Nighttime on Still Waters

Send us Fan Mail  Old stories can lift an unfamiliar mirror up to our lives so that we see ourselves anew and as we really are. Tonight, I will tell you an old story. It’s a story about a silvery day of sea fret (mist), rolling ocean waves, empty fishing nets, and a solitary herring.  Journal entry : 6th July, Wednesday “I sit on the bank, one leg hanging down.   A drake mallard in eclipse, treads...

Send us Fan Mail With apologies for sounding like an asthmatic badger, tonight we explore the special qualities of an unremarkable dusk and why we can feel so at peace with it and the darkness it can bring. Journal entry : 28th June, Tuesday. “I stop work to breathe in the storm-wind  And bathe in the whirlpool of its noise. My shoulders feel heavy        As If I alone am holding                up...

Send us Fan Mail It is funny how, looking back, distinct paths and interconnections can be found. It is, sometimes, tempting to see them as clear paths that we are destined to follow. However, sometimes, they are coincidence or simply a case that one can spot significance after the event. But they can also be 'love letters written in canal water'.  Journal entry :  21st June, Tuesday, Su...

Send us Fan Mail The heat of the past few days has broken with sweeping skies filled with rain and lowering clouds. Join me tonight, as we reflect on life on water in the heat of summer, listen to the poetic words of one of our listeners, and discover the wisdom of making bread through the words of another listener and Robin Wall Kimmerer.   Journal entry :  14th June, Tuesday. “The day starts fre...

Send us Fan Mail This week has been one of extremes that encompasses the splendour of solitude and an onboard visit by three very enthusiastic police dogs (and a puppy)! Alongside all this, we took time to listen to some bats, watch the cygnets as the grow ever stronger and contemplate the hidden depths of the most surprising people.   Journal entry :  8th June, Wednesday "The wind is kicking...

Send us Fan Mail On the week that the cygnets of our swan pair hatched, we explore the rather contradictory nature of the canal through the eyes of poets Jo Bell, Nancy Campbell, and Ian MacMillan. We find romance amidst the unromantic and beauty in the unbeautiful.   Journal entry :  1st June, Wednesday "Heron, streak of grey light,   Standing on the bank,   Coverletted in Moon's-Eye  A...

Send us Fan Mail May slowly rolls into June, but is summer really here? The towpaths and hedgerows are garlanded in summer colours and the ducks (and swans) are beginning to move into their time of eclipse. Some of the mallard drakes are beginning to look very travel-worn! Meanwhile, days like these seem to bring a lot of childhood memories to mind.     Journal entry : 27th May, Friday "Two h...

Send us Fan Mail I want to describe to you what I saw today, but I can't. We have so many words to describe and represent the most complex of concepts. Why then is it almost impossible to describe something so simple and ordinary as the colour of the water earlier today? Kathleen Jamie and Thomas Merton (with a little excursive with Hana Videen) help us to find some answers.  Journal entry :...

Send us Fan Mail The Greek myths tell us that there are times when the gods come down from Olympus to walk amongst mortals. We had a very similar experience when, on a sunny day in late March, David Johns came to visit us and record an episode for his canal-based vlog Cruising the Cut .   Journal entry : 11th May, Wednesday  “The carp are spawning!  May rain casting rings on thrashed water,   The...

Send us Fan Mail Banbury has a significant place in the history of canals, most notably for being the location of Tooley’s boatyard and its association with canal restoration campaigner LTC (Tom) Rolt. However, the relationship between town and canal has not always been easy. Join me today, as we explore the town through the eyes of Temple-Thurston, Rolt, and Pearson, from the comfort of a coffees...

Send us Fan Mail Why are canal boats and traditional canal-ware so colourful? When did the custom of painting working boats in bright colours begin and why? This week we explore our attraction to bright colours and what Tom Rolt describes as the ‘working boaters’ inborn gypsy love of colours.’ Journal entry : 25th April, Monday "Heavy grey clouds, ragged and torn        drift overhead. Two wo...

Send us Fan Mail The archdeacon is one of the colourful local characters who live here.  Irascible and combative, he is nevertheless an important part of the social life of this small portion of the watery world. He’s a feral domestic duck with a chequered past and a strong sense of his own importance. A rather restless, listless day resulted in me drinking a lot of tea and reflecting on him and t...

Send us Fan Mail “It is no small gift” wrote the poet Mary Oliver about the joy a dog brings into our lives. .  Journal entry : “It is no small gift” wrote the poet Mary Oliver about the joy a dog brings into our lives. In the week that we had to say goodbye to Penny, we remember the many gifts this timid lttle whirlwind brought into our lives and made them so much richer. We also explore why so m...

Send us Fan Mail Just as the wind swung north with its sting of sleet and hail, the first batch of ducklings were hatched this week. It was a far from simple event! However, as winter attempted to reassert itself with some biting winds and sharp frosts, we are reminded that winter’s growl is no match for the roar of Spring.  Journal entry : 1st April, Friday "Penny looks up at me, hunched and...

Send us Fan Mail A week of glorious spring weather has heightened springtime activity along the canal sides and nearby fields. It also coincides with a particularly busy period personally. My response and those of the birds and animals around could not be more different. We dip our toes into the worlds of the polar north and the work of Kosuke Koyama to explore some possible explanations for this....

Send us Fan Mail This week’s episode is filled with sunshine, the scent of resin, and the soporific call of pigeon and dove as we explore a little further afield. A visit to Dad on the north Norfolk coast means a change in landscape. Find out why, even though I love walking, I am often very reluctant to talk about it with other walkers!     Journal entry : 14th March, Monday "Fog.   Penny and...

Send us Fan Mail Over the last few weeks, we have watched our little swan family slowly begin the new phases in each of their lives. Whilst it can feel sad, it is also a celebration of the life of young Cyril who is now strong enough and equipped with enough skills to begin to make it in the adult world. It is also an endorsement of success for the young parents who, initially, encountered so many...

Send us Fan Mail The wind is beginning to lose its raw edge, but the water is still lively and choppy. Join us on a moonless mad March night as memories of Shambala evoke a contemplation of high-wire walking in many of its different guises. The stove is warm, the kettle is on and there is always a warm welcome for you.   Journal entry : “6th March, Saturday. "There’s a kerfuffle of rooks arou...

Send us Fan Mail February has been a month of storms both meteorological and figurative that have left many of us feeling battered and anxious. Such storms leave their marks upon the landscape and familiar terrains can become strange, alien, and threatening.  The cataclysmic events of the last few days are difficult to process and have catapulted us into what feels lik a much darker and more fearf...

Send us Fan Mail Snuggle up comfortably as you join us on the NB Erica for a wild night and day as we ride the storms Dudley and Eunice. The poems of Ted Hughes, Louis MacNeice, A.A. Milne, William Blake, and John Betjeman keep us company as they take us through a day of roaring wind and rattling rain-squalls.    Please note, the audio for this episode has been intentionally kept ‘dirty’ to captur...

Send us Fan Mail You join us tonight at the end of a rather windy day. There seems to be a fairly common feeling that we have been encountering a lot of blustery winds recently, both meteorologically and metaphorically. Tonight, we stoke the fire and reflect on the place of the wind in our lives, history and culture.     Journal entry : “11th February, Friday.  There’s a wrapping chill to the air...

Send us Fan Mail This week we have been joined by a solitary stranger from the north. Probably blown south-west on last week’s northerly storm winds a wigeon has arrived. The appearance of this diminutive figure prompts us to find out a little more about this little duck and we discover his place in the legend of the Seven Whistlers and its association with the end of the world (but, perhaps, not...

Send us Fan Mail Living on a boat has meant that we have had to make some difficult decisions about which books come with us onboard. Tonight, I introduce to you one of my most favourite friends on our bookshelf – the collected poems of Dylan Thomas – and explore why he holds such an important place in my life.   Journal entry : “26h January, Wednesday. A magpie on the top most branch rattles its...

Send us Fan Mail As we begin to enter the depths of winter, this episode celebrates with a soundscape of winter at the moorings that tries to capture the life and energy of this season.   Journal entry : “18h January, Tuesday. A rich winter moon hangs between the branches of the ash.   Beneath a sky veiled in ice, sheep   The colour of worn lead face the first glow of dawn. Penny picks up the scen...

Send us Fan Mail The remnants of two days of murk still cling to the hedgerows and trees as you join us tonight on the narrowboat Erica. A very slow thaw is polishing the dulled surface of the water making reflected lights once again dance with life. Curl up and let’s enjoy those little shards of distant memories that still colour out present and fill us with such powerful emotions.   Journal entr...