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Today is the day the new cratch covers arrived for the boat and as I sit here now listening to the rain pitter pattering on the canvas I am delighted the bow cratch appears totally water tight! It’s like having a new extension, somewhere to eat breakfast (if I’m ever up in time!). Unfortunately the stern cover had a slight error, noticed not by us, but by the supplier, John of Jectec. He said he wasn’t satisfied with it so has taken it back to be altered. As he’s going on holiday for a fortnight tomorrow we will have to be patient and look forward to our stern cover on his return. Such is canal life! It also alters where we can go because we don’t want to be too far from Melton Mowbray, their home base.

We walked to the centre of Fenny Compton to pop into the Co Op for beer and red wine – for some reason there was absolutely none to be found on the boat which constituted a looming crisis! The nearby pub served us a very good early supper – they were gearing up for the weekly quiz and suggested we vacate ahead of time unless we wanted to join them. Not being a quiz sort of person we left only to be caught out in rather a lengthy downpour, unfortunate for R who’d come without a raincoat. With his leg also playing up, he took to his bed shortly after arriving home. Apparently the cartilage in his knee has all but disappeared. Depressing. The physio has given him exercises to do but so far they just seem to be aggrevating the problem. Combine that with my touch of bursitis (I think commonly known as housemaids knee) and we are a right pair of old crocs – nothing a few locks won’t sort out!

The last couple of days has been quite full on and a little stressful at times. Both good and bad. The good was meeting Gerry and Lin, moored up in the boat next to ours, who happen to edit and produce ‘Canalboats Online’, a free online magazine for anyone interested in narrowboats and boosting in general. Running for ten years, they have a large following and were interested in my prayer boat ideas and how we came to buy Naomhòg.  They suggested I buy a teapot and place it on the roof or bow of the boat. Apparently a teapot is a sign to other boaters that you are open to chatting and being supportive and friendly to those who are alone on the cut.  Lin, as editor, has asked me to be a regular contributor to the magazine which is exciting, if a little daunting.

Hearing of our engine troubles, Gerry said just the man I wanted to sort this was working on the boat moored the other side of us so off I trotted to ask for some advice. Martin (M J Craft, Marine Maintenance) could not have been more helpful. He’s serviced boats for 23 years so has a wealth of experience behind him. Word of mouth keeps him fully occupied and K, the girl whose boat he’s working on, could not speak more highly of him. K had bought her boat last year in need of a lot of tlc and Martin has been a jack of all trades although he has decided of late that he mainly wants to concentrate on engines, gas and electrics. He looked at our engine, fiddled around, suggested a few things and now we just have to see if the problem persists. One reassuring test showed that we have no water in our diesel – that would be very bad news. As would  diesel bug, but that does not seem to be an issue at present. However the bad news was when he looked at our batteries and saw that the middle one of the three was just about to explode! The top  is bowed upwards and thus very unsafe. Apparently he thinks the batteries have been placed too close together and the middle battery has absorbed extra heat from the two either side. Anyway, a blessing that he looked and was immediately on to ordering us three replacement batteries that he will fit as soon as possible. In addition he has sourced us a bigger inverter, needed to convert 12v power to 240v, so we are hoping he can fit that at the same time. I might at last be able to power a hair dryer, a kettle, a vacuum cleaner and a heater, although maybe not all at once! This will save us having to return to Solihull mid June when the exact same job was going to be carried out. The marina there had agreed to fit us with new batteries owing to our current ones having lost their charge but they hadn’t been in such a dire state a few weeks ago and anyway the marina couldn’t fit us in for six weeks. All in all this has worked out, hopefully, much better for us and means we should be able to start heading towards the River Lee sooner rather than later.

