Heavy frosts were forecast
for the rest of the week so I wanted to be sure we had a full water tank in
case we got frozen in; however, it seemed very mild when I
left Napton to cruise to the water point at Calcutt on Wednesday morning. The cold-cough-throat-ear thing I have is
still hanging around so I promised Karen I would wrap up well when outside –
honestly, it’s worse than man flu!
After filling up with
water I reversed back to what we call ‘our mooring’ by the reservoir. As I was mooring up, Marie and Raymond came
by on their boat. They retired a few
months ago and are cruising the canal system following a similar route to that
which we did when we first started. I
took a few pictures for them as I know it is unusual to get pictures that
include both people when cruising.
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Marie and Raymond passing
us at Calcutt - looking very happy as there's little better than cruising on a dry winter's day
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You may remember the pictures
of the odd sandstone rock formations on Napton hill that I included the other
day. I couldn’t find out what they were
but my Dad got in touch with a possible solution. He obviously has more time on his hands as he
has been retired longer than me. It
seems they are sandstone doggers; doggers are lumps of rock that were rolled
along by glaciers in the ice age and therefore were rounded smooth – they were
then left as the ice receded. I had
always thought these things were glacial erratics but I believe erratics are
generally lumps of rock that are carried by glaciers and left in an area where
the rock type is alien.
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The sandstone doggers
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This is a description of the Napton sandstone doggers
written by the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group: This site contains a collection of very large sandstone nodules referred
to as "doggers" which were excavated from the Dyrham Formation in the
former Napton Brickworks Quarry (photo. evidence at Warwick Museum). The
nodules display a variety of sedimentary structures and contain some fossil
shells.
Whilst waiting for Karen
to get home from work I was looking at a Canal Market Place forum. Sinead, a boaty friend, posted a question
about the type of telescope she should buy for star gazing. I immediately thought of a guy we have met
several times in Braunston who is always outside his boat star gazing with an
elaborate telescopic set up. I can never
remember his name but always remember his boat as it is called Brimstone – a
British butterfly. Anyway, I posted a
response explaining who the guy was and did anyone know him. Immediately someone responded with his name,
Richard, so I got in touch (through FaceBook) and he posted some interesting information for
Sinead.
I had a browse through his
website and he is a fascinating chap, not only does he run a ukulele plectrum
business, he takes three photographs of the canal each day (from the same position) and posts them on
the internet. He stands on a bridge by
his permanent mooring and takes a 360 degree panorama, a shot down the canal
one way and then a shot the other way.
Needless to say we are in several pictures as we often moor near him at
Braunston.
Thursday morning was as
cold as forecast and the water was frozen over as expected. At least we are in a sunny spot here so can
take advantage of the solar panels – at Napton where we had been for the last
week we were in the shade nearly all day.
The reservoirs were frozen over too – the first time we have seen that
this winter so it shows that it had been a cold night.
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Looking out the side hatch on Thursday morning
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Reservoirs
frozen over too
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