Gas Street Basin, BCN

 Home!  At Last!  So nice to be back.  We had to move Cathy'n'co off the mooring first though.

Nothing much has changed, only three moorers not talking to us this time.  Don't know what we've done wrong, it happens every time we go away on a long cruise.

The washing machine is on, so I am catching up with the washing, and it's take-away tonight.

An ancient card which must have been made about 8 years ago.

I tore some white handmade paper and matted it onto some lilac card.  The edges of the card were cut with deckle edged scissors and I added glue to the edges and stuck on glitter.

The doll came from the £1 shop and was added using a dollop of glue and the heart was added to the bottom left hand corner.

Braggs Farm, Stratford-on-Avon Canal

Mushrooms in June?

Up early and up the Lapworth locks before the rain again.  Didn't quite make it, despite the light in the tunnel of trees, it was drizzling.

The towpath was ankle deep in mud, but then it usually is along here.

A Babe card, using a sticker on blue card matted onto purple and silver card.  I used some decorative scissors on the edges to add some decoration.

Finished off with 3 jelly stick on flowers.

Turners Green, Grand Union Canal

 Up early, arriving at Hatton bottom lock at 0600.  We got to the 4th from the top before we saw a couple of other boats on the move.

We saw our first volunteer lock-keeper today.  He joined us at the 4th from the top lock and helped the other two boats down the lock (they had a large crew between them and we were on our own!)

Just as we started to close the top gate he came and sat on the lock beam and asked us if we felt we had achieved something by doing all the locks.  No comment.

We did get help at this lock - Soulsbury Three Locks on the Grand Union, but several years ago.

I matted the photograph onto silver mirror card and stuck it to a blue card blank using sticky-fixers.  The ribbon was then stuck across the top and bottom for decoration.

Bridge 49, Warwick, Grand Union Canal

 Another early start before the rain.  We stopped in Leamington Spa so that I could walk around the shops, but I was so tired I had to give up and go back to the boat.

There were three moorings at Tesco because we didn't want to stop there, but none at Lidle, where we did!

We got to Warwick just as it began raining and moored up for the rest of the day.

Pooh for a two year old's birthday.

I cut a panel of red gingham, using deckle edged scissors and stuck it to the front of a white card blank.  I then tore a panel of computer printed paper (saying Happy Birthday) and stuck that over the gingham.  I then added an envelope and stuck down some balloon peel-offs.

The tag was made with some white card, yellow handmade paper and more gingham.  I stuck the ends of a piece of red gingham ribbon to the back of a yellow tag and added the pooh picture.  The whole tag was then tucked into the envelope. 

I made the number using a silver peel-off onto red gingham, matted onto white card and holographic card.

Napton, Oxford Canal

 A heartbreaking day today.  We set off at 0445 and headed for Claydon, where we arrived at 0800 to discover a queue of 8 boats waiting for the locks to be unchained at 1000.  Thought that with all this rain that the drought emergency was over!

Anyway, the lock was unchained at 0900 and everyone set off, rushing to get over the top pound and the next lock which was due to be locked at 1345.

We got to the top lock at 1400 and the lock was still open, so we took a chance and set off down the Napton locks arriving at the bottom at 1615.  There was a BW man there and he kindly told us that the restriction had just been lifted and the locks would not be locked up tonight.

We could have stayed on the summit and come on down early tomorrow morning.

Still, we moored up at the empty moorings at the bottom of the locks and were in the Folly Pub for 1800 and ham, eggs and chips.  Well deserved after travelling 19 3/4 miles, 21 locks and 9 1/2 hours travelling time.

When we got to the top lock at Clayton there were two BW workmen there fashioning a new beam to the bottom gate.  The lock was operated using a piece of string and hard graft!

This card uses a recycled flower topper from another card.  I just mounted it onto some blue card and then onto a white card blank.

Banbury, Oxford Canal

 Nice to see the Veg Pledge is being continued along the Oxford Canal.  The towpath is about 1 foot wide and you can't see over the top, well at 5'1" you can't!

A much better day today and we cracked on.  The very last bit of river was not too difficult, though David left me to walk up to the next lock so that he didn't have to stop near the weir.

We saw this adorable family of 10 ducklings - 9 brown ones and 1 black one!

Coming through the swing bridge in Banbury we met Hotel Boat Periwinkle, and made a date to meet up in Birmingham later this year.

The moorings in Banbury town centre were chocca, but we managed to find a space and had lunch in town.

A decoupaged skateboarder on a white card blank with a panel of grungy paper matted onto some silver card.

Single Bridge, Oxford Canal

 Forgot to show this picture.  David bought 6 of these botteles of beer when he visited the Wadworth brewery in Devizes.  All were drunk in West India Dock.  As two of our visitors are called Wadsworth, we thought it was very fitting.

We left our mooring at 0615 and were moored up again by 0900.  It rained all the time.  In fact, it rained non-stop all day and most of the night.  So glad we are off the river.

Two cards, same picture.

The first one is just matted onto silver, cream and brown card and stuck onto a white card blank.

This one has some brown spotty paper wrapped around two corners, diagonally, and a bow fixed to the bottom one.

Pigeon Lock, Oxford Canal

 Now here is a new sign or two.

Leaving the mooring by Osney bridge was a challenge.  The current was so fast that David had fun getting to the back of the boat after untying the front, before hitting the boat behind.  Then it was foot down through the low bridge, hoping that the water wasn't too high for the bridge to take the satellite dish off.  We got through safely and with relief headed down the Sheepwash Channel and into the lock and the Oxford Canal.