K, who has been living alone on the cut since last year asked what we were doing so I told her we listened to people’s stories and if they were agreeable, prayed with them or for them. Her eyes lit up and she said she had many to share so we met later at the pub and sure enough her life has been full of adventures, often the result of travelling solo around the world. Having recovered from a sickness in Africa she moved to South America, bought a motorbike and biked through myriad countries, often to very remote areas where she was able to photograph some amazing people and incredible scenery. Falling ill again she was, she feels, misdiagnosed and her appendix was removed. This in turn made her sickness worse. Fortunately the kindness of strangers resulted in her eventual return home but the hospital experiences had been so traumatic that she reassessed her life and is currently finding peace and enjoyment with the narrowboat way of life.

Returned to the boat this afternoon after nearly three weeks away and it certainly takes some adjusting! Sitting atop the roof was a beautifully painted metal trough filled with flowers, a gift which we will treasure from S and G. Whilst away we have had two lots of friends using Naomhòg so she has continued to travel around the canal network and it’s fun to read the logbook as to where they’ve been and the adventures they have had. S and G arrived at the boat by train having left their car with us. This enabled us to drive directly to them without them having to get the boat to a pre-set destination and it was rather fun not knowing where the boat would be until the very last minute. Fortuitously they moored right outside a rather lovely pub that even has a small grocery shop where you can buy bread, milk and other basic essentials. As the nearest food shop is a mile down the road this is very helpful now that we no longer have our car nearby.

Quite depressing how much stuff we arrived with. Trying to travel light is harder than you think. I had the added complication of bringing summer clothes to the boat having forgotten how much clothing I had left behind previously. So we have rather a lot of clothes aboard all of which need storing until one of us takes the winter woolies home! Having just celebrated a birthday I also had some gifts to bring back, such as hard back novels, chocolates and toiletries. All very welcome but once again initially needing a home, whilst space is at a premium. It is all too easy to forget what is already on the boat and thus  bring further unnecessary supplies. Car-less, we have to organise our essentials or risk running short of necessities, such as toilet paper, haha! Three weeks at home spoilt for space – if the boat is teaching us anything, it is how to be tidy!!

We’ve had a very busy time. From Naomhog we stayed a night with our friends in Cheshire before going north, close to Fort William, for our son’s wedding. A truly joyous occasion. Blessed with sun all week, in very typical Scottish fashion, it rained all of the Saturday, only for the sun to shine again on the Sunday!! It wouldn’t have been an authentic Scottish wedding any other way!!

Retuning south we visited Bromley to see Barry Humphreys  in his one man show.  Fond memories of my mum who loved Dame Edna so a bit of a trip down memory lane. Our car is still in need of the door being repainted so we returned it yet again to the garage and took off to St Mawes via train and ferry. It was a great way to travel, even at a bit of a distance. Armed with books and films the journey flew by and we then had three lovely days with our friends, enjoying the visual delights and plentious eateries of the cornish coast and all it has to offer, including a very steep hill that winded me the first time I walked up it. Not many hills on a towpath!! Thankfully muscle memory kicked in so I was taking it in my stride by the time we went home! According to my mother in law, guests and fish stink after three days – a good maxim to follow!

Both weekends we were in Farnham, happy to catch up with lots of friends so we have now returned to the boat for a rest! However nothing is smooth sailing so we have a couple of issues to sort. A few tiles popped off the wall behind the stove, which hasn’t been used in our absence so not sure why they should be loose. More worrying G said the engine started cutting out whilst idling at locks on Saturday – something we will have to look into pronto, although at least we now have breakdown cover in place!

Not a view from the narrowboat! I have vacated Naomhòg, leaving her in the hands of my step brother and his partner for a week whilst our family congregates in the Highlands of Scotland for our son G’s wedding to Mi. Such stunning scenery and beautiful weather which, ironically is set to change on Saturday! But it wouldn’t be Scotland without the rain!

What a treat to be in a proper house with space, a large bed and a very powerful shower, never mind the luxury of two baths! The house sleeps 10 and our family are gradually filling it up. So rural is the location that the nearest food store is either 14 miles away or a short ferry journey which costs £20 return so could make for an expensive bottle of milk or loaf of bread. I decided to be clever and placed a large Morrison’s order to be delivered on Tuesday,  with enough food to last the week so no shopping would be needed. The best laid plans…..

First off, anticipating how much food we would need proved problematic, especially as we have very little space in our car to return home with leftovers. It is not recommended that we drink the water so all water needs to be bought in, again very hard to judge quantities. I must have spent a good three hours putting together the online shop. I then made the mistake of thinking it would be easy to make a few last minute changes. Our younger daughter is moving house this week and rang to ask me if I’d like the seven loaves of frozen bread from their freezer. Of course I said yes!  I had had no idea how much bread to order but knowing seven loaves would be ample I needed to remove the five loaves already ordered! Once I started to make changes I made quite a few and then it came to checking out. I don’t know if you are familiar with online banking but everything needs verification (understandable in the fight against fraud) and for some reason the bank could not be contacted to verify my new spend. So I rang Morrisons customer services who suggested I use another card. My debit card appeared to work so I heaved a sigh of relief and thought no more about it until 4am in the morning. On waking early I looked at a message on my phone. At 0015 the bank had texted me to verify my payment to Morrison’s and as I had not responded they had cancelled my entire online shop!! Panic, then calm as I realised I could still do a click and collect in the afternoon. However I only had one hour before the slot would be released to someone else so at 4am in the morning I had to re-enter my entire order under intense time pressure. Why didn’t I just visit the supermarket? I am still trying to isolate as much as I can before Saturday so the prospect of a lengthy time inside a shop doesn’t appeal!

The silver lining was that I could pick up our daughter H from the train station along with the shopping so she was very happy not to have to take a taxi! However it transpired quite a few items were unavailable including all the bottled water!! So infact we ended up in Aldi doing a supermarket dash in order to reduce the possibility of any covid viral overload!

We are near to where son G project managed the building of a sustainable house a few years ago. A local architect builds eco houses and at the time he was employing ex-offenders recently released from prison, in order to help  rehabilitate them into work. So having located the house on the map, just over an hour’s journey, we set off,  picnic in tow, hoping to knock on the door and see inside! Infact noone was at home so all viewing was external. The views from the house were stunning and we also found a beautiful picnic spot. Coupled with the glorious scenery en route it made for a great road trip.

On our way home we decided to go along the private back road that runs from G’s soon to be in-laws to the house we are currently staying in. Mi had made it sound relatively straight forward but she was unaware our car has a very low suspension, made even lower by three people sitting in the back! So every so often there would be a terrible sound, like the sound of our exhaust being ripped off the bottom of the car. It was unnerving to say the least and then we went up a road that wasn’t really a road, but once started there was nowhere to turn,  so we just had to keep going forward. Eventually we arrived at a small clearing which was a dead end but with enough space to turn the car around and return along the perilous track. We did take the opportunity to get out of the car and walk up a small hill where we were rewarded with the most stunning views along the lock including Ben Nevis in the distance, still snow covered. Behind us was a not insubstantial hill that turned out to be the ‘proposal hill’. G and Mi had walked up it in very inclement weather on her birthday and he had got down on bended knee in the rain and wind!

So our vista at present is very different to where our boat is on the waterways and it’s great to know Ro can experience narrowboat life whilst we are here. It is my hope that Naomhòg can be enjoyed by others for short retreats from the busyness of normal life. If we feel that they feel they can be responsible for the boat and enjoy what is essentially upmarket camping then I hope friends will get in touch and we can offer them a glimpse of the boating life.

P slept on the dinette for two nights. Such is the effort involved in setting it up we didn’t bother to dismantle it during the day yesterday. The weather was so lovely that we spent the entire day outside. We had a few locks to do. P was more interested in steering the boat. R has a very stiff knee which is causing him quite a bit of discomfort and a nail snag that he is concerned about because it may have become infected. We do have to be aware of Weil’s disease so the mere sniff of an open cut and I am dousing everything in antiseptic!I decided to operate as many of the locks as I could manage to give R a break. However it’s hard to keep a good man down so before long he too had a windlass in hand. I was then able to go ahead to set the next lock. All of them were against us. We saw no other boats coming towards us so we guessed all the lock chambers would be left empty from previous boats travelling in the same direction. With a crew of three we soon were on the homeward straight and moored up just after Fazeley Junction. Whilst enjoying a drink at the canalside hostelry we discerned from a local where the best Indian takeaway was situated. It certainly tasted very good even if the bright red colour of the main dishes was a little excessive. P set up his laptop so that we could watch the latest adaptation of Agatha Christie’s ‘Death on the Nile which we all enjoyed, mostly because of the stunning photography.

