First Day of School

My starting at UCL this week has been really exciting and had meant that I've just not had a moment to blog until now. The River Festival was a great success and I will try to write it up properly soon. In the meantime, here's some photos of my new university and environs. 

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My Favourite Finds v.13

The last few days have been so hectic, what with River Festival prep and James starting his course full-time! But I did find a moment for a few pictures of my most recent find. It's a lovely dark purple dress from Kew, that going by their online shop, would have been about £75 or so. It's perfect for autumn as it's actually quite thick, and lined, and such a delicious autumnal colour, just like the elderberries in the picture!

Dress: £7.50, Cancer Research, Burleigh St

It even has pockets! (how I love a dress with pockets!) and I've been keeping warm and casual by wearing it with a grey tank (also from a charity shop some time ago) and boots.

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Blades of Glory 2

http://chestertonrowingclub.blogspot.com/2011/09/blades-ready-for-new-season-and-ice.html
Ready for rowing!


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Most expensive waterway in the country?

Camboaters (that is, me and James on behalf of) have done some research and were shocked to discover that the Cam Conservancy Licence is the most expensive in the country in terms of cost per mile of waterway for an annual river licence (£77/mile as opposed to a canal licence which is 30p/mile). The next most expensive is more than three times cheaper.

 

Click to enlarge

The Cam Conservancy have sent out their latest consultation (yes, we have another one to wrangle with!) because they claim to have an income shortfall. One of the reasons they receive less money is that very few of the residential boaters in the area choose to buy a Cam Con licence. Instead most opt to buy an Environment Agency licence, which is the same price but allows navigation on nearly 150 miles of waterway in East Anglia, and access to the Cam via an interchange agreement. The agreement means that a small percentage (30%) of the EA licence fee is passed to the Cam Con.

If the Cam Con were to bring their fees more in line with the rest of the UK, then Camboaters are confident that many more owners of powered boats who moor in the area would buy a Cam Conservancy licence, and
purchase short term licences for when they go cruising. (We are in the process of gathering hard evidence for this, but it's a no brainer). This would significantly increase the Cam Con's income.

Camboaters have proposed this idea when the fee increase was first put forward last year. But we were disappointed to find that it has been dismissed out of hand and not included as an option in the latest
consultation. Instead, those who buy an EA licence would be hit with an additional river licence to pay, resulting in a 25% increase in costs, making the most expensive waterway in the country even more
expensive to use! 

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Blades of Glory

This is what we have spent several evenings over the past week doing:

Stripe 1 of 3!

Repainting the rowing club's blades.

It's been quite a lot of fun, because despite the hard work, lots of club members have helped out. We are nearly done! I will post some pictures of the finished product once all the tape is off!

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The Recycling Shelf

Recycling Shelf (Put or Take) from Ryd Cook on Vimeo.

On Aylestone Road, just the other side of the river from us, there is a shelf, built into the fence. The Recycling Shelf. I rarely remember to go over there, but when I do it does always seem to be full of random things, and it is such a good, simple idea. It seems to maintain some sort of equilibrium between the 'put' and the 'taken', which is nicely illustrated in this video I found about the shelf. Last night when I popped over, I found a pair of binoculars. I wonder how widespread these type of things are? Do you know of one in your area?

Google Maps link to the Recycling Shelf:

View Larger Map

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Great Aunt Cissie's Sewing Machine

After I dug out the old Singer sewing machine and established that it had not rusted solid, I spoke my dad (to whom it belonged). He told me that he in turn had inherited it from his dad who had been given it by his sister-in law, Cissie (my Great-aunt). I looked up the serial number of the machine, and it turns out that it was made in 1931.

