Ansty, North Oxford Canal

No pics today - the weather has been wet (as usual these days).  The towpaths are like sponges, or just plain quagmires.

We got here in three stints.  First to Rugby, for shopping in Tesco, then on a bit until the rain got too bad, and then when the sun came out this afternoon.

Added later: I found a pic.  We went past Rose Narowboats today and had difficulty opening their little swing bridge.  I had to get help from someone working on a boat there. 

The boat in the picture we saw somewhere last year .  Our "dent" is a Black Prince!

A Basset Hound on a towpath.  I matted the card onto white card and deckle edged it, then matted it onto green card.

Some green gingham ribbon was wrapped around the card front and tied with a knot and the photo was stuck in the middle, towards the top.

Bridge 68, North Oxford Canal

 Well, it didn't ice over last night, and it hasn't rained yet, so whose looking the idiot?

An early start, just in case it rained and a long, slog trog up to Hilmorton Locks.  I like these, there are two locks to chose from, so the chances of one being for your is greater than usual and the paddle gear is quaint and easy to wind.

Don't know what the contraption between the locks is for, it must have wound something in its time.










The moorings at the bottom of the locks were fairly full, and you can't get flush up to the bank, so we came on here, where we have a nice piece of piling and a very muddy towpath.

We came across this boat on the last of the 14 day moorings.  The sign says "GENERATOR RUNS TILL LATE NIGHT".  You can't miss it, so you've no excuse to moor next to it.  Or perhaps that is what they want, peace and quiet.

One of our moorers turned 60 in January and this is what I came up with.  I left the front fairly plain, just using the computer to write out the wording and matting it onto silver, yellow, orange and more silver card.  The base card blank was a sort of orange.

 

I printed out one of David's firework pictures for the inside and just added a silver "60" in the bottom right hand corner.

Braunston (We are not worthy!), Grand Union Canal

Mr David in the frost and ice, looking like a "continuous cruiser".

Thick ice this morning.  Around 1030 a working boat went through, breaking up the ice.  Then everyone set off.

Last night we decided to abandon our trip down to the Basingstoke Canal as the weather forecast is not looking good, so we reversed the boat back to the junction and headed back to Braunston. 

By the time we got to the top lock there were four, yes four, boats in front of us.  We had to wait 1/2 hour before we could begin to travel down.  By that time we were joined by another boat so got to share these horrid, slow, heavy locks for once.  I can see why there are complaints about queues waiting for the locks - its 14th March - not 14th July and already there are queues.

So it was 1pm by the time we stopped for water, and 2pm by the time the tank was full, so we moored up here for the night.

A winter scene, just like now.  What ever happened to Spring?

I used a white card blank and cut out 3 strips of green card of differing widths and laid them onto the card front.  I then added the picture which was matted onto silver, light blue, green and more silver card.  

A white paper flower with sponged yellow centre and a gem finished off the card

Norton Junction, Grand Union Canal

 Left early with ice in the water and got to the Braunston locks around 8am.  The little shop at the bottom lock was open and I got some of their lovely, freshly baked, organic bread, some eggs and bacon and three bags of coal.

As usual, when going up the locks, I left David to close the gate behind him and walked on to the next lock.  On leaving the second one I rounded the corner to this sight!  

A dog walker, who was passing, said the boat had been there all weekend (it was now Wednesday).  I went on up to the next lock to try and flush some water down to the boat back to the towpath, but would you know it, the lock was empty (the only one on the flight!).  So I walked back, untied the boat and hauled it across, tying it across the towpath onto a post. 

There were several CART men at the next lock up, so I told them about the boat and left them to sort it out.  (They would have to do something because I had blocked to towpath for all their "customers" walking their dogs).

We reached Norton Junction with no further alarms or excursions and moored up for the rest of the day.  I took a bus into Daventry and then we settled in for another cold night.

A

This card uses a white card blank, a white Cuttlebugged panel matted onto orange card with some black and white gingham ribbon tied around it in a bow at the bottom and a plastic peel-off butterfly with detached wings so that they flutter.

Nimrod Bridge, Grand Union Canal

Signs of spring.  The blackthorn is out in places.

 Still ice about in the early morning though.

An uneventful day, though lots more boats about.  Must be getting near to Braunston!

Not seen any more lambs since our first sightings coming down Lapworth, but here is a "sheep" card anyway.

I found these tin sheep somewhere and made several similar cards.  I just stuck it down onto some torn, handmade, paper and then stuck that down onto the white card blank.

Nice and easy.

Bascote Bridge, Grand Union Canal

 Ice in the water and icicles on the lock gates.

It is lovely in the sunshine, if you can get out of the wind, and there are still snow flurries occasionally.

The canal is still very quiet, one or two boats passing each day.  Nothing seems to be going our way.

 This old chimney stands out by the canal before the leaves come on the trees.  The only remains of an industrial site, now left to Mother Nature.

This is one of my earliest commission cards.  You can tell because it is quite plain.  I would probably be a bit more ambitious nowadays.

I matted the photo of this much loved, sick and soon to die, dog onto white card which I edged with deckle scissors before matting again onto lilac card.  The panel was then stuck onto a white card blank.

Radford Semele, Grand Union Canal

 
We had a visitor whilst working Hatton Bottom Lock.  This black cat stalked all around the lock and then waited on the other lock gate while I shut the near one so that it could come across.

After going to bed, last night, at 6.30 I had to be dragged out of bed this morning to finish off the flight.  The weather has certainly turned and it was trying to snow as we did the last 10 locks.

Whilst doing the bottom lock at The Cape, two scruffy boats moored up on the bottom lock landing.  There was a lot of shouting and a couple of kids running around, but no one showed any signs of coming up through the lock, or giving a hand.  So when we went through I shut the gate behind us.  When we came through last year there was a boat moored between the locks with a rabbit hutch just on the edge of the towpath.  There are a lot of boats around here that do not have a home mooring.

Stopped off at Tesco and thawed out with a Costa Black Forest hot chocolate.  Loverly.

After a rest and discovering that the telly wasn't too good, David decided to move on here.  Of course it started snowing again.

The Radford Semele church has been re-built, or at least the scaffolding has come down.  It was too cold when we moored up to take a picture.

Caroline sent a text to say "Happy Mother's Day".  I hadn't realised.  So here is a card.

I cut a panel of brown and pink swirly card (from a cake box!) and glued it on the right hand side of a pink, tent card blank.  I added 5 glass gems down the inner edge.

A pink silk lily flower was stuck down with a glue dot on the top left and corner and the sentiment was done with peel-offs.