the 5th lane of the A38 pretty much all of the way! To combat or cope with the noise I listened to podcasts - first Rachel Maddow and then Lawrence O'Donnell, both from MSNBC. David still listens to them both daily, but I have largely given up on them - not because they are not good and informative listening but because I was getting depressed by the continuous information coming about the dumpster and his idiocy. But, such is the ghastliness of the A38, that the podcasts were a very welcome relief!
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| On the river section below Alrewas again - just David and me this time. I wanted to photograph the cows on Sunday but was chatting with Marta instead. |
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| The barrier at the weir |
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| That's the A38 just the other side of the trees! See what I mean about being in the 5th lane? |
We arrived at Shobnall Fields early in the afternoon and were soon joined by the lovely Mick and Julia who had travelled that morning from Sawley - when I tell you that we are making our way to Sawley and taking 3 days to do so, you will know how far and fast the two of them travel!
We did not expect Tim until later on as he'd said he had a long day's work to do, so we went out to find a good place for him to park the van. The nearest street did not look promising as at 4pm there were already lots of cars parked, so we went over the canal footbridge and found the next closest street. A really nice couple offered for Tim to park in their driveway - how kind is that!?
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| Waka Huia and Unknown No 3 moored nose to nose at Shobnall Fields - a good morning. |
Dinner was cooking and we were not planning on waiting for Tim to arrive, when all of a sudden he turned up - at least an hour earlier than he'd said. Yay!!!
It was great having Mick and Julia and Tim with us. The weather had turned to crap, and dinner was a success: comfort food is such a boon when it is chilly and wet. I made braised steak and onions, with mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli and peas, and dessert was a ginger cake with custard. The cake could so easily have been a disaster though: the recipe called for the butter and golden syrup to be boiled together and the remaining ingredients (flour, milk, spices, egg, milk) mixed together with the syrup mixture added last. I carefully cut baking paper to fit the silicon cake tin, poured the mixture in, adding some yummy crystallised ginger, and put it in the oven. Then David came down the stairs and said 'what is this for?' pointing to the saucepan ... AAARRRGGGHHH!!! So I quickly pulled the tin out of the oven, scraped the mixture off the baking paper and back into the mixing bowl. I wondered if the syrup mixture would be too hot to be added but couldn't really wait, so in it went while Mick made a new baking paper lining. Then back into the tin and the oven. I watched anxiously, but no need - it came out fine and tasted great!
There were leftovers of braised steak and of cake and, using offspring privilege which has greater currency than parent privilege, Tim claimed them for his lunch for the following day. However in the morning he ceded them to David, citing needing to not feel too full while he was working.
Mick and Julia left by 6.30am and we got up to have hugs goodbye - it is possibly the last time we see them this year. Tim left shortly after them and we went back to bed. Well, it was raining! And breakfast in bed was in part comprised of the leftover cake with custard. Important to note that Garfield says life is uncertain (and boy, is that true here in the UK at the moment!!) and we should eat dessert first. It may be decadent, but makes very good sense!
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| And off they went in the early morning light - a bit damp as well. |
We decided on Willington for that day's mooring as it would be an easy place for Tim to park - lovely Co-op there, but the goods trains go through all night, and as the railway is up high on an embankment, the noise penetrates everywhere. It was the first time I've worn earplugs in ages!
Tim was up and away early the next morning from Willington - he left by 6.30 and called about 15 minutes later to say he was pleased he had done so as there had been an accident on the A38 coming south - a car overturned into the wooded area (Branston Park, I think, from the map he sent later) and 3 ambulances racing towards it. Someone's day well and truly ruined, unfortunately.
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| When we saw them recently, Del and Al on Derwent 6 showed us their special mooring hook, so we bought a C ring and made one for ourselves. This is my first go at splicing - I looked up Splicing for dummies on google, watched the video that appeared right through once, and then followed the instructions watching it a second time and pausing it as required. |
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| And the finished article. Not too shabby for a first go! We tried it out this afternoon and it works as long as I have almost stopped the boat by the time I step off to insert the C ring in the armco. And accomplishing that is harder than you'd think ... |
While we've had Tim coming to stay, which has been such a pleasure, I've been being a good mum - cooking dinners (apart from Wednesday night which was an Aldi chicken, ham and leek pie) and getting up early to make sandwiches for Tim's lunches. And one day last week, when we were moored at Polesworth, I cooked cheese scones for Tim to take to share with the other guys on the site.
So now it's almost time to put the roast of beef into the oven for tonight's dinner and prepare the veges (David) and the yorkshires (me). I think I will make another ginger cake - there is crystallised ginger to use up and Julia tells me I have to start emptying the cupboards, given we only have a month of boating left this season. That may mean I also need to make a chocolate brownie for Tim to take home tomorrow for the grandsons.
Today we have moved on down to Weston Lock, the site of the blown master-switch on our first day out onboard Waka Huia back in 2014 when I turned off the engine without realising I had to turn off the washing machine too. Read about it here. That was our introduction to Justin at Aqua Narrowboats in Mercia Marina, to Ian and Lyndon who worked there, and subsequently to Ed Shiers. Feels such a long time ago!
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