Using the Singer, my grandad made the fabric parts of a folding canoe, which he then gave to my dad and there are photos of me sitting it when I was very small. An aptitude for hand crafts seems to run my dad's family. My grandma (my dad's mum) was en excellent knitter and embroiderer, and my grandad used to enjoy similar things. He didn't knit but he had a spinning wheel which he made himself and used to spin yarn for my grandma to knit with from raw wool, having first carded it with big spiky carding brushes. When my grandparents were still alive I used to love visiting them in their house in Wantage (Oxfordshire). They made all their own bread, and jam from fruit grown in their garden or gathered from the countryside. They were frugal and self sufficient in an entirely non-hippy way, just because they were brought up in austere times and also because they enjoyed it. 

So, using Great-aunt Cissie's sewing machine myself, I'm carrying on a family tradition of making things with it. I've now got to grips with adjusting the tensioner and how to fill up and thread the bobbin using the machine's ingenious mechanism. I really hope that I find time to use it, but there are quite a few jobs around the boat which will demand it - we need new curtains and the cratch cover needs fixing.

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Any Questions? V.5

Here's today's question and answer. If there's anything you would like to know about our life afloat or narrowboating in general, do get in touch via twitter / facebook / email or formspring.

 

A question from Formspring: In the time that you've been a live-aboard, have you ever been bothered by drunks and opportunist thieves/vandals? Does this happen often, and what measures have you taken to guard against it?

We've actually been pretty lucky. In our three years boating we've only been let off our mooring twice, and neither time was at our home mooring. The first time was by kids in St Neots on the Great Ouse, which was scary because it is a river, but they only let one end off and we were up so were able to secure it straight away. The second time was in Wolverhampton at the top of the Wolverhampton 21 on the BCN. We were moored near several other boats but the bow of the Duck was the only rope not tied either to a ring or looped over the same bollard as another rope so it was more vulnerable. The only problem that time was that Lyra fell in! But she was OK, and we were quickly back on the bollard and chained up.

At home, we've never been bothered by any anti-social behaviour, but wherever we moor we always tie the ropes through closed loop pins and then back onto the boat so that opportunists would have to climb on to the boat itself, thus waking us/alerting us to their presence. We always chain our generator up when it is outside, as there was a local spate of unsecured generator thefts. In really dodgy areas, we would just avoid mooring up, but occasionally we've used a chain as well as ropes just in case.

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Off-Grid Baking 9: BCN Cookies

I've been promising this recipe for ages now. Rebekah made them for the YWBS lot on the BCN Challenge, and they were so good that I asked her for the recipe. She sent it to me and since then I've made them several times. They're especially good while cruising, and they're made of oats so they must be healthy, right? I've substituted the chocolate chips for both smarties and caramel buttons, with excellent results!

 

The caramel version!

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Sew far, sew good

My Singer on the left, making duck bunting!

Preparations for the World Rivers Day Festival continue apace, and one of the things we have been up to is making bunting out of recycled fabric. On Monday night a group of us got together for a session of bunting making, using Charlotte's sewing machine. And we got quite a bit done, but could have made more with an additional machine. 

So I dug out my old Singer, which I've had on the boat for nearly three years since my dad got it down from the loft and brought it over to me. Embarrassingly despite having learned to use a sewing machine at school, I'd forgotten how to use it and it had languished unloved under the bed. When we redid the bedroom, we found a spot for it when it can be more easily accessed. But I still needed a refresher! I took it out of its case and tried to get some of the dust off. It looked a bit sorry for itself! But a few turns of the handle which produced a smooth, quiet clunking proved that all the mechanism was moving soundly.

I lugged it over to Charlotte's boat Felicity last night, and she showed me how to thread it up. The bobbin was still full so once the cotton was on the top spindle, I was ready to go, using the wheel to spin it. It does have a retro-fitted motor attachment but it was quite quick enough using the wheel, and I didn't want to drain the batteries. That evening, we must have made 50+ metres of bunting. I really enjoyed it, and was so pleased that my previously unloved old Singer was still going so well. I have resolved to give it a good clean and an oil, and start using it more often!

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