Chopin and Choppin'

Over the last few weeks I have been really busy as I have had work commitments in various parts of the country. When we moved to the boat, the idea was to wind down and semi-retire and yet I seem to be busier than ever! In fairness, because I am self employed, I now only do the work I want to do, but I did fully expect it to gradually dry up. Instead, in some areas it has increased. I'm not complaining, as I enjoy my work very much!

What I have been pleased about is the greater amount of time I have to play my piano. I usually go every day to the University, who look after it in exchange for the use of it. Over the last few weeks I have been revisiting old repertoire, especially the romantic pieces that I played with such passion and zeal in my youth. It has been an interesting exercise, because there are all sorts of cautionary notes on the music, in my teachers handwriting, imploring me not to get too carried away and of course I now realise that I probably bashed them out at full volume with all the intensity of youth. I have spent the last few days reinventing my interpretation of the Chopin Ballades with the result that they now sound so much more lyrical! Old age and maturity is not all bad!!

With the weather improving, the bike is being pressed into service and since the University is on the cycle path and halfway into town, I will often make a trip to the shops after practising. This works well, because the cycle path on the way back to the boat from town follows the tow path and at the moment there is plenty of foraging to be done. The banks are full of wild garlic and yesterday I picked some lovely young leaves and put them in a salad which spiced it up beautifully. There is still lots of tree felling going on and the logs fit very well into the front basket of the bike. I will often bump into friends who are moored up at various points along the tow path and stop for a coffee. The trouble with this and indeed with life on the Marina now, is that the weather is getting better and everybody is surfacing. This inevitably this leads to long chats while we chew the fat and nothing ever gets done, including this blog! I wouldn't want it any other way though!

One major success story recently is the massive stockpile of wood we now have. We have collected so much that Phil has had to build another wood store. Everytime I go out on the tow path, either walking Jack the Whippet or on my bike, I have come back with some wood. I have spent the last few weeks busily sawing and chopping up wood and here is the result, two full stores:

 

 

They are now situated behind the brand new Bicycle shed which is one of the improvements promised when we moved to residential status as a marina. This has had a huge impact on the place which is looking smarter and tidier and we have just had delivered some really big storage boxes which look great:

 

The shift to residential status and the added expense of a mooring as a result, has kept out the people who just move to a boat because they think it is cheaper. The marina is now populated with like minded people who love the boating life for the sake of it and consequently there is a friendly and warm atmosphere about the place, which there didn't used to be.

The evenings are getting lighter and we are getting some amazing sunsets, the light at times is quite special. Phil looked out of the window the other night and remarked on the amazing colours. I managed to get out and take some photos before it disappeared. The trees appeared a bright red in the glow:

Spring really is here and there are some beautiful flowers coming out:

We are hoping to go for a long walk in the Lake District or the Trough of Bowland this week and I am hoping to see some bluebells. We will see ....

A :)