I was woken in the night about 0430. The noise was something like the chain on the chimney, that was tow path side, dragging across the roof. I was convinced that somebody was stealing our chimney. Up I shot and went to the stern door to find.... nothing and nobody, but the chimney still in place. I lingered for about 15 minuets as there was a beautiful morning sky with the stars still bright. In the past this would be when I would have been getting ready to take morning star sights. Nautical twilight is when the suns disc is still about a semi diameter below the horizon. This means that it is dark enough to see the stars but light enough to sea the horizon and use the sextant. Astronomical twilight is too dark for the horizon and is when the sun is still a full diameter below the horizon. Civil twilight is when the suns disc just peeps above the horizon. I went straight back to sleep, and Helen didn't even know I had been up. I don't know what I would have done if I had found somebody making away with my stainless steel, double skinned chimney as I was starkers!!
Just up from our overnight mooring is an apprentice Charity Dock. Every time we pass there seem to be more models on display. It has a name too, 'Naomi'sl landing' and a Facebook page of the same name. There is no room for the junk though, although a little further out of town, towards the aqueduct somebody seems to be having a go at the aspect of Charity Dock too!
Whilst not a lot of repair seems to have occurred to this building in Rugeley it seems to be occupied now. When I look at old maps it is called the Trent and Mersey Flour Mill in 1882.
By the 1921 map is is known as the Foward Works and is noted as a cork sock works! It seems that around that time Fowell and Jones took on the old mill and they made cork linings for shoes. They also used wool, horsehair and even swans down for the linings, or socks. In 1935 they were taken over by a an American company based in London doing much the same. When WWII broke out the turned to makeing gas masks and bomb and gas proof shelters and seem to have gone out of business by the end of the war.. I expect there have been a variety of uses since then and it is so good that it is still standing.
As we approached Armitage an hire boat came up behind us. It was obvious our tick over was a lot less than theirs as there were long lines of moored boats to pass. He didn't want to overtake before the tunnel. There was a woman seemed to be lingering at the far end of the tunnel so discretion being the better part of valour Helen jumped off to see if there was anything coming. You can see up the tunnel coming this way, but not the other. The woman was having a crafty fag, so we sped through. After we had passed the long line of boats at Spode Hall I pulled over before the Armitage Shanks Factory to let them pass.
The gorse is just coming into bloom and we could cathc a faint whiff of the coconut smell of the flower. Although there doesn't seem to be as much rape round here as back home we also had faint whiffs on the breeze of the rape bloom too. Helen has come down with a little hay fever she thinks and it must be tree pollen I think.
This stretch seems to take ages so it was just as well the weather was fine too. I think physiologically I tend to go much slower on the last day before we go home to make the last day seem to last longer.
There were a few boats moving but we were back at Kings Bromley before lunch. We backed into the fuel jetty and topped up with fuel before pulling out and round to our berth again. It does seem strange to be reurning to the same place we left. We have never done that before, but it does make it much quicker to just load the car up without having to catch a bus and trains back home to get the car to come back and get Helen and Macy Cat. Then again, I did quite like the rail journeys and catching connections etc. I have been missing train travel We were moored up by 1230 and leaving before 1500, and back home just after 1700.
The grass wasn't too long so it can't have had much rain whilst we have been away. No1. daughter had been in and watered the plants so they were all alive, and there was nothing too bad in the post. All in all it was nice to be back home, for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment