Short chug & Injuries

A short chug from Snarestone down to somewhere between Shackerstone and Market Bosworth. But long enough for some weirdness. The first was a guy playing a gig on his full dual keyboard setup at Gopsall Wharf. His audience? A couple of very bemused ducks. And me temporarily. I would love to show you photographic evidence. That will teach me to check the phone is plugged in properly before I go to bed. Then 5 minutes later, stood on one of those pretty brick accommodation bridges, was the spitting image of Vladimir Putin, in sunglasses. Again, no picture. But trust me he was there. So, now I resolved to pull over and get the SLR. Guess what? Flat battery. Instead I moved the phone to the back of the boat to charge. Now it was within easy reach for the next weirdness.

Which, of course, never happened. But I was in time to capture this motorboat and butty pair making their way up the Ashby. It always surprises me, how much work the person steering the butty has to do to persuade the butty to turn. They were having to keep to the centre, because they were both deep draughted. I moved over to let them past. And went hard aground. A bit of advice for novice boaters. If this happens to you, don’t go reaching for the boat pole and full throttle ahead. That almost always makes the situation worse. Often, a quick burst of reverse throttle will loosen you enough to slide off backwards, essentially reversing the route you went to go aground in the first place.

I noticed a boat called Eostra on the way up. I resolved to take a better look at it on the way back.

Eostra or Eostre, is the Anglo Saxon goddess of the spring. There is a legend linking Eostre and a hare. Google it, you will find that this is where the name for Easter and the tradition of the Easter bunny are imagined to come from, supposedly. Dig a little deeper, and you will discover that there may be little evidence for this. Apparently the rumour about the name was started by the Venerable Bede (according to the Guardian). Why do I mention this. Heron was called Eostre when we bought her.

I have been told I should catalogue the dog injuries. No that’s not injuries the dog has sustained. These are the injuries she has inflicted on me.

1. First and most obvious. I am now wearing a splint on my right wrist which is helping to relieve the strain placed on it by Sam’s repeated vigorous pulling on the lead. Sounds a bit pathetic, I know. The problem is we have one of those extending leads, one of the longest you can get. If you are not paying attention, she will take off after something (rabbit, squirrel, duck, insect…) and run at full speed, until she hits the end of the lead. This is nothing. Two years ago, she dislocated Heather’s shoulder. She only realised it wasn’t just a painful strain when it popped back in again on its own 2 days later.
2. Rope burns, behind both knees. This is a combination of the previously mentioned extending lead and deciding to wear shorts. Well, it was sunny and there was nobody around to be blinded by their whiteness. Again, you have to pay attention. If she is behind you and sees something in front that needs chasing, off she goes at full speed. If she passes you on the same side as the lead, you only risk the wrist strain (see 1. above). If she goes on the other side, the rope of the lead rides up your legs until it reaches the back of your knee, and then you get a serious rope burn.
3. Nettle stings, almost everywhere. Dog dashes into massive patch of nettles, that has a small hawthorn bush in the middle of it. She gets completely tangled, so you have to go in after her. You think, I’ll be alright, I’ve learnt that wearing shorts is a bad idea so I’ve got my long trousers on. And then she winds the lead around your legs as well. So you fall over, in the big patch of strong Leicestershire nettles. They manage to sting you on almost every exposed area of skin and through the material of your trousers.

By the way, that wasn’t this morning, just over the last 2 days.

Now we’re moored, the dog has played fetch the ball for a while, so she’s fast asleep. And remarkably,I have no new dog-inflicted injuries.

As consolation, I’ve started the “Marillion tracks in chronological order” playlist. we’re at “Garden Party”.

Try it if you have Spotify

Spotify doesn’t have the Pre-Order edition of Marbles, so I substituted the missing tracks with lives version where I could. The only completely missing track is “The Only Unforgivable Thing”.