Friday is for Gran & The Fiddlehead - Part 9

Tea for 2, just outside of Warwick Castle, merry ol' England.

This ongoing post documents a family reunion - 2 weeks along the Leicester Loop in England on 5 narrow boats!

Points of Note:
- Patience mooning Lindsey and Sandy on bikes
- Meeting the Welsh born Mill Engineer who gave us a tour of the River Mill at the Castle
- Posing as a jester
- Smelling tiny Juliette roses
- Sampling a Bakewell cake - can't recommend it! very dry & not much taste.
- Havin' a pint at a canal side pub - always recommended!

Journaling along in my Moleskin.

Inside Warwick Castle.

My husband learned a cheer or two from Jackie, our very own cheerleader.

Friday is for Gran & The Fiddlehead - Part 7

Today's post is dedicated to my Gran Betty and her canal boat called The Fiddlehead. This regular Friday post documents a recent two week family vacation taken by 35 family members on 5 narrow boats, with folks ranging in age from 8 months to 91 years old (Gran herself!)

This was Day 7 as recorded in my faithful moleskin journal. We had just spent yesterday at Warwick Castle (pictured below) otherwise known as "Britain's Ultimate Castle" according to their website. It dates back almost 1,100 years to 914 AD when Ethelfleda (cool name!), daughter of Alfred the Great, ordered the building of a 'burh' or an earthen rampart to protect the small hill top settlement of Warwick from Danish invaders.

Some English sayings I gathered along the trip:
Blighty (used especially by troops serving abroad, means - Britain; home.)
"Bob loves tatties and winkies" (written on someone's van-take a guess what it means!)
Give Way (a street sign that means "Yield")
Shandy with bangers and mash (good food and good drink; ie. pub grub.)

Me and my good buddy, the court jester at Warwick Castle (can you tell I'm a flautist?)

Friday is for Gran & The Fiddlehead - Part 6

This is my weekly letter to my Gran who now resides in Ottawa. This post commemorates a recent family reunion along the canals and waterways of England - we were thirty-five family members in all, ranging in age from eight months old to ninety-one (Gran herself!) We toured the Leicester Loop on five narrow boats seeing the middle of England at three miles an hour - the perfect speed ... indeed!

Daily sketching kept me occupied. This was Day Six from my moleskin journal - depicting the route to Coventry - where Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets on her horse. The rooftop sketches in the lower right hand corner of my journal (pictured above) are what's known as the Weaver's Cottages in Foleshill, a suburb of Coventry. Skilled jacquard silk weavers called Huguenots escaped persecution in Europe and settled here and soon thousands of local people were employed in this cottage industry.

Gran's boat held seven people in total and was equipped with a special ramp for her wheelchair. One night I tucked her into bed by saying, "Sleep tight - don't let the bed bugs bite" and quick as a whip she answered back, "If they do get out your shoe and beat them black and blue!"

Friday is for Gran & The Fiddlehead - Part 5

Friday's post is dedicated to my Gran Betty who lives in a nursing home and used to own a canal boat in England called The Fiddlehead. This is my weekly letter to her. This post also commemorates a recent family trip taken by thirty-five family members as we motored five canal boats (at three miles an hour) along the Leicester Loop in England on a two week vacation sponsored by Gran herself. We ranged in age from eight months old to ninety-one (Gran herself) and it was a trip I shall never forget!

This is me casually steering a several ton canal boat - no worries, just watch out for ninety degree angles that require turning whilst going under a curved brick bridge - oops! (I guess anyone can make a mistake on their first day out!)

Two pages from my sketchbook, painted hastily (well as fast as one can while scenery whips by at two miles an hour from the deck of a boat!)

This is Jackie, one of my ship mates (and engaged to my cuz, at the time this was taken) swabbing the deck - those Virgos do love to be tidy! (And I should know, 'cause I'm one of them.)

Just a regular canal boat dinner. We all took turns pairing up to cook. That's me on the right and my hubbie across from me (in the front,) with Jackie next to me and my two cousins alongside. We all shared this particular boat (unofficially known as the 'party-boat,') along with my brother Pete (who was taking the picture.) Everyone really went all out with the cooking - buying meats from small village meat shops, veggies from small supermarkets, good wine and all the fixings; all trying to outdo each other, but we were the envy of the other four boats, I can tell you that much!

Gran - Part 1
Gran - Part 2
Gran - Part 3
Gran - Part 4

Friday is for Gran & the Fiddlehead - Part 2

This Friday post is an ongoing canal boat feature in honour of my Gran, who was the proud owner of her very own English canal boat named "The Fiddlehead." Gran currently lives in a nursing home and this is my way of staying in touch on a regular basis because Friday is her mail day! The pictures in these posts come from Gran's own scrapbook as well as a recent family trip in 2007 that included 35 family members ranging from 8 months to 91 years old (Gran herself) on 5 narrow boats touring along the Leicester Loop.

A Wee Bit of History About The British Canal System
The British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution and the UK was the first country to acquire a nationwide canal network. This was a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit of raw materials and finished products. It was no accident that amongst the first canal promoters were the pottery manufacturers of Staffordshire.

The canal system came into being because the Industrial Revolution (which began in Britain during the mid-18th century) demanded an economic and reliable way to transport goods and commodities in large quantities. Some 29 river navigation improvements took place in the 16th and 17th centuries starting with the Thames locks and the River Wey Navigation.

The 20th century brought competition from road-haulage, and only the strongest canals survived until the Second World War. After the war decline of trade on all remaining canals was rapid, and by the mid 1960s only token traffic was left, even on the widest and most industrial waterways.

Here is Post 1 from this series: Gran Part 1