Update

I'm slowly putting the walk from Worksop to Norwood tunnel on the other site: I will add more pictures from previous walks once I've got to the end. Formatting the pages is a bit of a pain. What I've decided to do is put small pics on the main page (see here for example) and give links to bigger views of individual features on sub-pages like this.
Google maps for the overview's quite good.
So far I've got to Milestone lock — plodding on!

I've so many pictures archived that it's gonna take some time to dig 'em out and post 'em all. I'll get round to it.

The Wordpress format is better (IMHO) than Blogger as you can have static pages. Is fun learning!

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Found this about Aqueducts on t'web yesterday: interesting specially in view of this blog post from "canalartist". (incidentally, why is it spelled aqueduct rather than aquaduct?)


Something to play with if you're a bookaholic like me. It's quite good: tried it with one or two of my favourite authors and it brought up some I'll have to try.

Other blog

Current contents:

• Anstone Stones Wood: first bit
• Worksop to Kiveton Park:
  • first bit - Morse Lock to Deep Lock
  • second bit - Deep Lock to Shireoaks
  • third bit: to Turnerwood
• What made me the man I am today (or Who's to blame): first bit
• The Grand Commercial Canal stuff

SEPTEMBER!

First things first: The bloody computer went down again! 486 pics downloaded from Thursday's walk. Fortunately I'd still got 'em on the camera card. Back on the laptop!

Thursday

Walked to the tunnel entrance and back. According to Google maps, it's 5.65 miles just to Kiveton park. With the extra (about ½mile) to the tunnel entrance, I reckon the return trip's about 12 - 13 miles.

Boats

Nb Archimedes and Nb James were moored at Shireoaks Miner's Welfare as always.

In Shireoaks Marina Little Lucy was preparing to sail.

Passed Thomas Harold …

… and Lazy Dreams locking through Turnerwood flight,

and, at Thorpe Top, a "plastic" Studland Warrior

.

Nb Wilderness was moored at its usual place

and Umnyama at Albert's dock.

Having a thorough clean out at the summit mooring was Nb Cheddington: vacuum cleaners rule!

Returning:
In addition to Umnyama, Wilderness, Thomas Harold and Lazy Dreams; a new (to me) narrowboat

Changing Pace

Rather unusually, they were a young couple who were fitting out a shell on Shireoaks Marina.

Little Lucy was out and, having turned at Turnerwood basin, was descending to moor at Stone lock.

Wildlife

A wasps' nest that someone had broken open, …

… a dead owl …

… thoughtfully(?) placed on a lock gate

and a dead moorhen on the towpath.

On the more pleasant side:

A brood (gaggle? flock? herd?) of mallard chicks.

The top pound water looks grey and uninviting but there are some really big fish in there.

Kingfisher

At the very end, near the tunnel, a brilliant flash of blue. I'd got the wrong lens on to capture it well but:

It's right in the centre of this pic so …

… zoomed, enhanced, cropped

and again …

… doctored.

Until you've seen one in flight, you just can't imagine the brilliance of the plumage.

Trip

I'd set out to take a full day so, in addition to the camera, I'd packed spare lenses, waterproof, sarny (Bird's Corned beef salad), flask of coffee and two plastic bottles of Robinson's orange juice. Unfortunately I'm not as young as I was, so by the time I got home, I was fit for nothing: flaked out straight away (after feeding hungry cats!). Thinking back, I once did 40 miles in 24 hours (Lyke Wake walk) - it'd kill me now.

I'm going to put some pics on t'other blog soonish. And then it's tagging and uploading to Flickr. This blogging & stuff takes longer than the walking! More uploaded.

Wed

Out today to catch a few pics for t'other blog

Went shopping without camera and saw two boats moored at the Priory centre (pointed upstream) Hastened back and got some snaps. They were from Wakefield (correct me if I'm wrong on that) and had overnighted at Forest Top. As always, nice people. Boats: Thomas Harold, named after the two owners' deceased fathers, and Lazy Days.

Walked up to Stret/Deep to get pics for t'other blog (I've loads on the computer but could do with the exercise).

At Stret Pound, Maid Marion was coming down.

Bit of a list on?

They had left but a short time when Thomas Harold hove into view …

… and was soon into Stret (after a bit of hard labour by yours truly cutting a fender off with a knife that my cutlers heritage would have called a spoon! (blunt)):

To be followed shortly by Lazy Days

Tomorrow I'll (possibly) go up to Shireoaks (if I get up in time!).

Well!

As my thousands^{(4 actually!)} of followers will have noticed, I haven't been posting. There's a multiplicity of reasons

1. I just resurrected an old computer
2. I'm idle
3. Transferred all my pics to a 2 Tb drive
4. I'm idle
5. Got totally confused about which pics I'd uploaded^{(To Flickr)} and which I'd yet to do
6. I'm idle
7. Tried to link the two computers together and somehow buggered it up
8. I'm idle
9. The weather
10. I'm idle
11. I've been busy elsewhere^{(Totally NOT TRUE)}
12. I'm idle
13. I got infuriated at "F Spot" ^{(the "program" that sorts, tags and uploads my pics)}
    
14. I'm idle
15. I got bored


16. I've done that thing again: going to bed at 8am & getting up about 3 in the afternoon!

So, as you can see it's not my fault. Anyroadup, I've not been totally feckless: I've done some stuff on t'other blog:

• Some stuff on a map I found ^{(of course I didn't find it - the excellent folk at Sheffield Library Local History did)} about an 1824 proposal to run a canal across the Pennines to Sheffield, Chesterfield and Cromford. If only the rail had come along fifty years later!
• A start on my life story (B O R I N G !)
• Begun to flesh out some past walks along the canal and elsewhere, wish I'd thought of it sooner. Finding and allocating the pics is fun (not).

So I thought what I'd do here is drop a sampling of my old pics for your delectation. I've taken every 28th^{(don't ask)} and stuck 'em here.
First batch
Tip for slideshows: don't click the centre arrow, click an edge.

They are supposed to be in date order but the camera screwed up and labelled some 2010 pics as 2006: such is life.

Just a few individual pics:

And finally a rose in the Canch rose garden:

More tomorrow, if I can be bothered

Just a note

See my other blog for something I found.. Now I'm not a historian, agreeing with the apocryphal words of Henry Ford on that (I had a terrible Grammar School history teacher), but I found it interesting. Wish the Victorians had been fifty years later with the railways.

28 July: To Ranby

Late but here eventually. I did the trick again: renamed all the pictures and forgot to put ".jpg" on the end. Of course F spot (it's as well it's called "F" spot!) refused to upload 'em even though it had let me import and tag them GRRRR!
First a slideshow of the walk (It was along the Chesterfield Canal from Worksop to Ranby):

For some reason I've always liked teasels:

Insects aren't troubled by the spikes.

Back in Worksop Nb Apfelkorn was coming down through Morse Lock

From Nb Apfelkorn