Our friends V and Ri in Tamworth very kindly offered to do a load of washing for us. I have learnt  to graciously accept every offer of washing because trying to keep up with changing the bedlinen etc requires at least half a day of time and effort! Ri said he would collect it first thing Friday morning so R and I made sure we were up and about by 0830. Not so for son P so when Ri arrived we entertained him outside on the cruiser stern, offering him hot coffee to offset the morning chill. V meanwhile was doing her weekly Waitrose shop and kindly agreed to pick up samples of two differing soft blue cheeses so that we could do a taste test. I am looking for a wheel of soft blue to complete the cake of cheese I am putting together for son G’s wedding next week.

Two locks at Glascote, (notoriously slow to fill and our first ascending) half an hour’s journey along the cut, completed our stretch of canal travelling and so we moored up and walked into Tamworth. P returned to London on the train and we returned to the boat, to be met by V with the cheeses to be sampled. I then rang the cheese counter at Lichfield to confirm my selection. The cheese counter assistant could not have been more helpful and has even put a few more cheeses to one side for me to sample on collection in case I might want to change my mind!

Settled myself on the bow of the boat in a comfy picnic chair and a warm rug ready for the weekly zoom call with a few of my friends. Although the sky was clear blue there was a distinct chill in the air. An old gent was walking along the towpath and got chatting. He knew exactly how to pronounce Naomhòg and I was impressed. Turns out his mother was Irish and although he had grown up in nearby Hanworth, she had insisted he and his siblings had a knowledge of the Celtic language. There was a big influx of Irish people to this region early in the last century. He was so chatty I missed the beginning of the zoom call. I didn’t want to appear rude or unfriendly towards him but equally the zoom call is timed to last only 40 minutes. That passes in a flash when six of us are talking! I hope he may walk by again tomorrow so I can resume our conversation. Infact we already have a 9am visitor – a chap tapped on our window to see if we wanted any pallets for burning. He’s around the corner and happy to deliver them. He must have seen my expression when he suggested 8 – 8.30am because he settled on 0900. I promised him a cup of tea in exchange. It’s great not knowing who we are going to meet and speak to each day. I think I have mentioned before that when we are at our bricks and mortar home we never afford the time to tarry and chat to passersby, even feeling embarrassment at doing so. Yet I am reminded of that saying that you never know when you might be entertaining an angel in disguise when you offer hospitality to strangers. It is taking time to adjust to the pace of life on the canals accustomed as we are to living life at a breakneck speed. Slowing down is a mindset that we are beginning to inhabit.

Decided to try out cooking sweet potatoes directly in the heart of the fire, wrapping then first in tinfoil. Worked a treat although R and I decided it would have been better to cook them for longer in a cooler fire. It was a bit nerve wracking pulling them out even wearing heat and fire resistant gloves. Served with leftover curry from our takeaway and the remains of the coleslaw from the firepit evening. An unusual but tasty supper! We tried to watch the true story of the man who disappeared in a canoe which is currently being shown on ITV. For some reason my phone kept buffering so eventually we gave up and retired to bed for an early night in preparation for our early morning caller. R has been out like a light for a couple of hours whilst I have been updating the blog so really not such an early night for me!

Amazing what you fish out of the canal:

We used to have one of those red cars when our children were small  so I was very tempted to travel along with it until our son P arrived mid afternoon and say we’d picked it up for him! Not very funny, so R disposed of it in the next CRT rubbish bins we came across. But it does amaze us finding what rubbish people dump in the canals, having no thought for the wildlife or the undercarriage of the many boats that use the waterways.

