End of the winter...

End of the winter...

Well it is for us! We've come through relatively unscathed, quite a lot of the maintenance jobs done, money for the new fridge earned and a few grey hairs caused by the bank of Ireland this week but that's another post topic. 

The tab at the top of the page (Lois Jane) has been updated with loads of info about then origins of our boat. 

We have enjoyed glorious weather over the last week or more with mainly sunny days and calm winds but chilly nights and mornings. The solar array has been paying for itself with a couple of engine free days saving us some money (only 50 litres of diesel in Feb). Our last day on our winter mooring at Sutton Stop has coincided with Debs birthday. Jess has been up visiting us and doing a bit of chilling out following a few fretful weeks in Poole with her not too well other half, and Pip came to visit for the day as well. 

It has been a lovely view for the last few months

No need to travel out to find somewhere to eat with the ever good greyhound inn on the door step, we had a great pub lunch in a fantastic atmosphere as all tables were taken with drinkers or dinners (not bad for Monday lunchtime).

More of a birthday gateaux really, Jess realised that making sponge with a mixer is a lot easier

Another pot of tea and birthday cake fortified us for getting the last bits done ready for day one of cruising before Pip had to find her way back darn sarf trying to avoid Coventry city centre.  That left Deb and Jess to do battle over the chess board whilst I nursed my 'man flu' in front of the fire. How civilised. 

Feel the tension

This time last year we were willing the floor varnish to set so we wouldn't have to come back in the week to lay another coat.

Departure of a dear friend...

Departure of a dear friend...

No, no funerals involved. But 'Snoop' our bongo camper has had to go. Never let us down, always happy to be part of our daft plans has finally gone to someone who will hopefully enjoy ownership as much as we have. 

Insurance and tax due imminently and the oil leak that would see another few hundred pounds gone, combined with the problems of where to safely park and the fact that we would have to find somewhere to store it when we eventually get to London and the fact that its just not getting used (about 100 mikes this year, 4000 in the last 18 months!) lead to a hasty decision to list him on eBay last weekend. Oh and the fact that I have really had enough of trudging the towpaths back to get the van, I want to get off the canal system when I go for a hike! 

I am sure Graham and Mandy will have a great summer with snoop (send us a camping pic guys)

Well, back on to the adventure, like a lot of boaters our chosen winter mooring comes to an end on the 28th, Yippie!! Jess is coming to join us for our first cruise followed by Pip a few days later to celebrate Debs birthday. As we are so close, Coventry basin beckons and will give us an opportunity to get a few bits in town now such excursions need to be a little more thought out. 

Next stop will be Braunston where we will camp on Midland chandlers doorstep until they announce their spring 'Freaky Friday' discount day and we can get our new fridge! So look out for the 'Apples and Pears' and give us a knock, who knows we may even have a fresh batch of Welsh cakes on the go. 

Time to celebrate...

Remembering anniversaries has never been one of my strong points. Well not entirely true, at home we regularly had drawers full of cards bought but not sent. 

There have been two milestones passed in the last week. I've managed to make it through another year and happily celebrated the day with Deb finishing the day with a great meal in the Grayhound all organised and paid for over the phone by mum and dad. I was quite surprised that a canal side pub in a very average kind of wider neighbourhood would have its restaurant fully booked on a drizzley Tuesday evening in February. That is testament to the atmosphere, quality of the food and beer and the pleasant relaxed nature of the staff who, in the restaurant at least, were working at full pelt for the three hours we were there.

The other notable but very surprising milestone that I was aware of but missed by a couple of days was a blog milestone. I originally planned to write our travels and my thoughts and musings for our perusal only using word or similar on the pc. I would have liked to have had the skills to keep a neat and tidy paper journal but as well as impractical the logistics behind referencing photos and reading whilst following the pictures on the pc made it prohibitive. The chances are that my hundred or so posts would have been read no more than a couple of times so it not only surprises me but was quite shocking to see the 'posts read' soaring past the 10,000 mark this week! 

Have you lot not got anything better to do? :) :)

Not just for the Welsh folk...

I was dragged up in Wales in an area where nobody ate welsh cakes and virtually nobody spoke welsh. My best mate at school was related to just about everyone, frequently I would hear him say "no chance, she is my cousin as well!" His dad was a baker, he didn't make welsh cakes either. The costal seafood was both prolific and fantastic. There was no fishmonger. I left as soon as I passed my bike test. 

Granddad had stayed in London. We visited him occasionally at his flat in the cheap seats in Dulwich, a stones throw from the train station and the bright lights of the city centre. Why had we moved. He used to get the train to our local train station a mere thirty miles away. Either dad or my auntie would pick him up. I would always always have a batch of welsh cakes cooking on the electric griddle for his arrival. Enough to last his whole stay and be the preferred choice for suppa with a cuppa. Its quite ironic that thirty five years on he lives there and I am (nearly) on my way to London, all be it just for the spring.

As usual I digress. I love welsh cakes and appreciate the versatility of how they can be cooked. I haven't got a griddle but I have got a thick frying pan type insert from our Cobb BBQ. It cooks welsh cakes well on a hob, just about ok on the wood burner (you have to keep turning it to keep the heat even) and of course fantastically on the Cobb after the heat has died down a bit. Welsh cakes are best eaten straight from the griddle but it you can't manage the whole batch in one go, warming them directly on top of the stove and scoffing with a knob of butter on top is a good alternative. 

So how do you make them. Most patisserie recipes are quite complex and ingredient weights and methods are nothing short of alchemy, my style is more a considered approach but using recipes as a guide only so most of my sweet tooth cooking is quick and easy. For welsh cakes and most pastry type items I use a mini blender. The type that also has an attachment for blending soup or smoothies and sometimes a whisk. Ready?

8oz of self raising flour, 4oz of butter, stork or what ever you've got and 3oz of sugar (ideally caster sugar, but I use straight granulated) goes into the blender for a quick blitz to bread crumb texture. Pour this lot into a mixing bowl and add about 3oz of currants or sultanas. Make a bit of a well in the middle and crack an egg into it. Give the egg a bit of a mix (you can mix the egg in a separate bowl if you really like washing up) using the same fork start mixing the egg and flour mix together. It is going to be a bit dry so add the odd splash of milk to get to a pastry consistency. Don't over do the milk or you'll have a big sticky mess. If in doubt just use a little milk and give it a few minutes to absorb, if its still too dry add a little more. As long as its not a hot day you can roll out the pastry straight away, if it is warm cool it in the fridge first. Roll to about a quarter of an inch thick (they are better too thick than too thin) and cut circles with a cutter or glass arraying them overlapping on a plate or piece of baking parchment. 

A medium to low heat is needed for griddling the welsh cakes. Very lightly grease a non stick griddle and cook for a few minutes each side. The raising agent in the flour will puff them up slightly. Once the first side has browned to a light golden colour it is safe to carefully turn them with a palate knife. With the second side cooking you can gently push the cooked top, if there is still any movement between the two surfaces they are not quite done, but nearly there so get the kettle on!

Facebook, Marmite, love it or hate it?...

I've always been a bit (lot) anti Facebook. I have always been pretty bad with firing back emails and regretting what I'd written, to the extent that all professional emails I used to wright got dumped in the drafts folder ready for rereading at suitable intervals prior to sending. Facebook was just a bit too instant for me. Potentially dangerous.

Everyone knows someone with a horror story to tell. A colleague at a different branch to mine was forced to hand in her notice after her boss (and Facebook friend!) read that her status had been changed with the note 'got in to work late again today, cried like a baby and got sent home - result - off down the beach!' - I kid you not. 

I've been a big fan of internet forums though where you can be part of a community with common interests and often similar aspirations. I like the way you can almost change your persona with the click of a button go from discussing the repercussions of mooring changes imposed by our new waterways charity, to how many miles per gallon your Mazda bongo managed and who hates old MacDonald most (one of my recent online guitar lessons). Forums (or are they fora) can get a bit clique-y though and very frequent posters can try and steer the way it all flows. 

Just Canals is a really good forum but I mainly read rather than write. There is nowhere better to go for technical queries and some of the advice I have received has been priceless over the past couple of years. I even posted my whole 'lives board' budget to find out if I was on the right lines and that was before we started looking at boats. I even took it on the chin when I got laughed at for budgeting £160 per month for food (managed £139 in January!) But sometimes forums can be a little formal and that's where Just Canals Facebook page comes in. I resurrected an old unused Facebook account recently so I could ask a question that I really needed a quick answer to and the replies were practically instant no doubt because a lot of Facebook users use smart phones rather than computers. Reading recent posts it was obvious that it was all a bit more relaxed. There are no separate sections that relate to different topics they just come one after another. 

So the next post on my blog is a request from a couple of people for my welsh cake recipe after I posted a quick picture a couple of evenings ago. 

