Nighttime on Still Waters

Send us Fan Mail 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 wonderful, and being spun by wonderment.  Join us tonight as we recover from dragging a very smelly and wet dog out of the canal!    Journal entry : 13th July,...

Send us Fan Mail 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 and celebrate the unfolding of the summer.   Journal entry :  25th June, Tuesday “First day this summer  Of real heat.  All day, my shirt has stuck  To...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on a wet and windy night as, tonight, we listen the strange and untameable tale of Fionnghuala, Oadh, Fiacra and Conn, the children of Lir, and meet up with our own (children of the) children of Lir who share their own wild mythologies.   I also give an explanatory statement about the YouTube podcast channel. Journal entry : 11th June, Tuesday “Standing knee deep   In a gr...

Send us Fan Mail 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 “Standing looking south-west  Across the vale.  Four ducks circle above the water.  Then swoop down and land in unison. The fields and hills in the distance  ...

Send us Fan Mail 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 . Journal entry : 8th May, Wednesday. “A May evening of golden haze  And drifting willow down  And the busy day winds down. Nearby, lambs call as mothers graze and nu...

Send us Fan Mail 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 . Journal entry :  20th April, Saturday “A ring of coltsfoot heads has been placed  In the crevice of an oak-beam used as a picnic table.  They lie bleached and desic...

Send us Fan Mail For us the river of the year has, so far, been roaring and fierce. It is difficult, at times, to see the bank or to even know whether we are floating or sinking. However, that is only one small part of the picture. What follows is a rather incoherent attempt to find coherence amid the noise.    Journal entry : 10th April, Wednesday “This morning dawned in chilled silver  I wore my...

Send us Fan Mail 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 narrowboat? Journal entry : 7th March, Thursday. “A grey wind blows  From a grey sky  Troubling the surface  Of the canal. Damson blossom  Torn from branch  Spun...

Send us Fan Mail As a family, we gained a reputation for the way our 'short  walks' often turned into marathon hikes which invariably meant staggering home long after dark (usually without a torch). In this week’s episode I reminisce on the lessons learnt, their prescient significance, and living in a culture that does growing old and dying so astonishingly badly. Journal entry : 24th Fe...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome aboard the NB Erica on a wet winter’s night. It is a perfect night to snuggle down and listen to JM Synge’s turn of the 20th century accounts of his travels to the Aran Islands in a small currach on stormy seas.  Journal entry : 14th February, Wednesday (St. Valentine’s Day) “Outside,  No coat,  On the hill that runs down to the cut. Warm sun, fleeting,  Cloud chasing with...

Send us Fan Mail It has been a rather tempestuous year so far! Currently, I am many miles from the boat and have not been able to record any podcasts. I have rather rushed this episode out to update you on the reasons why I have been so quiet of late and to bring you up to date with what has been happening.   Apologies for the sound quality of this episode. I do not have my recording gear with me...

Send us Fan Mail You are invited to join us for a very special episode  as we celebrate Christmas Eve onboard the Erica and remember the Christmas Eves of our childhood.  Journal entry :  21st December, Thursday, Winter Solstice “The year’s turning  And the longest night. There’s a rough wind  And angry skies. The polestar oak  Finally felled. The ducks don’t seem  To notice."   Episode Infor...

Send us Fan Mail You have seen the Instagram photographs/videos of happy boat-dogs gambolling along summer towpaths, dense with colour and sunshine, or happily curled up in front of cosy fires, but what is the reality of sharing a boat with a dog really like, especially in the winter?   Journal entry :  15th December, Friday. “All night,  The owls echoed  Along the valley  In the long tunnel  Of t...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on a stormy December night to listen to the next part of ‘How Mum met Dad’ in celebration of Dad’s 95th birthday. This week, we hear about their crack of dawn wedding and their honeymoon on the Norfolk Broads in the Whippet .  Journal entry :  7th December, Thursday “Untidy smoke trail of jackdaws  Stream across an iron sky  Of scalding wind and rain flail. Maggie and I pi...

