Ukulele update

I know the title of my Blog suggests this all about the continuing voyages of the narrowboat Skylark, but I couldn't go on without mentioning the continuing voyages of me and my ukulele.

I have been practicing most days since I bought it 3 weeks ago and I had my first 'outing' in public last Sunday in the Limes. Now, I'm not going to say it was a polished performance but it was passable and the audience was appreciative, helped by copious amounts of Greene King and Adnams strong ales.

As I said in my last post, if you've ever thought of having a go, I would highly recommend it. The instrument is often thought of as a child's toy but a toy it is not. Of course you can pick them up for a few pounds and they are not much better than a toy, and can put off would-be players by their poor quality but if you spend £100 or so you will get an instrument worth having and sounding good. Spend over £300 for a genuine Hawaiian and you'll get something that would grace any orchestra or band.

My Uke is concert-sized and of French extraction - but it was probably was brought up in China. It goes by the name of LAG U77C (catchy or what?) and is a lovely dark brown mahogany.

 

[Insert image on Blogger is playing up again. It's taken 24 hours to upload one picture. Why does it have to be so temperamental? Or am I doing something wrong?]

Getting the right size does matter. The smaller Soprano Uke is the traditional size but is much smaller and can sound thinner and tinnier. It can also be difficult for people with bigger fingers to hit the strings without buzzing up against adjacent ones. The concert comes next followed by the Tenor and then the largest, Baritone.

Now, if you need any more encouragement or inspiration, click on YouTube and watch the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Their 'Good, the Bad and the Ugly' is fantastic (amongst others). I also came across Jake Shimabukuro presenting his version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. 'How can that be possible?', I hear you ask. Watch it and you'll find out. It really is a remarkable - on a par with a the best international classical guitar.

Now, back to narrow boats. The wintery weather looks like it may calm down this weekend so I'm off to experience the delights of the Great Ouse. Walking around the local CBS this morning, I invested in an extendable aluminium broom thingy with a hose adaptor for washing the boat. This should help to clean those 'hard to get at areas'.

I also bought one of those bike extension tubes for adding a child's bike to yours. If I can get it to fit, this may provide a good means to attach the large umbrella to the tiller arm. I'm not sure if it will work but will soon find out. If it doesn't, it will find it's way on to Ebay. Such fun!

End of summer?

The last three days on Skylark felt a little odd. I know it's early October but the weather was more like summer with temperatures in the low 20's and clear blue skies above. There were still lots of birds around, even quite young ones, and the grasses and trees still had a bright green colour to them. However, the weather forecast for the end of the week is a sharp decrease in the temperatures and strong northerly winds. So perhaps the summer has ended and we have to brace ourselves for autumn and winter. It could be a nasty shock!

For now though, the river is looking good. For one thing, I don't think there has been the same amount of waterweed in the river as last year. The upper reaches of the Old West River was a bit tangled at times but then we have to accept that there has been little flow and this stretch is quite narrow. The rest of the section north and south of Ely has been quite free flowing and now there is little sign of the encroaching weeds. The quality of the water also looks fine with clear sight of the bottom in many places and many small and large fishes to be seen (and last week quite a few crayfish too).

I took the short hop up to Prickwillow to see the annual ploughing competition. I remember last year we all had to wear wellies as it was so wet underfoot. This year the ground was so dry and hard the heavy horses couldn't be used; they tried but couldn't turn the soil to any degree.

I met up with Mick and Gina with their latest narrowboat, Slow and Easy. It's for sale if you're interested and based on the same 60' hull used for Skylark. Mick has also adopted the same interior design of tongue and groove panelling. I like the paint job they have created and may introduce some of the finer details on Skylark when I get around to tackling the exterior next year.

 



Now, to much more interesting things - spiders! Having been away from Skylark for a couple of weeks, a number of quite large spiders had taken up residence on the outside of Skylark. They were tucked up in all sorts of nooks and crannies like under the roof overhangs, inside the fenders, in the cracks around the hatches and portholes, and so on. As they popped their heads out to see why their new home was moving down the river, I either sent them packing onto dry land or gave them a quick swimming lesson. Inside, there were fewer of them as I had closed all the portholes for the duration.

