Not Enough Time For The Two. 4th August

Salthouse Dock

The sound of an engine starting up in the morning tends to make one of us get up and put the kettle on and see who is leaving today. Another morning of the full six boats pulling out in turn and heading back under the bridge to Albert Dock. That will be us tomorrow morning. Our new neighbour made a move shortly afterwards and moved up a couple of moorings that had become available, not sure if we smelt or if that was their allotted mooring that hadn’t been available when they arrived.

Mick set off as soon as he’d had breakfast to pick up our life jackets. He opted to go by bus, but this proved to be more expensive than the train as he had to buy a rover ticket. The jackets were ready and waiting to be picked up. They all passed and only one auto-inflate needed replacing, even though we thought they were all out of date.

Once back we decided that we’d only be able to visit one type of God today and opted for the Anglican. On the way we called into John Lewis so that I could exchange some wool, I’d under estimated how much blue I needed and over estimated the red, so a straight swap was easy.

Mick opted to head on up the tower to admire the views whilst I kept my feet firmly on the ground and had a good look around.

The first Bishop of Liverpool was appointed in 1880 who was installed at St Peter’s Church in the town centre. In 1901 a decision was made to build a cathedral worthy of Liverpool. Giles Gilbert Scott submitted his design in 1903 at the young age of 22 and was partnered up with a more senior architect George Bodley. The foundation stone was laid by King Edward VII the following year and work started on the Lady Chapel.

At the end of June 1910 the chapel was complete. Today you enter the chapel down stairs from the main cathedral. A very pretty chapel greets you with it’s predominantly blue stained glass windows and wonderful carvings. High above the organ pipes cling to the wall like a slightly tatty romantic baroque moth. This took my attention away from much else here.

Worked progressed despite both world wars and eventually the building was completed, a thanksgiving service was held in 1978 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. It is the largest Cathedral in the UK and fifth largest in the world.

Everything seems so clean, most probably because it isn’t as old as I’d expected. Most memorials in the aisles are carved into the structure of the building. Two stood out to me. The first was simple and was for one of the four organists the cathedral has had since 1910. Henry Custard will have played both the Moth organ in the Lady’s Chapel and the one in the Cathedral. Built in 1926, the organ was the largest musical instrument ever conceived. It has 8 manual divisions and pedals, 199 draw stops controlling 10,268 pipes played from two massive consoles. Today the organ was being tested prior to a recital tomorrow. It certainly has some very very low notes that resonated around the building as they were played in turn. If we were still here tomorrow I know that we’d be paying £1 to sit and listen to this mighty beast.

The second was in memory of a bishop who passed away around 2005. Sadly I didn’t record his name. The sculptural memorial is very reminiscent of the way a hard pebble gets moved around on a softer stone leaving different bowl shapes carved out on it, also a little like a rock pool. All of this has been carved into the fabric of the building with only the pebble added.

Mick in the meantime had made it to the top of the Cathedral with the assistance of a couple of lifts! On the way up he got to see the bells  and on the way down there was an embroidery room where gowns are stored, he didn’t stop here. Up on the roof the views were great. Men were working on a house roof meters below. He managed to take quite a few photos, sadly our mooring is just out of sight so no photos of Oleanna.

On our way back to the boat we stopped off to pick up enough provisions to see us through till Monday when we hope to be moored somewhere suitable for a supermarket delivery.  The boaters who arrived today are all very chatty and excited about where to go and what to see whilst they are here. The washing machine has now washed everything possible and has had a 90deg wash to give it a clean. The dishwasher is also having a clean before we top up the water tank for the last time ready for an early start tomorrow.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 life jackets serviced, 1 ball wool exchanged, 2 nephew presents returned, 1 house of God visited, 10,298 pipes! 2 lifts, 108 steps, 1 pair of very squeaky shoes, 1 man passing off photocopies as originals, 2 new neighbours, 6 cat naps til freedom!

The Graphic And The Traffic

Salthouse Dock

Time to make up time in Liverpool.

So this morning we headed to The Walker Art Gallery. I’d noticed when deciding what to see in Liverpool that there was an exhibition on Alphones Mucha. Since my college days I have been a fan of his work. One scene painting exercise at college was to copy a printed artwork and I chose his poster for Ruinart Champagne. The end product was, even if I do say so myself, very good and hung in my parents conservatory for years. Not enough height on Oleanna so it now sits rolled up in our attic in Scarborough. A trip to Prague in the late 90’s meant I had chance to visit the Mucha Museum, which I loved and very uncharacteristically bought myself two copies of his Sarah Bernhardt theatre posters. These stayed in a tube until my 40th birthday when my Dad paid for me to have them framed. In my 30’s I bought a house which had Mucha tiles in the surround, this wasn’t the reason I bought the house but was a nice touch.

Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939 was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist with a very distinctive style. He started out as a scenic artist but after moving to Paris to continue his education he volunteered to design a poster for the superstar of the time Sarah Bernhardt and her next theatrical production, Gismonda. His distinctive style and the large format of the posters caught everyone’s eye. Sarah Bernhardt was so taken with the image that for the next six years he designed all her posters. Quite often people liked the posters so much they would be taken down in the streets of Paris for people to take home. HIs graphic style spread into other areas, perfume, cigarettes, mostly depicting beautiful young ladies with flowing hair. Borders of flowers quite often formed  halos around the ladies heads. His colour scheme was pastel colours which contrasted with his contemporaries.

Between 1916 and 1928 he worked on The Slav Epic depicting the history of the Slav and Czech people. Some of these paintings are 6m by 8m and it was a major labour of love. In the exhibition there was a slide show of these paintings which took over a large corner of the room, one image of each painting and the another that scrolled around showing that image in greater detail. Also on display were works by his contemporaries, Rodin, Gauguin whom he shared a studio with in Paris. Then a section on works influenced by him. In the 60’s art nouveau influenced many a psychedelic poster. His influence carries on including on a Grateful Dead album cover.

A very interesting exhibition and I would recommend it if you happen to be visiting Liverpool this summer.

Before looking around the general collection at the gallery we decided to stop and have a sit down and partake of a bowl of Scouse each which was very tasty.

Back at Oleanna new boats had arrived and we had a new neighbour on one side. Tilly was pleased to see us, too right! Who said they could go out all day and leave me to meet the woofing neighbours just outside my window. Spoiling my view!!

Late afternoon we walked over to the Georges Dock Building, Grade 2 listed Art Deco where  we joined a tour of the Queensway tunnel and it’s ventilation shafts that help to keep air smelling sweet below the Mersey. The building was the former head office for Mersey Tunnels and is still a working building. Our two tour guides Ryan and Billy were very informative and their patter was very well rehearsed.

Construction was started in 1925 from both sides of the Mersey and by 1928 the two tunnels met out of line by just an inch. When it opened in 1934 it was the longest road tunnel in the world at just over 2 miles. The tunnel is round with the road deck halfway down it, below is a similar sized passage which at one time was planned to have double decker trams going between Birkenhead and Liverpool, but this never happened.

Our tour took us up flights of deco stairs to the old control room, where two engineers used to sit and monitor the air in the tunnel. Almost two years ago they were moved downstairs to share an office with the tunnel police force. The banks of old controls were installed in 1966, dials, bulbs and switches a go go. We then started to head downwards through doors that had air locks, this was to prevent clean air getting mixed with bad. The ventilation towers, originally six of them now five, are used to push and pull air through the tunnel. In one large room we were shown the huge fan (6m diameter) that helps to suck polluted air up through the roof of the tunnel to be expelled. The air quality in the tunnels has improved through time, no more 4 star leaded petrol has made a lot of difference.

Down more floors and through more air locked doors to the fans that draw fresh air into the building and push it down into the bottom section of the tunnel. Here the old opening looked like something from Tracey Island in Thunderbirds.

Then we went down and down and down to reach the road level of the tunnel. Taken out to a viewing area which was a refuge we clung to the wall to avoid any possible contact with wing mirrors. The tunnel was built for much narrower vehicles! No photography or hand gestures were allowed here to distract the motorists, they did all seem to slow down though at the sight of our high vis. Here we could see where the air came in at road level on both sides of the tarmac and large wholes in the ceiling is where it is sucked out. Should there be a fire in the tunnel the air flow is kept going so that the smoke doesn’t build up and the emergency services can see what they are doing. Modern refuges have been built below the road deck where the trams were once going to be. Monitors in each of the seven areas would relay information from the control room down to those safe below.