NO MORE B***** RIVERS!!!

The weather was awful. Cold and wet.

The lift bridges have been modified so that single handers can use them.  They have put a lock on the towpath side and now you need a Watermate key to unlock the bridge and it opens automatically.  So far so good.  On the first one I could not remove the key after we got the bridge down.

On the second one I couldn't even get the key to open the bridge, so we called BW out.  Half an hour later a hire-boat arrived and a crew member opened the bridge.  Apparently you have to stand on the lock to make it work.  Duh!

Anyway, by standing on this mechanism I was able to operate the third bridge with no difficulty.

Then we came to Mill Lift Bridge, which had not been modified and is a heavy metal one.  I could not get enough purchase on the chain to bring the beam down  low enough to sit on it and had to be helped by a kind volunteer who happened to be collecting rubbish from the towpath.

The short river section at Shipton wasn't too bad - on yellow and by 1130 David was cold and wet, so we stopped for the rest of the day.

Back to the wedding card.  This time I made it much more simple.  I used a square, white card blank and matted some purple card onto silver mirror card and fixed it to the card base.  I then added another panel of purple and silver card across the top (it was supposed to have gone down the right hand side, but I get confused with square cards about what is up!).

I cut out a label in silver card and then added the coloured figures and motorbike using sticky fixers to make them stand out a bit.

To finish off I added three lilac pearls.

Here is the card seen from the front.  I hope it is a bit more manly.

Oxford, River Thames

Oh Goodie!  Yellow Boards!

Another early start to get through the locks.  This worked quite well until we got to Abingdon Lock when a "plastic" decided to join us and insisted on telling us how we should do it.

Lots of geese at a lock landing.

 And a sight to gladden the heart on a Saturday morning.  A Regatta.  Could we please wait for 20 minutes for them to set off.  As usual, not much organisation and nowhere to tie the boat up.

David decided to moor before Osney Bridge as there was room (instead of getting off the river and onto the canal).  There was just room, but the current was pretty fierce.

While in Newbury someone asked me to make a card for their son's wedding.  It had to show his motorcycle.

I made a tent card with purple, pearlised paper, cutting a large circle in the front with a die.  I covered a sheet of card with patterned paper for the background and stuck down two doily circles, again from dies.  I printed off the figures, colouring them in and a photo of the bike and added them to the doilies.


Then I added a green leafy swirl (die cut) and some silk flowers tied with a lilac ribbon.  Some lilac pearls were fixed to the other side of the circle and a computer made name ad date added to the bottom right hand corner.

I then checked the brief again which specifically said it was for their son - so not actually a wedding card and this was a bit too OTT.  So it was back to the drawing board....

Wallingford, River Thames

 
Passing the EA 24 hour mooring by Kennet Mouth.  I'm sure they were all there when we went past last time.

The weather was atrocious today.  David got wet and cold again.

We stopped off at Goring for him to dry out and get warm and then we went off again to Wallingford.

I like Wallingford, there is a great card shop, Poppycraft.  I managed to get some Tim Holz dies, so I've have got some playing to do.

This card was meant to be published last Sunday, but I was too tired to add it.

The sentiment is a silver peel-off and I stuck it onto some lilac card which was matted onto silver holographic card and

Sonning, River Thames

 A quick run up to Sonning in the rain.  I took a bus into Reading for a shop and then it was early to bed.

This grebe has made its nest underneath the landing stage at one of the locks.  The lading stage is not connected to the bank, so I suppose it must be quite safe.

A bit of recycling here.  I cut down the picture from a commercial card and matted it onto some lilac, silver and pink card.

I used a white, gatefold base card and added the panel to the left hand side.

Some pink pearls were added for decoration.

This picture shows the card slightly opened.

Cookham, River Thames

 The weather is turning nasty, so we began early and moored up by lunchtime.




Breathe in!

This trip boat gently nudged the nose (sorry, bow) into the gap in these two posts and left the engine in gear to keep it in place while it waited for its turn in the lock.

Another tight squeeze.

I used more of the silk daisies on this card.

I began with a white base card, then "backed" the gold window frame with some lacy backing paper, sticking onto the front of the card.  I then added two skeleton leaves, the two daisies and a paper leaf.

Stains, River Thames

 Another early start.  There are still lots of boats travelling upstream with the Pageant flag flying.

This canoe came sailing past, followed by another one.  The sails were really effective and they had got up quite a speed.

Back to some cards.  This one has a background of a music sheet with the edges cut with deckle edged scissors.  I stuck it onto a white card blank and added the silk daisy and some gold peel-offs.

Teddington, River Thames

We motlley of boats left West India Docks at 1015, heading for Limehouse, Brentford and Teddington.  There were still people on balconies waving us past.

 Please don't make any waives....  The Royal Marines having fun.

Put me down for this one.  I can move in tomorrow

One of the beautiful barges leaving the Avenue of Sail

A Dutch barge in the Avenue of Sail

Tenacious and Glorianna

Another tall ship

My little blue puffa boat

My pretty green sailing boat

Do love these barges.

Tower Bridge for the last time (6th time in 4 weeks).  Look at those clouds!

A Jolly boat (I think that's the term) from Britannia

 

Another pretty boat.

I think this sums yesterday up well.  Shoes, towels and lifejackets out to dry.