Slow Progress

Slow Progress

August 2020

2020 isn't a year when we are going to set any records for travel distances.

In fact our weekly tally currently averages less than 10 miles as we make sedate hops between canal side villages or junctions, cycling back after each boat movement to recover the car which we use to shuttle to and from Aldridge a couple of times a week.

As Scottie from Star Trek would probably have said "Its boating, but not as we know it".

If truth be told, this year's boating has more to do with keeping the preserve business alive than the pleasures of leisurely cruising. With all festivals and gatherings cancelled we find ourselves over-blessed with stock, particularly jams and marmalades, so we have turned our attention to informal towpath trading, a style of trade we have never really paid much attention to in the past.

That said, there is a lot of pleasure to be derived from mooring up for a weekend and passing the time of day with the steady trickle of towpath users, selling the odd pot of jam here and there.

This weekend (August Bank Holiday) we find ourselves at Alrewas, with the steady chimes of All Saints Church clock marking the passage of time. Next weekend (5th and 6th Sept) we will return to Fradley and then its back to Great Haywood (12th and13th Sept) before we make a return to the BCN and have the bottom of the motor blacked at Hockley Port.

These static weekends do mean we have scope for some planned socialising with friends using our boat as a destination for a days outing, and because we are to the east of the city, we have seen a lot of our grandchildren, which is lovely.

As we make most of our stock in the winter months we increasingly find ourselves looking forward to the 2021 season, and trying to figure out what and how much stock we need to make. At the outset of the current pandemic we optimistically figured it would be over in the summer and life would have returned to normal by July (festivals included), but clearly this hasn't been the case. As things are shaping up we are coming to the conclusion that 2021 could well hold limited scope for mass gatherings, and that will define what our season looks like.

In the absence of being able to provide tastings people tend to buy the more familiar and predictable flavours and our making plan will probably need to reflect this. As for the quantities needed, thats anyones guess. 

Like many businesses, our primary aim is to live to fight another day, and if that means new ways of selling and an altered product range, so be it.

Stuck on You

Marmalade Awards 2015

March 2015

Its a long accepted fact that in the Wild Side production process I can claim a certain prowess in the fields of preparation and packaging, but in the the vital areas of cooking and the application of the fairy dust element I have remained uninitiated, till now.

But during a recent period of illness I became bored and spent several mornings preparing a mountain of Seville Oranges, over which Helen would then weave her magic. But then the inevitable happened and she succumbed to my lurgey - rendering her unable to make the planned marmalade.

Rather than abandon all my had won preparation I wondered "just how hard is this preserve making malarkey"? I have watched Helen working over steaming cauldrons so many time I decided to have a go myself. Whilst I did make several batches of Sloe Whisky Seville for sale, I also started to think about the Marmalade awards on my own account.

If she can do it, why cant I?

The various categories were reviewed and my eye was caught by the "First Timers" and the "Man Made" sections. I figured I will always be a man but I can only make marmalade for the first time once. And so a jar of "Andy's Succulent Seville Marmalade" was packaged and sent in for judging.

After several weeks when I had forgotten all about it, I received notification that my rookie marmalade had won a silver award! But I was in good company as all of Helen's five marmalade's had won Silver or Bronze Awards. Come to that, Sue Cook (Indigo Dream) also won a silver this year!

That is probably the end of my amateur marmalade career. By the time we get to next years awards I will be on the threshold of leaving work and, with Wild Side becoming a larger part of our lives, I guess I will be better described as an Artisan.

New sheeting for Montgomery

New sheeting for Montgomery

November 2014

When we pressed The Jam Butty into service back in May it was unquestionably a hurried affair.

The limited window of time between acquisition and formal launch saw the purchase of a large tarp on the internet which was designed to offer protection from the elements whilst the boat was being painted. With insufficient time or resources to get some proper sheeting the temporary duty tarp was cut and refitted as side sheets and a top sheet.

Side Cloths

This temporary solution worked ok - up to a point. It certainly kept the worst of the rain out but with the side sheets not properly sealed to the gunnels it was always going to leak a bit. With all the rain we have been having this temporary solution (which involved lots of gaffer tape) needed a better remedy. In fact, in the three weeks since I was last able to visit the boats there has been a lot of rain and I discovered that the water was sloshing around up to the floor boards.

The depth hadn't quite reached the level to activate the automatic bilge pump but this sprang into life the moment I stepped aboard and caused it to rock. Needless to say, it was all a bit damp in the hold.

Acing on the advice of Sarah (Chertsey) I contacted Peter Boyce to have some proper sheets made. After a few abortive attempts to meet up for measuring we decided to use my measurements and trust that all would work out well.

Peter has the sheets made in rapid time and they have sat in our garage for the last two weeks waiting for an opportunity to fix them on - and today was the day.

Firsts the old sheets were removed and abandoned.

Then the gunnels were drilled to accept screw which will attach the oak battens.

Ultra adhesive sealant was applied to the gunnels and the side cloths were positioned and then down fixed with the battens. All was screwed down hard and a good seal achieved along the entire length.

Then it was on with the top cloth which was all tied down with strings provided.

The only bit of this job left outstanding is to paint the gunnels, and the exposed bits of sealant black.

The end result should be waterproof and durable but only time and the winter rains will tell.

The Bond Autumn Market

The Bond Autumn Market

October 2014

The Bond in Digbeth played host to its third quarterly Market on Saturday.

This event originally attracted us due to its proximity to the Grand Union Canal with its two boat basin still intact, that and its proximity to the Edible Eastside site. Its a foodie event which we initially attended in the craft hall in the spring, then with The Jam Butty in the summer and now back into the hall as the weather cools off.

I have to admit that I rather like this event, its so different from the sort of thing we usually attend. It is run by a group of young people for young people with a taste for street food. The star attraction were the original Patti Men - winners of the Burger category in the national Street Food Awards. They attracted huge queues as punters (and hungry stallholders) who were prepared to wait 30 minutes and pay £7.50 for one of the tastiest things I have ever found under a bun.

The interesting thing is to see this event developing. It started as a foodie core and a craft market on the side but increasingly the food dimension is spreading into the craft hall. Last weekend half the hall was taken up with interesting food stalls including:

Artisan bread, specialty cheese, posh pies, organic veg, Greek food, hand made chocolate and of course preserves.

Out in the basin there were two trade boats : The Home Brew Boat and Da Vinci Crafts.

This event has a really good vibe to it and is one not to be missed. 

Don't worry if you overlooked this one, there will be a Winter Market on Sat 6th December.

Parkhead Boat Gathering

Parkhead Boat Gathering

October 2014

After my last post about Banbury Canal Day I am now jumping back in time to the Parkhead Boat Gathering which took place two weeks previously.

 Parkhead 2014

Parkhead takes place every two years, following two weeks after the Black Country Boating Festival which takes place a few miles along the Dudley No2 at Netherton. Given the proximity of the two events we decided against taking the boats back to Calf Heath so we accepted the kind offer of the guys at Hawne Basin and left both boats in their tender care.

Work commitments meant that I had to be in the office on Friday morning and we finally made it to Halesowen for a 1.30pm departure, arriving at a crowded Parkhead at about 4.00pm and was helped into the lock by the crew of All Things Spanish and Charlie from Felonious Mongoose. The festival team had a good crew on the locks and I had little to do apart from steer the boats and answer questions about the butty.

The basin at the top of the locks was interesting. Most of the working boats had arrived and my challenge was to wind immediately above the top lock and then reverse up the arm towards the tunnel portal and our mooring, three boats back next to The Home Brew Boat.

Winding the butty is a challenge at any time but reversing the two boats is pretty much an impossibility and this maneuver was conducted under the watchful scrutiny of a whole host of working boat experts. In the event the wind went well and both boats ended up in the right position  and the move back was achieved with the aid of another boater who took the stern rope from the butty and bow (or stern) hauled us in.

