Pottering about

The weather has been half way decent today, so I have enjoyed pottering around doing boaty chores.

I emptied the toilets,(not the best job in the world, but I don't mind it), filled the boat up with water and tidied out the bow deck area. I did some washing and hung it off the boat. We were given some wood yesterday by a builder friend of ours, so I spent a happy hour chopping it up into manageable chunks. A neighbour popped out of his boat and said 'you'll have muscles like knots in cotton doing all that sawing and chopping'. What a great expression! I must admit that I have never in my life felt so fit and I don't even have to pay gym membership!

As I was sawing, I looked over to the corner of the marina and noticed the creeper on the wall which had turned a lovely shade of red - the autumn colours are really starting to come out now:

 

 

 

 

I knew I had to do some paper work, so forced myself to sit at the computer for an hour or so, but then Jack the Whippet turned up looking for a walk:

 



You can see by the look on his face that he wasn't going to take no for an answer!

 

I decided to incorporate some blackberrying with a walk and collected enough for a crumble....

 

.... and I have to say it was sensational!!

The flavour of the blackberries mixed with some apples which I foraged from a local community orchard a few days ago was amazing.

We are now sitting in front of the wood burner, watching the Ryder Cup on the telly with Jack the Whippet lying on his new fleece giving us loving looks with those deep brown eyes, (we are dog sitting as his owner is starring in a new play tonight at a theatre near the lake district).

All I can say is that - at the moment - all is well in my world. I'm making the most of it as I am due to fly to Malaysia at the beginning of November for an eight week work stint. We are determined that before I go, we will have our trip north before we put the back canopy on and baton down the hatches for the winter.

Watch this space .....

One happy boater :)

 

A New Acquisition and a bit of lateral thinking!

It has rained so much over the last week that there is widespread flooding in certain areas of the country and I feel so sorry for those home owners whose houses are knee deep in water now. The canal was so high this morning that the button at the end of the boat had floated onto the jetty:

 

Despite the weather being grim during the day we still get some lovely evening skies:

 

 

It has been quite cold at night though and Jack has often come down to our boat in search of a fire, because T has needed to fit a new chimney and has not been able to light one. Even though her central heating has been on, Jack clearly thinks that there is nothing like a real fire!  He was shivering so much last night that I covered him with his fleece:

 





 

He then demanded his red cushion, just for extra comfort!!

 

I have spent the last couple of weeks taking advantage of the poor weather by going up to the University to practice my piano for several hours every day and it has been an absolute joy!

 

Yesterday we decided to spend an afternoon in one of our favourite places, an antiques emporium which is a massive warehouse full of different stalls selling all sorts of knick knacks. We always enjoy a few hours browsing there and ususally come away with something, but everything is so inexpensive that we invariably just spend a few pounds.

 

However yesterday we saw a beautiful cottage piano in walnut:

 

 

I had a good look inside and it was in excellent condition and when I played it, the sound was lovely and apart from it being slightly out of tune, it responded really well.

 

To cut a long story short I fell in love with it and just had to have it! This is where the lateral thinking comes in.....

 

If push came to shove it would actually fit on our boat. I  know that I have my own beautiful grand piano up at the university, but we are sure that there will be a time when we go back to dry land and if we do, we will only have somewhere small, where a grand piano won't fit, so a small piano is a great investment for the future.

 

I have a pupil who needs a better piano than she currently has (which is one of those horrible electric things), but they have not been able to buy an acoustic piano due to lack of space. I rang them last night and they think it will suit their requirements perfectly, so we agreed that they will have the piano on long term loan until such a time as I need it and in return they will provide storage of it for me. It's win - win!!

 

We raced back to the warehouse this morning and made the seller an offer and got it 'for a song' if you'll excuse the pun, so I am a very happy bunny and so is my pupil!!

 

We got back to the boat and everywhere felt so damp and miserable that we lit the fire. Our wood stores are holding up quite well ......

 

 

 .... but at the rate we are burning wood at the moment we will have to go out on a foraging expedition soon (oops Phil has told me that the word 'foraging' only applies to food. Apparently collecting fuel supplies should be called 'gathering'! Hmmm, semantics I think .....

 

It is lovely to have the fire burning and the eco fan helps all the warmth go to the back of the boat. At the very back of our boat are the wardrobes which have been the subject of much debate in this blog..... I really think that I am getting on top of the damp problem in these cupboards. This is partly due to the huge number of damp collectors which I have on the floor of the wardrobes and also many hanging ones. In addition I have put air fresheners at the bottom to combat any likelihood of  damp musty smells clinging to my clothes. I went to quite an important meeting this week in Manchester and as I was chatting to colleagues in the pristine evironment of the hotel meeting room, I became aware of a smell strongly resembling those 'toilet duck' air fresheners you put in the rim of the toilet. I realised that smell was on my clothes!! That was the final straw for me and now we have decided to tackle this problem in a different and more radical way. We are going to take the doors off the wardrobes in the bedroom and see if the free flow of air will solve the problem and from there we will decide what further steps to take .... watch this space!

 

I went to the allotment this evening to see what was left of our produce. I gathered a few runner beans, but I think that is the last of them. There still seems to be a good crop of raspberries every time I go and we  have parsnips which will be ready for Christmas. The maize had fallen over, probably due to the rain, so I harvested the corn cobs. They are very small but we shall see how they taste. I plan to cook them tomorrow.

 

A happy boater ..... :)

 

 

 



 



Mellow Fruitfulness

 

 

 

I love the Autumn. It is only just starting and the autumn colours are not yet coming through, but we are beginning to reap the autumn harvest already, despite the awful weather this summer which has affected production. We had an amazing storm the other day, I have never seen such thick threatening clouds so close before ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

We were going to travel north, but the weather has been so bad we decided to stay put, a good decision as the rain has been torrential at times. Phil went up with some friends a couple of days ago and took some pictures and I am really looking forward to getting up there when we get a chance:

 

 

 

 

 

Although it has been raining most days it often clears up in the evening and the sunsets are very lovely - not as good as up at the basin, but still some very beautiful skies:

 





I am just beginning to collect the autumn fruits, it is still a bit early for sloes, but there is a bush on the other side of the canal (not tow path side) which appeared to be quite ripe and no one could pick them as they were hanging over the water. I took the canoe down and got quite a few ripe ones:

 

 

 

 Here they are, ready for bottling:

 

 

 

They are now steeping in some gin! Should be ready in about 6 weeks. We have a plum tree on the marina and I reaped enough to make some plum brandy. Currently I have sloe gin, damson gin, plum brandy and blackberry whiskey maturing in the cupboard, all made from foraged fruit.

 

We went out to our local reservoir on Sunday to collect wild raspberries. We know exactly where they are, on a barely used path which is normally quite inaccessible being very overgrown and muddy.

 

We parked near the reservoir:

 





 

The spiders had been busy overnight

 

When we arrived at the spot all the raspberries were gone. This is because the old path which had been overgrown and barely discernable last year, had been properly laid with stones and sign posts had been put up defining the circular walk around the reservoir, so all of a sudden the spot had become populated with weekend walkers who, of course had discovered the wild raspberries and had beaten us to it. Hmmmm I still have knowledge of some damson, sloe and raspberry bushes which are remote enough for other people not to know about, but it is becoming more and more difficult to forage these days.

 

Another thing which has changed in recent months is the status of charity shops. They used to be a real treasure trove. Okay they may have had a musty smell and things were strewn all over the place, but you could get some real bargains. Now everything is neatly stacked and colour co-ordinated and the shops are full of people. I learnt my lesson twice this week ....  There are two things I am looking for at the moment, one is a replacement for Jack the whippet's fleece. A friend brought her new dog to the boat in the summer. It was a very sweet dog and I didn't think that Jack would mind if I got his favourite fleece out for her to lie on. Unfortunately it turns out she wasn't house trained - I won't go into details but the upshot was that I had to throw out our doormat and Jack's fleece. He has never forgiven me and I am now trying to find something to replace it urgently as everytime he comes on our boat he moans as his poor old bones have to put up with the hard floor. I found a lovely 'throw' in a charity shop a few days ago which was only £4 and as I had shopping to do, I thought I would pick it up afterwards. When I went back 30 minutes later, it had been sold. 

 

The other thing I am looking for is decanters. Last year I gave small bottles of sloe, damson and plum gin and brandy as christmas presents and it was a great success. You can pick up small decanters in charity shops for less than a couple of quid and this year I have decided to present my produce in a nicer format. I have already collected 5 small decanters and am on the look out for more. I found a georgous set in our local charity shop of a crystal decanter and 6 glasses for a fiver. I knew it was a bargain, but again decided to do some shopping and pick it up on my way home.This time I actually saw the person who beat me to it pick it up and take it to the till - I felt sick! I was so fed up that I decided to phone my best friend for a good old moan. She is a great car booter and she said she would look out for decanters at the car boot on Sunday. Amazingly, she rang me to say that she had bought 3 decanters for me including a lovely crystal set with four glasses for £3. When I arrived at hers to pick them up I found this was nearly identical to the decanter and glasses I had missed in the charity shop and she had paid just £2 for it. Fantastic!! It's true then - there is a reason for everything which happens!!

