From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Wed Aug 20 16:40:07 1997 id AA12378; Wed, 20 Aug 97 16:39:56 EDT id aa1003915; 20 Aug 97 21:09 BST Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 21:11:25 +0100 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Judy Voets Subject: from Fradley Junction Hi All, Wow, I've got a few minutes by myself! I keep thinking about the GIG and how wonderful it was. Hopwas is a beautiful spot. On Monday we walked a block and took the bus into Tamworth - it took about 10 or 15 minutes. I had to buy train tickets to take Roo, Sean's friend, to Heathrow and Karen took the boys and Rose to the Leisure Center where the boys went skiing - 12 year old heaven is skiing in August. The Coventry Canal is lovely. Had to leave but am back again after a very nice meal at the Swan. When we left someone had thrown bread into the junction and these HUGE fish were there feasting. Ah, I forgot but on Tuesday Andrew and Wendy Dyke arrived at Hopwas. They had intended to make the GIG but Andrew's business got in the way. Such nice folks - we enjoyed meeting them and spending some time talking to them. Tuesday Sean and I took Roo to Heathrow from Hopwas. It only took 13 hours round trip and we didn't go shopping. The trains seems to have no problem going north and south but east and west is a different story. This isn't very canally except that the railroad follows the canals and we could see nbs every time we crossed the canal. I want you to know that one train actually disappeared and know one seemed to know what happened to it or the engineer! I was told the next one would come per usual - quite odd, I'd say. That happened first thing in the morning at 6:28A.M. Coming back - when we got to Birmingham another train seemed to disappear- everyone was told "it" will be here in 10 minutes over and over and over again. Then no one knew which track -"listen to the..." and they pointed up. So I pointed up and said I couldn't understand what was being said so Print Shirt said he'd let us know. One fellow said the confusion was worse than usual!!! Needless to say it was an absolute pleasure to get back on the Blue Heron. I think that next week I'll actually be able to read all of the posting again. I sure miss what all of you have to say. Thanks to the Leyfields, Rosie and Jim have moved in and our Rose is now their mom and feeds them peppermint tea once a day. It's almost 9p.m. and it is a beautiful evening, peaceful, calm, and quiet. Our in house fisherman is out there popping them out of the cut and tossing them back. Rose is sleeping and the 3 full fledged adults and doing very quiet things. Sleep tight Toodle pip Judy Judy and Stan Voets, P.O. Box 103, San Geronimo, CA. 94963, U.S.A. nb Blue Heron of San Geronimo TEL: USA (415)488-0985 UK 04686 34567 (July 31 to Oct. 14) Email: USA jvoets@marin.k12.ca.us UK jvoets@tamal.demon.co.uk (July 31 to Oct.14) From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Fri Aug 22 18:14:34 1997 id AA14483; Fri, 22 Aug 97 18:14:26 EDT id aa0517260; 22 Aug 97 22:19 BST Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 22:21:46 +0100 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Judy Voets Subject: off to Henley Hi All, Well, tomorrow we're off to Henley by car. If you will be at the National on Sunday look out for us - both Stan and I will be wearing our name tags from the GIG. Another thanks to Sid for the great name tags. Oh yes, we'll also be there by 12:30 on Monday - after we take Karen, Sean and Rose to Gatwick. :-( I'll miss them. It has been wonderful having them on the boat with us. Sean is now a full fledged crew member - he can do locks as well as any of us and is well under way to running the boat. We're moored at Shobnall Basin. This is the first time we've ever actually come into a basin. This is very, very nice. Wonderful flowers! I walked up to the shopping area today - once again everything is close at hand- once you get there- it is a long walk. I know there is a bus but I didn't bother getting the info. Actually I'd walk there, shop, and take a taxi back 'cause it is only 1.5 miles. So.... Toodle pip Judy Judy and Stan Voets, P.O. Box 103, San Geronimo, CA. 94963, U.S.A. nb Blue Heron of San Geronimo TEL: USA (415)488-0985 UK 04686 34567 (July 31 to Oct. 14) Email: USA jvoets@marin.k12.ca.us UK jvoets@tamal.demon.co.uk (July 31 to Oct.14) From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Tue Aug 26 17:32:35 1997 id AA28271; Tue, 26 Aug 97 17:32:25 EDT id aa1219171; 26 Aug 97 22:04 BST Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 22:06:42 +0100 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Judy Voets Subject: from Burton Hi All, Now that there are only 2 of us on the Blue Heron we ought to be able to catch up with our reading - meaning THE LIST! But before we do that here is an item that I know everyone reading will have some sort of opinion and advice to offer. 