23.11.13 Slow but Surely .... More settling in.

What was supposed to be a regular weekly blog has had to change due to the collapse of my last Nokia phone.  It gave up the ghost, could not be charged and therefore I have now got a Nokia Lumia 920 which I have had to learn about.  This has been a slow process but finally I can take up where I left off. Main problem was how to get pics off the phone to the computer.  Now sorted !! 

Maggie finished the Victorian bed and when some adjustments are made it will look great and hopefully be comfortable for whoever sleeps in it for it will be in the spare bedroom. It certainly looks the part.  A photo of it when completed will be on soon.

The sitting room is beginning to look a bit more lived in .......................

Nice  to have the instruments easily gettable at .................

Maggie has spent a great deal of time sanding and oiling these four pieces of scaffolding which will become a set of shelves in a week or two. We found some thick glass tiles in a reclamation yard which we are hoping will do well as supports for them.

Old Stratford ..... 09.11.13 ..... Settling In

Am obviously addicted to diaries ......................

Have decided to keep the blog going but not on as daily a basis since most of the views would be the same !! ( Margaret I do listen !!! ) Am going to put in the quirky things that seem to happen during one's wanderings and which I have always meant to jot down.  Since I have got into the early evening routine of this ............. why not keep it going ?

Both of us have enjoyed the differences between living on a boat and in a house.  At present it still feels as if we are playing at being house-bound.  One of the most striking differences is the lack of early morning ducks or Canada Geese !! or trains ... or traffic ... or joggers ... or the boatscraping against something when someone goes by too fast at 7.00 ....   
We went and picked up the Victorian bed from Wolseley Bridge and Maggie has been busy taking off the rust and painting it.
 

........................... had to put a tarp over it while the four bits are put into the sitting room

........................... think it will look good ??

The next section will be the shelf building for which we have bought some glass tiles and scaffolding from a reclamation yard.  More of that later !! Next Monday down to Hastings area to buy a chest of drawers....... actually next week is quite interesting !!!! 

Day 160 .... 25.10.13 .... Old Stratford

Lucky again with the weather  and shipping things out in between showers.  M. ,as is to be expected, is leaving everything in immaculate order  .....................

..........and I'm carting the things out on to the car and into Old Stratford.  System seems to work well.

......................... even thought I might be able to sell this cupboard on the back of the car to a lovely chap who I got to know as I was transporting things !!

................ finally started in Old Stratford in a pile of odds and ends and our first night in the house.

...................... and so I suppose ends the Nestamay blog.  Been a great record of the summer of 2013.
You never know if the boat doesn't sell we might do another one next year !!  Love to all who have followed !!

Day 159 ...... 25.10.13 .... Old Stratford

Left Weedon where we had been unloading the boat gently by the car full.  Incredible how much ther is on the boat..................................... the weather is autumnal but we have been really lucky again ... the leaves are certainly turning.............

 

..................... a couple of pics of the way up to Whilton

...................................

... and then the final lock where we are moored at the Marina where the boat will,we hope,be sold.

............... we moored on the canal side of the marina whiich is a great spot to drive the car cown and unload the couple of bits of furniture we are taking with us.

More about the move in the next blog

Day 158 .... 19.10.13 .... Weedon

Have spent the last couple of days making up our minds about where to sell the boat from and unloading car loads of items down to Old Stratford. Really is staggering how much we have accumulated over the last 9/10 years !! The boat is rising up out of the water ! Most of you who have been out wiith us to The Wharf will recognise this place.  We are still amazingly lucky with the weather .... it is still warm during the day.

  

 David and Catherine, you have walked up this bit on a very windy day I seem to remember !!

The sunsets have begun to be great and this is a good one that Maggie captured.

The next couple of days are going to be crucial.  We are going up to Whilton to talk about them selling the boat.  We know now more or less what we should get for it and think we might go with them.  Nous verrons !! 

Days 150,1,2,3,.... 10,11,12,13.10.13 .... Whilton,Weedon

.................... this is still a compilation of where we have been over the last 4 days.  At Whilton we had these traditional boats behind us and so took the obligatory pic of the sterns.

The bottom of Whilton locks has been a good place to moor for there is a chandlery and a small cafe. Also a good place for Mike to come and pick me up to fetch the car back in order to start off-loading some of the furniture we are taking to the house in Old Stratford.

....................... bit of a shock to the pair of us !!

....................... the house in Old Stratford had been very well kept although when we got there, it seemed to be very spacious after 9 and a half years on a boat.

 


.......... funny to get the desk in there and think ..... that looks small!!!!  We could probably live quite happily in the main room downstairs !!! Maggie likes the floorboards which have matured well.

We have spent the last couple of days filling boxes and taking them down to the house.  On the way down to Weedon, which is where we are now, we stopped at The Heart of the Shires, a large craft centre with various shops.
 

We are now ensconced in a fourteen day mooring that should be O.K. although we do not get the Internet here which is why this is being put out from The Heart of England pub !!

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Next week we have two brokerage firms coming to give us a valuation on the boat. Does anyone want to buy one ????

Day 149 .... 09.10.13 .... Whilton

 Had a good cruise down to Whilton and the weather, although changeable was pretty decent given the time of year.

This is the entrance to the Braunston Tunnel which is the one with a kink or two in it and where I knocked off one of the navigation lights last time we went through, so I was glad to get through this time without meeting any one coming the opposite way.

 

Maggie actually managed to get a picture of the arrows in the centre of the tunnel which was pretty impressive.
...................... and then took this one of the end which I like

Day 148 .... 08.10.13 .... Braunston

We have not been able to get a signal for the last three or four days and so this is going to be a compilation and is somewhat out of order but tant pis. This is being typed at Weedon in the Heart of England Pub.
Went through these side by side locks at Hillmorton, which were originally to speed up the canal traffic.   

 .......................... lovely bend round to the second pair  ................. and then a sight that anyone who used to drive or be driven along the A5 would know, namely the Radio Aerials at Rugby which are now, I believe, not all in use but still a landmark.

On the way out of Rugby many of the bridges have these murals depicting the history of the sport. 

The canal winds beautifully before it gets to Braunston with lots of ridge and furrow remains in the fields.  Would love to wander around there with a metal detector.

............................... this is the view of the village of Braunston as we approached from the North Oxford Canal. 
It was a big meeting place for the boaters and still is
 

...................... this is where we joined The Grand Union again.  Still the lovely iron bridges from Horsley.

Day 146 & 7 .... 06.07.10.13 .... Rugby

A somewhat sparse offering today since we have stayed in Rugby and done various things which are not in the slightest bit photogenic.   This morning a lovely early morning and then moved in to the more central area of Rugby .....................................................

..................... passing another cracking iron bridge at a cut off the canl into a marina.  I think the Canal Co. must have bought a job lot of the bridges from Horsley.

....................... and a lovely photo of last night's sunset.  To the left off the photo below the trees is a retail park !!  The canal is well hidden. 

Day 145 .... 05.10.13 .... Rugby

We caught a bus into the centre of Rugby.  Above the market and the High Street the central part of the old town is dominated by the school.

Given the history of the place the first stop was the small museum on the site of the Gilbert Rugby ball manufacturer. 

 

The statue at the side of the school is to William Webb Ellis .......... who supposedly was the first to pick up a footballl and run forwards with it.

Not hugely grand but interesting all the same ................