Bottles at Braunston

We had planned a few days out over the Christmas break, but with the weather cold wet and miserable, just did a short trip to Braunston and back.  On an afternoon walk we went to look for the line of the old canal in the fields.  It was fairly easy to find, and it looks as though it was filled with rubbish, as there are old glass bottles coming out of the ground.

Later on in the evening the wind dropped and the rain stopped to give us a quiet night before returning to the marina.

Drover

Another addition to the local sculpture trail.  This one is more in keeping with the history of the woods than some of the others - that bank in the background is one side of the "Radfall", a wide track that was maintained for access to the woods.  Contemporary records show that at the time the area of a specific wood was measured by the number of pigs it could support. 

Misty mornings and sunny afternoons

Another short trip to Braunston in unusual weather.  Cold misty starts eventually developed into bright sunshine on both Saturday and Sunday.  It was quite eerie overnight near Butchers Bridge, with water condensing and falling almost like a very fine rain showing up in torchlight.  Lots of people were moving their boats well after dark too, presumably with schedules to meet to avoid being stranded by stoppages.  Breakfast is easier at Braunston too, now that the Gongoozler's Rest offers take away bacon sandwiches that can be picked up on the way back from walking the dog.  

Chatham Dockyard

We've visited the museum at Chatham before, and looked around the submarine and warships that they have there.  (Canals link: the battery bank in the submarine is particularly impressive.)  This time we wanted to look at the Victorian rope works, which is equally impressive, all the more so for the demonstration of rope making.  The works are over 1000 feet long, so that ropes of that length can be made, as specified by the Admiralty based on the depth of water in the locations that they wanted to moor.  It was also surprising how many vernacular expressions come from things to do with rope.  A couple come from the use of a cat of nine tails for punishment in the Navy.  "Letting the cat out of the bag" related to getting ready to beat someone, while "not enough room to swing a cat" referred to the lower decks being too cramped to carry out a punishment.  Lots of other stuff there too, like a large collection of historic lifeboats showing how they have developed over the years.

Stork

Turning seasons

It isn't even four weeks since I saw this tangle of cobwebs in the woods in that last hot spell of the summer.  The dry spring made it a good year for spiders, and I remember trying to catch the sunlight in one.  There was an intermittent pattering noise as the wind gusted that at first sounded like the first heavy drops of a summer storm.  It turned out to be the first of the acorns being dislodged and falling through the tree canopy.

Most of the acorns are on the ground now, and the ones still falling sound different as you hear them bouncing off the nearly bare branches and twigs, rather than pattering through the leaves.  There aren't many cobwebs left either, and the walkers you meet are in fleeces and hats.

Bonus day

Just for once, the weather forecasters got it right today.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky all the way from an early morning dog walk to a mooring outside Braunston Marina, via lunch at the Admiral Nelson.