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 ..... :)