We travelled under Spaghetti junction, passing through industrial Birmingham. None of it was very pretty. Warehouses after factories and walls covered in graffiti. Eventually though we arrived at the Minworth locks and suddenly the vista changed and the canal became picturesque with beautiful weeping willows and ancient bridges. At the bottom lock we were helped through by half a dozen excitable children and two mums, one with a toddler in a pushchair. I invited them aboard for the short ride to our mooring. One of the mum’s walked along the towpath with the buggy, the toddler belonging to the mum on our boat, who was teased by her friend for forgetting she had a toddler in a pushchair. Such was everyone’s excitement at the prospect of a boat trip. A simple pleasure to offer. So many people who walk the canals daily have never experienced the joy of being on a narrowboat so if we can offer the opportunity of a ride we shall try to accommodate. Talking to the mum with the toddler, she expressed how tough lockdown had been with her two older children having special needs and her toddler being hyperactive. Once again I marvelled at how parents coped amazingly well with lockdown and what a tough call it was for many of them. This mum was not feeling sorry for herself and was full of laughter and her ‘we just have to get on with it” attitude. I got the feeling she was also a single mum so not even another adult with whom to share her burdens.

Our excitement for the day was welcoming son P onto the boat. I think he was slightly surprised at how small Naomhog is but he soon made himself at home and tried to get used to entering the door sideways. He certainly couldn’t enter with his rucksack still on his back. He and I walked to the nearest food shop which happened to be next to the railway station about a mile away. He’d only just come from there but he didn’t seem too bothered and at least the sun was shining. It enabled him to choose the food he wanted to eat and get a few beers, although as he was still drying out from the effects of his brother’s stag weekend, the beer count really was moderately low! He did want to make smores though, on the firepit R had prepared in our absence, the towpath being conveniently wide. To the unitiated, a smore consists of a digestive biscuit, chunks of milk chocolate and marshmallows, all of which you heat up on the fire. A mass of delicious gooeyness!

It was a perfect evening for a firepit and P made himself useful chopping wood. You could even say he’s a chip off the old block!

Not wanting to embarrass ourselves we were up and out by 8am to turn the boat around before we had many spectators! Having moved it yesterday to give our cousin’s a ride, it was facing in the wrong direction for the 20 or so single locks awaiting us, taking us down through Birmingham. Adjacent to the first lock there were CRT services which meant we could offload our rubbish and fill up with water. There was even a shower and toilets if needed so a useful pit stop. Whilst filling with water a single handed small cruiser arrived and entered the first lock chamber. I had a bit of a groan because now, unless we met a boat coming in the other direction, we would have to fill up every lock ahead of us! He would also be rather slow as a single handed boatman. However things were speeded up by the arrival of a CRT volunteer who went to assist him. Then shortly after we entered the flight we saw a very long boat with 8 people aboard behind us. They couldn’t have been more helpful and we completed the first flight of 13 locks in record time due to all the extra pairs of hands. There’s a break of about ten minutes travelling time between the end of the first flight and the Aston locks ahead so I was looking forward to more help. Sadly they never materialised so I think they must have gone straight on at the interchange. Either that or they grew wise and stopped long enough for coffee so that we were too far ahead of them to help! We soon caught up with the single handed boatman as his CRT help only stretched to the first flight but after a couple of locks he pulled over for a cup of tea so that we could pass him. I saw him filling the lock ahead as we emerged from our lock and sighed slightly thinking we would be slowed up for the remainder of the morning but then realised as he stood and opened the gate, he had filled the lock for us, which was incredibly kind of him as he had enough work of his own. He cheerfully waved us on and I felt warmed by the human kindness and chastened by my own thoughts which hasn’t been nearly so generous!

An eye opener seeing some of these locks in what used to be a very run down part of Birmingham. We went walking around the vicinity and it is very industrial. This is where my dad was raised as my grandfather was the vicar of Aston for a time, long before the arrival of spaghetti junction. Not sure any of the area would be recognisable to them now.

