Swedish Winter

I've spent January scanning old photographs - negatives and slides. Very nostalgic.
Patience has been frozen in before now - here she is in 2010 on the Old West river -

but we seem to have avoided ice and snow recently.
Long long ago I worked for a year in Sweden, in a steel town called Fagersta which is in Västmanland. An industrial town producing steel, it has a canal nearby called the Strömsholmskanal, linking Lake Mälaren  to Smedjebacken and created to transport the product of the iron foundries.
It was always worth a stroll, especially on bright winter days, and here are three photographs of one of the 26 locks, 6 of which are in Fagersta. The ice and snow gives it a certain excitement, I think.

It is 62 miles long, took 18 years to build, between 1772 and 1795, and is now used only by leisure craft. I gather the canal has been renovated since I was there in 1976. Sadly I don't think Patience will make it to Fagersta and the Strömsholmskanal.

 

As a footnote I note that Thomas Telford (engineer of 17 canals and many bridges, including Caledonian Canal and the Pontycysyllte Aqueduct), had a hand in the early stages (1810) of the Göta canal in south west Sweden. That is not connected to this earlier canal, however.

Life in the Slow Lane

No I'm not really having a mid-life crisis but ... my friend John and I have just decided to buy a narrow boat and our wives have doubts about our common sense. The boat is named Patience and she's 45 feet long with a cruising stern, cosy accommodation for four and a wood burning stove.

In fact we're pretty sensible blokes looking for a project - and what could be more sensible than a narrow boat? Not for us the red Ferrari or a subscription to a lap dancing club; not a mistress or a motor bike or a speed boat in sight. Just a slow moving little caravan on water. We can, individually or together, chug down the river at 4mph, stop at a waterside pub for a pint and a sandwich, browse the local sites or bookshops then set off again at a sedate pace.
We've both been on narrow boat holidays, so we have a general idea of what it's about, but I think we might have a lot to learn about the ways of the water.
We are moored at The Lazy Otter between Cambridge and Ely on a part of the river Ouse called "The Old West River". We plan to spend the winter rearranging the accommodation on Patience and perhaps improving the electrical system. She needs a survey and we'll probably have to paint her bottom ("blacking") but by early Spring we hope to be out there on the Ouse spending time navigating the eastern waterways.
Watch this space ....