Dying in the heat

Onion skin dyed wool

My wool drying tree

Inspired by my friend Maggie’s photos of her solar dying on Facebook, I dived under the dinette to get out my 3 solar dying jars. Last summer was far too cool & wet in the north to solar dye, so it was 2 years ago we last did any. I had 2 years worth of onion skins to use up so have done 6 jars which have given a nice pale orange coloured yarn and fibre. Plus, I consulted my friend Jenny Dean’s dying book for ideas of other plants to use. There are quite a few blackberries out which aren’t very palatable yet, but idea for the dye bath and that gave a nice pinkish yarn after about 4 days on the roof in the blistering heat.

blackberry's dying

Wool dying in jars & felted onion skin bag

Last Saturday I attended Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers for a dying day, with chemical dyes. I joined in the Guild project to Shibori dye some fabric in shades of red ready for the Guild’s 40^th anniversary later in the year. Some of my spinning projects are going to be on display on the Guild stand at Fibre-East this coming weekend.

Ruby Shibori dying drying

Stiring the ruby dye pots

Yarn & fibre in the steamer

Ooops, I splashed red dye  on Fiona

Dryed & ready to use from the steamer

We had a surprise visit from some of our motor bike club, the KGT a couple of Sundays ago. They’d been for a run out for breakfast and then on to us for tea & cake. We made plans for them to join us when we go up Foxton Locks later in the year, once our house sale has gone through.

KGT visitors

At the moment on his stretch of the Grand Union Canal we are OK for water, however, we’ve had notification from the Canal & River Trust that lots of the northern canal have already had to close as the reservoirs are dry. So we’re going to need LOTS of rain to get us all moving again.

We are really enjoying being in & around Leighton Buzzard to catch up with friends before we head north.

In the shade at Linslade

We are moored in a perfect spot in the shade at Linslade, with willow trees on each side of the canal which means the boat only gets odd spots of sun through the branches. And the solar panels are still picking up just about enough rays in the shade to keep the fridge going and as you can imagine it’s working it’s little socks off!!! Our portholes can be completely removed meaning we get a nice breeze or should I say warm breeze but the temperature inside in the day in this lovely shade is 28-32c. So these temperatures are perfect for sitting on the tow path spinning.

John’s been busy repainting the doors and hatches that were adjusted a few weeks ago and touching up other odd bits of paint too.

The moon last week was beautiful. The day before we moved to Linslade we walked up from Stoke Hammond to The Old Red Lion at Great Brickhill. The views from there of the sun set over the valley were amazing. The short walk back down the hill at dusk took us ages as we kept stopping to watch the wildlife, deers, rabbits that the fox didn’t quite catch for supper and lots of bats, we could hear the owl but he didn’t fly where we could see it. The farmers have been very busy with hay making last week, thank goodness my hayfever doesn’t play me up anywhere as much as it did in my younger years.

 

Last Friday we got the bus to Luton for John’s annual eye test and to probably give blood at our donor centre for the last time. All the staff at the donor centre know John really well as he used to give platelets fortnightly and the procedure took up to 2 hours.

Saturday and Sunday I went with the Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers to demonstrate at the South Beds Country Show in Harlington. It was predominantly a steam and vintage vehicle event with a small craft marquee, children’s rides and a small area with farm animals, which is where we were. Gosh, it was hot but we unlaced our corner to the marquee to give a bit more of a breeze. I don’t think the event was very well attended and the traders were all moaning about they wouldn’t cover their costs. John came on Saturday and demonstrated lucet and pin loom weaving.

 

 

We keep looking at the news reports about all the moorland fires in the north west. The smoke from the Winter Hill blaze was blowing over Heather & Jason’s house at the weekend.

Back to Leighton Buzzard

We are now back in Leighton Buzzard after spending a week at Napton Marina while Colecraft re-did the interior woodwork on our doors and hatches, plus upgrade them to double glazing. The boat is now just the way we want it, with no gaps around the hatches or door. We just need to paint the door exteriors over the next few days while it’s sunny and warm.

