Northchurch to Marsworth

On Tuesday the weather was cloudy but the rain held off. I was busy with work. Dale discovered the reason for the lack of reverse gear – a big tarpaulin had got tangled up with the propellor! Somebody's nicked our broom! It's still cold so we've got the fire on now. We bought 2 bags of coal from a passing coal boat. We went to Northchurch village at lunchtime to get some food - Northchurch is a pleasant little village with lovely allotments, a pub and a Tesco metro, a fish and chip shop and a café. That's all you need really isn't it? Wednesday (yesterday) was a day that reminded us why we are on this journey. The Chilterns are awesome! It was a beautiful morning and Dale heard a cuckoo while I was still asleep. Because I haven't got much work today we set off towards Marsworth. Met a couple at Cowroast who wanted to come through the lock with us on their boat. Because they were facing the wrong way they had to reverse in. They were very nice, they've lived on their boat since last November and they wouldn't want to go back to a house. They just travel up and down from Tring to Cowroast. We went through the Tring summit a bit gingerly because it can get very shallow. It took us about an hour. At the summit the banks rise to about 30 feet above the canal. We saw a kingfisher! Got to Bulbourne Workshop where they design metal sculptures. Dale had seen it on TV. Got to Bulbourne - a very pretty place. I drove the narrowboat into the first of a flight of 6 locks. We waited for another boat to join us. I can't remember the name of the boat but the couple on it were lovely. They have a mooring in Harefield and were on a short holiday. He was retired and she worked part time. They were jealous of us and were looking forward to when she retired and they could do the same thing. While we were doing the locks we saw a tiny adorable puppy. It was her first walk. She was a bichon frise/yorkie cross. The 6 locks went quite quickly because it was sunny and we were chatting to the couple. A lady came by and said she could tell Molly was loved because she walked very confidently. How sweet! We moored at Startops End by the Marsworth nature reserve. It is so beautiful here! We arrived at about 1.30pm and just had to see the local pub. The White Lion was sadly closed down so we walked down to the Anglers Retreat. What a great pub! Small and friendly locals pub just like the Tide End used to be before they did all the modernising. There was an African Grey parrot there called Rosie and she chatted away to us, but a bit quietly, so we couldn't hear what she was saying.

Berkhamsted

Sunday morning was beautiful, and we got on board to go through the 3 locks into Berkhamsted. Berkhamsted is a very pretty town with lots of dogs, lots of nice people and nice shops. The only trouble is I could get no 3G broadband signal there which meant I couldn't work and even though we had found a lovely spot to moor we knew we couldn't stay for the week as we had intended. We went for a walk into the town and got food from Waitrose then came back and spent the rest of the day visiting canalside hostelries. The Rising Sun is a scruffy and very dog friendly pub with a great atmosphere. By contrast, The Boat, about 100 yards away is smart, modern and just a bit soulless. We had some food at The Boat then made our way back to our little boat. Had a short sleep (it's a hard life) then Dale cooked a lovely meal of roast aubergines and potatoes. We couldn't get a telly signal so watched one of our DVDs - Pulp Fiction. Today we had decided to get up at 6am to get the boat to Northchurch by 9am so I could start work. Strangely, although Northchurch is a small village, there is a good 3G signal there. It was a struggle getting through the 5 locks because it was raining and cold and Molly was getting soaking wet and very miserable. Even though it has rained all night the canal is still low in places and Dale had to do some jiggery pokery with lock paddles so we could get the boat through. Now we are in Northchurch I have been working and everything is ok. We are beginning to realise that work and broadband signals are going to dominate our choice of route and we may have to change our plans. Work always gets in the way of everything! Also we now have a problem with reverse gear! Things always go wrong when you go boating in the rain! The pic above is an ipad sketch of Molly using Brushes.