Parkhead is a compact site and boats were always three abreast and at times the congestion was such that boats spent the night rafted up from one side to the other.

The BCBF and Parkhead may only be 4 miles apart but the nature of the events couldnt be more different. BCBF is one huge community event attracting tens of thousands of visitors whilst Parkhead is lower key and is primarily an event for boaters and particularly for historic boat enthusiasts. As well as boat movements we had butty legging in the tunnel and perhaps the highlight for me was horse boating a BCN day boat up and down the locks. 

With President fired up, a steam showman's engine fired up and plenty of boat chimneys smoking away the site was shrouded on smoke which offered an extra dimension of authenticity to life in the Black Country 150 year ago.

For all its attractions, the event is not so well known in the local community. Its a very porous site with many entrances but my guess it that it attracted perhaps 5,000 plus external visitors over the two days. But size isn't everything and all four trade boats did steady business and provided scope to get ashore and enjoy the attractions more than usual.

All in all a special boating event put on by boaters for boaters.

Banbury Canal Day

Banbury Canal Day

October 2014

For us the Banbury Canal day, held on the first Sunday in October, represents the last outdoor trading event of the season.

A bit of history

We would dearly love to attend on our boat but as any boater will tell you, Banbury is two big watersheds away from our base on the Staffs and Worcester and is therefore too far away to be a credible destination for a one day event. Maybe one for the future...

 And some pomp

So for now its an event we attend in the car and if I am honest its one of the easiest, even if it is an hour's drive from home. The dawn trip down the M40 is almost a joy and when we arrive we can pull up alongside a pre erected stall and hey presto all the stock is ready for sale.

The crowds show up

Banbury has just celebrated its 11th anniversary under the leadership of the local town council, ably supported by a management committee made up of all the interested parties. The end result is a well organised and well attended event attracting over 35 boats, 110 stalls and an estimated 20,000 visitors. This year Nutfield and Raymond were in show adding an extra depth to the boating dimension, which was great.

But of course its not just the boats which make events like this special. Banbury gives us an opportunity to see old friends who live south of Braunston. People like the Hebie's, Maffi, Bones to name just a few and then there are the repeat customers who come and see us year after year.

 Friends

However, all is not entirely rosy in the garden and there is often some rough to balance out the smooth. This year the downs included the stinky drains which were so bad that customers complained, and then the inexorable rise of the charity stall which destroys the interest factor of the market as surely as they do on the high street. And then there was the enthusiastic outcry approach from a young helper at the next door stall - "four tickets for a pound, sweets a pound a bag" she screeched out every 15 seconds for a straight two hours. The amazing thing was that this technique actually drove customers from their stall, and ours. My guess is it cost us 10% of sales.... Grr.But tat said the other traders saw sales down a bit  of fine weather. Hey, that's the way it goes sometimes.

It takes all sorts!

So that's it for outdoor trading season - Droitwich to Banbury in five months with a lot of fun along the way. See you all next year.

Black Country Boating Festival 2014

Black Country Boating Festival 2014

September 2014

Our journey to the Black Country Festival was kind of circuitous, involving that memorable trip to Napton and involved a relief crew to get motor and butty back to Birmingham from Warwick. 

In the end we picked the boats up from a friend's mooring in Symphony Court, incurring the ire of the NCP staff as I unloaded the car beside the Symphony Hall visitor moorings. The central Birmingham starting point was convenient and allowed us to reach the festival site in mid afternoon, slotting into our tightly measured space outside the visitor centre. Adrian - how could I ever doubt your measuring skills?

In the event I saw little of the festival. We set up the butty on Friday evening and ate with Barry and Sandra (Homebrew Boat) but when the starting gun was fired our feet never touched the ground. The weather was glorious and the crowds flocked out in their thousands, many being repeat customers eager for another jammy fix. In the end we broke all our sales records on the Saturday and even the Sunday, usually a quieter day, we matched our previous record. The end result was a much denuded stall as we struggled to field a field a credible display. As we packed away there was a sad little pile of full boxes in the butty, barely enough to need to think about balancing the trim.

With all that frenetic activity our time in the beer tent was limited in the extreme, in fact we spent more time in the tent attending the church service than we did whilst the bar was open for its given purpose and apart from the liberal supply of Barry's homebrew, we only managed to consume two pints of Bumblehole on Sunday afternoon.

We slunk out of the festival site at 6.00pm, closely followed by Areandare, finding a slot in Hawne Basin in the last fading glimmer of twilight, out temporary home for two weeks before the Park Head rally.

Oh how I love the Black Country Boating Festival - a real community event. Our booking is in for the 30th Anniversary festival in September 2015.

Blisworth Festival filled to overflowing

Blisworth Canal Festival

August 2014

We have been attending Blisworth Festival for three of the four years it has been running, watching it grow from a large village fete to the monster it became this year. Sadly Blisworth is too far to reach by boat so we fall back on the good old gazebo and a night in a bed and breakfast.

A busy Blisworth waterfront

Exhibitors have been quick to spot the free festival and this year there were over eighty stall holders and the number of trade boats doubled as well. But all this extra size puts a strain on the village infrastructure with last years nearly empty Festival Field becoming a sea of tents. This year every nook and cranny of the village was occupied and with the best of the weekend forecast for Saturday over 20,000 visitors flocked in.

The ever popular face painter

But all this growth isn't entirely good news. Not only do a lot of stall holders and trade boats find themselves in less than great positions, the event is in danger of losing the "villagey" aspect which has made it all so special in the past. That said, the people of Blisworth have come to know and appreciate our preserves, coming back to buy more year after year. As a result we had a near record day with preserves flying off our stall all afternoon.

Our long association with Blisworth has also provided a great source of ingredients. One customer bought two jars of Meadowsweet with Mirabelle Plum jam and told us that she had a tree laden with these yellow plums in her front garden, and we were welcome to pick them. Half an hour up a ladder resulted in 14kg's of fruit ready for more jam and chutney. And then there is the allotment society who had some surplus fruit so we returned home with raw ingredients for our next few batches.

An night in Stoke Bruene

It would have been nice to follow this up with a second day of busy trading but the remnants of hurricane Bertha had other ideas. For once the forecasters had it right - rain, serious rain all morning followed with storm force wind. We returned to a dripping gazebo at 9.00 am and it was clear that even if we did set the stall up there would be few customers wading along the towpath which had more than a passing resemblance to the canal it tracks. 

So along with most of the other stall holders we threw in the towel, folded up the dripping canvas and headed back to Birmingham. 

The Willows and Moomins

But all was not lost as we discovered that the Willows and Moomins were moored in Cambrian Wharf so we all trouped over to the Piano and Pitcher for a chat and coffee whilst we watched the rain fall one a sodden Brindley Place. Its better when viewed from the warm and dry!

The Bond Summer Fair

The Bond Summer Fair

August 2014

Our relief crew duly arrived at Camp Hill locks as planned on Friday morning and car was exchanged for the boats and we were afloat again - a gap of only five days!

Helen was not feeling too well so went below to have 40 winks and woke as I brought the boat out of the last of the six locks of the Camp Hill flight!

The reason for this switch was out attendance at the Summer Fair at The Bond in Digbeth. The event is street food based and attracts a much younger crowd than we usually see, and one with little or no boating connection. Its therefore time to go all evangelical about the cabals and the buildings we were occupying.

The venue has a small basin big enough for two trade boats - in this case the Cheese Boat (Sue and Ade) and ourselves. We both moored at the junction just below the locks, slipping into the Bond's Basin at about 9.30 leaving plenty of time before the 12.00 start. Regrettably is poured with rain during the set up and we reluctantly reversed the boats to place the butty under the covered section.

The weather reduced the attendance from the spring's 1400 to about 800 but sales remained good and in the end we were only slightly down on last lime.

The event is base round a "street food" theme and was a lot of fun to take part in. The event has a very laid back and mellow "vibe" and whilst numbers were down the attendees clearly had a good time.