WORDS once SPOKEN now CAPTURED
March 16, 2025
Cloud Herder (Won't you spin us one last story?)
Along the towpath, the battle between winter and spring has begun with days of warmth and days of sleet. Although even the young ducks teach us a lesson in conflict avoidance. Join us tonight as we celebrate the lives of two ...
Feb. 16, 2025
Winter Readings ('The Great Frost of 1895' and 'Day of the 'Iceberg'')
Send us a text A winter’s night on the canal, starless and wind gnawed. A snug cabin with a warm stove. A hot drink in a favourite mug (and a biscuit or two). A cosy chair waiting for you. It’s just the perfect kind of night ...
Jan. 12, 2025
Wrapped in Freezing Fog
Send us a text Join us aboard the Erica , as we sit around the stove on a raw night of ice and freezing fog. Tonight, we reflect on boat (and other) life in the times of hard frost, the trials of swan and kingfisher life, and...
Jan. 4, 2025
Into the Silence (The Undreaming)
Send us a text I am probably not the only one feeling a little disoriented and uncertain about what the upcoming year will hold. While it is great to have plans and dreams, these are not always possible and sometimes, I think...
Dec. 15, 2024
Practically Speaking (Listeners' questions - 7)
Send us a text Join us tonight under the soft light of a veiled full moon as we consider the wash of winter tree colours, when to start looking for a mooring, and how practical do you have to be to live on a boat? Journal ent...
Oct. 20, 2024
The Long Village (Villages and tribes)
Send us a text Tonight, we are hunkered down awaiting another storm. So, come and join us for a cosy night as we reflect on the fairly unique nature of canal-life and the community that it supports, with thanks to Wayne (NB ...
Sept. 22, 2024
The Consolation of Ducks
Send us a text Did you know that ducks participate in ‘coordinated loafing’? But that might not be the only surprising/endearing thing about them. Tonight, we celebrate the joy ducks bring thanks to video posted by a stranger...
Sept. 8, 2024
It turned a bit wet (Afloat in Hiroshige's rain storm)
Join us tonight as Erica a wends ‘snailward’ home through a heavy rain storm - recorded, aptly enough, during another heavy rain storm! Hear also about our adventures with a drowning pigeon. Journal entry : 3rd September, Tue...
Aug. 11, 2024
Holiday Interlude (& the Cap'n's Dad)
We’re on HOLIDAY! And so, a rather truncated and spur of the moment podcast tonight. However, join us as we enjoy a spot of tranquillity canal-style. We also hear a lovely story from one of our long-time listeners and lock-wh...
July 14, 2024
Spun by Wonderment (above Hemel Hempstead)
There are times that can touch us deeply. Very often they are not about finding a place of peace or somewhere outstandingly beautiful. It is something else. Something beyond these things. It is about encountering something wo...
June 30, 2024
Living inside the Seasons
This episode was inspired by a sentence in Beth Kempton's Wabi Sabi and explores how calendars can connect us more closely to the world around us. Join us tonight as we explore the year through the eyes of some Japanese poets...
June 2, 2024
A Sunday Morning in May
Sometimes episodes have a mind of their own and take you to unplanned places they think you need to go. This is one of those episodes. One ‘soft’ Sunday morning in May in John Clare country. Journal entry : 31st May, Friday “...
May 12, 2024
First Impressions (On canal life)
In tonight’s episode we meet a couple of beautiful spring flowers with some fearsome reputations and go about spring cleaning a very messy and cluttered boat with the help of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows . Journa...
April 28, 2024
The Dusts of Winter (Spring Cleaning)
In tonight’s episode we meet a couple of beautiful spring flowers with some fearsome reputations and go about spring cleaning a very messy and cluttered boat with the help of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows . Journa...
March 10, 2024
On Surveys and Winter Warmth (Listeners' questions - 6)
As the slow march of Spring travels along the canal and towpaths, tonight I answer two more questions: How do we keep the boat from freezing when we have to leave it unattended, and how long does it normally take to buy a nar...