Boxmoor and Winkwell

Yesterday (Friday) was mostly uneventful. We stayed put in Boxmoor as I had work to do. It rained all day and was very windy and cold. Much as I love the sound of rain pattering on the roof you can have too much of a good thing. I got so cold I resorted to hugging a hot water bottle as we don't want to sully the freshly cleaned stove. Later that day we got ready for the highlight of the week – a visit to The Fishery Inn. It was nice inside, very busy, and the same decor as The Rose and Crown in Kings Langley, we noticed. It must be under the same management. Mostly a restaurant rather than a pub, but it has comfy chairs and we ended up staying rather longer than we intended. And spending too much money.. And drinking too much. Got home by 10pm though, in time for Eastenders. Today (Saturday) we took Molly for a walk in the meadows beside us. Then we set off at about 11am to get to Winkwell. Only 3 locks to Winkwell, and it's not raining today. We stopped at the boatyard there to empty the loo and also had a dink at the canalside pub, The Three Horseshoes, which is very old and is reputed to have 2 ghosts. It is a lovely old pub inside. There was a big party of people outside on the swing bridge and they all let off balloons with things tied to them. Nobody looked happy, so we concluded it must be a sad occasion. After that we intended to go through 2 more locks and stop but everywhere seemed too shallow so we had to keep going through locks until we found somewhere. Met a man with a lovely puppy which was a cross between a brindle staffy and a siberian husky – an unusual combination. We eventually stopped on the edge of Berkhamsted - only 3 locks to do tomorrow to get where we want to be in the centre of Berkhamsted.

Boxmoor

We really pushed ourselves this morning - negotiating one lock and settling down in the rain in the Boxmoor area of Hemel Hempstead. We like it here because there are lots of other boats, a nice meadow with horses and foals next to us, and a nice pub called the Fisheries Inn. I did some 'proper work' then Dale and I walked a couple of miles to the town centre in the rain and bought some food. Dale prepared a splendid meal this evening of pasta with new potatoes, green beans and pesto. (We are eating a lot of vegetables as they are cheap and we have a great cookbook called River Cottage Veg). Tomorrow we plan to sample the hospitality of the Fisheries Inn, seeing as it's Friday night and all.

New Adventure

We have just embarked on a year-long journey on our narrowboat 'Perros', around the canals of the UK. We started on Friday 1st of June. From Saturday 2nd to Tuesday 5th was a national holiday in the UK to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee and sadly most of the holiday was wet and cold so a lot of people had to put up with it raining on their street parties and festivities. We had a lovely send off from our marina on Friday mooring. We had made some lovely new friends there and they threw a little party for us. We got to Harefield near the marina and stayed there for the first night. There was a pub there but it looked a bit dubious so we had a drink on board. On Saturday we travelled a short distance to Croxley Green passing through some very pretty countryside. We left there on Sunday morning and cruised through drizzle to Hunton Bridge, a pleasant little village with 2 pubs and a shop. In the Kings Head we encountered a jubilee party that had been rained off and lots of excited little children were running around inside the pub. The Dog and Partridge did not live up to it's advertisements and was quite empty and forlorn. Walked quite a long way, getting lost in the process, to get a chinese takeaway for that evening. The next morning went for a walk in some nice woods near Hunton Bridge then left in the rain to get to Kings Langley. Kings Langley is a small and pretty country town on the edge of the Chilterns. It has 2 nice pubs, the Rose and Crown (a bit posh) and the Saracens Head (unpretentious locals' boozer - more our kind of place!). The sun came out briefly while we were in Kings Langley and we went for an Indian meal in the evening. We left Kings Langley on Tuesday morning and cruised a short way to the edge of Hemel Hempstead. Went for a lunchtime drink in the Red Lion. Advertised wi-fi but I couldnt get it on my ipad and the pub was empty and quite desolate. We walked back to the boat as people from a block of flats opposite were trying to be jolly at a communal jubilee party in the rain. On Wednesday the holidays were over. I did 2 hours painting then we pulled the boat back to the lock to get water. Then we travelled through 3 locks through Apsley, which seemed a very nice place. Apsley marina is managed by BW and surrounded by cafés and restaurants - looks very nice but is very pricey. Now we are in the Frogmore End of Hemel Hempstead.

Sketching on the ipad

These two sketches of Molly were done using Sketchbook Pro on the ipad. It's nice to sketch with and seems to mimic a pencil drawing very well. You can smudge the pencil as well.

Handsome Dog

I have been doing a lot of painting - just haven't got round to posting. This one is oil on canvas 18" x 14".