Friday, November 20, 2009

Winter blues

The lack of sunshine is SAD. It may be sunny now but the days are so short. Nothing to talk about but the weather! Thankfully we have not suffered like others near rivers reminding us about our adventures on the Nene. It must be real nasty to get flooded yet again. For us it is another sunny day and the solar panels are putting a little power in. While we are hanging around it seems that engine charging for 2 hours midday and an hour in the evening keeps up with our demands.
Ann walked across from our Tixel Wide mooring and got the bus to Stafford, returning later with more goodies. The local butcher had some venison for sale so we made a stew which cooked on the stove all day. It tasted so good, just pure red meat and very good value.
That lock between us and Rugeley at Colwich should be open soon and many boats are gathering to get away. We keep getting stoppage messages and really wonder about the government’s commitment to the waterways. There are too many failures of the system being reported lately. The winter months are when British Waterways have planned maintenance to carry out but that is not enough it seems. Our waterways need respect and support from all of us. When that major failure occurred on the Shropshire this summer we were surprised how many towns and businesses suffered from the lack of boat traffic. Now we hear about a large hole in the Caldon canal near Stoke on Trent and yet another failure on that popular Welsh canal. Some are putting the blame on Badgers making their sets in the bank!

No comments: