Boat Life Episodes

Rain and mud are all around us at the moment, but there is wonder there too. The ancient myth of ‘The Voyage of Bran’ helps us to find the extraordinary within the ordinary and (with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel) the beauty of Tuesday Morning, 5.30am.Journal entry:13th January, Friday“Boggy ground, although I am high on the hill.Standing in the cluster of four oaks waiting.Waiting for I don’t know what.I turn, and behind me, the sunrises in red and goldThrough the dense br...

Join us around the stove tonight, on a very cosy NB Erica that is currently ice-locked into a frozen landscape, as we think about the Fimbulwinter of old, and why Midwinter might be mid-winter after all!Journal entry:14th December, Wednesday.“Ridges of frost form ribs on the sweep of hills.Two rooks throw calls against a skyMarbled by the setting sun.Beyond the horizon, a pheasant startles a distant wood.My fingers and toes burn.Episode Information:Water turning to stoneF...

“Those eyes of old look at me and, through the haze of your futures, I look back at you…”On this freezing December night, snuggle closer to the stove as I reflect on the strangeness of coming across an old photograph of me as a small child as well as the adventures of the Archdeacon on ice.Journal entry:9th December, Friday“The scent of wood smoke and cold air.The warm, dry sound of someone splitting firewood.Each teasel head is framed in a perfect halo of sunlight.Today, at l...

The night is chill and crisp, a bright moon rides the racing clouds and stars shimmer on the surface of the canal. It’s a perfect night for a night walk. Snuggle down and wrap up warm as you join me on a canal walk washed by moon light.Journal entry:29th November, Tuesday“Reluctant daylight.The sun's cold shoulder.Three ducks bob on ruffled water.I walk on uphillGrateful for thick socks.”Episode Information:Earlier the night of the walk as darkness fell. Looking out of the b...

As the nights draw in and the cosy glow of a fire gets evermore inviting, it is the perfect time to share stories. It is not surprising that ghost stories have an enduring appeal. Many stories of the canal feature them. Ghosts like the canal networks themselves create a link between our worlds and the past. Tonight we enjoy the skill of Ian Douglas’ retelling of a ghostly encounter at Blisworth tunnel and why these stories are important.Journal entry:18th November, Friday.“Stainless ...

This episode is especially for our youngest regular listener to the podcast, Rory, who had her 6th birthday a couple of weeks ago. So tonight, we explore the narrowboat Erica and what it is like to live on a boat, and then, especially for Rory listen to a story about another little girl who met some rather strange and wonderful people.Journal entry:29th September, Thursday.“The reservoir is grey and slabby today,Crests form on wavelets the colour of old ice.Ghosting veils of low...

Although a little delayed, the long-awaited rain and thunder did eventually arrive. Join us tonight as we hunker down beside a young willow and enjoy, with a field full of crows, the wonder of a thunderstorm as it roars overhead and all the richness it brings.Journal entry:19th August, Friday.“An impulse forage among the brambles on aBlustery day of tall clouds and sunshine.I pick the high berries, you the lower ones.I extricate you when a bramble thorns your sleeve.Thirty-seven ...

It has been a sweltering hot week with temperatures in the 30s (90F). Join me onboard NB Erica, on a hot August night just as the heatwave is about to break, as we listen for the rolling sound of distant thunder.Journal entry:10th August, Wednesday“The last of today’s sun slowly climbsthe dolphin-backed ridge of hill,colouring the broad cluster of oaksand tawny grass with long shadows.A few hundred yards from meA barrel-roofed lock cottage,Its red door peelingAnd windows no...

Join me this week as we moor on a still August night, under a proud stand of poplars studded with starlight and moonlight. Tonight, we explore the evocative power of scents and smells.Journal entry:6th August, Saturday."The sun is three fingers above the horizonand washes the bankside reeds with golden fire.Three ducks cast perfect wakes of VsSlowly, swimming the channel of molten bronze.There is something ethereal about this lightLike stepping from one world into another....

The forecast hot weather has come and gone, but its psychological, as much as physical, effects feel a bit harder to shift. So join with me tonight as we gaze deeply into the mirrored dome of the night sky and its web of starlight, to discover what stories they tell and their challenge for us to begin to create newer ones.Journal entry:22nd July, Friday“Every day shakes the kaleidoscope.Lift it to your eye.Twist the base and look.Today, three young jackdaws chase each otherThr...

These are the long days. The days of heat and dust. The days of quiet skies and dulled colours. Days of eclipse and renewal. These are the dog days of summer.Journal entry:23rd July, Saturday [should read 16th July - blame the heat!!]“Martins twist and flit around the large ash,Clustering in the branches like cockney parakeets.En masse they drop, forking down to the water surface,Swimming the air with dolphin-like grace.We slip the mooring ropes and leave.”Episode Informat...

Odd little shards of memory take on new meaning. A young man clinging to the side of a bridge, a walk around a reservoir, a canal-side pub, a bridge crossing the Grand Union. It is funny how, looking back, distinct paths and interconnections can be found. It is, sometimes, tempting to see them as clear paths that we are destined to follow. However, sometimes, they are coincidence or simply a case that one spots significance after the event. Whatever the case, they can also be 'love letters writt...

The heat of the past few days has broken with sweeping skies filled with rain and lowering clouds. Join me tonight, as we reflect on life on water in the heat of summer, listen to the poetic words of one of our listeners, and discover the wisdom of making bread through the words of another listener and Robin Wall Kimmerer.Journal entry:14th June, Tuesday.“The day starts fresh with clean skies and grasses that glitter with rainbows.Beneath the rushes, a moorhen fusses.The air is scente...

This week has been one of extremes that encompasses the splendour of solitude and an onboard visit by three very enthusiastic police dogs (and a puppy)! Alongside all this, we took time to listen to some bats, watch the cygnets as the grow ever stronger and contemplate the hidden depths of the most surprising people.Journal entry:8th June, Wednesday"The wind is kicking up among the branches of the ash and oaks while clouds as heavy as wet blotting paper begin to gather.There is t...

On the week that the cygnets of our swan pair hatched, we explore the rather contradictory nature of the canal through the eyes of poets Jo Bell, Nancy Campbell, and Ian MacMillan. We find romance amidst the unromantic and beauty in the unbeautiful.Journal entry:1st June, Wednesday"Heron, streak of grey light,Standing on the bank,Coverletted in Moon's-EyeAnd the first flush of poppies of the season.Rain falls as needles of sunlight.The heron preens for a whileAnd then is gon...

May slowly rolls into June, but is summer really here? The towpaths and hedgerows are garlanded in summer colours and the ducks (and swans) are beginning to move into their time of eclipse. Some of the mallard drakes are beginning to look very travel-worn! Meanwhile, days like these seem to bring a lot of childhood memories to mind.Journal entry:27th May, Friday"Two hours until sundown and a stillness already settles.Shadows creep low and long through the sedge and long grasses on t...

I want to describe to you what I saw today, but I can't. We have so many words to describe and represent the most complex of concepts. Why then is it almost impossible to describe something so simple and ordinary as the colour of the water earlier today? Kathleen Jamie and Thomas Merton (with a little excursive with Hana Videen) help us to find some answers.Journal entry:17th May, Tuesday"The hills are painted a dusty grey and the world is filled with the quietness of sheep, the cry ...

The Greek myths tell us that there are times when the gods come down from Olympus to walk amongst mortals. We had a very similar experience when, on a sunny day in late March, David Johns came to visit us and record an episode for his canal-based vlog Cruising the Cut.Journal entry:11th May, Wednesday“The carp are spawning!May rain casting rings on thrashed water,The flash of fin,And a watery thunderThat rumbles along the side of the hull.I lie in the half-light of dawn,S...

Why are canal boats and traditional canal-ware so colourful? When did the custom of painting working boats in bright colours begin and why? This week we explore our attraction to bright colours and what Tom Rolt describes as the ‘working boaters’ inborn gypsy love of colours.’Journal entry:25th April, Monday"Heavy grey clouds, ragged and torndrift overhead.Two women sit cross-legged on their cabin roof.A blackbird scissors the skyabove forest green conifers.A hint of Ea...

Snuggle up comfortably as you join us on the NB Erica for a wild night and day as we ride the storms Dudley and Eunice. The poems of Ted Hughes, Louis MacNeice, A.A. Milne, William Blake, and John Betjeman keep us company as they take us through a day of roaring wind and rattling rain-squalls.Please note, the audio for this episode has been intentionally kept ‘dirty’ to capture the ambient sounds of a storm as experienced on a narrowboat and so any bangs, clicks, clunks, and other background...

As we begin to enter the depths of winter, this episode celebrates with a soundscape of winter at the moorings that tries to capture the life and energy of this season.Journal entry:“18h January, Tuesday.A rich winter moon hangs between the branches of the ash.Beneath a sky veiled in ice, sheepThe colour of worn lead face the first glow of dawn.Penny picks up the scent of rabbitsWe walk together on crystals and silence."Episode InformationDucks on iceWinter on the can...

The remnants of two days of murk still cling to the hedgerows and trees as you join us tonight on the narrowboat Erica. A very slow thaw is polishing the dulled surface of the water making reflected lights once again dance with life. Curl up and let’s enjoy those little shards of distant memories that still colour out present and fill us with such powerful emotions.

Curl up with us for this very special Christmas Eve edition of the podcast. Whether you are feeling on your own or just in need of a bit of a breathing space, why not join me tonight for this special Jólabókaflóð inspired edition of Nighttime on Still Water’s? Although the weather may be closer to Greg Lake’s “veil of tears for the virgin birth”, there will always the possibility for “eyes filled with tinsel and fire.”Journal entry:“24th December, Friday. Christmas EveYesterdayFour ...

Against all odds, this episode comes a little out of time! Events have conspired resulting in a slightly truncated episode recorded in the afternoon!! Nevertheless, duck chatter and babies (with a little help from John Moriarty) help us to find a path through the tangled thickets that many of us are possibly facing.Journal entry:“10th November, WednesdayA light mist, like smoke, has begun to sweep down the hill turning fields and woods to smudgy greys. Scattered across the gentle curve of ...