Hungerford, Kennet & Avon Canal

The brickwork in one of the locks hereabouts. And Mr Evans says the canals have never been in better condition.

Decided to have another rest day as I'm going to bed at 7.30 at the moment!

I took a bus from Hungerford into Marlborough, through some beautiful countryside and villages and Savernake Forest. But I'm local, so I'm biased.



So a card with a picture of the bridge after 1st lock outside Hungerford (going towards Newbury). Haven't got the Nicholson's by the computer to check the name.)

I matted the picture onto silver and blue card. A blue ribbon is tied horizontally on the left hand side and tied in a knot and two blue "dew drops" fixed to the bottom right hand corner. They do not look that wonky in real life!

Hungerford

Rant of the Day: Impossible lock to cross. It is like doing a tightrope walk. The handrails stick out and the rail wants to push you out into the water. Not good for little fat people with sticky-out bits.

On arriving at Hungerford Wharf we found another loose boat. Don't know how it managed it as there are rings all along the wharf for tying boats to. Anyway Tricky Nicky was living up to it's name.

A boy's card today. The topper is a twisted decoupage (though it is not clear from the photo) and it came in a pack with the sentiments and decorative strips. I just stuck them onto a light green card base.

Newbury, Kennet and Avon Canal

It rained today, so we decided to have a rest day and stayed at the Pitstop.

So a bit of washing, and a wander around Newbury and that was about it.

Coming back from town we saw Rainbow being serviced, not seen them for ages, so we had a coffee and flapjack and a good old natter before it began to rain again and they had to set off.

The picture is one of the locks around here. Some of them do not have a walkway, but a sort of stirrup fixed by the rail under the beam to help you step up onto the top of the beam. So, for a little fat person like me I have to really struggle - with the windlass in one hand I have to haul myself up onto my knees on the beam and then stand up. Getting off the beam at the other end is probably even more difficult because there is at least a 2ft drop or a fish around to try and find the step.

This lock didn't even have a stirrup step and the top of the beam was groin height. I only used one paddle on this lock!

I bought this topper from Lakeland, a set of 4, you had to make up the bunches and assemble the pieces; white and lilac handmade paper, lilac hessian, dried and paper flowers, tissue and silver thread.

I covered the left hand side of a white hammered card with lilac spotty paper and added a fancy silver peel-off strip along the join. Then added the assembled topper.

Newbury, Kennet and Avon Canal

There seems to be one disadvantage of travelling early in the morning: You always come across an empty pound before someone else has been able to fill it.

This time it was the long pound between Monkey Marsh Lock and Widemead Lock. The picture shows how low the pound was.

We phoned BW and were told that someone would be out in about half an hour and that it was OK for me to walk on to the next lock and run some water down. No problem there as it was river above the lock, so lots of water up there to fill the empty pound.

So I walked the almost two miles to Widemead Lock and opened up all the paddles. About 30 minutes later three men turned up (see the picture) and studiously ignored me. Poking around with an umbrella in the puddles, looking at the lock landing and the black box on the other side of the canal.


Only one man spoke to me, the one with the BW lifejacket when he asked me to move out of the way so they could walk over the lock gates. None of them asked me why I was stood there with all four paddles open and no boat in sight.

Later on we came upon two BW workers moving a dredger and I mentioned the empty pound. The reply was "Not again!" So the other three must have known the pound would be empty which is why they never bothered to speak. But what happened to the man who was supposed to be coming out I don't know, 'cause we never saw him.

All in all it took us about 6 hours to do 3 miles, so it was great to draw into Bev and Geoff's Pitstop at Greenham Island. They provided us with a mooring (and electric hook-up) plus some diesel and we caught up with the gossip of Gas Street and Newbury.

I love flowers, and love photographing them. I wrapped some lilac ribbon around this photograph and tied it with a knot then matted it onto silver card which I trimmed with scalloped scissors. Then it was matted onto patterned paper then onto light lilac and dark lilac card. The four brads were then added before I stuck the picture onto a white card base.

Woolhampton, Kennet and Avon Canal

Lots more hard locks today. This is one of the balance beams at Aldermaston Lock - nothing to hang on to. It took two of us to close the gate!

There are several swing bridges and one lift bridge in this stretch. Fortunately most of them are now fully electrically operated. No rushing to one end of the bridge to put the barrier down and getting to the other end and a car comes along. Just close your eyes and press the button. Sod the motorist!

The lift bridge at Aldermaston is a real traffic stopper. It cannot be operated between 0800 and 0900 and 1700 to 1800. One year I managed to separate a car and it's police escort.

To finish off the morning there is Woolhampton Swing Bridge followed by Woolhampton Lock. Between the two the fast flowing River Kennet joins the navigation at a right angle just before the lock. The trick is to open the lock gates before letting the boat through the bridge.

Mission accomplished. David did it perfectly. But that was because there was no-one looking on.

There was room at the moorings above the lock so we moored up and had a lovely lunch in the Rowbarge pub by the bridge.

While nosing around a Poundshop and saw a string of these puce Gerber flowers. Naturally, I bought them and cut them apart for attaching to cards.

With this card, I covered the left hand side of the front of a white card base with floral paper and added a lacy, flowery, ribbon (with gems in the centre of each flower) down the join.

Three more gems were added to the top right hand corner and the flower to the bottom right hand corner.

Theale, Kennet and Avon Canal

Fobney Lock! I hate Fobney Lock! It is huge; it is hard work and

that river landing!!!

Fortunately a boat had just come out of the lock and left a gate open, so that was part of the hard work done.

Then, there were two canoeists camping by the lock and one of them helped me with the top lock (after scrounging some water and offering to pay for a windlass (if we had a spare) as they had lost theirs. David found them one we'd rescued with the Seasearcher.

The locks at this end of the K&A seem very unloved and in need of some TLC.

At Garston Lock I had a feeling I was being watched. Call me silly, but those two eyes followed me everywhere I went.

After my first swing bridge at Theale (completely electrified, thank goodness) we stopped at the 24hr moorings there and I walked into town for a newspaper.
(No letter to Mrs Mills from David published this week!)

A photograph on one of the K&A locks leaking like mad. It is matted onto silver, dark lilac, holographic silver and lime green card.

The base card is a light lilac, and I wrapped some lime green ribbon around the right hand side of the card and tied it with a bow. The three lime green dots were made form the lime green card and covered in Crystal Glaze.

Reading, Kennet and Avon Canal

Because all the locks are now available to use "out of hours" we left Wallingford at 0600. The weather was perfect, sun was shining again

and there was lots of wildlife in, on above the water.

We reached Reading at 1045 and found a mooring just past Blakes Wharf.

My favouritest type of boat.

I don't seem to have any cards with photos of the Thames on (must remedy that). So here is a picture of Dunworkin which we passed at Beale Park.

I just matted the photo onto white and red card and stuck it to a white card base.