1. THE CLEANING OF THE ROOF OF A NARROW BOAT! Let me tell you what I did and did and did and I still don't think it's is truly clean. Yes, it was FILTHY. Afterall it was the very best place to put the blue and white chair and to sit in it and to wave to all who passed - that brought up lots of dirt. It also turned out to be an excellent place to fish from - 2 or 3 boys fishing - more dirt brought up. Wind deposits leaves, seeds, petals, debris on our roof. So today we organized the roof which simply means clear it... Then I swept it twice - I had this huge pile of stuff.. got rid of that and then filled the bucket with clean water not from the cut but from the water point. I took my mop, stuck it in the water and sloshed it on the roof starting at the middle and moving to the edges at which point I put the mop back in the bucket, swished it around and watched the water turn VERY dark brown..... I contimplated watering the plants with that water and getting down and fillin g the bucket again. I didn't - I continued with the dirty water until it was a true black. Then I watered the plants and refilled the bucket. Before I had reached the end of boat I had used 5 buckets of clean water. I then began again and once more used 5 buckets of water before I reached the end. This time round the water wasn't as dark - but it was dark and I did the whole thing again. The roof does look much better but I don't think it is clean so - how do you do this???????? Next we have to do all the sides and the windows...... We had a great time at Henley. I never tire of going on boats. Each one had good ideas to steal to put on the next boat we build. We drove down from Burton with daughter Karen and grandkids, Sean and Rose or Roey as she now calls herself. Our whole family loved the festival. Sean got to go out on Sarni with Faye which he loved. Jeff and Bennie sang very well and it was great to see them again. I do love the Thames - it is a wonderful river. We are at Shobnall Basin. What a surprise when we pulled in through the tiny bridgehole. Wow, a lovely basin and very secure. Very friendly and helpful folks. Great lawn to play Ring-Around-Rosey on. There is a bus that will go the mile and a half to the center of town or you can walk like I did- good shopping. We also went to the Bass Museum. My favorite exhibit was the Edwardian Pub - the pub games were wonderful and we all had fun playing them. I'm listening to the Archers - haven't been able to listen since we came back!!! Six on the boat prevents luxury items - like listening to the radio. Have any of you thought about going to Salford Quays for next year's national??? We're filling out the form. It would be nice to know if any others from the list are thinking about it. I know - a year is a long time away. So toodle pip Judy Judy and Stan Voets, P.O. Box 103, San Geronimo, CA. 94963, U.S.A. nb Blue Heron of San Geronimo TEL: USA (415)488-0985 UK 04686 34567 (July 31 to Oct. 14) Email: USA jvoets@marin.k12.ca.us UK jvoets@tamal.demon.co.uk (July 31 to Oct.14) From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Fri Aug 29 17:05:57 1997 id AA07447; Fri, 29 Aug 97 17:05:42 EDT id aa1000167; 29 Aug 97 21:56 BST Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 21:58:28 +0100 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Judy Voets Subject: Bridge 15 on the T & M A very good evening to you, We've just come back from a very, very interesting and lovely walk. We crossed over the humpyback bridge and walked up the gentle hill. We wanted to see the farm house and buildings that were empty! The property has just been sold - according to the sign- but the farmer left "yonks" ago (love that word). I still can't get over it - it looks like they just up and left, walked off, incredible!!! It is wonderful and it has a lovely view of the gentley sloping valley down to the River Trent. Then we came to the end of the road - not really - it crosses over a brand new 4 lane, I guess an A road, and NO one was on it, it was not in use - we could hardly believe it. Let me tell you it is very, very creepy to look at a totally empty (what we call freeway) A road - it's like something MAJOR happened and we weren't told about it. This would NEVER, NEVER happen at home - we use them before they are even finished! Well, then we turned around and went the other way. After we crossed over the canal bridge we started to cross of a railroad humpyback bridge. Now, it had stairs that went down to the railroad track. Has it ever been that folks could flag a train to stop????? We continued, admiring the sky with every step, until we came to a rather busy road, noticed that our road continued on the other side so went across - we were looking for the River Trent. This road passed through a pretty neighborhood and we could see a beautiful bridge. We came upon Swarkestone Bridge which is generally regarded as the longest stone-built bridge in Britain - according to Pearson's and also it is of relatively modern origin - 12th century :-)))). It is really beautiful -I think I'll have to paint it - pinky/orangey/whitey with a touch of very, very, very light grey! Just as we came back to the nb an owl swooped down into the meadow across the way and then swooped out again. Stan still hasn't come in! When we were in Shardlow earlier today we came across an abandoned apple tree - poor thing - so we picked about 8 big apples. Very crisp and delicious and they made an excellent apple crisp for our desert this evening. Shardlow was very nice along the canal. We walked in both directions looking for "the village" - it's just all over. There is a post office about a mile away (northish), lovely old warehouse type buildings along the canal -things are being done to them - nicely. For some reason I had expected something else and I certainly don't know what but I felt disappointed. Ah well... Good night Toodle pip Judy Judy and Stan Voets, P.O. Box 103, San Geronimo, CA. 94963, U.S.A. nb Blue Heron of San Geronimo TEL: USA (415)488-0985 UK 04686 34567 (July 31 to Oct. 14) Email: USA jvoets@marin.k12.ca.us UK jvoets@tamal.demon.co.uk (July 31 to Oct.14) From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Wed Sep 3 17:14:01 1997 id AA29167; Wed, 3 Sep 97 17:13:47 EDT id aa0909602; 3 Sep 97 21:59 BST Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 22:01:54 +0100 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Judy Voets Subject: from Great Haywood Hi All, Haven't written for a couple of days - just too busy! Want to tell you about a very, very convenient town - not pretty, not cute but convenient and that is Rugely (pronounced Rouge, like the stuff rubbed on cheecks, with an ly tacked on the end). I can not for the life of me figure out out Rug came to be pronounced Rouge! Anyway moor up cross over the bridge walk less than a block and there you have a brand new, large Safeway. Walk 5 minutes more and there is every kind of shop you could ever want. We found things that we have been looking for for weeks. We did all our shopping and errands in about one hour and we weren't worn out from walking with packages, etc. The canal along there is very pleasant. Yesterday we arrived at Great Haywood and stayed because we wanted to go to Shrugborough today. From the canal one walks over the River Trent on an old packhorse bridge - it is very, very nice and the river is very pretty. Then we went to the Stafford County Museum - life in Stafford County - a great collection. It also has the lives of the servants of the mansion and the kitchens of the mansion -it's a working kitchen -today they had made cakes. It took us 3 hours to go through - yes, we are quite slow. At noon we had walked up to the village and took the bus 841 to Stafford. Stafford has wonderful old buildings. We accomplished our errands in less than an hour and took the 1:15 bus 841 back to Great Haywood. This evening we took a walk along the Stafs and Wor. Canal and we came across Spey all moored up and quiet. We didn't have pen or paper to write a note so, sorry David & Ian that you weren't around. When we came to Tixall Wide we found Saltaire loaded with its Armitage thingies and a few boats down there was a very large, or bulky horse on the towpath - in fact she took up all the towpath. So we stopped to chat and sure enough she is the horse that pulls a boat in Manchester and she is periodically pulling Saltaire for the filming. Lovely horse and very, very nice owners. Oh yes, Sean, we saw six bats on our way back. And the owl we saw the other night was silvery grey all over - our first thought was a barn owl. Well, we've had a change in plans because our batteries are not functioning well and the rest of the wiring around the batteries needs attention so we are - as of tomorrow-heading for Stockton - Guy will you be around??? Also, how about you Sean?? And Michael? We'll be there for a couple of days while David Reynolds does the work on the boat. It seems to me that I have missed a couple of folks who moor in that area so if you have time come and have a cup of tea with us - we'd love to see you. We should be there on Sunday p.m. I just spoke to Rosie, granddaughter on the telephone - it's the first time I've heard her voice on the phone. Of course I loved it. So, toodle pip Judy Judy and Stan Voets, P.O. Box 103, San Geronimo, CA. 94963, U.S.A. nb Blue Heron of San Geronimo TEL: USA (415)488-0985 UK 04686 34567 (July 31 to Oct. 14) Email: USA jvoets@marin.k12.ca.us UK jvoets@tamal.demon.co.uk (July 31 to Oct.14) From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Sun Sep 7 07:09:39 1997 id AA10110; Sun, 7 Sep 97 07:09:19 EDT id aa1309361; 7 Sep 97 11:50 BST Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 11:52:50 +0100 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Judy Voets Subject: Hopwas - Hawkesbury 'ow Do Folks... Blue Heron on the move. We arrived in Hopwas about 9:00PM on thursday after passiing "But & Ben", the Redferns , "Gladys" and saying a quick hello while on the move. Also passed "Nutty Noah" ( Dave not aboard). We throught about you Syd and Mary but ten hours on the round end made me a little tired so to bed. We did not have to eat after mooring :-} up because Judy had made Suishi which we ate standing up. We left at 8:30 the next morning heading for Hawkesbury. Now the real purpose for this note is to tell all those people who decided to react the very old tradition of bowhauling using Midnight Diamond, BW has mowed the towpath from north of Hopwas all the way to Fazeley Junction and there is lots of water so if you want to give it another go ..... After taking on water at the top of Atherstone we watched a large storm cloud pass just to the north of us which must have dumped a lot of rain on somebody . The canal then began its winding way south and since someone had cut about four feet or 3.176943 meters off the top of the hedge along the towpath we could see forever. It was truly a day for cruising !!! Arrived at Hawkesbury at 8 PM and went to the Greyhound for something to eat. It was packed to the gills and the beer is no good but Judy had a very good Salmon steak with home fries and I found the Steak -Kidney pie with home fries quite good. Lovely evening except for the motorway noise. I had never noticed the noise before because of all the activity around the lock during the day. All in all a very nice day. Toddle Pip Satn Judy and Stan Voets, P.O. Box 103, San Geronimo, CA. 94963, U.S.A. nb Blue Heron of San Geronimo TEL: USA (415)488-0985 UK 04686 34567 (July 31 to Oct. 14) Email: USA jvoets@marin.k12.ca.us UK jvoets@tamal.demon.co.uk (July 31 to Oct.14)