Aldermaston (still here)

As Karen’s back is still on the mend, she’s been avoiding car journeys and taken to using the train instead.  At least on a train she can stand, also the seats tend to be higher and therefore better for her than those in a car.  We’re only ½ mile from the station at Aldermaston so it’s easy to get into Reading to visit Ellis in hospital.  He is now completely tube free and gets all his feeds from Lauren.  This includes the night feeds as she has been staying in a hospital flat where she can have Ellis in the room with her.  We all feel that it won’t be long before he’s home now 😊

Like us, the five boats we are moored with haven’t moved because the river levels are still too high.  We are more than happy here as it’s quiet with great views across the fields one way and into the woods the other.  There’s plenty of wildlife to see and hear especially first thing in the mornings although we’ve yet to see a kingfisher since we’ve been back in the UK.

A sunny morning on our mooring

We did have a bit of a cock up one day this week though.  Karen had caught the train to Reading and I had driven in so that we could leave Buddy at lauren & Lewis's house whilst we went into the hospital.  The plan on the way back was that I would pop into a supermarket on the way home and we would meet up at the boat as Karen would be back at Aldermaston some while before me.  We were just about to go our separate ways at the station when we remembered the boat keys were in the car which was a good 20-minute walk away.  Understandably, Karen didn’t fancy waiting in the rain and dark outside the boat while I battled the Reading rush hour traffic.

We changed plans and I skipped the supermarket trip and made for the car as quickly as possible.  By the time I had walked to the car Karen was on the phone wondering how I was getting on.  She was already on the towpath and I was still 30 minutes away!  We decided that she should pop into the pub where she could wait in the warm and dry.  It all turned out rather well as we ended up having a meal there, left the car in the car park and walked back to the boat in the dry as the rain had stopped.  

For the last week we have been moored just up from Aldermaston on the Kennet & Avon canal.  I have previously mentioned that much of the canal between Newbury and Reading is actually the River Kennet with occasional cuts that bypass the river by the use of locks.  The Kennet Navigation, as it was originally known, was opened in 1724, nearly 300 years ago; the remaining section from Newbury down to Bath was opened in 1810.  Coupled with the navigable River Avon from Bath to Bristol this created a profitable inland trade route between London and Bristol harbour.   

All the locks on the Kennet Navigation were built as turf sided locks as they were cheaper to construct.  Mind you, as they were sloping sided, it took more water to fill them, but water wastage wasn’t an issue as it was a river navigation.  Only two turf sided locks remain, the others were replaced by brick sided locks mainly during the great restoration of the canal from 1970 to 1990; the canal became disused soon after the opening of the Great Western Railway line from Reading down to Bath.

Looking back at the photos we took when travelling up and down this canal in the past I’m amazed that I can only find one picture of a turf sided lock!

Monkey Marsh lock in 2012 – the only photo we took of a turf sided lock

We are well and truly settled into the boat now having lived on it for over a week and Buddy seems to be back to his normal self.  He gets quite unsettled when we move around the country staying in different houses.  In fact, we’re beginning to wonder if he’s beginning to get lazy as he doesn’t always jump up and get to the door first when he realises we’re off for a walk.  Maybe he’s just getting older.

The week ended on Sunday with Lauren’s ‘baby shower’.  I know it sounds American (which it is) but it was really good catching up with lots of Lauren’s friends whom we haven’t met for a long time.  It didn’t seem to matter that baby showers are meant to happen before the baby is born – it was a good excuse for a party especially as I was the only man allowed in 😉

Tube-free Ellis showing off a hat and cardy knitted by Nanny Karen