Newbury, Kennet and Avon Canal

One of the leaky locks on the K&A.

Left Kintbury at 6.15 and reached Newbury around 9am. We moored up to wait for the shops to open and discovered a Farmers' Market in the market square. Lots of goodies and we spent lots of money there.

Then it was through the lock and on to Bev and Geoffs' Pitstop for a pumpout, diesel and water. They have, kindly, let us moor up here and we have got an electric hook-up for the night, so I got the washing done.

Four cards today. Again the first attempt and "improved" version.



A bought topper, matted onto silver and lilac card and stuck at an angle onto a lilac base card.

I then added a lilac ribbon, tied with a knot, on the left hand side of the card. Finished off with 5 lilac sequins in the right hand corner.

This one began with a light turquoise card. The topper was matted onto silver and white card and stuck down at an angle.

I cut the card up with scallop edged scissors. Using a white card base I wrapped a turquoise dotty ribbon around the front and tied it in a knot fixing the topper over it with sticky fixers.

Then I added three white sequins on the bottom right hand corner.

Kintbury, Kennet and Avon Canal

Some of the boats on this canal have so much junk. Sorry! Flowers on them it must be really difficult to move them. Which is probably why they don't move very often. Still this one does look rather pretty.

Having stopped for 2 days in Hungerford we got lazy and decided to stop at Kintbury, travelling a whole three miles. Then of course, I said, we had to stay and see the horse drawn barge which was due past on Saturday.
So it turned into two days.



This is Bonnie, enjoying herself enormously. First she walked for one hour downstream, then the boat winded and she walked back to Kintbury. She had an hour for lunch before setting off upstream for another hour's pulling to Hungerford before returning back to her stable.

Mind you, her handler also walked all that way, but he also had to jump up onto the roof of every boat to get the rope over any obstructions, do the locks, polish the tack and feed her.

Walking into the village for a newspaper I found a fab bread and cake shop. Only open on Fridays and Saturdays. On a nearby empty shop there were signs saying that it was going to open as a chocolate shop next week. Darn! Missed that one.

To make up for it we had a rather disappointing meal in the restaurant of the Blue Ball at the top of the village.

Three cards on the same theme.

This was the original card, the bought topper matted onto blue corrugated card and fixed to a white card blank.

A blue gingham ribbon is stuck along the bottom and three blue buttons fixed over it on the right hand side.







The original card got a bit "old", so I cut the topper and ribbon out using deckle edged scissors and fixed them to a blue card base.





















I used the other topper and matted it, again, onto blue corrugated card and white card which I edged with small scalloped edged scissors.







A blue organdie ribbon was wrapped around the card and tied in a knot on the left hand side of the card and a blue button was fixed to the bottom right hand corner.

Hungerford, Kennet and Avon Canal

I meant to publish this photo days ago, but what with the stoppage etc. The heron had a rat/water vole in it's beak!

We came on from Bedwyn without too much hastle. David's bad hip meant he couldn't climb onto the top of the boat to help with the locks, so I had to manage as best I could.

There was a BW man at Hungerford Marsh lock and he set it for us and swung the bridge (the beam to push it closed from open is at my neck height, so is difficult for me. He then let us go on and closed the gates and swung the bridge back.

At Hungerford Church swing bridge there was a boat coming through, so I didn't have to do that one and then at Hungerford lock there was a boat coming out, and then another one waiting to come in at the bottom, so I didn't have to do that one either! We bought a lottery ticket.

We managed to make appointments for both of us to see a Chiropractor in the afternoon and were sort of seen too, better but not right yet and decided to spend another night here so that David could go back again today. It was a good plan as it has rained most of the day.

This stamp came free with a stamping magazine and I have used it often. I embossed it with black ink and then coloured it in with watercolours. I matted it onto brown card and then onto green hand-made paper and torn yellow card.

Some yellow ribbon was tied round the card and knotted and the panel was stuck over it. Three large green gems were added to the bottom right hand corner.

Great Bedwyn, Kennet and Avon Canal

It rained just as we were approaching Great Bedwyn and there was a space on the moorings. So we stopped for the day. I caught a train to London for the day and spent some money while David stayed behind and nursed his sore hip.

I covered this card blank with some checked scrapbook paper with a leather trim printed down two sides.

The words were cut on the Craft Robo in blue card and the china elephant (which I bought in Hungary) was stuck to the middle of the card.

Finally I stuck three blue buttons in the bottom right hand corner.

Crofton, Kennet and Avon Canal

Travelling up the Wooton Rivers flight of locks we noticed that the water was getting lower. The top pound was about a foot down. Then on the way down we found boats stranded in the mud.

We let some water down to float them and they went on their way up the flight while we went down. I have no idea whether they made it to the top.

By the time we reached lock 81 by the pumping station the water was running over the top lock gate. What was going on?









Blue boats on a blue canal under a blue sky with lots of blue card and ribbon.

Lady's Bridge, Kennet and Avon Canal

Back to the early starts. A pumpout before we set off at 0630 and a stately cruise along the long pound (it has to be stately, there are so many boats moored on the bank that you can hardly get out of tickover).

We had planned to stop at The Barge at Honeystreet, but the moorings were jammed packed and they all looked like they were staying for the weekend, so we came on here and have had a lovely peaceful day in the depths of rural Wiltshire. Perfect. Of course, there is no internet connection.



It is Caroline and Curtis’s first wedding anniversary today and this is what I made for them. I cut a an aperture from the base card with a Nestabilities labels die and backed it with some pink handmade paper which has been sewn with gold hearts. I then wrapped some white handmade paper with tiny hearts in it with some pink paper raffia string and fixed it into the aperture. The sentiment was made with rub-ons and glittery gold chipboard “1” and matted it onto gold card.

Devizes Wharf, Kennet and Avon Canal

This is the culprit lock.

We were finally given the go-ahead to do the flight this morning and then discovered that the boats in front of us had been allowed through yesterday afternoon!!!

It took us 6 hours to get from Sells Green to the wharf here. Because there were so many boats going in both directions there were lots of holdups while we waited for boats to get ready in locks and then manoeuvre through the pounds.

Still we made it and are now breached up as the wharf is really busy



This is the penultimate lock in the flight proper, the were so many gongoozlers.









We spent a lot of our time in Sells Green watching the wildlife. There were about 6 baby rabbits who were eating all the cherries that had fallen to the ground. They really must have liked them because they became quite brave and only hopped back into the bank at the last minute when anyone went past.

We also bashed the bus passes and visited Salisbury, Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge, Melksham, Bath and Bristol, and Devizes of course.




While we were there there was a horse show one weekend. David took this photograph and I made a birthday card for the horse's owner.

I matted the photo onto gold and two shades of brown, card and stuck it to the card with sticky fixers. I added three brown gems on the top right hand corner and brown ribbon, tied in a knot across the bottom of the card.

Inside, the insert was printed with the same photograph (in draft to make it a bit washed out) and the sentiment on the other side.