Nighttime on Still Waters

Send us Fan Mail Join us on NB Erica on a blustery January night. The cold Wolf Moon is nearing its first quarter and the stars glitter like ice. After an unexpected delayed start to the New Year, we are back on air and with some exciting(-ish) news to tell you.  Journal entry : “2nd January, Sunday. Hello New Year - this is me. You seem so big and dark and unknown, but I have known your brothers...

Send us Fan Mail Curl up with us for this very special Christmas Eve edition of the podcast. Whether you are feeling on your own or just in need of a bit of a breathing space, why not join me tonight for this special Jólabókaflóð inspired edition of Nighttime on Still Water’s? Although the weather may be closer to Greg Lake’s “veil of tears for the virgin birth”, there will always the possibility...

Send us Fan Mail As tonight’s full moon is shrouded by the fog that rolls down the hill and curls and drifts upon the water join us aboard the NB Erica as we fall once more in love with the commonplace and overlooked things. The hill may not be named, or even be awarded a contour of its own, but it nevertheless is the place of gentle and unremarkable miracles.  Journal entry : “17th December, Frid...

Send us Fan Mail Following the epic weather of the past few weeks, we go back in time to a period that best celebrated this type of weather. In this episode we explore why the enigmatic appeal of Anglo-Saxon poetry and its fascination (or even obsession) with winter casts such an enduring influence on our culture. It is the perfect type of literature for cold winter nights, but there are also othe...

Send us Fan Mail You join us on (another)stormy night, but this one is moonless and black as tar. It is the night of the new moon – the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon. The phases of the moon give us an opportunity to contemplate the intricate play of cycles all around us and how the mirror, challenge and provide direction for our lives.    Journal entry : “3rd December, Friday The tops of the tr...

Send us Fan Mail The after-effects of the booster jab are just beginning to slam into me and so tonight’s episode is going to be fairly short. However, you join us on a very cold and stormy night as Storm Arwen with its ‘screaming northerlies’ batters the boat and brings with it our first snows of the winter, but the boat is warm, the hatches are battened and, as always, there is a very warm welco...

Send us Fan Mail The pace of autumn is gathering and a chill is creeping into the air tonight, but the stove is warm. In tonight’s episode we go off to encounter Traveller’s Joy, and explore the potency and importance of names.   Journal entry : “19th November, Friday The ash tree held its breath as the moon grazed the darkness,  Between cirrus sandbanks, in a halo of light. A handful of stars, mi...

Send us Fan Mail Against all odds, this episode comes a little out of time! Events have conspired resulting in a slightly truncated episode recorded in the afternoon!! Nevertheless, duck chatter and babies (with a little help from John Moriarty) help us to find a path through the tangled thickets that many of us are possibly facing.  Journal entry : “10th November, Wednesday A light mist, like smo...

Send us Fan Mail What is it about fire that holds our fascination? Last weekend the clocks went back and in the span of one night darkness began to lap at the edges of our late afternoons. The encroachment of night leading the tide of winter into our daytimes can no longer be ignored and it is understandable that at this time of year we are so drawn to the image of an open fire. In this episode, w...

Send us Fan Mail Tonight, you join me on a wild October night with the rain rattling against the cabin roof - so there is a little background noise in some places. But it’s warm and dry inside. Penny is snoring in front of the stove. Settle back as we look at life and Halloweens through the flickering light of a swede-head lantern of my childhood.  Journal entry : “26th October, Tuesday Gloaming....

Send us Fan Mail This week Vanessa from ‘The Mindful Narrowboat’ vlog got me thinking and so this week we begin to explore how our knowledge and (perhaps) attitudes to fungi are changing and leading us back to older ways of thinking about the environment and our place within it. Journal entry : “21st October, Thursday A Hunter’s Moon swinging high  Across a highwayman’s sky  Of racing clouds. The...

Send us Fan Mail Although the trees and hedgerows here are still holding on to their greens, further afield their transformation into golds and yellows and reds is unmistakable. This time of year never fails to trigger a memory of a young couple I once saw in a park in the middle of England who were entering a world that was turning to gold.      Journal entry : “16th October, Saturday 7 degrees a...