Napton Marina

On our way to Napton we spent a couple of days in Braunston and attended the village fete and tried out two pubs in the village. We walked over Braunston Tunnel, a fairly steep hill, so we can see why they had to dig a tunnel and not a flight of locks.

We managed to pass through Braunston on our way back south before their Historic Boat Gathering, there is restricted navigation via the marina during the boat parade. 'Adamant' a steam boat passed us on it’s way to the event, I could hear him tooting his whistle around some blind bends ages before it passed us. A little steam inspection launch went by too. 

Lane over Braunston Tunnel

Over the tunnel

 

over the tunnel

 

 

Tunnel airshafts

While we were at the marina we decided to have a Tesco delivery and stock up before venturing south through very rural Northamptonshire.

On our travels back south we managed to have a BBQ and I did lots of knitting & spinning.

Ada and Dale visited on Father’s Day while we were at Stoke Bruerne and we had a nice meal at The Boat pub and spent the evening playing Northamptonshire skittles.

I tried a new elderflower cordial recipe which had a large amount of citric acid and to our disappointment it was quite unpalatable with little elderflower flavour. We made a second batch and omitted the citric acid and it’s just beautiful. We didn’t waste the first batch, John just added some yeast and it’s fermenting away beautifully along with two demijohns of elderflower wine.

RCMP officer looking afte the wine

July could be a busy month attending all the knitting & spinning meetings in Bedfordshire before we head off to explore lots more canals. We are just waiting patiently for things to go through with our house sale, so we can just sail away into the sunset. 

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Birthdays weekend

 

John on Magnus' scooter

Josh blowing bubbles

 

Tow path partying

 

 

Last weekend we had a mega gathering at Aylesbury Basin to celebrate John’s 60^th birthday, along with my youngest brother-in-law Paul’s 50^th, Magnus’ 5^th and Samantha’s that was last week. 17 of us met for a meal in Aylesbury and all came back to the boat for a few more drinks and nibbles on the tow path. Luckily it was a beautiful day and we were all able to sit out until late in the evening. Samantha, Paul & Blue stayed with us on Saturday night and several other’s stayed at various hotels in Aylesbury. Heather & her family camped in Louise’s back garden.

Magnus on his scooter

Josh catching bubbles

Edmund spent a week with us, which was great to have help down the Aylesbury Arm with it’s 16 locks, which we did on John’s actual birthday. The balloons Edmund put on the boat popped as we went past brambles and the low bridges. We encountered some froth in one of the locks, which looked lovely but became rather nasty scum when it dried. The beginning of his week with us was a big washout as we got drenched in a massive thunder storm on the first day, luckily the weather perked up as the week went on. 

Birthday boy locking

Oh the froth!!!

We had a tremendous crew of 4 to help us back up the Aylesbury Arm on Sunday in the blistering heat. We are now making our way up to Napton, so Colecraft can sort out our leaky and draughty front door & side hatches.

Back up the Aylesbury Arm

Narrow locks & bridges on the Arm

We finally got our house sorted out and put in on the market and the first people to look at it have made an offer after just 3 days, amazing. As they are first time buyers it’ll probably go through in 4-6 weeks. It’s lovely to get cruising again as we’ve been hanging around Leighton Buzzard near the house for too long. Once the boat’s doors are sorted out we’ll head back to Leighton Buzzard to oversee the final bits of the house sale……..and then what!!!!!

One Sunday when we were at Leighton Buzzard we heard a ‘toot toot’ from the Leighton Buzzard narrow gauge railway, so we just had to stroll over and go for a ride. Sadly, the steam engine was being repaired but the little diesel one was lovely.

Leighton Buzzard railway

The end of the line

Waiting at a level crossing

Shunting our little engine

Today we saw our first CRT sign with their new re-branding logo on. There aren’t many people who like the new one it in comparison to the previous one with a bridge & swan on it.

CRT's new logo!!!!