Gas Street Basin, BCN

 Well, 2nd January and two posts!!  One old one for 20th May and one for today.

The biggest news on the moorings was the re-opening of the old James Brindley pub - now called The Canal House James Brindley and purporting to be the home of said James Brindley.  They spent £2m on the refurb, cladding the outside in wood, re-building the roof and other improvements.



All the moorers were invited to the opening and it was packed to the rooftops.  Lots of lovely nibbles and free drinks all evening.

And now for the first Valentine card of the year.  Lots of hearts and roses and using a central easel function.

Gas Street Basin, BCN

 This is my New Year's resolution:  I am going to blog more and fill in the blanks from last year. 

It might be difficult because I have been VERY CLEVER!  I uploaded all my "stuff" directly onto a hard drive so that I would not lose everything when the laptop expired.  Unfortunately I dropped the hard drive and frazzled ALL the contents. 

That included the log that I keep which I need to update this blog.  Fortunately I have the pictures and cards on the laptop so that's OK.  Also, I cannot find the notebook which I also use with my notes for the log.  Still, David has bought me a new hard drive which is encased in plastic and is supposed to bounce.  We'll see....

Anyway, what has been happening recently?  Above is a photo shoot for a group of body builders.  It was absolutely freezing.  Just one of the many and varied sights in Gas Street Basin.

The photograph for this card was taken by a fellow moorer, now moved onto dry away, Callum Ives.  I matted the photo onto silver mirri card and then onto a white card blank.

Gas Street Basin - BCN

We set off at 5.30 and reached the bottom of Aston locks at 0800, we reached the top lock at 9.30 and began Farmers Locks at 1000.  We finally reached the top lock at 1145 and went around to The Distillery (Fiddle and Bone)(Sherborne Wharf) for diesel and a pumpout. 

David put the boat into reverse to get it away from the towpath and the clutch cable broke!  We managed to get the boat back under St Vincent's Bridge and moored up to await Richard to come and fix it for us. 

So at 2.30 we eventually moored up at our pontoon in Gas Street.  Knackered and happy to be back home.



A decopaged fawn.  Matted onto lilac and pink card and fixed onto patterned paper before gluing it onto a white card base with pink flowers for decoration.

Curdworth Top Lock - Birmingham and Fazeley Canal

We slipped the moorings at 5.45 and set off towards Birmingham.  There were, orchids on the towpath (though probably not for long as the grass needed cutting), foxes, a cuckoo and lots of gulls.  We stopped at the top of Curdworth locks at 9.15 to rest up for the day ahead.

 Here is a little French girl with her hat boxes standing in fron of the Eiffel Tower.  I edged the patterned paper with ink and wrapped a blue floral ribbon around the top, adding a bow and flower.  This was stuck onto a light blue card blank along with the cut out girl who was added with dimensional foam.

Fazeley Junction - Coventry Canal

One of the many stupid signs that CRT have littered the towpath with.

We bagan the locks at 0600 and did them all by ourselves and moored up just before Fazeley Junction at 1145.

There wasa RCTA floating market at the junction proper and I went down to see who and what was there.  Unfortunately it rained soon after.

A get well card, a decopaged Forever Friends bear fixed onto some patterned paper and matted onto silver card and then onto a white card base.  Flowers and a sentiment were added as decoration.

Atherstone, Oxford Canal

 As we arrived into Atherstone it began raining and as there were already 3 boats waiting to go down the locks (7.30!) we decided to stay.

We are not very far away from where our daughter lives, and so they brough the grandchildren out for a lunch in a posh Italian restaurant just outside Atherstone. 

A beautiful (if I can say so myself) christening card.  The topper comes ready coloured and I just die-cut it into shape and die-cut another in green and stuck it partially behind the topper.  Then flowers and leaves were added as decoration.

Bridge 24 - Oxford/Grand Union Canal

Yet another early 5.30 start.  we reached Hawkesbury junct around 8.15 and moored up at 10.15.

A toadstool home.  I could live in one of those!  This one was printed out and coloured by hand.  I added a glossy varnish to the cap (see where the red ran?) and then matted it onto some green card.  I then matted more card onto more green card and fixed it to a red card base. 

The sentiment was made on the computer and also matted onto green card and both were fixed with foam tape to make then pop out.  Daisies were added as decoration.