Nighttime on Still Waters

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 my back.

This evening
 The clov...

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 green ocean of grass.
 The woodpecker’s
 Seagul...

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
 Fade into soft light.”

Episode Informatio...

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 nuzzle
 Beyond them, chiff-chaff, robin, and blu...

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 desiccated
 Shrouded in fine cobweb and dust.
...

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
 An...

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 ...

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
 ...

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 buzzard...

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 ...

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 yo...

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 scr...

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,
 Decem...

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 fla...

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 Birmingha...

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 stray raindrops
 And birch leaves.
 Scar...

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 light.

The walk from the boat
 To car

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 walking
 Through the tangle
 Of watery
...

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 force
 Of a westerly gale.

Gothic wings outsp...