We are trying to keep slightly isolated as dday draws ever closer for our son’s wedding but a lack of lager on the boat meant R went off to find the local store. Being Easter Monday it was closed and quite a time elapsed before R returned. He had found a very large Oriental food cash and carry, also open to the public but assured me he wore his mask and didn’t touch anything! He did remark that it was quite impressive and I was tempted to go and see for myself. However I didn’t think it wise and anyway we decided to move through three more locks to a place called Cuckoo Wharf, very near to the M6, where we will stay all tomorrow. Not because it is particularly appealing but because we are in no rush and it will be good to have a day to catch our breath and do some boat chores.

It was getting late as we approached the third lock and a young lad came up to us in a bit of a state. The young lady he was with had somehow managed to drop her mobile phone into the canal. Could we help fish it out? We do have a magnet on board so we gave it to him to try and locate the phone. When that produced no joy R tried fishing for the phone from the end of the boat as I pulled the boat slowly along the canal. Not knowing exactly where it had fallen in did not make this an easy task. Sadly, after about 40 minutes we had to give up the fruitless search. We felt very defeated leaving them but there really did seem little point continuing although I was reminded of the shepherd who goes looking for his one lost sheep and continues on until he finds it!

We finished the evening watching the Wintershall Passion play on You tube. It had been performed twice on Good Friday in Trafalgar Square and it was incredibly powerful and well worth watching. A friend of ours was performing in it so we had an added interest and were pleased to actually find her in the crowd scenes.

I was tidying out the cupboard under the sink and came across a dark chocolate Easter egg that our friend D had given us when he came to visit a couple of weeks ago. I think he was a bit disappointed I didn’t open it there and then but I feel Easter eggs should wait until Easter Sunday so I popped it in the coolest part of the boat – any chocolate that we store above stove height tends to melt once the stove is lit and the boat warms up like a furnace! I have to say it was a great unexpected treat to suddenly find it and so post supper we cracked it open!

Happy Easter!

Walked down to the boat first thing, just to make sure all was in order and had a lovely chat with the couple making the fudge. They come into Gas St most weekends to sell their fudge which has become immensely popular and goes all around the globe. Monday-Wednesday she makes fudge all day; Thursday/Friday she slices and packs. Saturday/Sunday he sells it all day. Great little cottage industry in a beautiful looking boat that used to be featured on the series with Timothy West and Prunella Scales. I choose some smartie flavoured and some raspberry fudge to take to our cousin’s for lunch. Not realising we were going there I felt bad that I had no Easter eggs for the children. At least I now had something to give them! Perhaps it would be appreciated by the parents that it wasn’t yet more chocolate.

Reassured that the boat was fine, although funnily enough later in the day I realised someone had walked off with our two 5l plastic water bottles from Tesco (must have been desperate. Not sure how clean the water was either!). Funny how even knowing someone has stolen something so insignificant makes you feel a bit uncomfortable.

We went to an Easter Sunday service, quite formal and liturgical with two traditional hymns I had never sung before. The covid rules must have recently been relaxed because for the first time, since covid, the chalice was offered once again. The vicar was lovely with the children and they thought it great fun when he let them accompany him around the church sprinkling all the congregation with holy water. Occasionally in the service he would gently reprimand his own young children who were being very typical of clergy children, slightly misbehaving as much as they dare get away with. It brought back memories, not only of myself as a clergy child, but of when we used to take our children to church at a very young age and they would not be the best behaved. It was a toss up between letting them run around relatively quietly or trying to stop them and risking a temper tantrum!

We had lunch with Rs godson, who is also his first cousin, but nearer in age to our children. He has five lively children himself so it was great to be with them as none of our immediate family were with us. After lunch we all walked to the boat and we journeyed a short distance to a new mooring. It looks like it could be quieter than outside the pub and it will set us up for a prompt start tomorrow when we have rather a lot of locks to attend to!

