Nighttime on Still Waters
A narrowboat-based audio journal on canal life, living aboard, the elements, and the night. Perfect late-night listening for dreamers, insomniacs, night owls, nocturnalists, drifters, and nomads. For lovers Fagen's 'Nightfly', Auden's 'Night Mail', Hopper's 'Nighthawks' and the 'drifting sea-dark streets' of Dylan Thomas. For all those who used to listen to the transistor under your pillow, love the sound of distant trains and rain against the windowpanes, canals and drover's tracks, lost music, splashed puddles, fireflies and bats, hares by moonlight, windsong among pines, owl-light, the shipping forecast, and all the wonderful, terrifying, grand and tawdry avenues of the night...
Just shadows on a summer lawn
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 coat up to my chin.
Now the sun is out
And coltsfoot down dances
On a warm wind.”
On Surveys and Winter Warmth (Listeners' questions - 6)
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 snow-like
With each gust.
Sweet smell of woodsmoke
And the throat-catch of coal
Walking Home (In fading light)
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 February, Saturday.
“Cloud cliffs, grey and climbing
Early spring sunshine
Catching the stonework traceries
And Benedictine flint and brickwork.
The hub of politicking and commerce
Sil...
Rough Crossings
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 the gulls
And the circle of two buzzards.
Maggie sits, watching,
From a t...
I Felt the Anchor Shift (An Update)
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 at the moment.
Episode Information:
In this episode I read parts of...
The Christmas Eves of Childhood
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 Information:
Can I take this opportunity to wish you a very MERRY CHRIS...
Afloat with Maggie (Listeners' questions - 5)
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 the night.
This morning,
A magpie scratched
Her jagged song
Across the metalled dome
Of first light.”
Episod...
When Mum married Dad (95th birthday edition)
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 pick our way
Across the sheep field,
December sings through the oaks.”
Episode Information:...
When Mum met Dad (95th Birthday edition)
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 raised in a high arc
Then place it flat upon the ice
Slide...
The Battered Landscapes of our Edens
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 fields,
A train clatters it's way to Birmingham.
The lit carriages flickering like
A procession of glow worms
Through the hedges.
A rabbit's tail stro...