Today I have been pickling our shallots. The abundance of autumn with all the vegetables which are coming off our allotment gives me such a feeling of satisfaction!




I am working tomorrow, but the day after is going to be wood chopping day. We have been given a large tree which was felled nearby and need to chop it up so that it can season. Our wood stores are getting fuller and we are starting to burn the wood we chopped this time last year which has seasoned nicely - very satisfying. These are the things I love about the boating life......

Al :)



Residential Status

I said that I would post about this development and here it is ........

Currently most marinas across the UK are non-residential. That means that all boat owners should have a home elsewhere. Usually there is also a stipulation that berth holders are only permitted to occupy their boats for 10 or 11 months of the year and should spend a period of time at their 'home' address. This fits in with the policy on leisure caravan parks.

However, more and more people are actually living on their boats all the time without having another 'permanent' address.

All boat owners have different reasons for moving full time to a boat. They range from wanting a completely different life style and not wishing to have the responsibility of maintaining a house, (like us) to people who want to 'disappear' and not have to pay tax, council tax, television license etc. people who want to go completely 'under the radar'.  Most people are somewhere in between these two extremes and just enjoy living on a boat.

We attended a meeting recently about the implications of the planning permission which will allow the marina to allocate residential berths. The first positive for us, is that our post will be delivered to us personally and we will get a proper post code. Currently our post code is shared between British Waterways offices, various cottages on the canal side and numerous transient boat owners. Consequently it is considered to be a bit 'dodgy', with the knock on effect on our credit rating. I tried to change my mobile phone contract last week and you'd think I was a criminal with all the hoops I had to go through to get my hands on a new phone, just because of my post code.

Occupying a residential berth will legitimise our presence here too. The marina owners know that we live on our boat and just turn a blind eye, but we don't want to be doing anything that is outside our contract. In addition it always gave them the upper hand. Two years ago the toilet block froze in the severe weather and the water supply was turned off for a few days. Those who hadn't filled up their boats with water or who had pump out tanks which were full, really struggled. They were simply told to 'go to their permanent address' for that period and there was no sense of urgency in getting the facilities restored.

Most people are concerned that we will have to pay more. The cost will increase because we will be required to pay council tax. I really don't mind this provided that it is fairly allocated. At present our council tax is included in our mooring fees because the marina pays business tax. However I am happy to pay more because the business fees really only cover the cost of rubbish collection etc. and I use the local facilites, such as the library, roads etc.I believe that as a part of the local community I should pay my way. These are views which are not shared by some of our neighbours, so we tend to keep them to ourselves!

I can understand in some ways why other berth holders are against it. All of a sudden they will be paying a considerable amount more for their mooring without gaining a great deal. Not everyone is bothered about the things that we are and to them it means a massive hike in cost.

All of this has made us think very carefully about the future. As I have said, we chose the lifestyle for two main reasons, firstly because it suited our need for being out and about in the great outdoors and secondly because owning a large victorian terraced house was becoming a burden as it needed constant maintenance.

This week advertised in the county property paper we have seen a georgous two bedroomed flat advertised for rent, which is in a beautiful village near the lake district with fantastic walks nearby and stunning views. All this at less than we will be paying for our residential mooring. Hmmmm some thinking needs to be done.

I will keep you posted ........

Al

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We managed to get back to our regular mooring the other day without it raining, which is nothing short of a miracle since we have had nothing but torrential rain ever since!

The trip through the locks was fun. Because it was a weekend, we were stalked by various groups of ramblers, who always seemed to decide to stop for a snack or lunch just as we were coming into a lock. In fact we had an audience of one kind or another at every one of the six locks. The first one is next to the local pub we frequent when we are up at the basin and the two sisters who run it came out as the boat was coming through. Much jovial banter ensued, with many comments about Phil steering while leaving me to operate all the locks. In fact that arrangement works really well, as I get some much needed exercise and Phil handles the boat really well.

At the next lock, as we brought the boat into the pound, a rambler asked us 'What are you going to do now, you can't go any further can you?' I looked at her closely to see if she was joking, but no, she was deadly serious. I patiently explained to her how locks worked and that we would be on our way as soon as the water level had risen and we had opened the lock gates at the top end. They then all stood and watched us filling the lock, or rather they peered into the interior of the boat as she started to rise, commenting on our interior decor and furnishings which I thought was a tad rude, but seemingly normal rules don't apply on the tow path and everyone, (apart from the boat owners themselves) seems to think it is perfectly acceptable to be so nosey!

At the last lock another group of ramblers decided to 'help' us. One very confident gentleman was explaining to his wife how the locks worked. He had partially shut the gates after Phil had sailed in. It is never necessary to close the lower gates completely because the force of the water coming in at the top will bang them shut. I have now been through so many locks that I actually do know this fact! However when I started to move towards one of the gates, he slowly and carefully explained this fact to me. I ignored him and continued to approach the gate at which he said condescendingly 'You really don't need to do anything love, I've closed the gates as far as they need to go'. I hate being called 'love'! I didn't say a word, but very deliberately operated the handle which closes the paddles, which are the openings at the bottom of the gates which let the water out. As I walked past him I quietly said, 'Thank you for the advice, but if I hadn't have closed the paddles which you left open, it would have drained the canal'. The look his wife gave him was a delight to see!! Clever clogs turned a rather unusual shade of puce and marched off down the tow path, rather quickly I thought for a weekend rambler!!

We had planned to go north at the weekend, but the weather was forecast for more rain, so we  abandoned it. We had a short walk in the Lake District and just about managed to stay dry.

 

Yesterday I cleaned the boat and did some paper work, so was feeling quite virtuous, if a little frustrated as it was impossible to go out with the rain almost monsoon like in its ferocity. 

 

We have decided to just go with the weather and have tried to plan our days around it. Cruising the boat is out of the question in the rain, it is just too miserable. We have seen many boaters going past  dripping wet and looking fed up. So we decided to look elsewhere for our entertainment. Last week we booked a trip on the steam train which runs on the Settle to Carlise line.

 

 

 

It was great fun and tomorrow we intend to travel over to Yorkshire and take a picture of the train going over the famous Ribblehead viaduct.

 

We attended a meeting the other night to do with our Marina switching to residential status. This is a big step and affects most of the people who have a boat on the Marina. It is also likely to become a national initiative affecting most Marinas across the country, so I will dedicate my next blog to this subject as it is important information for anyone who is thinking of living on a boat in the future.

 

Watch this space ....

 

Al :)

On the move again

Today we are moving back to our permanent mooring for a few days until we set off for another trip.

I shall really miss the peace and solitude up here and the lovely skies:

While I have been here, I have been able to recharge my batteries and can actually say that I am ready to go back to work in a couple of weeks! 

The weather hasn't been good, but we have had the occasional day of sunshine. A good friend of mine came over the other day and we had our first (and probably only) barbeque of the year:

We sat in the sunshine and watched the world go by:

As we looked over at the old life boat the swans spotted us....

and ambushed us for food in convoy!

 The next day I opened all the doors and windows on the boat and got some air flowing through, then for the first time in ages I sat on the stern and read a good book!



I also got all my washing dry!!

A hang glider flew overhead....

..... and it was all very peaceful.

After we get back today, we will be having a few days of pottering around the marina and then we are off again - north this time, with friends going in convoy, which should be fun.

The upper end of the canal is lovely and quiet as not many people explore so far north. We went up by car the other day to do a 'recci' and here are some pictures:

I just hope the weather is kind to us!!

Al :)

products

I haven't posted for a few days because I have been catching up on chores and pottering around and it is amazing how time consuming such things are!

The allotment has been amazing and has suddenly got into 'glut' status! We have given away loads of veg, but we still have too many broad beans. I have frozen lots of peas and beans but our freezer on the boat is only small.

So far we have harvested and cooked beetroot, broad and runner beans, potatoes, cabbage, onions and garlic. We also have some gooseberries and raspberries.

This is just from the allotment, but on visiting our patch at the end of our berth last week we found that our herb garden had got out of control. Phil 'dead headed' the roses and I put them in a bowl which made the boat smell lovely:

We have grown lots of Rosemary and Mint and I know they go well together, so I looked up a recipe for massage oil on the internet and made some. Here is the rosemary drying out in the sun on the top of the boat:



We have had some serious rain over the past few days. It was like a monsoon the other night:

We woke up at 5am to see the fire brigade working by the houses on the edge of the basin which had flooded. It makes me very glad to be on a boat!

Today the weather has been georgous and I opened up the boat and let the air flow through with every window and door open. It now smells lovely and fresh
  The sunsets have been fantastic recently, the light is so good up here and the cloud formations are quite spectacular:

We are away next week, but on our return we will be going back to our normal mooring for a bit and then moving north for a few days, so plenty to write about soon. I'll leave you with an interesting picture of the sky I took last night.