A beautiful morning and not too far to travel as we are heading into Gas St basin in the heart of Birmingham. First off though we walked around Bournville. As a child my mother and I both loved Bournville dark chocolate. None of the milky stuff for us! Then a friend and I, when the children were small, became agents for a chocolate company and held chocolate parties in people’s homes. That’s when I became addicted to 70% plus chocolate! Bournville started to taste a bit waxy in comparison so I haven’t bought any in years. Mum still enjoyed it though so it brings back happy memories of her. We passed ‘Cadbury’s World’ where you can go on a tour of the chocolate factory. We did that on our first ever canal trip from which the whole idea of living on the water was birthed. We had picked up our narrowboat of nearly 70ft from Alvechurch marina, just a stones throw from where we now are. It was owned by a timeshare company called Diamond Resorts and the only available week was October half term. So a bit of a baptism by fire as the weather was inclement and the days fairly short and because we choose a circular route we had to travel a lot of hours daily to get the boat back to base within the week! However the very first challenge was a very long tunnel and I just remember us bumping this poor boat from side to side for over an hour! Funnily enough when we moored up in Birmingham today it was right next to one of the Diamond Resorts boats! I got chatting to the occupants, all in their early twenties I would guess. The one ‘in charge’ had been on numerous previous narrowboat holidays with his parents and this was the first time they had let him have a boys week without them! The boat was due back tomorrow so they were off loading their rubbish, which mainly I suspect contained empty lager cans! The boat looked in good order though so I wouldn’t imagine they had been too drunk and disorderly. You do come across a few party boats. Hiring a boat for a hen or stag weekend seems quite a popular event.

Just as we left Bournville we got chatting to a neighbouring hire boat awaiting another crew member. En route into the city we stopped for me to pop into Sainsbury’s and so further along the cut we found ourselves behind the hire boat which, for some reason was traveling very slowly. They kindly pulled to the side so that we could overtake them which was a novel experience. I’m not too sure of the etiquette of passing boats and to date it has never been an issue but I suspect as the weather improves and more boats come out of winter hibernation, we will find ourselves in a few boat queues, especially approaching flights of locks.

There is a spectacular network of canals in Birmingham and the canalside has been totally regenerated in the last ten years so there’s a real buzz, loads of people, restaurants and bars alongside the Sealife centre and a small Legoland. We moored up next to a boat selling a wide variety of fudge which appeared to be doing a roaring trade. I asked the vendor, who owned the boat, if it was a safe place to leave a boat unattended as we planned to spend the night with R’s uncle and aunt. He assured me that the bouncer who stood outside the bar we were moored alongside took no prisoners and would see off anyone misbehaving. He felt our boat would be fine and I also noticed that there were CCTV cameras monitoring the area. So with only a little trepidation we left the boat later in the afternoon. Prior to that my old flatmate from London days and her sister paid us a visit. They happened to be visiting their dad who lives in a residential home nearby so they took the opportunity to catch up with us and see the boat, which was lovely. One of the delights of being on the move is never quite knowing who we might be in the vicinity of and to take time catching up with old friends.

R’s uncle and aunt could not have been more accommodating. Hot baths, G&t’s, washing done, a lovely meal in elegant surroundings and a very comfy bed! All very civilised and welcome! Even a pile of newspapers from which I could scrounge a few codewords to keep me occupied in the early hours.

Good Friday – an early start to get to Tamworth by 8am, delayed by a Tesco petrol station offering petrol at £1.55/litre. Too good to miss!

Yesterday had been a leisurely day; a late start followed by a 7 mile round trip to the local Waitrose, predominantly to sample a few blue soft cheeses in preparation for the cake of cheese I am putting together for son G’s wedding to M. However when we arrived at this substantial Waitrose we were disappointed to find no cheese counter. Still the walk had been good for us and the adjacent John Lewis helped make the trip worthwhile. The recent realisation that we can still get a free newspaper by logging into the Waitrose app also lessened the disappointment of the cheese scenario. R had suggested I check in advance and to his credit, he didn’t say ‘I told you so!’. It was good to do a substantial walk and we arrived back at the boat pleasantly tired and ready to enjoy a quick drink at the pub before heading for bed. I tried to find a Maundy Thursday service on You tube. There were a few Catholic masses but no Anglican offering so I settled instead for reading the different gospel versions of the last supper. Reminded me of how we can witness the same event as someone else and yet have a surprisingly differing recollection of what happened!