Yum Welsh caked for supper!

PS I like marmite :-) 

Time for the six...

The sun is out, the sky is blue

Power from solar coming through

Porridge for breakie, out of weetabix

Now sat here waiting for my rugby fix

Comon boys you can beat the Scotts

We're all behind you in front of the telly box

You've got the team, no need for luck

So bring us home the Calcutta Cup!

Rip off Britain?...

After spending too much at Christmas, having the hot water tank split on our rented out property, oh and a tax bill to pay we have had to do some serious money juggling. 

I've also been toying with the idea (for a long time) of buying a suitcase generator to take some of the strain from the engine charging and potentially save money over a longer period. I will need to see exactly how much can be potentially saved per month and see what the pay back time would be, but that won't be enough on its own we will have to spend a little less. 

Most of our costs are fixed; licence, insurance etc and a lot are variable to a lesser degree, diesel, servicing, coal etc. The only area that is a quick fix and easier to control is food shopping. 

It is an area that I am confident, and I think competent, in as cooking (and eating) is a hobby of mine and was my career for a couple of decades. I still love experimenting and learning new things, I even cooked yesterdays dinner using a spice commonly known in India as "devil's dung"! 

I am not alone in trying to cut down supermarket bills, and I wouldn't mind betting that nationally I am part of the vast majority. So what would be on your list of good old budget 'British' food. 

OK No#1 has got to be good old bangers. After that probably anything made with mince; shepherds pie and of course a good old British spag bol :-) . Turkey has featured on loads of home menu's over the years and is healthy and very versatile. I haven't left out the obvious benefits of vegetarian meals, and we choose to eat vegi at least a couple of times a week mainly because vegetables last longer! 

So is that a job done then, not quite. As I said I think that lots of families will be looking at British staples to save money in these times of austerity and looking square into the eyes of a triple dip recession and of course the supermarkets are doing their bit to help, telling us how much cheaper they are than each other and how many prices they have rolled back but are they all a bunch of lying shyster's?

Its not hard to look a little closer at what you're buying. The first rule is to look at buying food organoleptically, a word used by idiot trainers in the catering industry to try and stamp a level of authority and superiority over the attentive students. I remember attending a regional training event where the speaker completely embarrassed herself by not only insisting on calling it 'organopholeptically' obviously needing the extra syllable but also correcting a colleague who gave a very accurate and concise description of how microwaves work by saying ' no, it works by bouncing these ziggy zaggy things round like in the picture' - good grief.

Organoleptically - use your senses. We all buy the first melon of summer by picking it up, squeezing it and giving it a sniff to see if it is up to mustard so we have already used three senses (two if you do your shopping with your eyes shut). For us purse string pulling penny watchers, whilst checking quality we are also scanning prices. So back to the supermarket shysters and take a look at how much we can save with our meals of spag bol, bangers and mash or even turkey stir fry for a treat. 

I have noticed over this year that the price of cheap staples has increased where as more expensive options haven't really changed or may have even come down. The average banger in the average supermarket is priced as a luxury item. I have checked tinternet today for the prices Richmond, walls and own brand (not ultra budget) sausages at Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco's. The average price per kg of those three products is £4.41 at Asda, £5.10 at Tesco's and £5.24 at Sainsbury's. It shows two things, firstly, Asda is cheapest secondly, they are all bloody expensive. The worst was Tesco's Walls sausages at £6.04 per kg - what a rip off. 

How about British mince, again averaging the prices of standard mince and minced steak (so not ultra value or taste the difference kind of qualities) Asda £5.88, Tesco's £6.55 and Sainsbury's a whopping £7.50 per kg for mince. Its the same with turkey breast strips or slices £8.22/kg at Asda, £8.63 at Tesco's and £9.35 at Sainsbury's

So is the vegi isle the only option? No not at all, you just need to look at the next quality up! Kind of the opposite to Martin  Lewis on money saving expert's idea of downshifting a brand to a cheaper level (ie downshift from taste the difference to standard sausages) my idea is to scrap what is perceived as a cheap item and buy a less regularly bought item instead, or at least buy much better food for the same money!

For less money than Sainsbury's turkey escalopes (£9.35/kg) you could buy Asda's pork fillet (£8.50/kg), even Sainsbury's own is only 14p/kg more!  So that is swapping, for similar money, meat that is considered a cheap item for one that is a luxury you will only find on high end restaurant menus jostling for space with game and Sea bass. 

