Snow at Langley Mill

The Great Northern Basin and start of the disused Nottingham Canal.

We are on the bank side next to the working boat "BATH"

When I finished my last blog, it was still November. Since then Ian found out he was to be under the NHS for the foreseeable future and all our plans went haywire. Now this put us into an awful position of where do we moor that's near to Nottingham City Hospital. Our own mooring at our bungalow was out of the question as we had let the property and there were no facilities available for us to use. (We couldn't really ask our tenants to let us empty our cassette into their loo!!) Luckily we belonged to the ECPDA society and they found a space for us at Langley Mill.
We arrived on a very cold day at the end of January and to our delight woke up to this scene the next day. We were moored on the inside of a traditional working boat "Bath". As there was no water or electric on this side of the basin, we ended up having to run the electric cable over our boats and onto the other side. You can just see the cable in the picture. When we wanted water we attached the hose to rope (which was attached to our cratch board) and pulled it across the basin. Luckily the water in the hose or taps never froze, and although it was a bit cumbersome, we managed very well.

Swans breaking the ice at Anchor Bridge on the Erewash canal

The dogs, Jade and Judy, enjoying the snow.

BBC Inside Out arrive

Looking at my perch.

Ray the presenter coming over for a chat.

While I was fishing below Shipley Lock on the Erewash, a film crew arrived to film and speak to Anglers along the canal. After asking if I would give them an interview, I was duly "microphoned up" and asked some questions on fishing and then asked if I had caught anything. Luckily I had just caught a really small perch and the only fish I had in the net! Ray Gosling the presenter, then held the fish and went all girlie on me and let out a high pitched scream when the fish flapped about. He claimed it had "bitten" him. The producer Tony then asked if we could do another take and so we had to do the whole thing again including Rays scream! All in all we must have done four or five takes until Tony was happy with the result.