Send us Fan Mail This week is a very special episode as we celebrate Dad’s 95th birthday and we go back in time to hear about how a 1938 Hilman Minx was instrumental in how Mum met Dad. Journal entry : 1st December, Friday “Short sections of the canal  Are covered in a frosted skim of ice.  Wafer thin  But firm enough to bear a moorhen’s weight. She walks parallel to the offside bank  Left foot ra...

Send us Fan Mail Autumn is a good time for contemplation and a place by the fireside encourages reflection. Recently I have been revisiting the journals of Thomas Merton and, with the help of John Moriarty, I have found myself relearning some valuable lessons. The Edens of our flourishing are sometimes not quite what we dream them to be.  Journal entry : 15th November, Wednesday "Across the f...

Send us Fan Mail I've always felt that there is something rather singular about the month of November. Tonight I try to find out what it is and end up recounting the time when Guy Fawkes wore my old dressing gown (which might or might not have anything to do with it!).  Journal entry : 8th November, Wednesday. “Look down for the healing.  A reluctant dawn this morning,  South wind plays with...

Send us Fan Mail It’s a foul November night, so why not come and join me aboard the Erica by the warm glow of fire light. I have with me a lovely book that I found last year in a second-hand bookshop and think that it's perfect for a night like this.    Journal entry :  1st November, Wednesday. “November is born brave  This morning. The dark water is alive  With movement  And a scatter  Of li...

Send us Fan Mail I am not sure if it is just me, but so far autumn doesn’t feel quite so ‘autumny’ as it usually does. Therefore, I think that it is a perfect time to savour a reading from one of my most favourite childhood books, Brendon Chase by BB.   Journal entry :  26th October, Thursday. “Darkness.  Mizzle transforms the water  Into star-fields of pinpricks of light.  Evanescent. Like walkin...

Send us Fan Mail It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the global events of the last couple of weeks. Following the battering of Storm Babet, this week’s episode offers a space for us to reflect on a world that can be often violent and far from perfect.  Journal entry : 13th October, Friday “Battered by the winds of the world  I stop to watch the free-flight of rooks  Diving from an oak into the full...

Send us Fan Mail The temperature outside is dipping down towards zero, so join us for a cosy night by the glow of a hot stove, as we chat about two subjects close to my heart and the surprising way that living on a boat has altered my attitude to them.  Journal entry : 13th October, Friday “Battered by the winds of the world  I stop to watch the free-flight of rooks  Diving from an oak into the fu...

Send us Fan Mail There's an old and trustworthy adage on the canals: when two or more boaters meet up it is only a matter of time before the conversation will turn to the subject of toilets. So guess what the topic of this week's episode is?!  Journal entry :  3rd October, Tuesday “Light fades.  Dew Falls.  Maggie follows a rabbit’s scent-trail  Through the long, wet grass.  Two rooks he...

Send us Fan Mail A week of serious problems with our internet has meant that I have been unable to record the episode answering listeners’ questions. However, join us tonight to enjoy a special meeting under the ‘ghost’ of a harvest moon.  Journal entry :  29th September, Friday “Early this morning,  We met the swan slipping  Light upon the night-time mists. Behind us,  Cows stood knee deep  in mi...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a chill in the air tonight and there will be mist on the water in the morning. Join me tonight as I answer some hard questions about how viability is a long term in the Erica on the canals?  Journal entry : 21st September, Thursday “For a short while this evening  The crescent moon and the setting sun  Shared the same length of skyline.  A fiery bronze heart and the ghost...

Send us Fan Mail On a dark night that is damp with an autumnal chill, join us as tonight I answer some of the questions posed by the listeners of this podcast which range from the decisions and motivations behind our choice to live afloat to canal etiquette.  Journal entry :  14th September, Thursday “Thin drizzle.  The jackdaws sound like  Monosyllabic gulls this evening.  Woundwort heals the bre...