Belated Burns Night

On Saturday we went to The Cricketers for their Burns Night celebration.
Here's the menu which went down very well.

Then... here's the cabaret!
I did take some video but the sound quality was pretty poor as the volume was a bit high for such a small room - so, if you go to the website there's some 'proper' video of him on there http://www.michaelbublefever.com/ what do you think? I'll be interested to hear!

College Lake

After visiting Marsworth we called in at College Lake which is a bird reserve at the former Castle Cement works near Tring.
It seems to have been there some time as there are several very old hides, but since they have been awarded lottery funding there's a beautiful new visitors centre and a lot of brand new hides as well.
It was fairly muddy so we just did a short walk to have a look at the place. We'll come back in the Spring as it should be good for butterflies being a chalk landscape.

Lock repairs

As you can see, the workings of a lock gate are really pretty simple - metal doors over large holes in the gates, or over a channel in the lock wall

Here's one of the chaps 'easing' the new gates with a good old fashioned hammer and chisel

Bulbourne dry dock

The queue of boats waiting above the stoppage. All the work was scheduled to be completed in less than a week

Marsworth lock flight

While we were at Marsworth we took advantage of the guided tours being led by British Waterways staff which explained the 'winter works' going on at the lock flight.

It was all very interesting, and strange to see the canal drained along this stretch. We had seen drained sections and works going on before, but it was still a very odd sight. As you can see, there is a huge build-up of silt on the inside of the bends where the outside is kept clear by the water emtying with great force from the lock above.

Marsworth reservoir

On Saturday we went to Marsworth reservoir for a wander.

As you can see, it was very windy with white-topped waves on the water.

So windy in fact, that we had to take shelter in The Anglers Retreat which was very welcoming with its usual excellent beer and wholesome food.

Springtime?

"Is it Spring yet, Dad?"

Soup of the day

There was a bit of hilarity in The Cricketers yesterday lunchtime when a customer asked, "What's the soup of the day".
He looked a little taken aback when the answer was, "Cream of chicken and gerbil".
After adjusting his hearing aid he realised it was, "Cream of chicken and chervil".
Can you get aniseed flavoured gerbils?

Post No.400

Well, here we are at post number 400 right in the middle of 'nothing much happening' time of year.
My retirement companion Poppy continues to check everything that goes on the blog...

...and only when she's completely happy does it get published.

Let's hope for some exciting 'news' soon. I guess I'll have to out looking for it though!

Until Post 401 then...

Times are hard

In these hard economic times we've had to make the difficult decision to send Poppy out selling The Big Issue.

March to Flamstead

We usually go for a walk on New Year's Day but postponed it until yesterday as the weather wasn't particularly good. We walked up to Flamstead past the Redbourn Cricket School and on through the fields where there was still a fair bit of snow lying in places.

Our destination (surprise, surprise) was The Spotted Dog which has just reopened after the fire last year. The repairs have cost £700,000 and had to comply with conservation guidelines which is partly why it has taken so long. We were made very welcome and enjoyed a couple of rounds of drinks with friends who live in Flamstead.

This extension to the village graveyard is very nicely named, don't you think?

Happy New Year!

We had some very good friends round last night to see in the New Year. I made lots of curries which went down well, and we all gave SWMBO's Wii (Playstation?) a good try out which caused much hilarity!

Very best New Year wishes to all blog followers - it's good having you along.