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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. Cosy listening for bedtimes.
Episodes
169 episodes
"Stretched into Tales that Leave a Mark"
Two rather wonderful things have happened recently that has prompted this episode to take a reflective look back at this podcast and the journey we have taken together. Join us tonight on NB Erica as we celebrate sharing these night-ti...
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Episode 169
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42:09
The Long Village (Villages and tribes)
Tonight, we are hunkered down awaiting another storm. So, come and join us for a cosy night as we reflect on the fairly unique nature of canal-life and the community that it supports, with thanks to Wayne (NB Spudley) for drawing attentio...
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Episode 168
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38:24
A Touch of Autumn (Apple picking time)
Join us on the narrowboat Erica on a moonless, star-filled night as we celebrate autumns, real and imagined, present and remembered. Although October (at the moment) is far from 'golden', it is apple picking time mem ries of which take us meand...
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Episode 167
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36:14
The Consolation of Ducks
Did you know that ducks participate in ‘coordinated loafing’? But that might not be the only surprising/endearing thing about them. Tonight, we celebrate the joy ducks bring thanks to video posted by a stranger in Canada.Journal entry...
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Episode 166
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33:34
It turned a bit wet (Afloat in Hiroshige's rain storm)
Join us tonight as Erica a wends ‘snailward’ home through a heavy rain storm - recorded, aptly enough, during another heavy rain storm! Hear also about our adventures with a drowning pigeon.Journal entry:3rd Septem...
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Episode 165
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51:14
Shot through with wonder (First glimpse of the sea)
Traditionally, August has been the time for Britons to head off to the seaside for their annual holiday. This week’s episode celebrates this custom and causes me to reconsider the momentous moment when I saw the sea for the first time. &n...
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Episode 164
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30:48
Holiday Interlude (& the Cap'n's Dad)
We’re on HOLIDAY! And so, a rather truncated and spur of the moment podcast tonight. However, join us as we enjoy a spot of tranquillity canal-style. We also hear a lovely story from one of our long-time listeners and lock-wheelers. <...
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Episode 163
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31:06
Meursault's Walk & Mine (Dad's ashes)
Join me tonight as I recount a strange and rather unnerving experience that I had just over a week ago, of feeling as if I were walking in the footsteps of Meursault, the main character of one of my favourite books, Albert Camus’ The Outsid...
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Episode 162
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46:27
Spun by Wonderment (above Hemel Hempstead)
There are times that can touch us deeply. Very often they are not about finding a place of peace or somewhere outstandingly beautiful. It is something else. Something beyond these things. It is about encountering something wonderful, and being ...
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Episode 161
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34:27
Living inside the Seasons
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 celeb...
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Episode 160
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34:01
The Children of the Children of Lir
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....
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Episode 159
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41:54
A Sunday Morning in May
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, Fri...
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Episode 158
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32:34
First Impressions (On canal life)
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 ...
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Episode 157
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35:03
The Dusts of Winter (Spring Cleaning)
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 ...
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Episode 156
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36:30
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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 inco...
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Episode 155
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19:43
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?J...
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Episode 154
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34:02
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,...
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Episode 153
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34:14
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. ...
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Episode 152
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34:57
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 bri...
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Episode 151
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26:06
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...
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Episode 150
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30:51
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, e...
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Episode 149
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32:20
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.&nb...
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Episode 148
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38:11
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 section...
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Episode 147
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43:44
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. ...
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Episode 146
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42:27
When Guy Fawkes wore my old dressing gown
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 wi...
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Episode 145
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27:58
