Granny Buttons

Little More

The lady on NB Little More has been blogging for two or three months.  And she's a really good writer, well worth following. 

She's probably better followed in a feed reader rather than 'visiting' the site in the traditional way because of the longer posts without images.  But it's vivid writing.

Little More is the 38 foot long, 6 foot 10 wide result of a half-forgotten conversation in 2006. 

We weren't drunk.  We said something about how we'd love to spend a summer and autumn travelling round the UK but that by the Autumn it might get a bit too nippy for that sort of malarkey. 

...  on Monday (4 days from now) we move out of our flat, somebody else moves in and we take a small amount of stuff up to the Calder and Hebble navigation in West Yorkshire to move on to our boat for a bit.

The bit is anything from 4 days (if it keeps raining like it has been) to 4 months. If you want to know how it's going, come back and I'll be telling you...   

So there's about another month to go before she finds if the malarkey gets too nippy.

I'm impressed with the number of comments on the Little More blog.  Six on the very first post.  She's obviously got many more friends than me.  It took me more than a year to get to six comments on a single post.

Miss Little More commented last week on my post about swimming in the Birmingham canals, saying that she swam recently at Llangollen:

Horseshoe Falls is a bit less hygenically suspect but bloody hell it's cold! Bits of me shrivelled and have never fully returned.

[Thanks to John of three3yards for nudging me to include this.]

Ownerssshipss

Ownerships boats at Braunston, February 2006

It would have been fun to have kept all the S's.  At what point did they run out of inspiration for new Snames?

Bosley to Macclesfield

Lockett's Bridge to Macclesfield Canal Centre, 1pm to 5pm, including a stop at Fool's Nook to sample the pub.

Congleton to Bosley

Congleton to just above Bosley Top Lock.  5pm - 9:30pm.

Moon's rising - a gibbous moon (three-quarters) - and the sky's clearing, which is just lovely for night-time photography!

Canal Spy vs Canal Spy

Nic Chilton of Silhouette is now vying with Steve of Pig & Pineapple to post time lapse videos of canal lengths cruised.  This latest one from Nic (below) is of the Grand Union from Weedon to Cosgrove, and includes the Blisworth Tunnel.

Nic's also put some useful placemarkers and maps along the way.
 

I think Nic's effort is more atmospheric than Steve's, but really this comes from the extraordinarily dramatic music of Philip Glass.  After all, there's not much you can do with a forward-facing camera in time-lapse, except to be there when something dramatic happens, get some brighter weather, or simply raise the bar in technical quality.

Of technical quality we must assume that the limiting factor is surely YouTube.  It would be nice to see some original footage, perhaps in a Quicktime or Windows Media format. 

(Incidentally, Nic added a '(c) 2007' symbol to his video, but surely the Philip Glass music which really adds the drama is not part of that copyright?  P&P mainly uses the royalty-free www.incompetech.com.  Generally I'd say that in music you get what you pay for.  Or should that be 'what you nic', Nic?

What Silhouette and P&P need to do is coordinate their videos, perhaps linking them in some way to the Canalplan Gazetteer or other map so you can pick the stretch of canal and the speed at which you want to cruise it - and the photographer.

Anyway, on the principle that grannies should always be fair to twins, especially when they are competing with each other, here's Pig & Pineapple's time-lapse trip down the Middlewich branch:

You can see more on P&P's time lapses because they are slower and sharper, but the faster motion of Nic gives a greater comic effect - given extra bathos by that marvellous music.  [(c) Philip Glass]

Trollhättan tug

Old tug in Trollhättan, Sweden, 1963. 

A bit far from home for Granny Buttons, but I can't resist this photo from waterways veteran Max Sinclair.  He memoirs:

When I worked at SAAB Cars Trolhattan in the 1960's I stayed at the town hotel next to the lifting bridge over the lovely canal.

In the night a bell ringing would signal the opening of the bridge for a ship to pass. I couldn't resist leaping out of bed to see what was passing.