Once back up all the stairs we got to meet one of the Police constables who works there. They have their own force who are also fire fighters and first aid trained, so that should an emergency occur they would be able to deal with it before other emergency services could arrive. If you break down in the tunnel there is a charge to get you towed out, if however you run out of petrol or have a flat tyre without a spare you will be charged a lot more! Traffic can back up quickly right through Liverpool as around 90,000 vehicles use the Queensway Tunnel each day. A fascinating tour well worth the £6 and all the steps.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 Nouveau graphic designer, 0 photos allowed, 2 hours reading and looking, 2 bowls scouse, 2 teas, 2 nephew presents to be returned, £6 for an £8 million tunnel, 4 boaters do steps, 1 double act, 212 steps back up, 5 down, 2 humungous fans, 4 olympic sized swimming polls full of air a minute, 12 cat naps to go!!!!

Across The Mersey. 3rd August

Salthouse Dock

The plum glut needed sorting this morning along with the apples and beans. So blanching and stewing took up much of the time. Sadly because I didn’t feel like doing this yesterday, about half of the plums had gone past being wonderfully ripe and had to go in the bin, sorry Frank and Helen. We now have apple ready for a crumble, beans for quite a few meals and stewed plums to have with breakfast over the next few days.

Our yellow water tank needed emptying so as today we had no direct neighbours we emptied and rinsed out the tank. Unlike in the middle of nowhere, nobody came up to chat to Mick whilst this was happening!

At 2.30pm we watched todays boats arrive, another six. We’ve been wondering if C&RT have a system for allocating the berths, say rotating them on an eight to ten day basis, or Mondays berths 12-17, Wednesdays 18-23 but boats that left yesterday were replaced today by others. If there is a system we haven’t been able to work it out.

At just gone 4pm Micks old school friend Jeremy arrived, after a cuppa we headed to the Pier Head to catch the Mersey Ferry across to Seacombe. We had just missed the 5pm ferry, but this meant that we could watch it cross the Mersey before it returned to pick us up. I try to avoid waves, so am always a bit apprehensive of going on such boats, but it was an experience I wanted to do and was glad that there was little if any swell. As we were about to pull out the Isle Of Mann Ferry came into dock. We could see all the way though underneath its catamaran hull as it moved sideways into the pier.

The views back towards Liverpool were great with it’s iconic waterfront. Very few people were actually looking at the view as most were just commuters returning home.

We spent a lovely evening catching up with Jeremy and Sarah, chatting away, eating and drinking wine. It had been something like seventeen years since Mick had been to their house in Wallasey. I’d never been to the Wirral, despite in my early twenties having gone out with a chap for a year or so from there. Thinking about it I only met his Dad once, the relationship was obviously never going to last!

With the last ferry crossing long gone we walked to New Brighton Station via the scenic route. This took us through Vale Park where Major Mace and his wife have created a drift wood Fairy Village. My photos don’t do it justice as it was quite dark, also we had a train to catch. But here are some photos from the local paper. We then walked down along the waterfront where another creation by the Major sits on the beach. In the light last night my photos make the galleon look very atmospheric. It is on the beach for all to enjoy until one day the sea will reclaim the drift wood. But this has happened several times already and a new ship is built to replace it. If we had time it would be great to come over during the day to see it better, but that will have to be one for the next time list.

The shops and arcades of New Brighton were all shut up, a surprise as in Scarborough the arcades and chippies are open till late in the summer.

We said our goodbyes to Jeremy and Sarah at New Brighton Station, all very yellow, and climbed on board a yellow train that would take us around the houses, then back under the Mersey to James Street Station not far from Oleanna.

0 locks, 0 miles, 5 bags beans, 1 big crumble waiting to be topped, 4 days worth of plums, 1 tummy on the mend, 6 boats out, 6 boats in, 1 attempted toilet roll murder, 1 ferry, 17 years, 1 yellow train, 1 surprise package on it’s way, 1 Thank you to Joa.

The Tunnel Will Have To Wait. 1st August, Yorkshire Day

Salthouse Dock

Today didn’t turn out as expected. We have a list of things that we want to see in Liverpool. This afternoon we had booked to have a look at Queensway Mersey Tunnel, but unfortunately I haven’t been too well and spent all morning in bed. So our tour has been postponed for a couple of days.

Despite me being in a darkened room, exciting things have happened. Mick went out shopping for a few bits and bobs. He returned with a new handheld vacuum. Our old one we left on Lillian, mostly because we fancied a newer one. Mick had looked at reviews and decided that a Vax would be the best. We’ll see how well this fares with picking Tillys fur up from the sofa and the back of curtains. It’s on charge in the back cupboard where we had a socket put for this purpose. I’m looking forward to not having to use up numerous sticky roller sheets to get the sofa unfurry.

Once out of bed I turned on daytime TV, not done that in a long time. Being hooked up meant it came without the guilt of running the batteries down, however it hasn’t improved so I don’t plan  on watching it again for another long while. The knitting needles came out and once Tilly allowed me to have them I did a tension square. I can still knit, well with big fat wool I can. During the afternoon I made good progress.

My old T square came out again to check on our depth. Here there are meters of water under Oleannas hull so Mick hung out of the side hatch. Our diesel and water tanks are only half full at the moment, similar to when we measured it last time. Both of us were on board this time and Mick was stood to the side he was measuring, so not a completely accurate measure. The T square came out of the water measuring a depth of 2ft 3inches. A 2 inch improvement from last time and as Louis said on Thursday, she is sitting at her optimum.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 tunnels, 2 hours of great fun, -2 hours sleep last night, 3 attempted murders of the toilet roll, 3 counts of self defence, 1 poorly Pip, 1 tunnel tour postponed, 10.8v Gator, 6mm and 5mm needles, 1 Dad and Daughter reunited, £3500 prize, 0 suitable houses in the countryside, 16 cm of a front, 1st meal of beans, 1 NB Blackbird cruising again, 38 cat naps to go.

Half a Boat Full. 31st July

Salthouse Dock

One important job to get done today, take the life jackets to be serviced ready for the Ribble. So Mick set off with all three of our life jackets and got a train out to Sandhills to Norwest Marine. We can pick them up on Friday. Somehow Mick’s jacket had managed to inflate in it’s bag a few months ago, so he has been using my original one. We last had them serviced a couple of years ago, you should really get them done every year. It is an expense, but far cheaper than replacing one of us.

I went to have a look around John Lewis. Our wine glasses have reduced in number, we are down to three now and our lidded saute pan is becoming a stick pan as it’s non-stick surface is wearing out. So I did a recky on the ground floor and then found myself standing on the escalator heading for floor three. A few days ago I was asked if I’d be interested in doing some knitting workshops for a project happening in Scarborough. I used to knit a lot and ended up doing quite a bit of knitting for shows at the theatre. But since my accident a couple of years ago I turned to crocheting and taught myself the basics as using a hook was much easier than needles. If I’m going to do workshops I need to be able to knit and pearl myself. So I spent some time looking at patterns and then selecting some chunky wool for a project. I can’t say too much as it will spoil a Christmas present for Mick, but then he’ll get to see it in the making anyway. Here’s hoping chunky wool is the way back into knitting. Just have to remember where I put all my needles!

Four narrowboats and a wide beam arrived at 2.30, all successfully avoiding the pedalboat swans. Luckily none of the boats replaced our next door neighbour who left this morning, so our view has slightly improved.

This afternoon, after England won the cricket, we went to have a look for somewhere to eat this evening. We had a wander around Albert Dock where much of the food is burgers, pizza and pasta and then crossed over into Liverpool One to see what we could find there. A better selection was to be found high up on the terrace. Late afternoon we were joined by our friend Frank and his friend Helen. Frank had been doing a bit of carpentry work in Helens school in Warrington, so they had decided to come over and spend the evening with us. It was very nice to see them both. I think Frank is now the most frequent visitor we’ve had since moving onto Oleanna. They brought with them a mass of fruit and beans from the school garden. Plums, apples, runner beans and green beans, half a boat full. I think we may turn green by the time we’ve eaten them all. I might have a go at blanching and freezing some, maybe even make a frangipane plum tart, who knows.

We had a very nice meal in Wagamamas along with a bottle of wine and lots of conversation before they caught a train back to Warrington.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains, 3 life jackets for servicing, 10 balls of wool, 2 stitch holders, 1 pattern, 4 new glasses, 0 pans suitable, 1 dock walk, 1/2 a boat full, 4lbs of beans, 3lbs plums, 2lbs windfall apples, 2 recipe books on the table, 3 hours catching up, 1 bottle wine, 3 bowls of ricey niceness, 1 plate of noodles, 46 cat naps to go, 3 extra taken today.