The Pen Makers Boat: #364

Purple Heart and Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen

PURPLE HEART - Peltogyne

When freshly cut the heartwood of Purpleheart is a dull grayish/purplish brown. Upon exposure the wood becomes a deeper eggplant purple. With further age and exposure to UV light, the wood becomes a dark brown with a hint of purple. This colour-shift can be slowed and minimized by not leaving the pen in direct sunlight for too long.

Sometimes called Amaranth, this colourful Latin American hardwood is tremendously popular for furniture and other designs that call for a unique splash of colour. In addition to its colouration, Purpleheart has excellent strength properties, and can be used in applications where strength is important—a wood for both form and function.

Even though Whilton isn't the prettiest mooring spot we had a great couple of days here just because the weather was so warm and sunny. It's a lovely part of the Grand Union Canal heading south, once you leave the motorway behind, through the Northamptonshire countryside and sleepy honey stoned villages. One of our favourite villages is Bugbrooke, it's such a welcoming village. We last stopped here a couple of years back - here's a post I wrote about it on our cruising blog - Bugbrooke.

After a brief stop in Bugbrooke we carried on south via Gayton Junction (and a pre festival water top up) to Blisworth in readiness of our next festival. We knew Blisworth festival could get busy if the weather is nice but in all honesty that doesn't always translate to great pen sales. Big crowds on narrow towpaths can get pushed along with the flow and someone wanting to stop and browse may be the other side of the seven deep wall of eyes. Add to that hot children wanting icecreams and dads looking for beer tents and it could all have gone either way for us.

Luckily Saturday matched our best ever days trading and Sunday set a new target that may take many years to beat. We (including Dudley) finished the weekend tired and very pleased with ourselves.

So what makes Blisworth our favourite free festival -

It has to be about the best organised. The army of local volunteers (many of whom are both boaters and villagers) worked tirelessly all year planning the event and then go into overdrive from sunrise to sunset making sure everything runs smoothly.
The whole village takes part, its not a village festival or canal festival it is both in harmony.
The three distinct areas, the festival field, canal market and historic boats and the village its self mean there is something for everyone from dog shows to world war II re-enactments to free boat trips and open gardens interspersed with live music and cream teas in churches.
It's FREE, no car parking charges for the 58000 visitors and no entry fee to the main events field.

In fact we had such a good time meeting people that I didn't make many pens at the actual event.

Pen #364 was made here on the 9th August 2015