Send us Fan Mail When I meet people who listen to this podcast, one of the most frequently mentioned features is the inclusion of the weather log with which I end each episode. This week I talk about what inspired it, one of which is my childhood love of the BBC’s Shipping Forecast. What makes these stark lists of climatic data ring so powerfully in our minds?     Journal entry : “8th October, Fri...

Send us Fan Mail This has been a week of blustery winds and storms. Perfect weather for the wild choreographies of the rooks jousting on the wind. The devil has spat upon the blackberries and we (rather hurriedly) mark our first birthday – this podcast is one year old! Journal entry : “2nd October, Saturday Below a thrown scatter of rooks  South-westerly gusts kick up  leaves not yet ready to drop...

Send us Fan Mail These are the mornings of mist that ring with the call of geese. What is it about catching sight of the flight of geese and hearing their wind-borne calls that evokes such  feelings restless longing and yearning within us? And yearning for what? We listen to the words of Wendell Berry, BB, David Whyte and Mary Oliver to find ways to capture those powerful emotions.  Journal entry...

Send us Fan Mail This week we catch up with news of our little swan family and explore the strange word ‘gongoozler’. What does it mean? Where does it come from? In some ways it functions as a shibboleth. Its use identifying the ‘true’ canal people from those outside the community. However, it also shines a light on tensions of modern day living.  Journal entry : “15th September, Wednesday Dawn fi...

Send us Fan Mail Join me tonight on a journey on the dark waters of Shrewley Tunnel. In this episode we travel not just through the tunnel but also through history and try to capture the life of those who worked the canals by physically 'legging' boats through.    Journal entry : “12th September, Friday Having Brunch at the Gongoozler’s Rest Café . The smell of wet earth and fallen apple...

Send us Fan Mail How did the willow threaten a powerful king? What has bloody fingers to do with St Withburga? How much does our knowledge of the world dictate the way you see it? The names we give things are useful (vital even), but they are not passive. Names frame the way we view the world. In this week’s episode (with apologies to Henry Reed) we ‘unname the parts’ to find how rediscovering loc...

Send us Fan Mail This week we explore and listen to extracts of Kenneth Grahame's (1908) children's classic The Wind in the Willows .  The story follows of the lives of various (anthropomorphised) animals that live by a river, principally, through Mole (Moley) and the Water Rat (Ratty). Their friend, the wilful, spontaneous, and exuberant Toad (of Toad Hall), acts as (almost literally) t...

Send us Fan Mail Is August high summer, late summer, or early autumn? Does the Queen own our little cygnet that went missing? Who looks after the canal banks? This week’s episode addresses all these pressing questions, as well as dealing with my existential angst at the threat of being robbed of ‘summer’.  Journal entry : “19th August, Thursday This week, each day fills and swells with the stresse...

Send us Fan Mail Under the poplars beside milepost 16 is a place of enchantment and quiet sanctuary, particularly in times of broiling heat.  Join me in tonight’s episode as revel in its soundscape and its dappled beauty as we explore its very particular genius loci.  You can also hear about the saga concerning our little swan family and what happened this week to their young cygnet (happy ending)...

Send us Fan Mail After a 3 week break, Nighttime on Still Waters is back with episode 40! In this episode we catch up with what has been happening on the moorings and reflect on the place of night walking in history and culture.   Journal entry : “5th August, Thursday High in a tree a blackbird    Sings into the night. A river of notes     Pours into the cabin.  There are no stars     Just music.”...

Send us Fan Mail For our final summer readings session we are looking at a very different piece of writing. It is Lucy M. Boston’s The River at Green Knowe . Lucy M. Boston is probably better known for her earlier book The Children of Green Knowe for which she was runner up for the 1954 Carnegie Medal for best children’s literature. She would later win it with her fourth book in the series, Strang...

Send us Fan Mail In this second Summer Reading Special we discover the delights of Ernest Temple Thurston’s The Flower of Gloster . Published in 1911, Temple Thurston is writing about a very different world to the one in which last week’s authors (Hassell and Hollingshead) were writing. It is a nostalgic nod to a world that Temple Thurston recognises is dying. Described by LTC Rolt as unashamedly...

Send us Fan Mail This is the first of our Summer Reading Specials devoted to one or two books that are in some way related to waterways or life on them. They replace the normal format while Penny, Donna and I are away, off-line, and having adventures of our own.  The first episode explores two very different authors who are writing when the canals were in their heyday. The first is John Hassell’s...