Towpath chatter

We've gone back to our original plan of being moored up at Kildwick for when the Norwegian kids come tomorrow. I've just re-read "The Secret Garden", and been duly informed that "wick" is Yorkshire for "alive" or "lively". So I got to wondering what "kild" meant, and how it could be lively. However, Wikipedia is of the opinion that in this case "wick" means no such thing, and that the name probably means "river port".

It sits on the side of the hill looking down over the River Aire. It's a pleasant enough village, though there's a constant rumble from the A629 below. We had Sunday lunch at the White Lion – a nice environment and plenty of food but not quite up to the standard of last Sunday's at Forage in Skipton.

On the way back we chatted with Colin who was running a CRT stall on the towpath. He was talking with a couple who'd earlier stopped to ask about our experience with our solar panel.

It transpired that Colin lives with his family on an oldish working "short boat", WB Lune, moored just down from here towards Silsden, and has 1200 watts of solar power on his roof! But then he's got rather more roof than Erin Mae.

We chatted about a lot. We learned early in our boating that when you get boaters together the conversation inevitably turns to electrics and toilets. Well, the electrics came first, but it wasn't long before we were talking about Colin's composting loo! They've come a long way since we were first looking at things like this in 2010, and I'm waiting to hear Adrian's report on the one he's fitted on NB Briar Rose. But whether we would ever get to seeing one would fit in Erin Mae I just don't know.

Every day is different on the towpath.