Taking The Narrow Path

Today's winter walk was partly inspired by one of our favourite programmes - Canal Boat Diaries (I may have already mentioned it on a previous blip - you can find it on the BBC iPlayer). It follows Robbie Cumming, a filmmaker, editor and musician who gave up his life and career on land to travel through England's landscapes, towns and villages aboard his narrowboat the Naughty Lass. 
He interweaves sections of his own life, the countryside he is passing through and the practicalities of life in a narrowboat. Each episode is only lasts half an hour but feels much longer (in good way) and is a wonderfully calming watch accompanied by music that he himself composed.
Unfortunately, we don't live near any canals but we decided to walk out to Allington Lock where barges, pleasure craft and narrowboats moor as they journey down the River Medway. If anything it was even colder than yesterday, it's a walk of over 2 miles to get there and not quite as scenic as it used to be as part of the towpath has now been closed due to subsidence of the river bank but it still has a charm very much of its own as it passes through an industrial estate and motorway underpass (see second extra - including some seasonal film based graffiti artwork).
Fortunately (well, we'd actually timed our walk accordingly) we arrived just as the lockside pub, The Malta Inn, opened its doors. We were the only customers and sat in one of the alcoves with a riverside view whilst we slaked our thirst with a pint after all that walking.
Then it was back out into the cold air to get our shots for the day. My main shot is of one of the narrowboats with has its own riverside garden which included this bell topped with a characterful little bird, with the first extra showing a pail sitting on the roof decorated with canal folk art.
This folk art is called Roses and Castles - but this is actually somewhat misleading as although both roses and castles feature in the designs so too do a number of other flowers (some real, some imaginary), cottages, churches, rivers and lakes - anything in fact that could be part of a romantic landscape. It dates back as far as the industrial revolution and it could cover virtually everything on a narrowboat - including the vessel itself, doors, fitted furniture, lamps, drinking cans and, as in my first extra, pails.
It was then time to head back home before the temperature plummeted even further - with the route back including quite a large uphill section. By the time we reached the 'summit' (bit of an exaggeration!) we were starving so we decided to stop at the local Pie and Mash shop. We settled on each having pie, mash and liquor for the first time - which consists of a minced beef pie, mashed potato and a parsley sauce known as liquor. Absolutely delicious after all our perambulational activity.
Pie, Mash and Eel shops originated in the docks of London in the 19th Century and they are still a common site in East and South London and in parts of Kent and Essex and they still also serve stewed and jellied eels (not a delicacy that I decided to partake of).
Before we completed the last section of our walk we decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of Prosecco - which we opened when we got in whilst watching another episode of Canal Diaries! :-)