Archive
Moved into our new flat
We are busy unpacking boxes and figuring out how to fit into our massive flat…. with no closets. It’s an English thing. We have quite a few hooks, towel bars, and paintings/pictures to hang.
Even though we are only about 3 streets away from where we have been renting, we now feel a bit permanent here. When you visit, here is what you will find in our neighborhood:
- The Fulham Palace
- The Fulham Palace Road Cemetery (always an interesting quite walk with lots of squirrels to get Milo excited)
- A place to buy plants
- Craven Cottage where the Fulham Football Club plays
- We live in the neighborhood (or neighbourhood) of Hammersmith & Fulham
- And of course Bishops Park where we take Milo to run all the time
Canal Boats in Yorkshire
Daisy, Milo, Alan, Megan, Anne, Lorie, and I spent 3 days and 2 nights on the Leicester, which is a 53 foot boat in the Rochdale Canal in West Yorkshire. We started off in the town of Sowerby Bridge, quite enjoyed the little town of Hebden Bridge, and came close to getting to Todmorden. We only got as far as a good biker bar just before Todmorden, which turned out to be fun since we were the token Americans and appeared to be quite the novelty. I’m not sure about other biker bars in England, but this one included someone who had never been outside of the Todmorden area (so she says) and a guy who was swapping names of favorite poets with Anne. He rode a Honda, but would like to have a Harley if he could afford it.
The canal is full of locks that we had to open and close on our own, and the boat is really a very slow moving barge with a big diesel engine. We only made it about 8 or 9 miles down the canal before we had to turn around and get back, so it is about half the speed of a casual walk. Along the canal are old mills, pubs, rolling hills of trees and farms divided by rock-walls, and other barges that people live on.
In Sowerby Bridge, we went through the deepest lock in England, which has a draft of 20 feet, and it was the only one that had someone stationed there to operate it. Otherwise, we were the ones opening and closing the gates and drains to raise and lower the water level in the locks. For the most part, Alan and I were usually driving the boat, Megan and Anne worked the locks, and Lorie was on dog duty to keep the dogs (mostly Daisy) from jumping off the boat or getting too nervous while going through the locks (mostly Milo). Here’s a diagram of the interior of our boat – long and skinny.
Update:
The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth 