I will be travelling overseas on Tuesday for a two month work stint, so this is my last blog for a while.
Phil and I are trying to fit in some time together before I head off and yesterday we spent the afternoon at our local nature reserve. It is a beautiful place with plenty of wild life. Here are some pictures we took:
I have spent the last two weeks catching up with friends and family who I won't see for a while. We are going to spend tomorrow with our two sons and then it is time to focus on work.
There is no further news on the residential status and how it affects payments of council tax. We have complained to our landlords who have robustly defended their position on the lack of progress on this issue, but that doesn't help us who have now paid nearly £3000 in arrears and little reassurance about how much we will have to pay in the future, with 'negotiations' still progressing. It is very frustrating!
I have spent the last two weekends working in the Midlands where the canal network is extensive and we visited a number of marinas which charge much less than we are paying and the facilities are excellent. One of those also has residential status and they seem to have sorted out the council tax issue very successfully. The problem that we have here is that moorings are at a premium on our small section of canal and so the landlords can call the shots. We don't really want to move to the Midlands as we have all we want here, especially fantastic walking country with the hills of the Trough of Bowland and the Lake District so near. However, there is always a tipping point and that may be reached quite soon..... We will see. I will update when I am back in July and I really hope that by then some sort of decision will have been reached. Mind you I was saying that last November and here we are in May!!
I love going overseas and it is great to have such lovely warm weather, but I miss the Englsh country side so much.
Here are some of the things I will miss the most:
I will be back posting in July, when we hope to travel around a bit on the boat so there will be some good pictures hopefully!
Al :)
Phil and I are trying to fit in some time together before I head off and yesterday we spent the afternoon at our local nature reserve. It is a beautiful place with plenty of wild life. Here are some pictures we took:
 |
| Goose hiding in the undergrowth |
 |
| Proud parents |
 |
| Cock Pheasant which plagued us for food |
 |
| Deer in the woods |
 |
| Gosling Chick exploring |
 |
| Marsh Harrier looking for food |
I have spent the last two weeks catching up with friends and family who I won't see for a while. We are going to spend tomorrow with our two sons and then it is time to focus on work.
There is no further news on the residential status and how it affects payments of council tax. We have complained to our landlords who have robustly defended their position on the lack of progress on this issue, but that doesn't help us who have now paid nearly £3000 in arrears and little reassurance about how much we will have to pay in the future, with 'negotiations' still progressing. It is very frustrating!
I have spent the last two weekends working in the Midlands where the canal network is extensive and we visited a number of marinas which charge much less than we are paying and the facilities are excellent. One of those also has residential status and they seem to have sorted out the council tax issue very successfully. The problem that we have here is that moorings are at a premium on our small section of canal and so the landlords can call the shots. We don't really want to move to the Midlands as we have all we want here, especially fantastic walking country with the hills of the Trough of Bowland and the Lake District so near. However, there is always a tipping point and that may be reached quite soon..... We will see. I will update when I am back in July and I really hope that by then some sort of decision will have been reached. Mind you I was saying that last November and here we are in May!!
I love going overseas and it is great to have such lovely warm weather, but I miss the Englsh country side so much.
Here are some of the things I will miss the most:
 |
| The bridge at our marina |
 |
| Walks in the woods |
 |
| All the young Chicks, Goslings and Cygnets |
 |
| Cruising on our boat |
 |
| sunsets |
 |
| Views over the bay |
I will be back posting in July, when we hope to travel around a bit on the boat so there will be some good pictures hopefully!
Al :)
