Aqua-local: blogging from the canals

Talk About Local has a special connection with canals, since we all live fairly close to them and by chance [in the over-romantic eyes of your blogger], Stoke-on-Trent to Digbeth to Kings Cross quite closely shadows the old routes of the revolutionary Midlands industrialists. If we weren’t in such a tearing hurry all the time we could easily commute around by narrow boat rather than train. But that’s a post for another day. It’s good to know that if we chose to move from rail to water there is just as active an online community to help us along.

What prompts people to start blogging? In the case of the canal bloggers, in many cases it is a need to let retirees’ descendants know about their whereabouts. This, of course, is quickly forgotten as the real business of adventuring commences.

Granny Buttons is a nice example, with stories of tragedies, kindness and Ikea. It also has the best list I’ve found so far of bloggers and canal Twitterers to start your explorations.

Like other blog communities, the canal blogs are a centre of intelligence for closures in different parts of the canal system, what it’s like to be on the canal in the middle of winter, and, *shudder*, what happens if a spider gets caught in the electrics.

There’s campaigns, complaints and not forgetting plenty of beautiful scenery.

Much of Britain is close to a canal and they are often the most unspoilt and beautiful parts of both countryside and city. While it’s a bit chilly outside, you can start exploring online.

Pretty photos courtesy of the Flickr community and Flickriver. This is the second in an occasional series of blog trails – if you know good canal blogs to check out or have ideas for other communities we should be venturing into, please let us know by email or in the comments below.