kpnut

I had a quick trip from Womack dyke to Fleet dyke this morning. The wind on the bend moorings was swirling around in all directions which made mooring up difficult. We took a walk up the riverbank and inspected the wild mooring spots, which now look pretty good and ready for the season. Hope they get used well to keep the vegetation down. And then we walked to Ranworth to support the Maltsters with a glass of cider. It was lovely to have the company of the Amber Gem crew again, Finlay is MOST taken with their husky, who at 15 is well past giving out hormonal attractants. They were like lovebirds, nuzzling each other!

The wellies I like, dickies landmaster, aren’t made any more. I could buy the steel toe cap version but it’ll be too heavy for long walks. I’ll take my time to find others so comfy that I can walk miles in them. Most are either too narrow or too soft.

A very good point.

I’ve met some pretty crazy cocker spaniels. ‘Pocket rockets’ they call the little ones that work like fury. Cockers are maybe that little bit less independent though, desperate to please, whereas a springer can often have a slightly more ‘I know better’ attitude when working - and they usually do know better. I’ve eventually learnt to let Finlay get on with his work, rather than trying to dictate to him where to go. It’s not so pleasing to watch as his quartering isn’t a windscreen wiper pattern, but it’s fruitful.

Not so sure Helen. If you watch carefully, he took no notice of the first whistle, probably because his head was stuck underneath a tussock. I shouldn’t have had to blow twice.

Yes, I should have made that more clear. Another ex Richos boat that gets a lot of use. Being orange, with blue canopies we often get mistaken for each other, but they have 2ft more space than me.

Sorry!

Did the video work Sam. It won’t work on my phone in the post. Does work in my photo album.

I decided not to go far today, just up to Womack dyke. I stayed on the PH moorings long enough to heat the hot water with the immersion heater after my shower and hair wash this morning, and turn on the electric heater to dry the towel. What I forgot to do was to dry the insides of my wellies which I had presumed got wet yesterday from my feet overheating. So on arrival at Womack dyke I had to turn the diesel heater on for that job. It was only then that I discovered both wellie soles have splits right across. That explains the wet feet! I’ll just have to grin and bear it till my next trip as I don’t want to muck up my trainers. My wellies are ancient and have done me proud having a new role helping me to walk the Broads after being retired from allotment work. I expect the soles split in just the place where I used to push the spade into the heavy clay during 7 years of my kitchen garden job. Soon after mooring up, Amber Gem 5 came along, so there we were, 2 orange boats being the only boats on the mooring. We had a bit of a catch up as I hadn’t seen them since packing my boat up for the paint job. The walk I chose was by far the cleanest, driest walk so far this trip. I went down the riverbank and along towards Potter Heigham, turning onto the causeway at the first cottage on the left. After having big issues with flooding over the winter months (in fact, the caravan parked on-site as accommodation while the house is being gutted was an island at one point) the owners have surface dressed the causeway and it was completely clean of mud - wonderful. Then up Fritton Road/Lane and we turned left onto the footpath that heads towards Ludham. With a lack of much else to take photos of, I did a little video of Finlay exercising himself. I really don’t have to do these long walks. I reckon I could just leave him to it while sitting and watching. IMG_7266.MOV (Not sure it’s working correctly, sorry) He got his reward a few minutes later, ferreting about in a thicket and flushing a pheasant. He is a good boy though as he doesn’t chase after flushing, just carries on looking for more. We stopped in at the Kings Arms for what I thought would be a quick half (of Wherry), but I met the crew of Amber Gem 5 again, including their gorgeous husky, and didn’t leave till gone 6pm. What a joy to walk back down to the boat in the evening sun. Two things of note at Womack staithe - there were only 5 boats moored up, and the public WCs are closed at the moment due to the high water levels.

I walked past a Melody yesterday on the moorings at Potter Heigham and was quite shocked by how high she was to get on, with the very high water levels. If not too late to consider, I’d suggest bringing some sort of step or a stout wooden box to help, especially with littl’un.

So now I’m going to have be really, really, really careful about typing about are (my and Finlays) jollies. And just when I was thinking ‘you no what, its like getting real boring to read all this f* stuff from that dog and it’s owner.’ Mind you, while typing those its and it’s, the predictive text kept putting in the apostrophe before I had written the rest of the sentence. Therein lies part of the problem!

In our case as 16yr olds in the Pyrenees red wine in green 1L plastic bottles with black plastic stoppers at about 50p/L. Put me off red wine for life!

And I bet without those childhood times outside ‘learning by doing’ about how to keep comfortable in dire conditions, you wouldn’t be doing that for a living now.