While in Ely, I gathered a few handfuls of Horse Chestnuts to place around the boat. I know this technique has not been scientifically proved effective but there are many people who swear by it. So, anyway, I thought I would give it a try. First of all, I sliced each one open (in true Blue Peter fashion - making sure I didn't lose any of my fingertips in the process). This lets out whatever smell the spiders dislike.

Then I placed them strategically around the boat where spiders tend to gather, in the portholes, around the doors, in the corners of the engine room, etc. I was careful not to over-do it because I didn't want Skylark to look like something out of 'Winnie the Pooh goes for a Tramp in the Woods'. But, in small numbers, I thought they looked OK...

Now, I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't see any of the little blighters jumping overboard in response to my onslaught but then I don't suppose I would, would I? In reality, I suppose this is just another technique in my arsenal of WMDs against spiders. As I saId before, I'm not getting paranoid...am I?

On Tuesday I left Ely to bask in the last few rays of sunshine before the winter chill descends. It was nice to have the waterfront almost to myself for a few days.

I will probably be out again next weekend to experience the odd pleasure of freezing my chestnuts off in a northerly gale followed by a hot meal and a pint of Abbot in the Cutter. Bon Voyage!

All's quiet

After a couple quiet days on the river last week, my time has been spent catching up on odd jobs around the house, rehearsing my half of the Ugly Sisters for Cinderella and undertaking a major new fund-raising project. Maybe more about that later but, for now, just to prove the recent newspaper report about the sighting of a cross-dressing thespian at Ickworth House is true...

Rather too much chest hair for my liking young lady! Now, don't lose sleep children.

I've finished the engine room

While I'm not searching for and eradicating spiders, I have been finishing the painting in the engine room. This has included touching up the edges of the floor panels with dark brown wood stain to colour match the top and bottom surfaces, completing the battens and step edges, and touching up the walls to hide the inevitable scuffs.

I think it looks a whole lot better in there but I may spend a little more time 'de-cluttering' as it has been so easy to just hang stuff off the walls thinking it should be within easy reach when actually most of it could be packed away in a nearby box.

A couple of mentions:

First a negative point - I heard a report of someone's diesel being pinched from their boat in the marina. This must have been by someone who knows a bit about boats as it's not the sort of thing an opportunistic thief would have a go at. He or she must have had a boat, a pump and maybe plenty of cans to carry it away. Anyway, be aware!

Secondly a positive - During my couple of days away this week, I took my newly purchased Ukelele and managed to learn many of the new chord shapes - all very different to guitar chords but not dificult. It is proving to be a great pleasure learning this instrument. If you have ever thought about learning, I would recommend it! 

No More Spiders!

Now, I thought 'that's a bold name for a product' so I have given the makers of this stuff the benefit of the doubt and bought a spray bottle off Amazon.

Reading the small print you will see it is a 'non-harmful deterrent...creating a natural barrier to deter spiders without harming them'. It contains stuff like a dollop or two of peppermint, the essence of horse chestnut and a few nuggets of technical guff but it all sounds very environmentally friendly (to humans at least).

Reading the lengthy operating instructions and the Health and Safety data sheets, I see you should spray it at arms length (away from your eyes) around any entrance or exit points like doors, windows, ventilators, etc. and re-apply it every two or three weeks or after cleaning (I know which will come first). Then, Spiderman and his mates will be put off entering due to the acrid aroma that only spiders can smell (presumably this includes essence of blackbird or thrush). We'll see.

Anyway, as it happens, just the sight of the bottle appears to have put them off as there is a noticeable lack of spiders on board Skylark. Of course, this may be because of the change in weather and they have all curled up ready to hibernate in my nooks and crannies. So, not wanting to waste my hard earned cash, I won't be squirting my 'No More Spiders' just yet. I'll report back in the spring.

In the meantime, as its autumn now, I may put on my new-age jumper and loons (yes you can remember them), and go into the countryside to collect a few horse chestnuts. Some people say these may help to keep the little blighters at bay if you dot them around the boat but opinion is split as to their effectiveness. Anyway, I'll see if they help and report back.

New floor in the engine room

I may have mentioned, I have never thought the engine room has looked really finished off properly so I took a couple of days to lay a new laminate flooring - the same as the rest of the boat. The original flooring was a thick ply with a very dark brown waterproof surface; all very practical but not the best thing to look at. This photo shows the floor with the middle section already removed. This allows access to the engine itself.

I then set about laying and sticking down the 3mm underseal to the original flooring to provide a bit of noise insulation (not much though) and also a soft bed for the laminate floor to lay on. I then cut and fitted the flooring, leaving the final cutting and planing until it was all fixed in place. A few strategically placed panel pins held the whole floor in place. Fitting it all together again was a doddle as it was simply fixed to the old floor.

I was pleased with the overall result. It is a lot lighter, complements the light yellow tongue and groove walls and ceiling, and will be just as practical as the old floor.  It's even looks like a single solid floor now as the laminate boards hide the joins between the panels.

I then spent time, doing the same to the stairs and finishing off the edges to hold it all in place until I ran out of battens and mouldings. Once it's finished it should look as good as the rest of Skylark and will 'feel' part of the boat rather than just that grubby bit at the back where I keep all the tools and boaty gear.

The stairs, showing work in progress...

 

I spent two whole days doing this - that amounts to at least five hours of hard practical work interspersed with eating, drinking and lying down on the job (no change there then) - and then I went home to recover from my exertions.

 

 

When I got home I found my new purchase lying in its box, on the floor, exactly where Kay had thrown it - a French concert size Ukulele. I intend to add this to my expanding list of hobbies. After all, I can't sit around all day writing Blogs.

Godmanchester

Lying just upstream of Huntingdon, on a couple of turns in the river, Godmanchester is said to be the oldest town in the county dating back to the Bronze age. While it owes its main growth to the Romans, it went on to become a bustling manufacturing and trading point on the roads between London, Cambridge, the east coast and the Midlands.

Now it's a very posh place with pubs, restaurants, hotels, mini-marts, riverside manors and an attractive millpond but it also has lots of houses with 'old' at the beginning - Old Post Office, Old Shoppe, Old Bakers, Old Surgery, Old Mill, Old Coach House Inn, etc, etc - you can guess why.

While we have passed by a few times, we have never stayed there until last week.

Travelling up from Lazy Otter, we stopped at St Ives on the Old Quay moorings next to the ancient road bridge. You would have to look far and wide to find a more attractive place. The town also makes a good place to stock up with food and drink. The Nelsons Head pub has recently been refurbished by Greene King and a very nice job they had done too.

Huntingdon was meant to be our next night's stopover but everywhere was taken so we moved on past the thundering A14 road bridge and around the bend to Godmanchester lock. Taking a sharp left-hander, we turned into the short cul-de-sac that leads to the town. While the place has a wealth of attractive buildings set in enormous gardens, a formal park and lots of places to eat and drink, it only has space for two or three boats - one of which is reserved for the local trip boat. We pinned a stake in to find ourselves too near a wasp's nest so moved a bit further down the line. The good Townsfolk of Godmanchester have been restoring the riverside and moorings for some years now but they really should do a little more to attract us boaters you know.

Anyway, we spent a very nice afternoon with the Mayor at his summer garden party in the park followed by a quiet evening and night moored up alongside the park wondering how many millions of pounds we would have to win to afford any one of the majestic heaps on the opposite side of the river. Now, I'm not one for jealousy or envy but I did wonder if all that wealth and property really makes the owners happy. Give me a well-made pasty and cold pint of Boddingtons on board Skylark any day!

Anyway, Godmanchester is well worth a visit if you're in the vicinity.

This week the river was flowing well and looking fantastic; clear, clean and relatively weed-free. There were lots of fish swimming about, loads of ducks and geese, swans, herons and grebes, and the most Kingfishers and dragonflies we have ever seen. We saw a couple of very young seals in the tidal stretch at Earith but still no barn owls. I suppose you can't have everything.

We returned to our crumbling heap on Tuesday afternoon in time to catch up on a few emails and recharge my batteries (on my camera). Life is so hectic for the retired.

Oh, one more thing. Answer me this if you can - why do some people make all the effort to take cans of drink with them to the riverside and then leave the empties on the grass for someone else to get rid of? Bring back flogging I say!