WORDS once SPOKEN now CAPTURED
July 6, 2025
A Summer Wind among the Alders (Speaks of Lludd and Llefelys)
Stories have always been part of our world. From antiquity, stories create the light that help us find our way through the darkness. We need to rediscover those stories to help us face the dragons in our lives. Join us tonight as we listen closely to the summer wind play among the alders and hear a…
June 22, 2025
Unsettled at the Still-Point (Of the year)
It is a hot midsummer night of warm winds that makes the Erica creak at her moorings. Tonight, we find ourselves at a year’s turning point — caught between the stillness and the unsettling. Join us as we explore the solstice, the shifting seasons, the rhythm of carnival swings, and the restless nat…
June 8, 2025
A brooding sky and mirrored waters (Fen Country)
Join us on a quiet night of summer rain as we listen to rooks and explore the beauty and ambiguities of two liminal places with a lot in common. We learn about the web-footed fenmen and are guided by Luke Sherlock to a ruined church under haunting skies. Journal entry: 6th June, Friday “We walk thr…
May 25, 2025
Erica's Place
Welcome to tonight’s episode where ‘Erica’s Place’ by Mind Shambles awakens a kaleidoscope of reminiscences about Mum and ‘elevensies’ and her never ending supply of fresh scones. As the different memories flow and glide past, it slowly becomes clear how much of ‘Erica’s place’ and Mum’s philosophy…
May 11, 2025
A Totally Worthwhile Risk - 4
Tonight, we float upon a starfield of hawthorn blossom under a waxing moon. Why not join us as we continue with the final part of Mum’s account of the ‘totally worthwhile risk that was never regretted.’
Journal entry: 9th May, Friday “A westering sun Lays long shadows across The towpath and canal…
April 27, 2025
A Totally Worthwhile Risk - 3
Join us tonight under a waning April moon as we think about the local ducks preparing for the ‘long sitting’ and hear more about what happened to Mum and Dad after they had landed in Canada to start a new life together. Journ...
April 13, 2025
A Totally Worthwhile Risk - 2
Tonight, clouds build as the high pressure breaks. Speculative gusts of wind kick blackthorn blossom ghostly white along the towpath and the full moon seeps heavy and watery through a blanket of cloud. Join us tonight as we c...
March 30, 2025
A Totally Worthwhile Risk - 1
Send us a text It's a spring, moonless night - not quite 'Bible black', but nearly! It's a perfect night for stories. Why not join us to hear the first part of Mum’s account of their great adventure when, 68 years ago, almost...
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 ...
March 2, 2025
On the Leading Edge of Spring
Send us a text Along the towpath winter slowly fades. If we are not quite in spring yet, we can feel it close at hand. Join us tonight as we celebrate the shifts in light and tone across the landscape and from deep within in ...
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 ...
Feb. 9, 2025
Orion Still Looks Down (On the land my shadow knows)
It’s a bitingly cold, sleety night. There’s a warning of snow in the forecast for later. It’s a perfect night to sit together around a warm stove snug inside the Erica’s cabin, while the wild world rages outside. The kettle i...
Jan. 26, 2025
The Changes that Come
Send us a text There seems to be an awful lot of change happening recently, often unasked and with far-reaching consequences. Knowing how to deal with it can be difficult and lead us to feeling unbalanced and overwhelmed. How...
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...
Dec. 1, 2024
Winter's Whispers (The wisdom of the long nights)
Send us a text Join us round the stove tonight as we celebrate the joys and reflect on the lessons of living on a boat when winter approaches in the good company of Tom Rolt and Christine Rigden. This episode is in memory of ...
Nov. 17, 2024
The Days of No Shadow (... and then a deer barked)
Send us a text Recently, Britain experienced a blocking high pressure system, leading to an extended period of ‘anticyclonic gloom.’ Such are the conditions in which myths are created and, as the story of Blodeuwedd and Lleu ...
Nov. 3, 2024
"Stretched into Tales that Leave a Mark"
Send us a text Two rather wonderful things have happened recently which has prompted me to take a reflective look back at this podcast and the journey we have taken together. One of these was being sent some excerpts of essay...
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 ...
Oct. 6, 2024
A Touch of Autumn (Apple picking time)
Send us a text Join us on the narrowboat Erica on a moonless, star-filled night as we celebrate autumns, real and imagined, present and remembered. Although October (at the moment) is far from 'golden', it is apple picking ti...
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. 25, 2024
Shot through with wonder (First glimpse of the sea)
Traditionally, August has been the time for Britons to head off to the seaside for their annual holiday. This week’s episode celebrates this custom and causes me to reconsider the momentous moment when I saw the sea for the f...