STILL IN RUGBY

I have now been moored near Rugby for more than a year. The moorings are quiet, the essential shops and amenities are close at hand and there are some decent walks to exercise Fanny the Woof. I have a monthly meeting at a nearby pub, where a friend  plays his guitar and sings the pop songs of our youth. Other than that, not a lot has happened, hence the lack of postings! There is a cinema near by which I occasionally visit, and an OK restaurant which I use when I have visitors.

The only boating I have done since my last post is to occasionally move a boat from where it is, to where it is supposed to be. I have also spent some time recently keeping 'ROSY' in good order. 

That's all folks!

BOATMAN STOVES

I have now not only got the new Boatman Stove installed, but I have also got it going. I'm VERY pleased with it!

A QUIET TIME

My last post was several months ago. We are still moored near Rugby, and both Fanny-the-Woof and I are in reasonably good shape. The only boating that we have done has been to move a couple of boats, from where they had been left, to where they ought to be.

I have had a great sadness. A long standing friend of mine was planning to retire from his work overseas, set his family up in England, and then leave them. He would then buy a boat, and he and I would then go off cruising together. Unfortunately, having set up his family in England, he died.

Since then, I have led a quiet life. There are some excellent walks that we take advantage of, and I have a monthly outing to Newbold where a musical friends appears with his guitar, and spends a few hours playing the pop songs of my youth. I still read quite a bit, not only books on 'Rosy' but also others on my Kindle. A few weeks ago I got the Morso stove going, so we are beautifully warm in 'Rosy'. I have also bought an 'Eco Flow Stove Fan'. This sits on the Morso stove, and uses the heat from the stove to operate a fan which blows the heat out into the cabin. I'm very pleased with it. When the fan stops turning, it is because the stove needs more coal. 

When I bought 'Rosy' she came armed with an Epping Range - a coal fired range with an oven and hot plates. I only used the oven and hot plates a couple of times, as I prefer to cook my food on 'Rosy's gas cooker. However, I have made such good use of the Epping (for heating), to the extent that it was beginning to fall apart. Unfortunately a new one costs some £1000 which is a lot of beer!! We have, therefore, removed the broken range, and replaced it with the very much cheaper Boatmans Stove, designed as just a warming stove, and without any twiddly bits. It's installation is not yet complete.

Toodle pip!!

Bill

STILL HERE

It is ages since I last posted to this blog. As it is advertised as 'Voyages with Rosy', and as since late last year Rosy and I have been moored up, any postings (including this one) would break rules. However, I have often had an urge to break a few rules, so here goes.

Fanny the Woof and I are still happily living on 'Rosy' .

Fanny is fine. She still enjoys her daily walks, but her chief pleasure is sleeping, which she does nearly all the time when she is not eating or performing the natural, excreteating, calls of nature.

We are moored in a place that rents out boats, has several good walks - both country and tow path - is near to a cinema and a reasonably good Tesco and has very reasonable mooring charges. What more could one ask for?

I have had one cruise this year, when the boatyard manager invited me to move one of their boats to the boatyard to where that hirers wanted to pick it up from! In the past I have moved boats for them from where the hirers have dumped them.

The next blog will be in the near future, when some friends and their children will visit for a short cruise.

Toodle pip!!

Bill

WET, DRY, COLD AND WARM (ish)

Winter continues on 'ROSY'. I won't whinge about the weather - the last few days have been a bit annoying, but generally it has been 'not bad'. Certainly Fanny the Woof and I have had our usual walkies without having to don rain-wear, though sometimes that entailed waiting for the drizell to cease. Basic food shopping is a 15 to 20 minute walk up to a Tesco, or a 40 ish minute walk up to Rugby. The staff at Willow Wren are very friendly and helpful. 

I've been sorting out the doctors and dentists, the former with the help of Veronica. I tramp up the towing path to Newbold on the first Saturday of each month, to hear Eric wield his guitar etc and sing the pop songs of my youth. He sometimes plays a song that I don't recognise, and that usually turns out to have been popular during one of my over-seas stints. I've been reading quite a bit, especially the free-to-very-low-cost books for my Kindle. I kept Mike George happy by reading his 'California or Bust' - he had hoped to find employment over there, but at the end of a year all he had was the experience, so he wrote about it.