Back to today and our early start to get to our friends V and R in time for a hot cross buns breakfast. We then joined them at the Tamworth Good Friday Walk of Witness. A silent procession around Tamworth followed by an outside service of readings, prayer and worship, open to all denominations and none. It was inspiring, thought provoking and accompanied by sunny weather, which was an added blessing. It made up for the lack of a service yesterday and put me in the right frame of mind to appreciate that this is afterall the season of Easter. Easy to forget when living a remote life aboard.

V and R drove us back to the boat and then we all travelled together along the cut in warm sunny weather for about six miles, stopping to fill up at a water tap. V and R decided to leave us then as they had to walk back to their car. Another boat filling their tank before us was taking rather a long time, R caustically remarking to me that as an all women crew they had probably emptied the tank making full use of the shower! It can take over an hour to fill so we decided to abandon the idea and just as we were setting off a man appeared on the towpath. ‘Would you like a lift’ I asked? His eyes lit up and he readily jumped aboard. N, whose parents had emigrated from Pakistan had lived in Birmingham all his life. He often walked along the towpath and had always wanted to travel on a narrowboat so couldn’t believe it when I offered him a lift. Both of us being very chatty, I gleaned much about his life: he was a courier (but really wanted to open a narrowboat cafe), had 6 children, grandchildren and an ex wife. All this by 42! He looked about 30! Sweetly, he couldn’t believe I was 60, so he’s a friend for life! He asked me if I minded him smoking, little realising it was going to be hash. He did offer me a joint but I thought if I haven’t needed one in 60 years I didn’t think now was a good time to start and anyway I think I got some via him because after his departure, I have felt markedly chilled all evening! We shared some amazing conversation, some X rated, so not suitable for a family blog! As I said to R later, was there something in my face which made him feel able to talk so freely? He willingly accepted by offer to pray with him and though of differing faith, he found immense relief through my prayers and I felt the hand of God over the whole encounter. It reinforced the conviction that God wants to use Naomhòg not only as a retreat boat but also as a prayer boat. It always seems to me that our worthwhile encounters happen on the boat just when my doubts are setting in as to whether we have heard God correctly. It gives us conviction to continue. Offering a lift to someone seems such a small gesture (indeed in a car you might not even consider it in this day and age) and I realise I need to be discerning but I also want to trust that God will put in our paths the people he wants us to help. N left us with his mobile number and the assurance that if we need anything whilst in the vicinity of Birmingham, we are to ring him and he will bring it to us. Actually he could be a godsend next week when we are hoping to isolate as much as possible in preparation for the family wedding. A takeaway curry may be just what’s needed!

Mooring outside Bournville station, we could be in for a noisy night. We left the boat to explore the area and found a rather run down high street, yet it was filled with an amazing community spirit. First we went into an art cooperative cafe greeted by a friendly chap who encouraged us to view the exhibition in the rear of the building. It was photographs of Ukrainian students, presently studying at Birmingham university, with the backstory of what is going on for each of them in their home towns and where they were when war broke out. It was very sobering.

We were offered free cardamon buns which had come from the local bakery, also a cooperative – a thoughtful gesture because as we had asked for recommendations of where to eat, the cafe manager had thought we were hungry. Infact we appreciated something to soak up the glasses of wine and R was a bit peckish following his recent hash close encounter! N was keen to give him a joint but this was vetoed by me! Leaving the cafe we continued exploring the high street with its many varied cuisines, although surprisingly few onestop shops. We then found ourselves ushered into a welcoming, slightly bohemian restaurant, where we feasted on a couple of delicious starters and homemade pickles, before returning to the boat, pleasantly relaxed having had a great deal more inspiring day than anticipated.