Absolutely. I like the principle of this new ‘Forest School education’ (nothing to do with the organisation FSC I mentioned earlier) but I have one very big BUT about it. A lot of the people who run the sessions are teachers and firstly may well not have the lifelong experience of the philosophy behind it themselves, and secondly, teachers generally find it very difficult to release control of an activity. Which then negates the whole thing of self reliance etc. Seeing as many forest schools are in-school sessions (ie in the timetable, not physically indoors!) they have to have lesson plans, outcomes etc which is completely against the whole principle. That’s the main thing I have against PGL type experiences as well; far too teacher/instructor led. Even a lot of DofE expeditions are organised to a great extent by adults, giving out kit lists, food lists etc rather than letting the kids sort it out and learning the hard way that filling a rucsac with tins rather than a change of clothes, and spending the daily budget allowance on crisps is not a good idea.

Richardson’s Hercules helping out a HW boat.

I surprised myself by being up for an earlier start this morning. I woke early to the sound of a downpour, in fact I’d also heard heavy rain in the night. Even though I was earlier than normal for me, I was still beaten by the scout group who slipped silently past me and out of the yard without me noticing. When I drew the curtains at just after 8am, I could see a line of sails moving along the horizon in the direction of Thurne mouth. I left it a while so as not to catch up with them and caught the tail end of their flotilla as I turned into the Thurne. They carried on up the Bure. Destination Potter Heigham with a backup plan of Womack if necessary. I needed to do a bit of shopping; milk and fruit. Plan A worked. I pulled into the second slot on the moorings just before the guys in the first spot were leaving, so pulled the boat down to tuck into the end. And 47p credit to do the hoovering and recharge my toothbrush. The day has been very showery, I suppose April showers but without the warm sunshine in between. We had the muddiest walk of the trip so far, not just because after the rain this week, (the paths are getting noticeably slippier), but because I chose a route that I’d forgotten was so low-lying anyway. Starting off behind the chalets by the Norada, with a couple of wet and claggy parts, I noted the drainage pump is still working flat out. Considering this is just one of many pumps across the Broads, plus on all the tributaries across Norfolk and upper reaches, especially of the Bure, it’s perhaps no wonderthe rivers are taking a long time to recede (obviously along with various other causes). Candle Dyke looked so inviting, ‘if only….’ I did see a dayboat in the distance and also a yacht up Heigham Sound - lucky them. I was accompanied all the way round the marsh by the booming of bitterns. I also saw a marsh Harrier. I wish it was the harrier I heard and the bitterns I saw. It will be a red letter day the day I spot a Bittern. I’ve noted into my mind a good place for picking sloes later in the year - a nice little avenue of blackthorn in flower. I felt completely overdressed in full waterproofs as I was well and truly overheating, and decided the time is right to now dig out my rucsac rather than wearing all this stuff just in case. I glanced up at the sky as I decided to take my leggings off, and quickly reversed my decision. I soon got rained on. I took the path through the carr to head towards Potter Heigham church. Muddy or what? I should have carried on along the Weavers Way and come down the lane. Finlay enjoyed it though. Past the church with its round tower with an octagonal top and past lots of old characterful houses, interspersed between newer ones in the village. Down Station Rd, across the A149 along to the Premier convenience shop, down a residential road next to the Falgate, a pub I’ve never been in and certainly felt I couldn’t with the dog looking like he did. And onto another incredibly muddy path to the right. This path eventually comes out into Horsefen Bank, which wasn’t too bad, but as I reached a path to the left halfway down, I knew it’d get extremely muddy down towards the river, so I cut my losses and traipsed across a field that not long ago was underwater and onto the track that runs behind Herbert Woods boatyard. In the dyke, the marker gauge shows just how high the water has been this winter. After a detour to look at the boats for sale, we got back to the boat. Finlay had a dunk again to clean him off and I dried him and wrapped him in his coat, before leaving him to go shopping. I bought him a chew treat for when I got back and now he’s flat out asleep, hasn’t even bothered to ask for his tea yet. It’s still raining, on and off.

I know the organisation I spent a lot of time with when a teenager, Forest School Camps used to use Hunters for sailing ‘mobiles’. I used to go on the ‘shanks pony’ version. I walked in Scotland from Ullapool to Cape Wrath, across the pyrenees from Pau to Jaca, as well as across Dartmoor in numerous Feb halfterms in differing weather conditions and many many caving trips in South Wales, the Mendips and Devon. Any outdoor activity experience for youngsters is the bees knees in my book, as long as it involves some discomfort, effort and the chance to show leadership, teamwork and problem solving. It builds resilience and self reliance. So I just love seeing these groups out on the water.

I saw you go past me on the PH moorings and thought you are picking the windiest spots to get the most practice. I was hoping you were mooring further down as I’d have come to say hello on my way for a dog walk.

Maybe the scouts are already good. They looked more like venture scout age. Whatever, they were doing a cracking job on Sunday as I stop/started my way through them down the Ant, and they all came to a stop in the correct place today.

For anyone needing to know about technology things, I successfully attended a zoom meeting this afternoon at Upton staithe by hotspotting my iPad to my phone. I checked the speed when I arrived and it had told me it was ‘fast’ so I hoped it’d be OK. No freezing, no time lag at all. That done, I felt Finlay deserved another walk for his patience. This time I took the path just by the moorings, literally outside my back door! It then goes vaguely parallel to the river, following a little dyke through a wood. It was very muddy and a couple of weeks ago would have been stunning with plenty of clumps of daffodils. I did find a stand of late ones under a tree. The path comes out onto a track, meeting the path coming up from the sailing club on the Bure. I turned right on the track back into the village and down to the shop for a sausage roll for an extremely late lunch. I then retraced my steps up to Church Road, up past the church that was unfortunately shut and continued along the road. It was rather more busy than I had anticipated and I wouldn’t recommend it as a walk. When I reached a ‘t’ junction and turned left onto the road between Acle and South Walsham it was even more busy with quite fast traffic. Maybe it was nearing rush hour. I turned off this road soon past Hugh Crane’s yard (there is a path marked on the map before the yard, but there was no sign of it at all, just a house and garden with a large fence!) Anyway, the track I turned onto leads back to Fishley church, through that damn flowering rape field again and followed yesterday’s route back to Upton and the staithe. I took a photo of the view across to the Acle bridge moorings. If the boats hadn’t been there, you’d never know there was a river. That thought took me back to how I started on a boat, not that long ago. In 2017, my daughter and I hired one of Simpsons houseboats. While driving around the area doing normal holiday things, we rarely saw the river. We could have been anywhere in the country, rather than the Norfolk Broads. It was only when we hired a dayboat from Whispering Reeds at Hickling that we realised just what we were missing. While I’d been in my meeting, all the scout yachts that CC had mentioned on Sunday came into moor and the smell of their tea cooking was most enticing. I expect tonight felt good for them, with showers available for them at the boatyard, no doubt. So from a quiet ‘on my own’ mooring, we have a yard full.

Moonlight Shadow had moved on this morning by the time I’d surfaced and fed the dog. About 9.30 it was time for me to set off. It had got windy, blowing me back onto the bank as I was swinging the stern out. I moved up a couple of posts before trying again as I was quite tight up against the boat behind me. Success by pulling the bow tighter to the post. I then decided to go over to Pedro’s to fill with water. I moored side-on parallel to the building, and turned her with the ropes so the bow was sticking out into the basin before setting off as I had residential boats both in front and behind me. I had a short pootle up to Upton dyke as I knew there’d be plenty of room to turn at the end with no yachts there. I was the only boat on the ‘free’ moorings side. It’s so peaceful here. Then a shortish walk towards the village and down onto the concrete road across the marsh. Broody skies across the marsh made me pleased I had full waterproofs on. And up the track to the black Upton Mill. I wanted to check this track out as in the winter it was in a real state after builders’ vans had chewed it up. By doing the walk this way round, I wouldn’t have so much of a reverse exercise if it had been hopeless. But I needn’t have worried, it’s been dressed in the worst parts and wasn’t too bad at all. I noticed that most of the dykes have been cleared. The difference between a choked dyke and a cleared one that can do its job efficiently. I wonder if they’re done on a rotation to create and preserve diverse habitats. The new side building at the mill looks good. I could most happily live here! Back along the riverbank and up the side of Upton dyke after a quite long pause at the beautifully situated bench at the end. Finlay needed a swim at the slipway to clean off before being allowed back on the boat.

Reminds me of the time I came to the boat with some Tupperware boxes I’d got out of the freezer at home. I thought I was having leek and parsnip soup for tea, but it was stewed apple. She sounds a real character.

That’s exactly what Tony does if we go out for a meal. I’ve started having to get him to empty his pockets to prove he’s got his wallet before we go out of the door. I think, at 38 years, he’s lived in Yorkshire too long.

All I can say is ‘good on you for giving it a go’ 👍👍👍 The wind now there is notorious for being a pain.

Moored at Acle bridge this morning, 3 men came past pushing one mower. One in front, one with the mower, one walking behind. Also a young lady getting on with the strimming. So I asked her why there were 3 men for one mower. She said they were volunteers so weren’t being paid, but she had already rung the office to ask someone to bring another mower. 2 things I replied - one is lack of forward planning and second is if I was a volunteer, I’d be totally hacked off to spend my day trailing along behind some pushing a mower. At least she’d tried to rectify the silliness of it.