Those of us who live on our boats generally find it necessary to have a base for mail delivery and the like. For many a long year Veronica has been doing this for me, so it  is always a pleasure when she comes over for a 'live' visit.

I've just spent a couple of days watching 'Coast'. A few years ago there was a TV series of a chap who walked round the coast of mainland Britain - England, Wales and Scotland. I have it on three 120 min DVDs, and watch it every 4 or 5 years.

Err . . . That's about it, except to say that I am slowing down, and my really adventurous cruising days are over. My 'plan' (?) now is to cruise for 2 or 3 hours and then to moor up for 2 to 3 + + + days.

That's all, folks!!

WINTER CONTINUES

I have just re-organised the interior of 'ROSY'.

Before the re-org, the interior - starting from the front - was:

1. The living room, sporting: shelving for my 200+ library, the music centre, the  CDs, DVDs and cassette tapes, a sturdy coal box, a Morso stove, a space that houses an (IKEA) easy-chair on one side and what looks like a comfortable sofa on the other, but which at night can turn into a double bed, followed by a sink (with cupboards below) and a fridge on one side and a gas stove (including an oven, food preparation table and cupboards below on the other.

2. What was originally a bedroom, with 2 bunk beds (one above the other) on one side and a wardrobe on the other.

3. The bathroom, which is armed with a bath-cum-shower, a small sink, lots of shelving for bathroomy things and a magic, gas-fired box that turns cold water into hot water. 

(There is a central heating system, powered by the Morso stove that heats up these three spaces. I was 'warned' that this was not possible, but it was. The secret was to ensure that the proper gauge piping was used, that it went slightly up-hill all the way from the stove to the bathroom, and that the Morso was working well).

4. The engine room (including the tool depository).

5. The traditional back cabin that provides a cross-bed (that has to be set up each night), a side bed (that is a seat during the day and a bed for children at night) cupboards and a coal fired Epping stove that incorporates an oven and a hot plate for cooking. (It also has the cunning flap that was supposed to prevent a perverted father from interfering with his children at night).

Up until 2 or 3 weeks ago, Fanny-the-Woof and I slept in the back cabin. However, the Epping was playing up (and, indeed, was falling apart), so we abandoned the back cabin, and set up shop in the living room. I wish I had done this years ago, at least in the winter. The new regime gets me in and out of bed very much more quickly, and causes me to spend about a third less money on coal.

As some of you will know, for the past few years I have been paying infrequent but reglar visits to doctors who have been helping me deal with my short term forgetfulness and type 2 diabetes. I have now been warned that the former is getting worse, and will eventually be termed Dementia. I am, naturally, not too happy about this, but it is my intention to stay on 'ROSY' and to continue to go cruising, though restricting myself mainly to the Oxford Canal.

That's all for now. Toodle pip!! Bill

 

IDLENESS

Over the last few months 'Rosy', Fanny the Woof and I have been leading a very quiet life in the Willow Wren branch (off the Oxford Canal). It takes 20 minutes to walk up to Tesco for provisions, and only 3 or 4 minutes to walk down to the juntion with the Oxford Canal and its towing path. I have had a very indolent few months, reading lots of books, visiting the nearby cinema at least once per month and walking with Fanny.

I am regularly asked 'Isn't it cold in the boat during the winter'. I have a variety of answers. No. 1. If it was cold inside I would be elsewhere.

No. 2. I have 2 coal fired units on 'Rosy'. The one up front keeps the living room warm (where I live during the day) and the one at the backwarms up the place where I sleep.

No 3. Yes, it is cold in the boat, but I find that a coal fire eradicates the problem.

No 4. I did not realise that I look stupid enough to spend entire the winter freezing to death.

There are some great advantages in being moored up on 'proper' winter moorings. Most importantly, I do not have to run the engine for 30 to 40 minutes each morning and evening to charge up the batteries. I also take the opportunity to cram all of the 'professional' visits into the winter break, leaving the rest of the year available for cruising. Hence my diary covers dentists, doctors and other such ne'er do wells! It is also useful to be able to tap-in to the boaty engineers, who can put to rights the occasional tweaks that 'Rosy' requires.

Right. That's all folks!!

Toodle pip!!