General Witterings -
Woofs on 'Rosy'

The story so far ...

Bill, on the narrow boat Rosy, having spent 2001 cruising the canals of Belgium and France, is now moored for the winter at Briare, a small town on the River Loire, about 100 km south(ish) of Paris, at a point when an canal aqueduct (the longest in Europe?) carries the canal across the River Loire.  Now read on ...

BOATY BITS

Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure has proved its worth again.  This stuff is a very thin and watery white mastic, which via the capillary effect can creep into cracks, where it solidifies, sealing the crack.  I used it on the window frames of Rosy, where it worked a treat.  I've just found another leak, and traced it to a small hole in the external window sealant.  I squirted a bit of CTCCC into the hole, and was surprised to see it oozing up through the sealant on either side of the hole, through cracks invisible to the naked eye.  All now seems to be sealed.

CANALLY BITS

There was a day out last Sunday.  The Canal du Berry is currently an abandoned canal.  During the Freycinet reforms, the several small aqueducts and (I think) the bridge crossings, were widened to the Freycinet standard, but the locks weren't, so they are now under gauge for the French system (though a bit wider than the UK narrow locks).  There is a keen Society (see www.arecabe.org ), aimed at restoring it to navigation.  It's not too big a job.  The top 12 km are now working, complete with automatic locks and a couple of (Springer?) narrow boats.  The masonry on most of the other locks is OK, though most have been weired.  A few stretches have been infilled, and turned into tennis courts or car parks.  We saw a nice 'double lock', several aqueducts and a lift bridge in the process of renovation.  One basin has a couple of electric launches on it for hire.  The Society puts pressure on local councils and businesses etc. to get it restored as a leisure amenity and for tourism.  50 Society members (plus me) out of a membership of 250 were on the tour - I don't know that many IWA (Inland Waterways Association) branches would get 20% of their members to an outing!  There is also a wonderfully idiosyncratic museum, which has in its eclectic collection two berrichons - the boats that used to work on the canal.  The berrichons sometimes had stabling built amidships for the towing animals - often donkeys.

PERSONAL BITS

On Monday the local Scot went off home to deal with tribal (oops!!  Sorry!  clan) matters, and I am left with Jess, an 18 month old Border Collie.  Fortunately she is quite well trained.  We are getting along not too badly.  She gets a run out each afternoon.  There is a big open space, and a flick of my wrists speeds an Aerobie (like a frisbee with a big hole in then middle) away, and Jess chases after it.  If she doesn't see it land she has great difficulty in finding it.  She can pass within a foot of it and not see (or smell) it!!  I guess it is because she is genetically used to chasing after large white woolly things that say 'Baaaa!' and smell of sheep shit.  Certainly she doesn't like to bring the Aerobie all the way back to me.  She dumps it down about 12 yards away from me, then backs off another 12 yards (so that it is half way between her and me) and lies down to watch it, and to make sure it doesn't run away when I approach it.

She also has a problem with ducks.  The main problem is that they are there, so she has to keep an eye on any that come near Rosy.  If she is at the front of Rosy, and the duck swims towards the stern, she has to dash through the boat to the stern.  And vice versa.  She can just about cope with the swimming ones, but that brings up the second duck problem - they fly!!  The flyers are a big problem for her, as she doesn't know where they are going to land, so each requires a good barking to keep it away from Rosy.  The third major problem with ducks is that they quack in a coded language that Jess doesn't understand.  I think she sees the quacky ones as the leaders/trouble-makers, and they need a particular eye being kept on them - and a good barking.

Talking of sheep shit ...

It has long been my considered opinion that most farm animals (i.e.  those animals which have been selectively bred by human beings for their use and table) have arrived at a state whereby the carcass may be fine for butchering, but is incompatible with an animalistic way of life.  Or, to put it another way, their bottoms don't overhang their hind legs sufficiently.

For example, when Rosy chugs past a field of Charolais cattle, they often take fright, and canter over to a far corner.  To get there more quickly, each animal tries to lose (considerable) weight via a bowel evacuation, but ends up with the well known medical condition known, scientifically, as 'crap down the back of the leg' which (from personal childhood recollection) is pretty unpleasant.

Toodle pip!!

Bill