Best value by far across all supermarkets are whole fresh chickens. We buy one 1.6kg ish chicken a week and get five good dinners out of it. OK it takes a bit of know-how to learn to butcher it into portions but its a skill worth learning. We usually get a stir-fry, a curry, a casserole, a pie and big pan of soup from each one and the price per kg is £2.76 at Asda, £2.52 at Tesco's and £2.86 at Sainsbury's. Oh and all three shops have multi buy deals as well!

If we have to use supermarkets, let's not let them rip us off eh :-) 

Time to teach old dogs new tricks...

I have had a busy winter doing loads of jobs on both the inside and outside of LJ but there is one job that I have been saving for a few quiet winter days in front of the fire. Fender making. 

That's one big cotton reel

Just a light dusting of snow today, perfect for fender making

Apart from the narrow rubber side fenders we only have one rather tatty side fender that we have on a movable mount for mooring up. So the plan is to start with a couple of chunkier side fenders and if that goes well move on to some circular ones and possibly rebuild the tipcat and rear button fenders. It will be a challenge as my, usually pretty reliable grey matter just doesn't do too well with knots, not sure why (I know that by the time we are cruising again I will be standing at the bollards with a rope in my hand and a confused look on my face.

Tester

The east bit

Trying to keep 40ft of unwound rope from rewinding

For my first foray I chose traditional Manila rope. It looks great on the reel and was nice and cheap but byeck it is not too easy to work with. The fibres are quite loose and those loose bits are sharp, good job I had been forewarned by the guys I bought it from in Braunston to wear gloves. Never having made one before I made a little one from para cord to get the gist of it which made it much easier to transpose onto the rough stuff.

Attempt number one

I might even attempt fender No#2 listening to The drunken sailor on Beeb 2 tomorrow night. Now Ive just got one more pile of those loose fibres to sweep up, glad we have wooden floors!

Hawkesbury Junction (Sutton Stop) in the snow...

On the phone last night mum was waiting for their dollop of snow over on the west coast of Wales. They don't often get too much over there and I can only remember proper  snow on a couple of occasion's in the fourteen years I lived there. The snow near the west coast has a habit of only visiting for a couple of hours then turning to a muddy brown slush that makes everything cold, damp and miserable (maybe Mum will email me a couple of pretty snaps if I'm proven wrong - still waiting for ones from August though!!)

Anyway as promised here are some extra pics of today's snow in Sutton Stop

Making the most of the last patch of grass - its about six inches under snow now!

Our winter mooring 

The actual (Hawkesbury) junction

Us four winter moorers (the off side are permanent) 

Sutton Stop lock

A swan outside the Greyhound, I wonder If I will get to take a pic of a greyhound outside the Swan?

Luckily we managed to defrost a tap and filled up yesterday

The Greyhound Pub (and the Whippet bar behind) next to Sutton Stop cottages

Brilliant white snow - less than white Bongo

Bridge with Pump house behind

I don't get the same thirst craving passing these tables in the snow as I do in the summer - don't know why

Not the only way to the boat, there is a smaller bridge or the lock gate but where is the challenge in that?

LJ just past the junction

Its equally as steep and slippery on the way down

But a nice view from the top

The old Police station/box/shed

Made it down!

Poor old wildlife starting to struggle...

Still managed to keep the hottest end of the boat above 22°C today, and even had the central heating on for an hour as well. Sadly the local birds (no not that type!) Don't look too happy today with gradually less and less water to swim in and feed from. 

Wait for me!

Are we nearly there yet?

I think we will just wait here for spring

Guys, what's the plan when we run out of water?

I'm too young for this!

What a mild night...

With the stove ticking over last night the temperature hasn't dropped below 22 deg C in the lounge.... hmmm that looks like brewing temperature to me, where did the brew kit go?

An arm stretched out through the rear door at half six showed not only a mild morning but also bone dry. Looks like I will be able to get a second top coat of paint on the port side today. Ill wait until the sun has shown its face and warmed the steel a bit which will give me time to put a fourth varnish coat on the side hatch doors, refix the varnished skirting boards/pipe boxes get lunch on the go and repot my now setting chilli jam.

Deb is working today so at least the boat will stay still whilst I'm painting. She has also been working on her blog contribution as when she dipped in last year there was a bit of repetition, this year it will be a stats round up of where we have moored, miles covered, locks wound, miles walked/cycled, etc so there will e o disputing when we were last at x or how long since the last oil change.

Roll on end of Feb when we can get back to proper boating!

I wish painting the side was as easy as it looked in the photo.