Moored at the top of the flight of locks was this attractive steam tug, a relic of the days when ships were nursed up the flight and large rafts of logs were towed across the nearby Lake Vattern.

(Has anyone ever used 'memoir' as a verb before?  I have now)

Here's a touristy link to Trollhättan and the locks.

By the way, one reason I posted this photo today is that Max is in hospital right now, getting a new hip.  Get well soon, Max!

Another reason is because this photo's lost a bit of  colour over the years and it's given me a bit of practice in recovering the colours.  The main picture is my effort.  At right is the original.  I'm getting better.

A bunch of canal enthusiasts, led by Clive and Jilly Field on Witcombe, went over to Sweden a couple of years ago.  Did you go to Trollhättan, Clive?

Last glimpse of felis catus

Mary comments:

Is that a cat door made into the cabin door?  Wonderful!

Yes indeed.  But I need to be more alert on the camera button.

Below, I was waiting to catch the moment when the cat disappeared into the Felis Catus-flap.

But the cat was quicker than me. When I was distracted by a noise behind me, and I turned to see what it was, the cat was gone inside in a flash of black tail.

The cat's whiskers in signwriting

Spotted at Streethay Wharf, May 2007.

Har har har.  Brilliant!

Leeds and Liverpool Canal winter closure reasons

In a recent post I wondered why it was necessary to stop the Leeds & Liverpool canal for several months to repair three bridges across the canal near Burnley, when it took barely two or three days of stoppages to build new bridges in the Midlands.

Phil Walley, Lancashire County Council's Senior Highways Engineer, kindly explained. It turns out that the bridges are being grit-blasted and repainted in a 'bespoke designed scaffold encapsulation system', a bit like an old boat might be repaired.

He writes:

Lancashire County Council is currently preparing schemes to undertake essential bridge maintenance work on two bridges in the Burnley area and one in the Rufford area.  This work comprises repairs to the reinforced concrete deck, grit blasting the existing paint system off the structural steelwork, undertaking steelwork repairs and finally the application of a new protective paint system. 

All this work needs to be done in a bespoke designed scaffold encapsulation system where the atmosphere can be controlled and any environmental contamination prevented.

Fuel Cell narrowboat Ross Barlow

Last week engineers from Birmingham University unveiled the Ross Barlow, an experimental canal boat powered by hydrogen fuel cells. 

The University press release outlines the launch here, and the University's Hydrogen Research Group describes its Protium project here.

There's a more detailed PDF of the Protium project here.  They don't claim it's a 'first', which is just as well, because it isn't. 

An article from 7 years ago, "Are fuel cells the new rock n' roll?", describes Zetek, a company that set out to prove that you could build boats powered that way.

The first fuel-cell canal boat was Pangea (pictured left), built by Reading Marine in 2001-2 and launched using Zetek's systems.  Unfortunately Zetek went bust shortly afterwards, apparently losing funding in the wake of 9/11.   

While Pangea worked, it obviously was an impractical concept boat rather than the first in a new generation, because I heard it was later converted to a conventional diesel boat.  Or perhaps into a diesel-electric drive. Whatever, Pangea turned out to be a one-off.

Five years later the proof-0f-concept Ross Barlow appears to include several enhancements.  However, its trumpeted 'green hydrogen' seems to me simply to be hydrogen generated by wind turbines. I wonder how many wind turbines you'll need to power a fuel-cell narrowboat?   And how many to drive all 30,000 of Britain's canal craft?

Dunelm Mill artificial flowers

Artificial flowers, Dunelm Mill store, Burton-upon-Trent, April 2007

The photo isn't of any consequence. But I wanted to praise the artificial flowers department of the Dunelm Mill household store chain.

If, like me, you are blessed with brown thumbs then this is a great place to get a roof garden for your narrowboat that won't wilt, decay or dry up.

Unfortunately, not only do I know less about Gardener's Question Time than Gardner engines, I can't flower-arrange either.

Some narrowboaters are superb rooftop gardeners.  (Khyamanzi had a superb display last month and in previous months - Andy, can you point us to pictures of your floral displays?)   

But not me. I've got a couple of unimpressive vases-ful of artificial flowers inside Granny B, but no picture of them, sorry.

Here's a great idea for a canalside business:  Buy a bunch of painted planters and fill 'em up with Dunelm Mill flowers.  You can probably negotiate a discount and charge brown-thumbed twerps like me a healthy premium.  The stock would last forever and never need watering.

Then we'd have pretty displays for our roofs all year round.

Is there another store chain with such a big selection?  (and such a good selection of cheap vases too?)

Residential mooring opportunity at King's Cross, London

Are you having problems selling your day-trip narrowboat?  Call it a 'residential opportunity' instead.  You'll triple the asking price, particularly if it's in central London.  Boatshed.com has a residential narrow boat opportunity, a snip at under £200,000:

This is a rare opportunity to aquire a secure residential mooring in the heart of London. The location is exceptional with the mooring adjacent to a nature reserve, offering quiet seclusion in a tranquil oasis close to Kings Cross.

The boat appears to be in sound condition and could be easily converted into a spacious home. The mooring has electricity and running water and costs around £4,000 per year including Council Tax.

I'd call it a project boat, but a worthwhile one if you are desperate to live afloat in central London.  Even after converting this floating classroom/cafeteria into a home (£25,000?) you'll still be paying £80 a week to live on it, so you won't be saving all that much over a flat.  But the site does appear to be unusual (it's at Camley Street Natural Park) so perhaps it's an institutional boat of the London Wildlife Trust?  No wonder the price is so high.

Canalplan location here.

Felis catus springs on Felis Catus 3

Congleton, 23rd Sept 2007.  Mike Stevens' Felis Catus III, getting away from it all on visitor moorings. 

Notice springs on bow (as mentioned here).  Notice also the felis catus about to spring aboard.  This particular felis appears to be 'Tilly', pictured here on the Stevens website.

BW cleans canal while Elevate cleans up

Crisis meeting to take place over state of canal - Lancashire Telegraph

Councillors in Pendle are to meet with British Waterways to try to come up with ways to improve the state of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Bosses at British Waterways have admitted problems with the canal but said lack of resources meant they were struggling to address the issues raised by Pendle Council, a response which has been met with disappointment by councillors.

... "We are facing a difficult struggle to reduce the severe amounts of litter, fly tipping and general anti-social behaviour in some areas along the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

"The canal is cleared of debris on a frequent basis. We endeavour to keep the canal free from obstructions and continue to remove a high volume of litter and debris from the canal, much of which is discarded by local residents and canal users.

... Brierfield councillor Frank Wren said: "The state of the canal is an absolute disgrace and we cannot continue to allow it to be in such a state. We are doing a lot to try and make Pendle a tourist destination.

"Elevate are spending millions of pounds in the area and here we have British Waterways doing absolutely nothing."

Who are Elevate?  I had to hunt to find out.  Here's the About page of their website.   I wanted to know how much of the 'millions of pounds' they are spending as their share of cleaning up the canal.

So I consulted their FAQ page, but it says 'Under development'.  Clearly the 'millions of pounds' aren't being spent on communication.  Goody, more money to help clean the area.

But their website doesn't mention the canal.  Nothing that I could find anyway.  Their Vacancies page says 'No vacancies at present', so presumably they are well-staffed. 

I wonder if Elevate simply expect British Waterways to clean up the locals' rubbish so that they can come in and profit from the canal?

Meanwhile British Waterways is being forced by Lancashire County Council to cut off the Leeds & Liverpool canal for up to five months from November, so that the council can repair (not replace or build, but repair!) three road bridges around Councillor Wren's native Burnley.

You might like to send an email to Councillor Wren (frank.wren@pendle.gov.uk) and ask him to find out why it's taking so long and what the council is doing to help British Waterways in these cash-strapped times.

You might also like to show him the BW winter stoppages list, which shows what 'absolutely nothing' means.