WORDS once SPOKEN now CAPTURED
Feb. 12, 2023
Lock Wheeling
Any boater who is faced with the prospect of numerous locks ahead will know how wonderful it is to find someone who is prepared to take on ‘lock-wheeling’ duties. This episode takes some time out to reflect on the podcast as ...
Feb. 5, 2023
February Dawning
All along the canal side, the wintery tees and hedgerows are filling with spring song and life. Subtle shifts and changes, the play of light through the trees, the shimmering reflection of an old oak, auger new seasons awaiti...
Jan. 29, 2023
A train in the distance ('Night Mail')
Canals and railways are often very close near neighbours and so trains can be a frequent part of the canal soundscapes. This week we explore why the sound of a train in the distance (thanks to Paul Simon) can be so evocative ...
Jan. 22, 2023
One day last summer
Join us around the warmth of a glowing stove tonight as ice once more grips the boat and freezing fog thickly mantles the winter-naked trees. On nights like these, it is good to remember summer days and so, tonight’s episode ...
Jan. 15, 2023
Tuesday Morning, 5.30am (The Voyage of Bran)
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 beau...
Jan. 8, 2023
When darkness falls (Skating on 'un-time')
Happy New Year! New Years can be exciting times, marking new beginnings, a clean page, awakening dormant dreams and ambitions. However, sometimes it is not always like that. This year, in particular, many face the new year wi...
Dec. 24, 2022
The Christmas Heron
It’s Christmas Eve and the perfect time for a canal-side story. Have you ever heard of the Christmas Heron? No? Well, there’s probably a very good reason for that, but I will tell it to you anyway. So, curl up in your special...
Dec. 18, 2022
'Earth stood hard as iron...'
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 ...
Dec. 11, 2022
Those eyes of old (look out at me)
“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 a...
Dec. 4, 2022
Nightwalk 2 (Moon shadows across the water)
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 ...
Nov. 27, 2022
Rainy town (as darkness falls)
Tonight, we enjoy the special beauties of a rainy town in central England as darkness begins to fall, listen to Thomas Merton on city rain, and spend awhile at a window seat in a small café and create for while our own versio...
Nov. 20, 2022
Stories are for listening: Blisworth Tunnel (Ian Douglas)
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. Ghost...
Nov. 13, 2022
Of cormorants and graduands
This week saw the return of the cormorant which prompts a visit to Ernest Ingersoll to find out why they have no voice. A fairly severe reaction to the Covid jab meant that I missed attending this year’s graduation ceremony s...
Oct. 30, 2022
Today I held back time
This weekend the clocks change (in the UK). These small markers in our calendars can touch us in deep ways. Join me tonight as we stop the clock, step out of time, and savour together the unspent, untouched hour as the world ...
Oct. 22, 2022
'By badger light and lantern's sigh' (Magickry)
Tonight, as the evenings draw in and autumn takes a firmer hold of towpath and fields, let's gather close beside a woodland campfire for some unabashed romanticism. For life teaches us two things: 1. Romance does the heart go...
Oct. 16, 2022
Autumn colours the tattered garments of summer
The colours of autumn this year promise to be spectacular and the towpaths are being transformed by the brush of autumn’s artistry. Join us tonight as we drink in some of the sights and ponder why this season can evoke such a...
Oct. 9, 2022
Living in Rehoboam's land
For many, these are not easy days in which to live and our futures can appear so uncertain. How do we live through such times? Join us tonight as we listen to some deeper wisdom offered by a magpie and an alder tree. Journal ...
Oct. 2, 2022
Rory's episode (Red gumboots and a yellow summer dress)
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, e...
Sept. 25, 2022
Church bells among crow song
This week much of the country fell silent for a while and that stillness was the occasion for a chance encounter and finding within the silence the music of bells among crow song. Join us aboard the Erica tonight as we are to...
Sept. 18, 2022
The Longest Trench (Summer readings)
The second of our reading this year takes back to the working-boat families of the First World War. Geoffrey Lewis’ beautifully detailed and cleverly structured tribute to the people who worked the boats through this turbulen...
Sept. 11, 2022
Canal Pushers (Summer readings)
The first of our ‘Summer’ readings this year is a litle different from those we looked at last year and features Andy Griffee’s meticulously researched, fast-paced, crime thriller Canal Pushers . Set on the West Midlands cana...
Sept. 4, 2022
Milky tea and four sugars (Walking with elephants)
There’s a warm welcome awaiting you under the heavy night skies of summer’s hinterlands. Tonight we meet a very special person with a lop-sided smile and who might be able to teach us to walk with elephants. Journal entry : 3...
Aug. 28, 2022
Beside a young willow (in a thunderstorm)
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 overh...
Aug. 15, 2022
Hot August Nights (Listening for the thunder)
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 entr...