How He's Grown!

Here's Arrow again. He must be twice the size he was when we first saw him.

And with his mother and brother and sisters.

Narrowboat Planning

We went to Mill Wharf boats on Saturday to meet the builders and decide on the final positions of the windows. The steel shell will be delivered in the middle of July so the window positions must be determined quite soon. With the help of my Sketchup 3D model, we discussed the final layout of the interior of Syncopation. We have decided to change the rear bedroom. The bed is to be a cross bed, with the head on one side of the boat and the foot at the other side. During the day lower half of the bed will slide under the top half to permit free passage through the cabin and the mattress will fold out of the way. The advantage of this layout is that the bed takes up less length and that allows access to both sides of the bed unlike the longways layout which only permits access from one side of the bed. We also looked for probably the last time at Tonantron II, the current Mill Wharf boat before it is picked up at the end of this week by the owners. In the saloon we saw a rather attractive Stovax Brunel stove in Laurel Green enamel. We've decided against the Petit Godin

we originally specified and will substitute the Stovax, in Midnight Blue enamel finish.

Incidentally we found out that Tonantron is a kennel breeding Boxer dogs and the boat is named after it.

New Statue

Don't blink!
There I was walking back to the office when I came across this chap. A new statue. This is the Barge master and Swan Marker of the Vintners Company. Located just across the road from Vintners' Hall outside St James Garlickhythe. The Vintners Company is one the twelve great livery companies of the City of London and has the right, granted by the sovereign, to own swans which they claim during the Swan Upping and to eat them, which they do once a year with great ceremony. It is an offence except in a few instances even to be in possession of a swan carcase.

On Solids Now

Arrow and his siblings are now eating solid food - well, mush - since they've developed teeth and Molly, their mum is losing interest in feeding them. They're growing fast, though.

Here's Bramble.

Arrow likes to have his tummy tickled.

The Aeronauts

I don't know what triggered it but a dim memory of a TV series that enthralled me as a child surfaced. Couldn't trace it at all. It was in French, dubbed into English, so I thought it might be Canadian. It was about two air force pilots. The only thing I could only remember was the name of one of them: Tanguy. Well, the power of the internet came to the rescue of my dim memory. It turns out it was a French series called Les Chevaliers du Ciel, made in 1967, dubbed into English and broadcast by the BBC in the early 70s as the Aeronauts. It was remade in 1988 as a new French TV series and finally as a film in 2005.
I think the translators in both case had a tin ear for a title "Knights of the Sky" is a lot more poetic than the Aeronauts or Sky Fighters. The original TV series was based on a series of comics beginning in 1961 created by Uderzo, co-creator of Asterix.

Judi On Holiday

Here, as promised is my sister on holiday in 1989:

Springer Puppies

Here's Arrow again. He's opened his eyes and is trying to walk. Not very successfully, by all accounts.

Here he is with his brother and sisters.

Judi said to say that one of the girls and one of the boys are still for sale. Leave a comment if you are interested.

Arrow is a Week Older

Here he is again, a week older. He's a little bigger. In the last picture he's with his sister whose eyes are just beginning to open.

St Stephen Walbrook

London quite frequently reveals unique temporary views. This church is next to a large building site and the demolition of the old building has revealed a view that has been hidden for years and will be concealed again when the new building goes up. St Stephen,a Wren church is where the Samaritans were founded. The building that was demolished, the Walbrook, had a frieze of statues high on the facade. They represented Agriculture, Industry, Mining and Fisheries. Each was a slightly idealised art-deco style nude figure with an appropriate article to hide his embarassment. A lamb, a cog wheel, a pickaxe and a fish respectively. I felt sorry for the miner as the pick handle was not very large.

Google Maps and Memory Lane

School Close actually. This is where I lived between the ages of 1 and 7 years of age. I spent a few minutes looking at the map reading the names of the streets and lanes around one of my childhood homes. I followed the path I used to take to the infant school when I was old enough to walk to school by myself and dropped in on the junior school I spent a year at before we moved away. I can even pinpoint the house or rather the garden where I first kissed a girl.

Meet Arrow

Here's our dog Arrow. He's only twelve days old. We went to choose him at the weekend. He'll be coming home with us in a couple of months, when he's old enough to leave his mum.

Docked

All the puppies have had their tails docked.
Some people might not agree with this. I'm pretty ambivalent about it really. As they were bred to be working dogs (all except ours that is) they have had most of their tails cut off. This is to avoid having them injured in future when they are out in the field working their way through thickets and suchlike when flushing out game. I read somewhere that Springers have a thick weatherproof and thornproof coat (a bit like a barbour jacket, also designed for shooting). It would appear that their tails are not thornproof and the working Springers with tails spend time at the vet having injuries to their tails treated. You could argue that since our dog is going to be a family pet, it could have kept its tail. But since we haven't chosen our dog yet, all four in the litter have been docked and we'll choose ours when we visit this coming weekend.
There will be photographs after the weekend. Prepare for cute!

