We had been going camping this
coming weekend to Gordale Scar in the Yorkshire Dales with some of the family. We go up every year as it’s a great place to
get the family together and it’s near my parents’ house in Gargrave on the
Leeds & Liverpool canal. Because of
my back, everyone was expecting me to pull out but I was adamant it’d be
OK. I finally agreed and we shan’t be
going until later in the year. Camping
itself is great for my back as I lay on hard ground; it’s the long car journey
and the fact that I’d be tempted to go fell walking as we usually do. So as I say – it’s a sad decision but for the
best.
After reading yesterday’s
blog, Issie sent me a picture of how her boat, Black Sheep, looks this
year. She has been far more adventurous
than us on the veg front and keeps herself in courgettes, French and runner
beans, cucumbers, strawberries, lettuce and tomatoes to name but a few. Next year we will branch out as our only
edibles are toms, chillis, jalapeno peppers and the staple herbs: rosemary,
chives, thyme, basil and parsley. This has been the first year we have managed
to keep most of the herbs going through the winter.
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Issie’s garden
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I’m not sure why she has a
pot on the towpath for dogs to wee on! It
reminds me of one summer before we had let the house in Kent out. We were going back for a fortnight to do the
final tidying up ready for renting and, as it was the height of summer, decided
to take some of our plants back with us for the fortnight so they didn’t die of
drought. We had moored by a bridge at
Wilmcote on the Stratford canal and had the pots out on the towpath ready to
ferry them to the car. In retrospect, it
was daft way to do it as the tomatoes were immediately the target for passing
dogs. A good dousing in water cleaned them
up and we never seemed to suffer any ill effects.
The only downside of
growing produce on a boat is that you should really use fresh rather than canal
water on them. Normal flowering plants
are fine as they are not eaten, other than say, Nasturtiums. This does mean that you use even more of a
scarce commodity.
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| Some of our jalapenos are nearly ready for harvesting and pickling |
For the last few weeks I haven’t
been walking far each day but yesterday I managed 2 ½ miles in all – the first
time I’ve dared walk more than two miles in all that time. We got up as far as Cropredy marina at one
point. This was built in 2013 and we
remember going past in the August when it was being built, thinking the
planned opening date was a bit ambitious.
Now
the marina is fully
open and a second area has been opened since. For those that like
marinas it is definitely one of the better ones, in fact, our friends
Jan and Gordon keep their boat there.
There are new stanking planks at the entrance so another picture has been added
to my collection of stanking plank pictures.
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Nice new stanking planks
for the marina entrance
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We are moored in the centre of Cropredy
village courtesy of Mike and Lesley who are having a house and a boat built
simultaneously. Mike has started a blog
for the house build and no doubt will include the boat build as that starts
soon too. Click here to see their blog.
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