Puppies!

The puppies were born yesterday and all doing fine. We're going down to Devon next weekend to get to meet them and choose one.

Crick

I've been watching the weather forecasts for the last few days of this week. That's why we went to the boat show at Crick yesterday. The forecast for today and tomorrow has been for lots of rain, with yesterday marking the last fine day of the present run of warm weather. I think the children were bored. Cathy and I were not. A little frustrated at having to spend an inordinate amount of time in the childrens' area. Next time we go to Crick, I think the children will be staying at home. All the same, we each managed to look at some narrowboats. Syncopation's builder was there with the current boat Tonantron II - due to be finished during the next couple of weeks. Needless to say, we both had a look. Here I am peering into the engine room of the Mel Davis show boat. The tiny guy is wondering when we're going back to the ice cream van:





















If you look very carefuly in the top right hand corner, you can see the stern of Tonantron II,the boat mentioned above. I've enlarged it below
















Among many exhibitors I think AS.Bikes may have won the fight for the folding bike supplier slot.
This costs £139 :

















16 inch wheels, aluminium frame and six gears wrighing in at 14.5kg.

This is the Brompton:



From the dazzling array of custom-fit brompton options, the basic bike comes in at around £560. This for the steel frame and six gears. Without suspension. All weighing in at 11.5kg. Granted, the Brompton is far more likely to be repairable because the manufacturers will likely still be available for comment in 20 years time. And I think the Brompton folds about four inches smaller. For over £400 saved, I'll take the slightly larger folded bike.

We're Getting a Dog

Probably. Well, certainly we're getting a dog, but now we've got a date for it's possible arrival. For a long time the plan has been to get a dog, but we've been in no rush to get one. My sister and her partner have a number of dogs, all working Springer spaniels and one of them is pregnant (probably), due about 6th June. Springers are use gun dogs - I've seen my sister's partner 's dogs at work. They flush out the game from thickets and fetch fallen birds, even dispatching the ones that are only winged. They love walks in the countryand are good swimmers. Well, we live in the country and we've commissioned a narrowboat so I think our dog will need to be at home tramping the towpaths and swimming in the canal as well as being a good family pet.

Publicity

This month's Canal and River Boat magazine has a feature on Montseny, the boat completed by JM Clarke in June 2006. I would include a link but there's no web site for the magazine.

Upton Park

In the cause of making good use of our National Trust Family membership and allowing D to meet another lad with Tourettes we went to Upton House and Gardens for the afternoon. Upton Park is a largish country house last inhabited by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted, chairman of Shell. We spent a relaxing time walking around the gardens: nobody fell in any of the lakes or streams. We left half our party outside and went for a look inside the house, remodelled by the owner and filled with a large fine art collection with pictures by Stubbs and lots of English and French porcelain. Most striking was the recently restored art deco bathroom; covered inside almost entirely in aluminium foil which looks like the dull side of baking foil. A striking and surprisingly tasteful decorating medium. I didn't think taking as picture in the bathroom - I think I was a little overcome by all the shiny foil.

Bekonscot (With Canals)

Not just a model village. A model village frozen in time in 1929 (the year it was opened).
We spent an intriguing afternoon wandering aroung a model of rural England of the 1930s. It's beautifully done and has it's imitators but I haven't seen a better one.














I'm sorry but I became quite excited by the model canal with its lock, narrowboats, wharf and tunnel.
Lock














Wharf



















Tunnel

Signed, Sealed and Delivered

I delivered the contract to the Mill Wharf Boat Company yesterday. Everything starts at the beginning of June. The shell will be built by Tim Tyler in May and fitting out is due to start at the beginning of June with delivery on 31st December. During my visit to the boat yard I had a quick tour around the boat currently being fitted out - it's due to be completed to be exhibited at the Crick boat show. I also saw Jason's own current project, Columbia; a working boat he's restoring.

Contract

The contract arrived from the boat fitters yesterday. I immediatley sat down and read it through. Then I read it again. Checked the list of extras - all present. The bottom line is one of those numbers that makes you feel a little faint. Still, we won't be spending it all in one go. There are stage payments. When I sign this we are committed. No backing out (not easily anyway).

Delivery date is 31 Dec 2007.

Must book tickets for the Crick boat show at the end of May.